Why the Catholic Church? An Introduction to Catholicism

          The story of Jesus Christ has been engrained into our popular culture for centuries. You walk up to an average person on the street and ask them to recite the story of Jesus, most people will be able to explain the basic story: a Jewish woman named Mary gives birth to a boy named Jesus in a manger, and that boy grows up to be a preacher running a ministry around Israel, gathering twelve disciples who travel with him for three years before he is crucified under Pontius Pilate, was buried, and rose again on the third day. To his followers he is a the son of God; others he was merely a prophet; and others say he either didn’t exist, or if he did, was merely a man whose followers exaggerated large legends about him, creating stories of miracles and exaggerating his claims to deity. Regardless of how one views the Jesus story, there is no denying its impact on popular culture, influencing western civilization in almost all aspects whether it be art, philosophy, music, law, politics, and many other aspects of western culture. The biggest indictor of this influence is the existence of the Roman Catholic Church, arguably the largest Christian organization in the world. The existence of the Catholic church, especially in the last twenty or thirty years, has brought both praise and controversy. On one hand, the Catholic church is considered one of the largest contributors to charities all over the world, one of the largest founders to universities and hospitals, and has one of the largest voices to bringing advancements to western civilization; on the other hand, the Catholic church has also been involved in some of the worst scandals in human history, ranging from the Galileo controversy to the recent sex abuse scandals that has left a visible scar on the church that almost no sane person can deny. Despite the good the Catholic church has done for the world, popular culture has strongly criticized and condemned the church for its failing due to the scandals it has been involved in. It is of no surprise when the Catholic church is depicted in a strongly negative light, whether it be as the whore of Babylon by fundamentalist Protestant groups, as supporting and trying to protect pedophilia in the media, or depicted in TV and film as one of the biggest evils in the world. Regardless, the Catholic church remains, still going strong and continues to grow, counting 1.2 billion members as of 2012 and gaining new converts every year. Why is this? Why does the Catholic church continue to attract new members and grow despite the controversies and scandals the church has been involved in? To understand this, it is important to get a clear idea of a foundational belief Catholics have about the Catholic church, and that is the belief that Jesus Christ himself around two-thousand years ago came to earn and started one true church, a universal church that extends all over the world and spread the gospel to all nations (Mk 16:15; Mt 28:18-20). 

What do Catholics mean by that? What do Catholics mean when they say Jesus Christ started a one true church? What Catholics mean by this is that when Jesus came to earth as the second person in the trinity, we say that as God incarnate, Jesus Christ came to earth, sprouted a seed for his church on earth that will extend onto the end of the age. When Jesus gave his apostles the keys the kingdom of Heaven, he basically gave his apostles the authority to run the church in his name, the help grow the seed of his church to make the goal of spreading the gospel to all nations possible. It is this seed that Catholics claim was the start of the Catholic church, the very same Catholic church that is both praised by many and in the media and other outlets condemned as one of the world’s great evils. According to Catholics, Christ is the spiritual head of the Catholic church, with the Pope being the appointed representative of Christ who serves as the servant to the servants of God (CCC 659-667; 874-879). It is the Catholic claim that if Jesus Christ is the spiritual head of the Catholic church, then it logically follows that the Catholic Church is the one true church started by Jesus Christ around two-thousand years ago. It is of course beyond the scope of this essay to address all objections the Roman Catholic church’s claims to being the one true church, as well as its claim to being the one true visible catholic church started by Jesus Christ and stemming from the apostles, regardless as to whether these objections come from Protestant groups or from the Eastern Orthodox churches. Instead, the purpose of this essay is give a short overview of the basic claims of the Catholic church and give you the reader a basic introduction to Catholicism. For the sake of brevity (and so as to not overwhelm you as the reader most likely looking for a basic introduction), I will be focusing on three main claims of the Catholic church and giving a basic overview of these claims, and these are claims to Petrine Primacy, Apostolicity, and Catholicity.

The first main claim the Catholic church makes for being the one true church of Christ is its claim to Petrine Primacy. According to the Catholic church, because Jesus Christ gave his keys to kingdom of heaven first to Peter, this therefore means that that Jesus built his church on Peter. What this means is that by doing this, Peter has been made as the visible head of the entire church as a visible representative of Christ to run Christ’s universal church. A foundational passage in support of this has always been the famous passage in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16. In Chapter 16 of the Gospel of Matthew, it depicts Jesus and his disciples coming into the region of Caesarea Philippi and asks his disciples who they say he is. It is Simon [who is later renamed Peter] who tells him that he the messiah, the son of the God. When Simon [Peter] makes this confession, this pleases Jesus who goes on to state the following: 

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed[d] in heaven.” [emphasis] Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.(NKJV).

It is of course important to note that the meaning of these passage has been debated by all three major sects of Christianity. In both Eastern Orthodoxy and almost all forms of Protestantism (including Anglicanism), Peter is seen given high honor but not given the kind of papal authority or primacy as recognized by the Catholic church. Many have advanced arguments against Petrine Primacy (many of which are, again, beyond the scope of this essay to address) in favor of an autocephalous system of church structure. Others have argued for a Primacy but object to the kind of Papal Primacy has advanced by the Roman Catholic church. Nevertheless, Petrine Primacy continues to be one of the main claims to the Catholic church’s claim to being the one true church started by Jesus Christ because of how it relates to its promise of being Christ’s universal church. Under the Catholic view, Petrine Primacy plays an important role in the church’s universality, thus making it the important piece of the puzzle that establishes the Catholic church as the one true church (as believed by Catholics) because without a Primacy, you cannot have the universality of the church that makes it necessary for it to be the church started by Jesus Christ. 

The second major claim I will focus on is the Catholic church’s claim to Apostolicity. Apostolicity refers to how the Catholic church claims to its teachings being able to refer back to the original apostles, or Apostolic Succession. Apostolic Succession is the idea that a church’s authority, teachings, and practiced can trace its roots all the way back to the original twelve apostles. The best analogy to explain this idea is to use the analogy of a torch. When Jesus Christ lit a torch, he gave that torch to his apostles, who, as bishops of Christ’s church, in turn gave that torch to the next generation of bishops, who then would go on to give that torch to the next generation of bishops, and so on. This in theory and practice creates an unbroken line of passing the torch from one generation to another that still lasts to this present day. For example, a validly ordained bishop in the Catholic is most likely going to be part of a tradition of bishops and priests who have been ordained by bishops who are part of an unbroken chain of bishops that can be traced all the way back to the original apostles. A noticeable example of apostolic succession can be found in Acts 1:25-26 which depicts Matthias replacing Judas as one of the twelve apostles after Judas betrays Jesus. This instance of apostolic succession demonstrates that the idea of replacing bishops who leave their posts is something that, I would argued, can be traced back to the early church, and is a practice that will continue to be practiced for generations to come. If this practice is prevalent in the Catholic church, then it gives you the reader a basic idea of why Catholics believe that the church they believe is the universal church started by Jesus Christ affirms its apostolicity through this unbroken chain of apostolic succession. By looking at this chain of apostolic succession, it becomes obvious why Catholics believe the Catholic church is the one true church started by Jesus Christ because of how Catholics believe they can trace their roots all the way back to Christ himself. 

The last major claim the Catholic church details I will focus on is its claim to catholicity (or universality). The term Catholic means “universal” in latin, and the idea of Catholicism encompasses a universality of the church started by Jesus Christ himself. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a 4th century theologian of the early church, gives us an idea of what the universality of the church means when he writes:

[The Church] is called catholic, then, because it extends over the whole world, from end to end of the earth, and because it teaches universally and infallibly each and every doctrine which must come to the knowledge of men, concerning things visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly, and because it brings every race of men into subjection to godliness, governors and governed, learned and unlearned, and because it universally treats and heals every class of sins, those committed with the soul and those with the body, and it possesses within itself every conceivable form of virtue, in deeds and in words and in the spiritual gifts of every description (Catechetical Lectures 18:23)

The very foundation of Catholic ecclesiology is related to the concept of universality. Without universality, there is no catholicism, and there is no catholic church. When we refer back to Matthew chapter 16, what we mean is that the Catholic church is claiming that when Jesus gave the keys to Peter and the rest of his apostles, Christ started the seed that would grow to be the universal church, which would grow to be what the Catholic church is today. If we understand the claims the church makes in regards to universality, it becomes apparent as to why Catholics believe the Catholic Church is the one true church started by Jesus Christ himself. 

With these basic claims of the Catholic church, it helps to gain a starting point for how one can start learning about the Catholic church's claim. It is important to learn that these all topics that deserve essays of their own to lecture and explain to the newcomer to Catholicism. Keep in mind that it is not my intention that this essay will convince you to become Catholic, but rather to give you a basic idea of the major claims of the Catholics church to help you decide for yourself whether or not to explore further the claims of the Catholic church and its claims to being the church started by Jesus Christ himself. By getting an idea of these three major claims, it will hopefully help you as the reader to gain clearer introduction to Catholicism and hopefully the starting point for exploring into the faith. 

Further Reading:

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 18:23

Catechism of the Catholic Church: 659-667; 874-879