Catholic Apologetics Online

Questions and answers on Catholicism and Protestantism

Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia

Choose a topic from Vol 3:

Catholicity of the Church

461. Did Christ say that His Church would bear the name "Catholic" Church?

He said that His Church would differ from the Synagogue chiefly by the fact that it would be for all nations, and not for one chosen nation only. By this He meant that His Church would be universal, a word which is rendered in Greek as Katholicos. The word "Catholic," therefore, rightly describes the Church Christ established. It is the thing that matters, not the mere term used to describe it. Catholicity was declared by Christ to be a main characteristic of His one true Church.And there is but one Church today truly Catholic, the Church of which the Bishop of Rome is the head in this world.

462. You have no right to say that other Churches do not belong to Christ.

If there are a hundred conflicting Churches, it is certain that if one is right, the others are wrong. Every other Church save the Catholic Church has been commenced by some merely earthly founder in ages subsequent to Christ. Cardinal Newman rightly said, "I became a Catholic because, if the Catholic Church be not the Church of Christ, there never was a Church established by Him." The Catholic Church alone can prove that she is right. And the duty of charity will not permit the Catholic Church to allow non-Catholics to continue in error on so important a matter whilst she just keeps silent about it.

463. On what grounds do you call all other denominations non-Catholic?

On the grounds of Scripture, history, and logic. Scripture tells us that Christ's Church would go to all nations, yet be one fold under one shepherd. Other Churches have separated from the Catholic Church and refused to be under the one shepherd appointed by Christ. Therefore they ceased to belong to the Catholic Church, and became non-Catholics. Historically, of course, those other Churches have not existed as such through all the centuries since Christ. And logically, since Catholic means universal, no Church except the one to which I belong is really supra-national, found as one and the same in all nations, whether France, Italy, Germany, England, America, Ireland, Australia, etc.

464. Then what do Protestants mean when they say the Apostles' Creed, repeating the words, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church?"

There are multitudes of Protestants who neither know the Apostles' Creed, nor say it. Of those who do say it, many have no idea of what they mean when they use the words you quote. Others, realizing at least the meaning of the words, say them uneasily and with quite a sense of guilt. They hurry over them, and dismiss them quickly, as if they should not be there; or, at any rate, as if they should not be saying them. Others, again, say them and mean them, but mean them in a peculiar sense. In order to believe that they do belong to the Holy Catholic Church, they persuade themselves that all the different Christian Churches in the world really constitute one holy Catholic Church. It is all very confusing. I but state the truth when I say that, although many Protestants think they believe in the Holy Catholic Church, they do not do so in reality. And they cannot do so whilst they continue to believe in any form of Protestantism.

465. Let us take it this way. What does the word "Catholic" mean?

It means universal. Applied to the Church it means one and the same Church found everywhere in the world, teaching men of all nations exactly the same religion, and uniting them under one and the same religious authority.

466. What does the word "Roman" mean?

It is the adjective derived from the city of Rome, which is the capital of Italy. But its religious significance lies in the fact that the Pope, who is supreme head of the Catholic Church on earth, happens to be the bishop of that city.

467. Then your Church must be the "Roman Catholic Church."

Such a description is as inappropriate as would be the description of the British Empire as the "London British Empire" because the king lives in London.

468. Then where does Rome come in?

It is simply the locality in which the head of the universal Church resides, The Church must be linked with the center of unity in the Apostolic group-Peter.And Peter died in Rome, his office being transmitted to his successors in the Bishopric of Rome. To say that the Church is "Roman" is to say that it is the Apostolic Church. Rome stands for concentrated Apostolicity.

469. How do you make that out?

It was by God's providence that the Church transferred her own headquarters to Rome. Rome in the time of the Apostles was for the world what Peter himself was for the Church-the head and center. The Church had to go to the world, and the roads were already prepared for her by the secular power. The Church therefore used the pulsating heart and blood streams of organized society. As in individuals grace cooperates with nature, so the very society established for the diffusion of grace cooperated with the natural social framework of the Roman Empire. And as St. Peter died in Rome, the successive Bishops of Rome necessarily remain the head and center of the Christian Church.

470. I have heard your own people call themselves "Roman Catholics."

The use of the phrase by Catholics is no more than an unthinking concession to prevailing custom in a non-Catholic social environment. But always Catholics have in mind the correct sense of the Catholic Church whose head is the Bishop of Rome. It is from the Protestant viewpoint that the expression is ambiguous, since they wish to imply that there are other kinds of Churches entitled to be called Catholic. This is a ridiculous theory which they do not dream of applying in practice; for if you were to ask any Protestant in the street: "Could you tell me where the Catholic Church is in this district?", he would not dream of directing you to his own Church, or to any Protestant Church. It is owing to this theoretical ambiguity that it is better to describe ourselves simply as Catholics, and avoid the expression "Roman Catholics."

471. Since "Catholic" means universal, it embraces all faiths. You are not interpreting it correctly.

Surely you can see that the Catholic Faith cannot be any or all faiths! Will you include Shintoism, Buddhism, or Mahometanism? Or, if you want to restrict it to professing Christians, can you say that one and the same Catholic Faith denies the necessity of bishops with Congregationalists, and affirms it with Anglicans? Or that it is equally of Catholic Faith that Christ is really present in the Eucharist, and yet really absent? The Catholic Faith must be one and the same Faith universally diffused-as it is in that Catholic Church which alone has a genuine claim to the title.

472. We Protestants are Catholics, but you are Roman Catholics.

You do not say what type of Protestantism you profess. But no single type of Protestantism can possibly be Catholic. The Catholic Faith is one Faith believed universally. The Catholic Church means one world-wide united body. Protestantism as a whole is a conglomerate of conflicting bodies. And no single form of Protestantism is world-wide in any sense of the word. You must face the difficulties of your position. Let us suppose that you are an Anglican. What are you going to do with the Greek Orthodox, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and others? Are they "Catholics"? Or will you call them Greek Catholics, Wesleyan Catholics, Presbyterian Catholics, etc? Are Anglicans alone to be straight-out Catholics? Or are each and all of these conflicting religions Catholic-Roman Catholics alone not being Catholics? Also, turn to history. It is said by Anglicans that the Pope had falsely usurped jurisdiction over the whole Church. England had to leave the Pope, but intended to remain Catholic. But if that were so, on its own principles it should have joined the Greek Church which had already renounced the Pope. Yet it did not. England separated from any kind of union with all other bishops in the world! Again, no Anglican will deny that the Church in England prior to the Reformation was the Catholic Church. If the present Church of England is the same why was the Mass abolished, and a new Prayer Book and Communion Service unheard of till then in Christendom introduced? Edward VI. abolished the Mass; Mary the Catholic restored the Mass; Elizabeth the Protestant abolished the Mass. The Church of England adopted the word Protestant; and the king has to swear that he is a faithful Protestant as opposed to the Catholic religion. James II. could have remained king had he ceased to be a Catholic. He was deposed and William of Orange was brought in to secure the Protestant succession. How can Anglicans turn round now and say that they are Catholics? You yourself now wish to remain a Protestant, yet be a Catholic. We are Roman Catholics. No one in Spain is a Catholic-all there are Spanish Roman Catholics. No one in France is a Catholic. They are French Roman Catholics. The "Catholics" in the United States are not Catholics. They are American Roman Catholics. Pure and undefiled Catholics are to be found only in Anglicanism. If you want to find a genuine Catholic, you must look for him in an English Protestant! No sane man in the world would admit this. But I have said enough. Those only are Catholics who belong to that Catholic Church which is discerned from the fact of its union with the Bishop of Rome.

473. Why should the Italians always have their own Pope?

He is our Pope as much as he is theirs. Nor do the Italians regard the Pope as an Italian. On the occasion of the election of Pope Pius XII. Signor Farinacci wrote an article in his paper, the "Regime Fascista." Farinacci was a violent Fascist, who wrote strongly against Pope Pius XI's condemnation of the Fascist attitude to the Jews and to Catholic Action. Yet he wrote as follows: "We have no candidate to the Papacy, because we are quite sure that if some are found amongst the Cardinals whose opinions are too favorable to democratic ideas, there are others, the great majority, who give their thoughts to nothing but the religious problem, and whose lives are made of Christian charity, without other care or preoccupation. God will not fail to give His faithful, the real Catholics, their Pastor, a real Pope. Will he be Italian? Portuguese? Swiss? It matters nothing to us. To our way of thinking, religion has no frontiers; and 'politics' are our exclusive business. We are making them our exclusive business."

NEXT TOPIC »

Catholic Apologetics Online

Questions and answers on Catholicism and Protestantism

God

Man

Religion

The Religion of the Bible

The Christian Religion

A Definite Christian Faith

The Problem of Reunion

The Truth of Catholicism

The Church and the Bible

The Dogmas of the Catholic Church

Moral Teachings of the Catholic Church

The Church in Her Worship

The Church and Social Welfare