My Mixed Feelings About the Catholic Church

            Some of you have had questions about the Catholic church in America and around the world. I thought I would simply share my own thoughts; they are mixed. There are things about the Catholic church I view positively and things I view negatively. I grew up in a religious background that was hostile to Catholicism but over the years I have had to adjust that view somewhat.

Let’s begin with the positives:

First and foremost: There are wonderful Catholic Christians who bring great honor to Christ and clearly love Him; there are Roman Catholics who have a deep, vital, personal relationship with Christ, and for that I am thankful.

Catholic works of mercy are renowned all over the world. Go to any third world country. Most of the hospitals—and the best—are run by the Catholic church.

I love the official church position on many social issues: They are pro-life; the six Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade are Roman Catholics, and I thank God for them. The Catholic church defends traditional Christian marriage, Christian sexual ethics; they oppose gay rights and gay marriage, and resist laws legalizing euthanasia. 

They are great defenders of Christian culture; they created Christian culture; without the Catholic church Western, Christian culture would not exist. This makes them without question the most powerful and influential institution, religious or otherwise, of all time. They preserved Christianity through the long slog of the Middle Ages. Without them there would be no Protestant Christianity; my Baptist heritage, which I love, would not exist. I want to thank the Catholics for paving the way for Baptists.

Maybe most importantly, they provide excellent background for a born-again experience; they believe in God and in the atonement of Jesus Christ; they uphold the authority of the Bible. There are millions of American protestant Christians who began life as Roman Catholics.

If you are a Protestant Christian there is much to admire and appreciate in the Catholic Church.

However, there are negatives. Let me share four of my main concerns.

First, they clearly believe in salvation by works. You play a role in saving yourself. As a Reformation Christian I reject this uncategorically.   I have read many articles by Catholics insisting that they do not believe this but I am unpersuaded. Roman Catholics believe you are saved in part by your own merit.  Josh Buice is a pastor and blogger whom I link below: He says, “According to official Catholic doctrine, for a person to be saved, it’s quite a tedious task. It involves steps such as actual grace, faith, good works, baptism, participation in the sacraments, penance, indulgences, and keeping the commandments. In short, the doctrine of [salvation] taught by the Roman Catholic Church is a works-based system where a person must work their way to God.” Buice seems right to me. I have read Catholic doctrine extensively and despite the protests of some Catholic writers, the church teaches a salvation that is, at least in part, merited through works.

It also seems to me that in the Catholic church you are sort of saved in installments. A sacrament here, a work of mercy there. In the end you hope it adds up to a trip to heaven.

I also wonder if a Catholic can ever be sure he is saved. A person can lose his “state of grace” by committing a mortal sin. When I read the Catholic definition of a mortal sin I thought it would be very specific. But it isn’t. The list is long, and the sins can be quite vague. If you read Jesus’ definitions of sin in the Sermon on the Mount it becomes clear that all of us commit mortal sins every day. People who believe they can save themselves through works do not understand the biblical definition of sin. What about Catholics who are true Christians? How are they saved? The same way everyone else is. They are saved by faith alone even if they don’t know it.

My second misgiving: It seems to me the Catholic church stresses the importance of culture over conversion. Missionaries to third world Catholic countries (the Philippines, Mexico, Italy) say the church there is a thin veneer over paganism; but that’s the plan. The Catholic Church intentionally takes the deities of pagan countries and converts them to Catholic saints and symbols. Their intention is for Catholic Christianity to percolate down through the entire culture and Christianize the population, even if it takes centuries.

My third misgiving: The Catholic emphasis on institutional salvation; there are millions of Catholics who believe the church will save them; or that they are saved by their connection to the church; I realize there are millions of Protestants who believe the same thing; both are wrong. However, the Catholic Church seems to officially endorse the idea that their institution saves you; just like Mormons who believe you must be officially connected to their organization to fulfill your eternal destiny. 

My fourth misgiving: I reject the Catholic view that they are uniquely the body of Christ on earth; or that they, and they alone, are the visible body of Christ. Catholics claim to represent Christ in a way no one else does. But do they? Is there some sort of magic that relieves Catholics of the kinds of sins and failures that other Christian groups suffer? Decidedly not. Protestants have been led astray by terrible, ungodly leaders, even now. But so have the Catholics. How many wicked popes have there been? Many. There is ferocious debate inside the Catholic church right now over the current pope. How Catholic is he? The Babylon Bee recently had a headline on Pope Francis meeting a transgendered person. The headline read: “Man pretending to be a woman has lunch with man pretending to be a Catholic.” I have devout Catholic friends who would not disagree. How many Roman Catholic priests really have a vital personal relationship with Christ?  One time a fellow graduate student asked to meet me so I could hear her confession. She had come to Christ through the ministry of Cru but had remained inside the Catholic church. I asked her why she didn’t just go to her priest. She said, “Oh, he’s not a Christian.” He was pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and in favor of the entire Marxist agenda. Thousands of priests are like him. Or take Catholic higher education. We have a major Catholic university in our area. I have had students who attended that school, and they told me the president—a Catholic clergyman—was just another theological liberal who believed virtually no historic Christian doctrines. Conservative Catholics recently complained about the “drag show” at Notre Dame. Surely the proportion of protestant clergy faithful to the Bible’s teaching is as high or higher than that of the Roman Catholic church. Just like other Christian bodies the Catholic church is split between those who are following left-wing political dogma and those who are faithful to Christ. Rather than being uniquely the body of Christ, the Roman church is like everyone else.

These are four of the reasons I am uneasy with the Catholic church. You may have thought I would include the scandalous behavior of immoral priests; but every institution has these problems. The Catholics, again, are no different from anyone else. But I guess that’s the point; the Catholic church is just as vulnerable to sin, failure, and scandal as any other church; they are not uniquely the body of Christ; they are a human institution in which one finds Christians; and lots of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Some of you may feel I have been too harsh on the Catholic Church. Others of you feel I have been too easy. This is my take after years of reflection. At any rate, thanks for listening. I love and fellowship with everyone who loves and worships Jesus Christ. You find them under every imaginable label. Thank God He knows those who are His. May He bless you this day in a mighty way.

A critical view of Rome: “The False Salvation of the Roman Catholic Church”: https://g3min.org/the-false-salvation-of-the-roman-catholic-church/

Roman Catholics in their own words; The Catechism Crisis: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-catechism-crisis

More on the catechism crisis: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/a-catechism-to-reclaim-catechisms?utm_source=Crisis+Magazine&utm_campaign=914688599a-Crisis_DAILYRSS_EMAIL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a5a13625fd-914688599a-28475396&mc_cid=914688599a&mc_eid=a40cb5b88c

A Catholic bishop demoted for being “too Catholic.” https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/bishop-strickland-becomes-a-victim-for-the-church-he-loves?utm_source=Crisis+Magazine&utm_campaign=2aebb6316f-Crisis_DAILYRSS_EMAIL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a5a13625fd-2aebb6316f-28475396&mc_cid=2aebb6316f&mc_eid=a40cb5b88c

Drag show at Notre Dame: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/11/a-drag-show-at-notre-dame

George Weigel on Matthew 25 Catholics (Catholics committed to liberal social policies but who also favor abortion): https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/08/matthew-25-catholics

Here’s a quote from the above article: “I have no window into the soul of those Catholic public officials who declare themselves “Matthew 25 Catholics,” as a counter to the suggestion that their Catholicism is defective because of their support of the abortion license. They may be sincere, but ill-catechized. They may have been advised by unscrupulous progressive clergy, or by left-leaning Catholic political activists for whom the pro-life position has always been an embarrassment. But whatever their subjective moral condition, they are using biblical imagery as political cover for the indefensible. And they should stop.”

Does Francis deserve the benefit of the doubt? https://crisismagazine.com/editors-desk/does-pope-francis-deserve-the-benefit-of-the-doubt?utm_source=Crisis+Magazine&utm_campaign=19b195ca07-Crisis_DAILYRSS_EMAIL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a5a13625fd-19b195ca07-28475396&mc_cid=19b195ca07&mc_eid=a40cb5b88c