CATHOLICISM:
CRISIS OF FAITH
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Annotated
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Lumen Productions
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copyright 1991
James G. McCarthy
all rights reserved
OPENING
NEWSREEL AND STATISTICS
NEWSREEL NARRATOR
The historic Ecumenical Council, Vatican II, comes to a
close amid colorful pomp and pageantry. Considered one of
the most important councils in Catholic Church history,
Vatican II produced 16 documents designed to modernize the
role of the Church in world affairs.
The final blessing is for
the assembled throng and for the world:
"Etae in
Pace. Go in Peace."
NARRATOR
With those words, Pope Paul VI closed the Second Vatican
Council. Little did anyone realize what lay ahead.
The decades since Vatican
II have been turbulent. Its history spans centuries, but
its future is uncertain. The Roman Catholic Church is a
church in crisis.
Evidence of the present
crisis is widespread. Catholics are dissatisfied.
Attendance at Mass has
plummeted.(1)
The confessional has
suffered an even greater decline.(2)
Finances are critical.(3)
Deficit spending has become a way of life.(4)
Church closures are commonplace.(5)
Priests are in short
supply.(6) One thousand U.S. parishes
are already without a priest.(7) A 40%
decline is projected by the turn of the century,(8)
and the Mass, which cannot be performed without a priest,
is threatened.(9)
Internal disputes are
shaking the Church. Theologians, priests, and even bishops
are becoming increasingly outspoken.
A full page ad recently
ran in
The New York Times calling for reform in the
Catholic Church. It was signed and paid for by 4,500
Catholic clergy and laity.(10)
The Pope has risen to the
challenge serving notice: either stop public dissension or
face disciplinary measures.(11)
One in seven Americans
born Catholic has left the Church.(12)
One hundred thousand Hispanics alone are leaving the
Church every year, many to join more personal churches.(13)
What is the cause of the
present crisis?(14) Some feel that the
Second Vatican Council went too far and destabilized the
Church. Others blame Rome for resisting modernization and
trying to live in the past.
Yet another cause often
cited is
Humanae Vitae: the most controversial
papal document of modern times which forbids the use of
any artificial means of birth control. Widely ignored,
Humanae
Vitae weakened the Church's credibility and has led
Catholics to begin questioning other teachings.(15)
Certainly these concerns
are valid, but is it possible that the real problem lies
deeply imbedded in the doctrines of the Roman Catholic
faith itself?
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST This is St. Ignatius Church. It is
adjacent to the University of San Francisco. I studied
here during my years of seminary training.
My name is Bob Bush. I
was ordained here in 1966. Twenty-one years later, I
submitted my letter of resignation.
MARY KRAUS -
FORMER FRANCISCAN SISTER I'm Mary Kraus. After 22
years as a Franciscan Sister, I had, to some extent, the
same experience as our founder, Francis of Assisi; I found
myself out of step with my own order. But God showed me
that my path should be only the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
WILMA SULLIVAN -
FORMER SISTER OF MERCY My name is Sister Wilma
Marie. At least that is what I was called as a Sister of
Mercy. My faith crisis began at Communion. The priest held
the Host(16) in front of me and said,
"The body of Christ." Before I could say the
expected response of "Amen," a thought went
through my mind for the first time: "Is it
really?" This began a series of events which led to
my personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN My name is Frank Eberhardt, and
I studied here at the St. Joseph's Seminary in Kingston,
New Jersey, for preparing for the priesthood. While I was
here and making preparation, a parishioner came and asked
me a question: How many Masses needed to be said for her
husband that he could enter into heaven?
Well, this began for me
an investigation into the Doctrine of Purgatory. Upon that
investigation, I found it didn't match the Scripture, and
so I had to delve more deeply into Scripture. And I found
the Doctrine of Eternal Security: how that a person is
supposed to know they have eternal life when they die.
Well, I completed four years of study here, and upon that
graduation I decided not to pursue ordination into the
Order of St. Vincent de Paul.
NARRATOR
These and thousands more like them are re-examining their
Roman Catholic faith: the Mass, the commandments, the role
of Mary, even the way to heaven. How do the doctrines of
the Roman Catholic Church compare with the teachings of
Sacred Scriptures?
THE MASS
NARRATOR
The Mass is the center of Catholic experience, and all
Catholics are required to attend each week.
Jesus Christ instructed
his followers to take bread and wine as a remembrance of
him.(17) But unlike most Christian
denominations, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the
bread and wine are more than symbolic: the priest actually
transforms the bread into the body of Christ. A miraculous
change is about to take place.(18)
PRIEST
Take this all of you and eat. This is my body which will
be given up for you.
NARRATOR
Catholic doctrine teaches that the wafer is no longer
bread, but is now the actual body of Jesus Christ, and is
to be worshiped and adored as divine.(19)
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST I always kind of wondered about
that, because as a priest you lean over the bread and you
say, "This is my body." And you're trained to
believe that [it] became the body of Jesus. And you lift
it up for people to..., to adore, whatever. You do that
with the chalice too.
But in my mind, I always
thought, I can't see any change, and do I really have the
power to do this?
It smells like bread. It
looks like bread. It tastes like bread. But the substance
is really the body of Jesus.
NARRATOR
How can the Church maintain a change takes place despite
all external evidence to the contrary?
It uses a theory called
transubstantiation.
Catholic theologian,
Father John Boyle of the Jesuit School of Theology:
FATHER JOHN
BOYLE, S.J. - CATHOLIC PRIEST AND THEOLOGIAN
Transubstantiation simply means that what before was bread
and wine, down deep now is the body and blood of Christ.
And we take that physically, because we're physical, and
it's the physicality of life.
NARRATOR
The Church bases transubstantiation upon the teachings of
Aristotle. His third century B.C. concept of matter viewed
everything as consisting of two parts: accidents and
substance.
Accidents are described
as the outward appearance of matter. Substance is the
inner essence.
Even though this idea has
long since been discarded by modern science, the Catholic
Church not only clings to it, but takes it one step
further claiming the inner essence can change while the
outward appearance remains the same.
Transubstantiation is the
foundation upon which the Mass rests. Catholics are taught
that the priest must change the bread, so that Christ can
be offered as a real sacrifice, an offering for the sins
of the living and the dead.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET It is the actual
sacrifice of the Mass. That the body and blood of Christ
is actually being sacrificed right there on the altar
rather than just a re-enactment of something that happened
many thousands of years ago.
PRIEST
This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world, happy are those who are called to this table.
PEOPLE
Lord, I am not worthy to receive you. But only say the
word, and my soul shall be healed.
FATHER RICHARD
CHILSON, C.S.P. - CATHOLIC PRIEST Is the
Eucharist a real sacrifice?
A Catholic would say that
the Eucharist is a real sacrifice in that the Eucharist is
the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. That this is not a
different sacrifice from the one Jesus made on Calvary. It
is the same sacrifice.(20)
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST Now that goes directly against
Scripture, because in Hebrews 10:18, it says that
"with the forgiveness of these, there is no longer
any offering for sin." There is no more offering.
NARRATOR
Catholic priest Father Richard Chilson is the author of
eight books on the Catholic faith including
Catholic
Christianity(21) and
An
Introduction to the Faith of Catholics.(22)
We asked him why the
Catholic Church seeks to continue the sacrifice of Jesus
at the Mass.
FATHER RICHARD
CHILSON, C.S.P. - CATHOLIC PRIEST The Eucharist
for a Catholic is ultimately a mystical understanding.
That there is what we call real time, and then there is
what John calls "the hour." And the hour is
present in every moment, if we can..., if we can open our
eyes to that..., that reality. And so the Eucharist,
by..., by making present that sacrifice throughout
history, hopes..., helps to..., helps us to open our eyes
to what is really going on, continually.
That God is continually,
through Jesus Christ, reconciling the universe to himself.
It allows us to personally come into that, that moment and
be reconciled with God, again, and again, and again.
For a Catholic, it
continues before the sacrifice of Calvary. But if the
sacrifice of Calvary does not begin at that point, it
begins really at the foundation of the world. It goes
forward in history, and it goes backward in history as
well.
NARRATOR
Other Christian denominations celebrate that the sacrifice
is finished. We asked Father Chilson why the Catholic
Church chooses to focus on it continuing. Why not leave it
finished?
FATHER RICHARD
CHILSON, C.S.P. - CATHOLIC PRIEST I don't know if
I can answer that. I am sorry. I know that's..., that's a
real issue between Protestants and Catholics, but I don't
know if I can answer it in any better way than I've
already kind of stumbled on.
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN The Catholic priest cannot
really explain how that the finished work of Christ on the
cross is continued today in the Mass. The phrasing is that
it is a mystical act of transubstantiation that takes
place, in which Christ voluntarily comes from heaven at
the beck and call of the priest when he raises the wafer
above his head, then he voluntarily again becomes a
sacrifice.
There's nothing in
Scripture that says Christ would ever, ever dream of doing
this. Scripture says that Christ has perfected by one
offering them that are sanctified.(23)
And it only took one offering to save us from sin.
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST The Roman
Catholic Church teaches that the Mass is a propitiatory
sacrifice, which means that it appeases the wrath of God.
That indeed it does take away sin.(24)
However, the Scripture is
very clear about the fact that there is only one
propitiatory sacrifice, namely what our Savior did on the
cross. That's why in John 19:30 Christ said, "It is
finished." And when something is finished, it's
finished. When something is done, it is done.
STATUES
NARRATOR
A unique aspect of Catholic devotion is the veneration of
saints and the use of sacred objects such as statues.
Former Sister of
Christian Charity, Doreen D'Antonio.
DOREEN D'ANTONIO
- FORMER SISTER OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY In the
convent, we had a whole list of saints that we used for
various situations.
If we lost something, we
would pray to St. Anthony.
If we had a hopeless case
in our family, maybe a relative that was a drunk or
something, we would pray to St. Jude. That being a
hopeless case.
We would pray to St.
Gerard if there was a pregnant woman in our family that
needed assistance. St. Blaise if we had a sore throat.
We would pray to St.
Christopher, that they don't use any more, for traveling.
Of course, we remember that one.
And in elevators. In the
convent, we had an elevator for the older nuns, and in
that elevator was this humongous medal of St. Christopher.
It was amazing. We would
have little statues of Mary and Joseph. St. Joseph for
foster fathers.
We would have the little
statue right on the window sill, hoping and praying that
statue would prevent it from raining on a particular day.
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST "You shall not make for
yourselves an idol," or a statue, or a picture,
"in the form of anything in heaven above, or on the
earth beneath, or in the waters below."(25)
NARRATOR
Victor Affonso served as a Jesuit priest for twenty-one
years.
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST "You shall not bow down
to them"(26) or worship them. It's
the same word.(27)
NARRATOR
Though part of the Ten Commandments in the Catholic Bible,(28)
the Catholic Church regularly omits this command from
catechisms.(29) Yet it still comes up
with ten.
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST And how come they still got
ten? They took the last one which is "Thou shall not
covet your neighbor's wife; you shall not set your desire
on your neighbor's house, or land, manservant,
maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs
to your neighbor." They divided this into two. They
made nine: "Man shall not covet his neighbor's
wife," and ten: "Thou shall not covet thy
neighbor's goods." So they had the Ten Commandments.
Now this is crookery.
This is trickery. You've changed the commandments.
But why did you drop the
second commandment? Because there is a lot of business in
making statues.(30)
NARRATOR
Though the Scriptures were clear, the traditions of the
Church were followed.
MARY
PRIEST
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.
PEOPLE
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at
the hour of our death. Amen.
NARRATOR
The hundred years preceding the Second Vatican Council
have been called the Marian Century. During this period,
the Catholic Church developed many new doctrines
concerning Mary. Never in Catholic history has anything
been seen like it.(31)
Most significant was Pope
Pius IX's proclamation of the Immaculate Conception issued
in 1854.
Many Catholics do not
understand the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Even
fewer realize that it contradicts Scripture.
CATHOLIC MAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET That is the doctrine
that says basically that the Blessed Virgin Mary became
with child, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET The fact that God
impregnated Mary to have Jesus without having carnal sex,
carnal intercourse.
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST Most people, even Catholics,
do not understand this doctrine. It has nothing to do with
the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. All Catholics believe,
all Christians believe that it was a virgin birth. Jesus'
father was not a man.
But the Immaculate
Conception is that Mary, when she was young, when she was
conceived in her mother's womb, did not have the stain of
original sin.(32) That means that she
was saved already, before she was at the point of
conception, so she never had sin. She was sinless.(33)
That's not what Scripture
says. Only Jesus was without sin. "And everyone has
sinned and comes short of the glory of God."(34)
WILMA SULLIVAN -
FORMER SISTER OF MERCY Mary was a sinner. Mary
herself said she was a sinner in
Luke, the first
chapter, in her
Magnificat where she stated,
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices
in God my savior."(35) Mary
herself said she needed a savior.
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST "All have sinned, and all have
fallen short of the glory of God."(36)
All have fallen. Yet the Catholic Church defined
that Mary was conceived without sin.
NARRATOR
The Pope's proclamation that Mary never sinned raised
other questions. If, as the Bible says, "the wages of
sin is death,"(37) and Mary never
sinned, did she ever die? If she died, did her body decay
in the grave?
Everyone wanted to know,
but both the Scriptures and Catholic tradition were
silent. Four hundred bishops and eighty thousand priests
and members of religious orders sent Rome requests for an
answer. Eight million lay Catholics also signed petitions.(38)
Finally, in 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed that God took
Mary bodily into heaven. This doctrine is known as the
Assumption of Mary.(39)
Bart Brewer was a
Carmelite priest, an order devoted to Mary.
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST The Perpetual
Virginity of Mary, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the
Assumption of Mary, and so on, and so forth. These are
mandatory teachings. These are said to be of divine law.
The Catholic people may not reject those teachings. If
they do, there's what they call an anathema. There's a
curse for any Roman Catholic who would reject an official
dogma regarding Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.
Catholic priests will be
honest in telling us that indeed this teaching has no
foundation in Scripture.
NARRATOR
And what is the source of the doctrine of Mary's
Assumption?
FATHER JOHN
BOYLE, S.J. - CATHOLIC PRIEST AND THEOLOGIAN You
don't see anything definitive in Scripture on that. But
you find a kind of basis. But I would say the doctrine of
the Assumption has its origin in the piety of the people
down through the centuries.
NARRATOR
When the religious practices of the people become the
source of doctrine, popular sentiment is elevated to
divine revelation.(40) Distortion of
truth now becomes inevitable. The Biblical accounts of
Mary present her as a humble, faithful servant of God.
But Catholic tradition
has confused her position with that of Christ himself.(41)
Mary has allegedly appeared to many in the
uncharacteristic role of promoting herself.
In 1917, she appeared at
Fatima.(42) There she announced,
"God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my
immaculate heart. My immaculate heart will be your refuge
and the way to lead you to God."(43)
This shrine to the
immaculate heart of Mary recently was erected in Santa
Clara, California, to promote devotion to Mary's
immaculate heart.(44)
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I feel, whenever I have
a problem that I am praying, I feel that if I talk to
Mary, she would have more sympathy with me.
And she can understand my
motives if I feel I have done something wrong, better than
Jesus could or God. You know, she is kind of like the
mediator for me.
NARRATOR
This ad is from the
Catholic Standard and Times.(45)
"He hasn't said no to her in 2000 years. What would
you have her ask him?"
FATHER RICHARD
CHILSON, C.S.P. - CATHOLIC PRIEST Now, if you
will allow me to get a little personal here, I believe one
of the, as I've spoken, one of the problems of the
Western..., of world culture is the problem of patriarchy.
Christianity and Judaism are heavily patriarchal
religions.
One of the beauties of
Catholicism is in her wisdom she has allowed the figure of
Mary to balance the male hierarchy of God the Father,
Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit, which has also been made
male in the Christian tradition.
And I believe that in
some mysterious way, the figure of Mary who comes out of
the New Testament, who comes out of the Old Testament
wisdom literature, which is part of the Catholic
Scriptures, but not necessarily part of the Protestant
Bible, balances and gives a feminine dimension to God that
is missing in a purely Biblical Christianity.
NARRATOR
The Catholic Church declares that Mary is the mediator of
all grace.(46)
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN This is the Baltimore
Catechism, a basic teaching unit in the Catholic Church.
One that I learned from and we taught from in seminary.
The picture shows Christ
on the cross, as head of the Church. And from his side is
flowing blood.
This blood is flowing to
the primary sacrament called the Eucharist. And from the
Eucharist is dispensed forgiveness of sin, the reception
of Jesus Christ personally into the lives of Roman
Catholic people, and such.
And then from that
sacrament is..., the blood is continuing to the flow
through the hands of Mary. Mary is the dispenser, the
final dispenser, of all grace in Roman Catholicism.
And we have seven
sacraments depicted. These each themselves are said to
dispense grace to the people.
MARY KRAUS -
FORMER FRANCISCAN SISTER This picture really
grieves me. That people would have to go through the
Church and through Mary to receive the grace that Christ
earned on Calvary is so contrary to Biblical doctrine, and
it is just wrong. The Church here is making the grace of
Christ less accessible, not more accessible to people.
Christ is the one
mediator between God and man.(47)
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST So here we have an example of
someone in Scripture, Mary, who was a very beautiful
person and a model of Christian life, as you know, in her
faith-walk with the Lord, and it gets distorted off into a
tradition, a definition, a dogmatic definition that
contradicts Scripture.
CATHOLIC
SALVATION
NARRATOR
According to the Catholic Church, God created Adam and Eve
with a divine life in their souls called grace. This grace
was lost when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden,
and the gates of heaven slammed shut.
Christ restored this
grace by dying on the cross. Once again the gates of
heaven swung open. Christ had done his part, now man must
cooperate by doing his. What is man's part?
Central to his many
responsibilities in achieving salvation are the seven
sacraments. Each sacrament provides a different blessing.
Baptism is the first
sacrament received. It cleanses all sin, brings rebirth
into the life of grace, and makes the infant a member of
the Roman Catholic Church.(48) Parents
are responsible to see that their newborn infant is
baptized as soon as possible.
PRIEST
Peter, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
NARRATOR
Confirmation grants special strength from the Holy Spirit
to avoid temptation and to defend the Catholic faith.
The Sacrament of
Matrimony provides help to the couple for married life.
The Catholic remains in
the life of grace unless he commits a mortal sin such as
immorality, drunkenness, or failing to attend Mass each
Sunday. These mortal sins are punishable by eternal
separation from God.
Mortal sins must be
confessed to a priest. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
the priest grants absolution as he recites the formula:
PRIEST
Through the ministry of the Church, may God give you
pardon and peace. And I absolve you of your sins in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
NARRATOR
The priest receives the power to absolve sins and
celebrate the Mass through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
The Last Sacraments
prepare the soul for passage through death. The family
calls the priest to administer Confession, Anointing of
the Sick, and Holy Communion.
The condition of the soul
at the moment of death will determine the eternal destiny
of the Catholic. Those who die out of grace will spend
eternity in hell.
While those who die in a
state of grace will go to heaven, most must first suffer
in purgatory. There the person pays for past confessed
sins as well as unrepented venial sins like minor lying or
anger which the Church considers less serious.
This burden is carried by
the entire family as they realize they can shorten the
time of their deceased loved one in purgatory by offering
up their own good works and sufferings. The Mass is a
particularly effective offering.
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST And that is why Catholics have
Masses said for people. They would come into a parish, and
they will give some money. They will have a Mass said for
their deceased relatives.
But when you search
through the Scriptures, you go all the way through, you
know, through
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, all the
way down to the
Book of Revelation, you go all the
way through, and you won't find it. There is no purgatory
in there.
NARRATOR
Though a mandatory belief,(49) many
Catholics are confused about the doctrine of purgatory.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I never think of
purgatory. I think of it as an outdated idea. I don't know
what it means.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I have very mixed
feelings on that. I am not awfully sure. I have deceased
members of my family. I just hope that they have actually
gone on to heaven immediately rather than waiting for the
time that they earn their way into heaven or someone prays
them into heaven as we have been taught when we were
little kids.
NARRATOR
Can someone else really pray them in, or a person earn his
way into heaven?
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN The problem with that, of
course, is that the Scripture nowhere says that we can pay
for our own sins. We cannot work for them. In fact, in
Ephesians,
chapter two, verses eight and nine, we're told, "For
by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast."
So we could never pay for
our own sins. We're given that gift, a full payment by
Jesus Christ. Another problem with purgatory is that it
implies Christ was not able to pay the full penalty for
our sins. And yet the Scripture says that in the one-time
death of Christ, he not only made us Christians, but he
paid the full ransom for our sin.(50)
NARRATOR
But have Catholics been taught this simple truth?
New York City: gathering
point for people from around the world.
We asked Catholics what
they thought they must do to get to heaven.
INTERVIEWER
How is it that you hope to get into heaven?
CATHOLIC MAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET By trying to live a
clean and decent life, I guess.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET Well, just, you know,
by being a good Catholic and being nice to one another.
Doing my best. Hopefully that will get me there.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET You obey the Ten
Commandments, I think, and you have got a pretty good
chance. You can't go wrong with the Ten Commandments.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET By following my
conscience, and believing in God, and doing well and good.
CATHOLIC MAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET By treating people
properly. Be fair to everyone.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET Going though Christ is
going through Mary. So as a woman you have to follow
Mary's way to go through Christ.
CATHOLIC MAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I don't know. Just
behaving myself.
CATHOLIC MAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET Do good. Go to
confession. Go to church and treat your neighbors as good
as you can.
CATHOLIC MAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I go to the sacraments
every weekend, every Sunday.
NARRATOR
Catholic Priest William J. Cogan provides a good summary
of the Catholic way to heaven in his book
A Catechism
for Adults.
Question:
What is necessary to be
saved?
The answer provided in
the catechism lists eight requirements:(51)
- faith,
- baptism,
- church membership,
-
obedience to the
commandments, - the sacraments,
- prayer,
- good works,
-
and remaining in grace
until death.
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN The Scripture never speaks of
anything like this. In fact, the Philippian jailer, who in
fear for his life asking Paul, "What must I do to be
saved?," Paul's reply was very simple, "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."(52)
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST The Catholic
Gospel, the Roman Catholic Gospel, absolutely is a gospel
of works.(53)
NARRATOR
If salvation is by works, how much work do you have to do?
Does the average Catholic think he will make it to heaven?
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET Well, let's hope that
God will take into consideration that you have done more
good than bad, and therefore you are worthy of getting
into heaven.
CATHOLIC MAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET Well, I got a lot of
work to do, myself.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I don't think so. Not
right now.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I am not sure that
whatever I have done in the past could ever be reconciled.
But, I mean, there is nothing horrible either. I am not a
murderer or something like that. But I think that
hopefully with more good that I have done than the few bad
can weigh it out.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I don't know. But I
hope. I try. I am trying all the life to go there when I
die. But I am not sure if my life, how it has been.
NARRATOR
Bart Brewer recalls his attempts as a Carmelite monk to
try to merit salvation.
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST But we would
whip ourselves or flagellate ourselves to mortify the
body.
And then we had to get
special permission to wear this, this belt. This, now this
is Saint Elmo's belt. And the, this goes around, this
would go around my, my waist or my, my thigh, or my leg.
And the purpose of these
mortifications, whether it was to sleep on a bed of
plywood, or take the vows, or whatever, the purpose was
basically to expiate sin, to atone for sin.(54)
WILMA SULLIVAN -
FORMER SISTER OF MERCY I entered the convent with
a sincere desire to serve God and man. I came to realize
that it's not sincere..., it's not sincerity that's going
to get us to heaven. It's not our good works. It's not by
righteousness which we can do.(55)
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST What saves you is your faith
in Christ Jesus.(56) And it's the gift
of God.
DOREEN D'ANTONIO
- FORMER SISTER OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY Someone has
once mentioned that God has done 99%, and we have 1% left
to finish. That is totally false. The Lord did it all.
Whatever we do does not amount to anything.(57)
MARY KRAUS -
FORMER FRANCISCAN SISTER I must first acknowledge
I really cannot save myself. That no matter what I do, I
am going to fall far short of the perfection that God
would expect.
But Christ was perfect,
and so I need to trust in him and lean entirely on him and
him alone. He earned all. He earned my salvation on the
cross.(58)
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN I was taught to go to Jesus
through the sacraments, to go to Jesus through the saints,
to go to Jesus through the priest. What I am saying that
is different now is that as a Christian I can personally
go to Christ. I have asked him to be my savior and forgive
my sins, to pay the penalty that I could never pay.
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST Our dear
Catholic people don't understand the true person and work
of Jesus Christ. He is not personal Lord and Savior. So as
a result there's a vacuum. And I think the Catholic Church
tries to tell its people that this, this vacuum can be
satisfied by participating, you know, in the seven
sacraments. So instead of a dynamic personal walk and talk
with the Lord Jesus Christ, it's ritual and ceremony,
which create the impression that indeed the Catholic
people know Christ the Savior. However, they don't, by the
very nature of Roman Catholicism.
NARRATOR
Despite the teachings of the Church, some Catholics have
learned that salvation is by faith alone.
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET I feel like as long as
you believe in Jesus, and that is all he asks you to do,
then you'll be going to heaven.
INTERVIEWER
And what do you have to believe about him?
CATHOLIC WOMAN
INTERVIEWED ON THE STREET That he died for you.
That he forgives your sins if you believe in him. And that
is all he asks.
NARRATOR
This woman was the only one of two dozen Catholics we
interviewed at St. Patrick's Cathedral who seemed to
understand God's simple plan of salvation.
Is it only the laity who
have been misled? While still a Jesuit priest, Victor
Affonso was troubled that the Catholic Church was not
teaching the true gospel. He discussed the matter with a
prominent Catholic scholar only to realize the priest
himself did not understand. Finally, Victor asked the
priest what he thought the gospel was. The priest's reply?
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST "To love one
another."
I said that's the
fruit.
That you love one another. What's the
good news,
Father?
He never knew the good
news! He wouldn't say the good news is that we are all
heading for hell, and that when Jesus came and died on the
cross by the precious blood, when we believe in him, we
are saved. We have eternal life.
They won't say it. Why?
Not because they are against Jesus. He does not know it!
And he is a Scripture scholar.
SUMMARY
NARRATOR
The Scriptures are clear, but the errors persist.
The Sacrifice of the Mass
continues despite Christ's last words on the cross,
"It is finished!"(59)
Statues are treated as
sacred though the Ten Commandments forbid both making and
bowing down to them.(60)
Mary is proclaimed
mediator of all grace despite the New Testament's teaching
that there is one mediator between God and man, Christ
Jesus.(61)
And the people are taught
that they must work for salvation though the Scriptures
clearly state that salvation is "by grace through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God."(62)
Many modern Catholics
have chosen to ignore certain doctrines of the Church
which they consider to be out of date. A common
misconception is that the Second Vatican Council changed
many of these dogmas.(63)
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST Vatican II made
no doctrinal changes. In other words, no, there was a
change of image, but no change of substance. There's a
principle Rome promotes
semper idem. It means
"always the same." In other words, her basic
dogmatic teachings can never change. There has been a
change of, there's been redefinition and restructuring of
Catholic theology, but there has been no substantive, no
radical change of Catholic dogma, because that would
destroy Roman Catholicism.
NON-CHRISTIAN
RELIGIONS
NARRATOR
While no doctrinal changes were made, the Second Vatican
Council did change the position of the Church in
relationship to non-Christian religions.(64)
It affirmed that people
of all religions "form one community" and that
"the Church respects the spiritual, moral, and
cultural values of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam."(65)
Dialogue and collaboration were encouraged.
FATHER RICHARD
CHILSON, C.S.P. - CATHOLIC PRIEST I myself am
engaged in a Ph.D. in Majayana Buddhism. My specialty in
that is Tibetan Buddhism.
I chose Buddhism because
it seemed to be as contrary to Christianity as it was
possible to be.
Buddhists do not believe
in God. Buddhists do not believe in a soul. What I have
discovered instead, through my studies of Buddhism, is
that in spite of the doctrines, the myths, that seem to
contradict one another, the reality behind those doctrines
and myths seems to be the same.
NARRATOR
Catholic publishers seem to agree and have produced
numerous books designed to enrich Catholic spirituality
with eastern religion.
A Taste of Water:
Christianity through Taoist-Buddhist Eyes(66)
was co-authored by a priest and a nun.
Love Meets Wisdom: A
Christian Experience of Buddhism(67)
written by a Jesuit priest.
And
Buddhist Emptiness
and Christian Trinity(68) which
shows how Buddhist-Christian dialogue has gone beyond
mutual understanding to mutual transformation.
Pope John Paul II
personally took the initiative to unite the leaders of the
world's religions for a prayer summit at Assisi, Italy, in
1986.
They came from around the
world. Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and Jews. Moslems
from nine nations sang from the Koran. Buddhism's Dalai
Lama, traditionally regarded as a living deity, chanted
rhythmically. American medicine men called on the Great
Spirit. Animists from Africa, Hindus, Zoroastrians.
"We will stand side
by side asking God to give us peace."(69)
With that papal invitation, 160 leaders from the religions
of the world gathered to petition God.
While toleration for the
cultures of others is commendable, this summit treated all
religions as equally valid: an endorsement without
precedent in the history of Christianity.(70)
But what do the
Scriptures say?
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST There's only one person who took
our sins away. My sins and your sins. There's only one
person who did that, and that's Jesus. Buddha didn't do
it. The Hindu religions didn't do it with Shiva. Confucius
didn't do it. No one did it. The Moslem religion doesn't
do it. They don't have a savior who takes away the sins of
the world. They don't have that. That's why Scripture says
there's only one way.(71)
TRADITION
NARRATOR
Why has Catholicism departed from Biblical Christianity?
Because it has elevated tradition, the teaching of the
Church, to the position of the Scripture and even above
it.
The New Testament
describes Christianity as the faith which was delivered
once and for all through Christ and the Apostles.(72)
But Catholicism has continued to add new doctrines to the
Catholic faith from the traditions of men.
The belief that the
nature of the bread changed at the Mass was not added to
official doctrine until the Fourth Lateran Council in
1215. This was the first time the Church sanctioned the
Theory of transubstantiation.(73)
Purgatory was declared
doctrine in 1274.(74)
The Immaculate Conception
in 1854.(75)
Papal Infallibility,
1870.(76)
The Assumption of Mary,
1950.(77)
And the Declaration on
Non-Christian Religions, October 28, 1965.(78)
The Second Vatican
Council made it clear that the Catholic Church will
continue to rely on Tradition:
"It is not from
Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty
about everything which has been revealed. Both Sacred
Tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and
venerated with the same sense of loyalty and
reverence."(79)
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN I had a problem with this,
especially when I began to read the Scripture for myself.
I could see the Scripture saying one thing, and tradition
saying another. And this again caused for me problems, a
crisis you might call it, to where I had a hard time
accepting what the Church would say when I could clearly
see Christ in Scripture saying something different.
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST The Catholic Church claims that
there is no conflict, there is no problem. But there are
lots of conflicts and there are lots of problems. There
are many, many examples of this, of infallibly defined
doctrines and dogmas that actually contradict what is
already in Scripture.
NARRATOR
This conflict between Scripture and Tradition was at the
heart of the Reformation during the Middle Ages.
PROSECUTOR
"Dr. Luther, yesterday you admitted these writings
were yours. Will you tell us now, do you persist in what
you have written here, or are you prepared to retract
these writings and the beliefs they contain."
MARTIN LUTHER
I ask pardon if I lack the manners that befit this court.
I was not brought up in kings' palaces, but in the
seclusion of a cloister. I am asked to retract these
writings....
NARRATOR
Protestant critics? Not exactly. The leaders of the
Reformation were all Catholic priests and theologians.
NARRATOR
Catholic theologian John Wycliffe was one of the first.
His troubles started when he began to teach that the Bible
is the only source of truth. Rome silenced him. Forty-four
years after his death, they exhumed his bones and burned
them because of his departure from Roman authority.
In 1415, Catholic priest
and theologian of the University of Prague, John Huss, was
burned at the stake. His crime? He also had made the Holy
Scriptures his only rule in matters of religion and faith.
After sixteen years as a
priest, Swiss reformer Huldreich Zwingli broke with the
Catholic Church when he could no longer put tradition on
the same level as the Holy Scriptures.
John Calvin was studying
for the priesthood when he experienced a spiritual
conversion. He left the Church shortly thereafter.
Martin Luther was an
Augustinian priest and professor of theology at the
Catholic University of Wittenberg. He objected to
representatives of the pope selling pardons from purgatory
in order to finance the building of St. Peter's Basilica.
Luther made a list of 95
reasons why this was wrong and nailed it to the Church
door at Wittenberg.
Luther's writings helped
form the three guiding principles of the 16th century call
for reform.
-
The Bible is the only
source of authoritative truth for salvation. -
Man is saved by God
through faith alone. -
Every believer has
direct access to God through Jesus Christ alone.
When ordered to recant,
Luther responded, "My conscience is captive to the
Word of God." He narrowly escaped with his life.
These men were all loyal
Catholics whose attempts to reform their Church and return
it to Biblical Christianity were met with vigorous
opposition from their superiors.
The problem is an old
one.
While walking through a
grain field on the Sabbath, the Lord Jesus also clashed
with the religious leaders of his day over tradition. The
apostles were picking heads of grain and eating them.(80)
Additionally, when they
ate their bread, they did not ceremonially wash their
hands as prescribed by the rabbis. In the seventh chapter
of the Gospel of Mark, we read that the Pharisees and the
scribes questioned Jesus, "Why do your disciples not
walk according to the tradition of the elders?"(81)
Jesus was not
intimidated. He rebuked the religious leaders for
elevating the teaching of the rabbis to the same level of
authority as God's Holy Scriptures. He accused them of
teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. He could not
obey the traditions of the elders without disobeying the
written Word of God. He chose to obey God rather than men.
Many Catholics today are making that same choice.
CONCLUSION
WILMA SULLIVAN -
FORMER SISTER OF MERCY I had the decision to make
who I was going to follow. Was it going to be a man, who
could make mistakes, or was it going to be God, who could
not lie to me?
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST But I had to leave for one
purpose. And that is I found that the Catholic Church, in
its doctrines and infallible doctrines [which] were called
the dogmas, had perverted and changed the Word.
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST I left the
Roman Catholic Church and forsaked the Roman Catholic
priesthood, by God's grace, strictly for theological
reasons. For doctrinal reasons.
DOREEN D'ANTONIO
- FORMER SISTER OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY I came to
realize that the Catholic Church does not have the correct
doctrine. They did not have what I needed in my life.
BART BREWER -
FORMER DISCALCED CARMELITE PRIEST Many, many
thousands, maybe millions, of Catholic people leave
because of theology. They have, they started to re-examine
Roman Catholic premises or teachings in light of God's
Holy Word.
WILMA SULLIVAN -
FORMER SISTER OF MERCY I love them. I love the
people. But I'm sorry that the doctrines that they so
cling to are not according to what God has said is
necessary to get to heaven.
FRANK EBERHARDT -
FORMER SEMINARIAN Because of the teaching of
tradition, Christ has become de-emphasized. You have Mary
in a prominent place. She's held up as ever virgin and
sinless even as Jesus Christ himself is. You have saints,
who are much holier than we are, who are in heaven, that
can pray for us. You have other symbols in Catholicism
that take the place of Jesus Christ, or at least
de-emphasize the work of Jesus Christ for Catholic people.
I think a reason why
Catholicism isn't working today and it is in crisis is
because there is a lack of belief in the Gospel itself.
VICTOR AFFONSO -
FORMER JESUIT PRIEST Many of you will say, well,
we've been a long time in the Catholic Church, and we've
had enough of Jesus: all this kneeling down and going for
Sunday Mass and receiving Jesus in Communion and all.
Brothers and sisters, that is not Jesus.
NARRATOR
It is not Jesus, and it is not the message inspired by the
Holy Spirit as recorded in the Scriptures. The Catholic
way of salvation is a false hope, for it is not the Gospel
of Jesus Christ found in the New Testament.
God warns us of those who
would come and preach another Jesus, a different Spirit,
and a different Gospel.(82)
Disenchanted with
Catholic teaching, many have finally turned to the Bible
for help. These Catholics were surprised by what they
discovered.
FORMER CATHOLIC -
WOMAN That grace was something that you could not
earn. And that surprised me, because I was..., always
thought in the Catholic Church you would earn grace by
going to church and going to confession.
FORMER CATHOLIC -
MAN And all the time I thought it was in church,
or, you know, going to Mass, or doing penance, or just
doing, being good. But I didn't realize that it's
accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and through his
blood that you're saved.
FORMER CATHOLIC -
WOMAN That he was the one that came to take all
the sins, even mine, which I thought I never was good for
anything. He died for me.
FORMER CATHOLIC -
WOMAN He came because I needed a savior, and that
there was no other way I could get to heaven. And when he
was on the cross, he had me personally in mind. I'll
always remember being completely overwhelmed with that
thought: that he had my name in his mind.
NARRATOR
John and Jane Delisi received eternal life while studying
the
First Epistle of John. Jane was a teacher in
the Catholic parochial school system.
FORMER CATHOLIC -
JANE DELISI There was a verse there that says
that you can know that you can have eternal life.(83)
And I was very, very confused and puzzled, because I
couldn't understand how I could really know that I could
have eternal life.
FORMER CATHOLIC -
JOHN DELISI We found out that the work of Jesus
Christ alone was sufficient for me to get to heaven. And
it was nothing that I did, but it was all that he did. And
it was trusting in him and his finished work on the cross.
NARRATOR
Each of these individuals has since left the Catholic
Church.
BOB BUSH - FORMER
JESUIT PRIEST It's not what we are leaving. It's
what we are getting into. It's not what is behind us. I
mean, it's like when the pioneers came to the West. It's
not what they're leaving behind. It's what they're coming
to.
And we're coming to a new
life in Jesus. We're coming into everlasting life. When
Jesus died, and he saved me, and I receive that, that
gives everlasting glory to God forever in all eternity. I
will praise God for all eternity for having saved me.
DOREEN D'ANTONIO
- FORMER SISTER OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY The Lord
Jesus Christ is my all. That's it. How can I...? He's
everything. My salvation.
FORMER CATHOLIC -
WOMAN And when I think of him, I can just
visually see myself dropping at his feet..., but also
being torn in wanting to run to him, as if you..., as if
you've been separated from a long, longtime friend, and
you want to be with him. But that awe is so awe-inspiring.
And just the sense of
never wanting to leave his presence. Wherever he goes, I
want to be there. I can't..., I can't live without him.
CLOSING MUSIC:
KEVIN DOYLE
The Master's Call
Come out of her, my
beloved,
Come and follow me.
Outside the camp,
Up to the hill,
The place called Calvary.
Like a beautiful flower
that fades,
So the traditions of men;
But the Word of the Lord it stands for always,
For he is the guardian.
Trust only in the
sacrifice,
Of God's perfect lamb.
Believe and receive in this true hour,
Come into Emmanuel's land.
Come out of her, my
beloved,
Come and follow me.
Outside the camp,
Up to the hill,
The place of my victory.
CREDITS
Produced and Directed . . . . . . . James G. McCarthy
Director of Photography . . . . . . Bob Grant
Narrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fred Kosin, Jerry Edinger
Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bob Grant, Bob Vernon
Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kevin Doyle, Roger W. Torrey
Mike and Nene Ehlert, David Crotzer
Song: The Master's Call . . . . . . Kevin Doyle
Production Sound. . . . . . . . . . Scott T. Norman
Music Recordings, Eng.. . . . . . . Homebound Studios, Keith Cole
Master Track Productions, Matthew Hague
Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Bosak, David J. FitzGerald
Cover Illustration. . . . . . . . . Tom Miller
Production Assistants . . . . . . . Joan Cola, Jeff and Pat Lanet
Sharon Mecum, David Reeve, Andrew Ward
Additional Film . . . . . . . . . . Martin Luther, Produced by the Lutheran Film
Associates, Courtesy Gateway Films/Vision
Video
Newsreel and Photographs. . . . Archive Films
Religious News Service
Time Picture Syndication
Reuters/Bettman Newsphotos
Newsreel Announcer. . . . . . . Ed Herlihy
Closed Captions . . . . . . . . . . National Captioning Institute
Endnotes
-
"The
Brazilian Catholic church, for instance, has some 105
million members in a national population of some 130
million, the largest Catholic population of any
country in the world, but only 12 percent of them
attend Sunday mass. Of France's 54.8 million people,
80 percent profess Catholicism as their religion, but
only 10 percent are regular weekly worshipers at mass.
In the United States, 51 percent of the country's 52
million Catholics attended mass weekly in 1984.... In
1958, an estimated 74 percent of American Catholics
could be found in the pews on a Sunday morning. The
drop from 74 percent to 51 percent in twenty-six
years' time is precipitous, the more so because the
decline was not gradual but began suddenly and
dramatically only about fifteen years ago... In some
places the drop in church attendance has been so sharp
as to be nearly calamitous. A recent survey in the
diocese of Brooklyn, for example, estimated that only
28 percent of those who call themselves Catholics
attend mass regularly...." John Deedy,
American
Catholicism and Now Where?, (New York: Plenum
Press, 1987), pp. 24-25. -
"Only
13 percent of Catholics go to confession at least once
a month, according to a 1988 survey. Nearly half of
the laity surveyed said they rarely or never go.
Although 41 percent of priests interviewed said they
go to confession at least once a month, 44 percent
said they go only once or twice a year."
The
Tidings, official newspaper of the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles, June 8, 1990, p. 9."Bishops
attributed the 25-year decline primarily to 'a less
pervasive sense of sin,' which parishioners ranked
seventh as a reason, along with alleged 'general
confusion over what is right or wrong.'"
San
Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 26, 1990, p. B6. -
"Catholics
are bitterly angry at their leadership. Since the only
way Catholics can vote on what is happening in the
Church is through their contributions, they have
expressed their anger by cutting their financial
contributions (as a proportion of income) in half
since 1960, thus costing the [U.S.] Church $7 billion
a year in revenue." Father Andrew Greeley,
The
Catholic Myth, (New York: Scribners, 1990), pp.
5-6. -
"Money
has become the most critical issue facing the church
today, says pioneer fund- raiser Monsignor Joseph
Champlin.... An NCR study of 75 of the nation's 188
dioceses and archdioceses found at least a dozen
showing deficits. It appears that between 10 and 20
percent of all U.S. dioceses are in the red. Still
more are cutting back services or ministries to
maintain balanced operating budgets."
The
National Catholic Reporter, Feb. 2, 1990, p. 3. -
In
the Chicago archdiocese alone in 1990,
"twenty-eight churches and 18 schools, including
the nation's largest high-school seminary were closed
in response to a $28 million deficit."
National
Catholic Reporter, Feb. 22, 1991, p. 4. -
In
1990 there was only one diocesan priest for every
2,000 Catholics. By the year 2005, the ratio will be
one priest for every 3,100 Catholics.
The Tidings,
June 15, 1990, p. 2. -
"Priestless
Rites,"
Time Magazine, Nov. 20, 1989, p.
98.By 2005, it is
estimated that in America "thirty percent of all
parishes will not have a resident priest." Father
George Fitzgerald, CSP, "Ask Me,"
The
Catholic Voice, Feb. 27, 1989. -
The
Catholic Priest in the U.S., report sponsored by
the U.S. Catholic Conference, 1990. -
The
National Catholic Reporter, May 11, 1990, pg. 1. -
The
New York Times, Feb. 28, 1990, p. B4. -
"Since
the beginning of his papacy in 1978, John Paul II has
worried about the disintegration of his church's
unified front on doctrines and moral teachings.
Catholic scholars were not only squabbling about birth
control, they were publicly challenging everything
from divorce to the Virgin Birth to papal powers. The
campaign to clamp down on dissent has since become a
hallmark of John Paul's reign." Richard N.
Ostling, "Drawing the Line on Dissent,"
Time
Magazine, July 9, p. 62. -
Father
Andrew M. Greeley, "On the Margins of the Church:
A Sociological Note,"
America, March 4,
1989, pg. 194."The 15 percent
defection rate of those raised Catholic and no longer
Catholic has not changed in 30 years." Father
Andrew Greeley, "Sacraments Keep Catholics High
on the Church,"
National Catholic Reporter,
April 12, 1991, pp. 12-13. -
"Five
million Hispanic Catholics have left the church in the
United States in the past decade, according to the
most recent Gallup Poll. Hispanics continue to leave
at the rate of about 100,000 a year, said the Rev.
Ricardo Chavez, spokesman for the California Catholic
conference, the policy arm of the state's Catholic
bishops."
The San Jose Mercury News, Feb.
28, 1990, p. 12A. -
For
a short discussion of some of the causes put forth for
the present crisis refer to Father Richard P.
McBrien's two volume survey of Catholic belief and
practice
Catholicism (Minneapolis: Winston,
1980), pp. 13-14. -
"The
encyclical
Humanae Vitae, issued in the summer
of 1968, is the most important event of the last
twenty-five years of Catholic history for two reasons.
Unlike the changes of the Vatican Council, which had
only marginal impact on the lives of the Catholic
laity, the encyclical endeavored to reach into the
bedroom of every Catholic married couple in the world.
Moreover, in their response to it, many of the most
devout Catholic laity (especially of Irish and Polish
backgrounds) for the first time deliberately disobeyed
the pope. The fact that they did so and were not
greatly troubled afterwards prepared them for a future
in which increasingly they would make their own
decisions on moral and religious matters and yet
continue to participate as active Catholics."
Father Andrew Greeley,
The Catholic Myth (New
York: Scribners, 1990), p. 91. -
The
bread wafer is referred to as the "Host."
This word comes from the Latin word for
"victim." -
Luke
22:19-20 -
The
Catholic Council of Trent declared that "in the
sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained
truly, really, and substantially the body and blood
together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and consequently the whole Christ." It
cursed anyone who would say that Christ is present
"only as in a sign or figure or force."
Session xiii, can. 1. -
Commenting
on the teaching of the Catholic Church at the Council
of Trent Father John A. Hardon, S.J., writes,
"...it was only logical for the Church to worship
the Blessed Sacrament as it would the person of Jesus
himself. As a result, he is to be adored 'in the holy
sacrament of the Eucharist with the worship of
latria,
including the external worship.' Concretely this means
that the Blessed Sacrament is to be 'honored with
extraordinary festive celebrations' and 'solemnly
carried from place to place' and 'is to be publicly
exposed for the people's adoration.'" Father John
A. Hardon, S.J.,
The Catholic Catechism (Garden
City, New York: Doubleday, 1975), p. 463. -
The
Second Vatican Council stated, "At the Last
Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Savior
instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and
Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the
sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until
He should come again.... [The faithful] should give
thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate
Victim...." Father Walter M. Abbott, S.J., ed.,
The
Documents of Vatican II (New York: Guild Press,
1966), "The Constitution on the Sacred
Liturgy," sections 47-48. -
Richard
Chilson (New York: Paulist Press, 1987). -
Richard
Chilson (New York: Paulist Press, 1975). -
Hebrews
10:10-14 -
The
Catholic Council of Trent stated, "If anyone says
the sacrifice of the Mass is one only of praise and
thanksgiving; or that it is a mere commemoration of
the sacrifice consummated on the cross but not a
propitiatory one; or that it profits him only who
receives, and ought not be offered for the living and
the dead, for sins, punishments, satisfactions, and
other necessities, let him be anathema
(accursed)." Session xxii, can. 3. -
Exodus
20:4 -
Exodus
20:5 -
The
Hebrew word used here is
shachah. It's primary
meaning is "to bow down." Harris, Archer,
Waltke, editors,
Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament (Chicago: Moody, 1980), vol. ii, pp.
914-915. -
Exodus
20:1-17 -
The
command of Exodus 20:4-5 is not listed as one of the
Ten Commandments by the Catholic Church. Instead the
Church considers it part of the first commandment,
Exodus 20:2-3. Yet explanations of the first
commandment in Catholic catechisms either completely
ignore the prohibitions of Exodus 20:4-5, or brush
them aside as not applicable to Catholic practices. -
See
Acts 19:23-41 for a similar situation which occurred
in apostolic times. -
Cf.
Father John A. Hardon, S.J.,
The Catholic Catechism
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1975), p. 155. -
In
1854, Pope Pius IX established the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception in the bull
Ineffabilis Deus:
"the doctrine maintains that the Most Blessed
Virgin, at the first instant of her conception, was
preserved immune from all stain of original sin by a
singular grace and privilege of the Almighty God in
view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
human race, has been revealed by God, and therefore
must be certainly and unalterably believed by all the
faithful." -
"Exemption
from original sin carried with it two corollary
consequences: From the time of her conception, Mary
was also free from all motions of concupiscence, and
also (on attaining the use of reason) free from every
personal sin during the whole of her life."
Father John A. Hardon, S.J.,
The Catholic Catechism
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1975), p. 158. -
Romans
3:23 -
Luke
1:46-47 -
Romans
3:23 -
Romans
6:23 -
Cf.
Father John A. Hardon, S.J.,
The Catholic Catechism
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1975), p. 160. -
"The
Catholic Church teaches that the Blessed Virgin, even
in regard to her body, has been assumed into heaven.
This truth can be proved neither from Scripture nor
from the explicit testimony of the Fathers."
Father A. Tanquerey,
A Manual of Dogmatic Theology
(New York: Desclee, 1959), vol. ii, p. 104. -
The
visuals shown here are a rosary and a scapular. The
scapular is made up of two pieces of cloth connected
by strings. It is worn around the neck with one piece
of cloth on the chest and the other on the back. The
scapular shown was purchased from the Legion and Mary
and includes on it the traditional promise to the
wearer."According to
Carmelite legend, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock
in Cambridge in 1251 and, showing him a brown
scapular, declared that whoever wore it until death
would be preserved from hell and on the first Saturday
after his death would be taken by her to heaven."
P.N. Zammit, "Scapulars,"
The New
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, vol. 12, p. 1115. -
In
Catholicism Mary even shares Christ's role as
redeemer. She has been given the title of "Co-redemptrix."
"She cooperated in man's salvation secondarily
and dependently on Christ by consenting both to the
Incarnation of the Word and to the death of Christ....
Also, she is associated in the work of the Passion and
therefore of the Redemption: she stands at the cross,
suffering along with the suffering Christ."
Father A. Tanquerey,
A Manual of Dogmatic Theology
(New York: Desclee, 1959), vol ii, pp. 108-109.The Second Vatican
Council stated, "In subordination to Him and
along with Him, by the grace of almighty God she
served the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore
the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in
a passive way, but as cooperating in the work of human
salvation through free faith and obedience. For, as
St. Irenaeus says, she, 'being obedient, became the
cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human
race.' Hence in their preaching not a few of the early
Fathers gladly assert with him: 'The knot of Eve's
disobedience was united by Mary's obedience. What the
virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, Mary loosened
by her faith.'" Father Walter M. Abbott, S.J.,
ed.,
The Documents of Vatican II (New York:
Guild, 1966), "The Dogmatic Consitution on the
Church," sec. 56. -
"Three
shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos (b. 1907) and her
cousins Francisco (1908-1919) and Jacinta (1910-1920),
said they saw the figure of a Lady brighter than the
sun, standing on a cloud in an evergreen tree.... The
bishop of Leiria (Oct. 13, 1930) [Fatima is a parish
in this diocese of central Portugal] pronounced the
1917 visions at Cova da Iria [a natural depression in
the parish of Fatima] worthy of credence and
authorized the cult of Our Lady of Fatima. Thereafter,
Lucia, as a Dorothean lay sister at Tuy (Spain), on
episcopal command wrote her remembrances in documents
dated 1936, 1937, 1941, and 1942, giving further
details about the apparitions and the first public
information about apparitions of an angel in
1915." H.M. Gillett, "Fatima,"
The
New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, vol. 5, pp.
885-886. -
Article
by Father John Sweeny, "Why a Statue to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary?" distributed at the
shrine. -
There
is considerable superstition surrounding devotion to
Mary. A recent event which took place at this same
shrine illustrates this point. It was reported in the
San
Jose Mercury News."A parish priest
stepped into a metal basket connected to a mechanical
arm on the back of a utility company's truck. The
cherry picker arm was extended and the Roman Catholic
priest, the Rev. John Sweeney, was hoisted up near the
top of the 32 foot tall statue of the Blessed Virgin
Mary that gazes over the commuters on Highway 101 in
Santa Clara. He carried with him a small metal box
with a padlock. Inside were the names of thousands of
people with special requests, stored on microfilm.
Then, as about 500 Catholics prayed below, he slipped
the box into an alcove behind Mary's heart. There it
will rest for a year. "People feel like they're
close to the heart of God's mother," said Sister
Mary Jean Kula, secretary for the Our Lady of Peace
shrine and a teacher at the parish school. "'By
putting their intentions on microfilm, they feel she
sees them from heaven and is going to listen to
them.'"
San Jose Mercury News, September
5, 1988, p. B1. -
March
22, 1990, p. 17. Sponsored by the Marian Consortium of
Catholic Lay Organizations in conjunction with The
Knights of Columbus and The Legion of Mary in
promotion of Philadelphia's Rosary Congress. -
"Mary
is the universal mediatrix of grace, a secondary
mediatrix and one dependent on Christ; universal,
however, because no grace is dispensed without her
intervention." Father A. Tanquerey,
A Manual
of Dogmatic Theology (New York: Desclee, 1959),
vol. II, pg. 109. -
1
Timothy 2:5 -
Cf.
William J. Cogan,
A Catechism for Adults
(Youngtown, Az., Cogan Productions, 1975), p. 62. -
"If
anyone says that after the reception of the grace of
justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of
eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant
sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to
be discharged either in this world or in purgatory
before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be
anathema (cursed)." Council of Trent, Session vi,
can. 30. -
Mark
10:45, Hebrews 10:18 -
"What
is necessary to be saved? You have to be brought into
spiritual contact with that saving death of Jesus by
faith and Baptism and loyal membership in His Church,
by love of God and neighbor proved by obedience to His
commandments, by the other Sacraments especially Holy
Communion, by prayer and good works and by final
perseverance, that is preserving God's friendship and
grace until death." Father William J. Cogan,
A
Catechism for Adults (Youngtown, Az.: Cogan
Productions, 1975), p. 50. -
Acts
16:30-31 -
The
Council of Trent dogmatically stated the Catholic
position as follows: "If anyone says that the
justice received is not preserved and also not
increased before God through good works, but that
those works are merely the fruits and signs of
justification obtained, but not the cause of it
increase, let him be anathema (cursed)." Session
vi, can. 24 -
This
is clearly stated by Father A Tanquerey, former
Professor of Theology at Old St. Mary's Seminary in
Baltimore, in his text book
A Manual of Dogmatic
Theology (New York: Desclee, 1959), vol. ii, p.
80. "Christ's satisfaction is of infinite value
and power. However, de facto punishment is not removed
unless the reparations of Christ are applied to us:
but this actually happens through the Sacraments and
through the Sacrifice of the Mass, and also through
faith which works by means of love."Although the
reparation of Christ in itself was perfect and
universal, it is necessary for adults to imitate the
suffering Christ and to make satisfaction with Him for
their sins, if they wish to be saved. This statement
is certain; it contradicts the declaration of the
Protestants that faith alone is sufficient in order
that the reparation and merits of Christ be applied to
us."In Scripture
Christ clearly states that no one is saved unless he
takes up his cross; St. Paul teaches that we cannot be
crowned unless we suffer with Christ. Therefore,
although Christ's passion is complete in itself, it
must be made complete by us since, as His members we
must be fashioned after Him, our Head."According to
reason, an adult must prepare himself for
justification by various acts and must persevere in
the state of grace. But all this presupposes the
cooperation of each individual in expiating his own
sins and in persevering in good." -
Cf.
Romans 3:9-25, Titus 3:4-7 -
Cf.
Romans 10:9-10 -
Cf.
Isaiah 53:4-6 -
Cf.
1 Peter 1:18-19 -
John
19:30 -
Exodus
20:4-5 -
1
Timothy 2:5 -
Ephesians
2:8 -
Pope
Paul VI saw the Second Vatican Council as
"following in the footsteps of the Councils of
Trent and of First Vatican" and "furthering
the work begun by the Council of Trent." Father
Walter M. Abbott, S.J., ed.,
The Documents of
Vatican II (New York: Guild, 1966), pp. 111, 456. -
"Declaration
on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian
Religions" -
These
quotes are from a summary of the "Declaration on
the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian
Religions" by Father Robert A. Graham, S.J. He
provides a fascinating account of the development of
this document at the Second Vatican Council. Father
Graham considers it "perhaps the most dramatic
story of the Council." It is found in the
introduction to the document in the translation edited
by Walter M. Abbot, S.J.,
The Documents of Vatican
II (New York: Guild, 1966), pp. 656-659. -
Father
Thomas G. Hand, S.J. and Sister (Agnes) Chwen Jiuan A.
Lee of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate
Conception (New York: Paulist, 1990). -
Father
Aloysius Pieris, S.J. (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1988). -
Roger
Corless and Paul F. Knitter, editors (New York:
Paulist, 1990). -
L'Osservatore
Romano, English version of the official Vatican
newspaper, Oct. 27, 1986, pg. 1. -
"The
Pope's audience was aware that Assisi symbolically
went well beyond the ceremonial friendship accorded
other faiths by any previous Pontiff. The assemblage
included not only monotheists but believers in creeds
once labeled 'heathen' and 'pagan' by a church that
for centuries had preached unambiguously that there
was no salvation outside its walls. The astonishing
variety of the invited group also raised suspicions
among some Christians that Assisi represented a
heretical step toward syncretism, the amalgamation of
various conflicting religions." Richard N.
Ostling, "A Summit for Peace in Assisi,"
Time
Magazine, Nov. 10,1986, p. 78. -
John
14:6 -
Jude
3, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, Ephesians 2:20 -
The
Roman Council of 1079 refers to the bread and wine as
"substantially changed," but the doctrine
was still under development. "By the 13th century
the doctrine had achieved an adequate formulation,
well exemplified in the incisive summary of Thomas
Aquinas.... From the 12th century on,
'transubstantiation' and 'transubstantiate' appear
frequently in ecclesiastical documents. The Fourth
Lateran Council in 1215 and the Second Council of
Lyons in 1274 use the term in brief expositions of the
doctrine. A more ample explanation is given by the
Council of Florence in 1439." C. Vollert,
"Transubstantiation,"
The New Catholic
Encyclopedia (New York: McGraw Hill, 1967), vol
xiv, p. 259. -
The
Second Council of Lyons. -
December
8, 1854, Pope Pius IX's bull
Ineffabilis Deus. -
The
First Vatican Council was the first to declare,
"It is a dogma divinely revealed: that the Roman
Pontiff when he speaks
ex cathedra, that is,
when acting in the office of shepherd and teacher of
all Christians, he defines, by virtue of his supreme
apostolic authority, doctrine concerning faith and
morals to be held by the universal Church, possesses
through the divine assistance promised to him in the
person of St. Peter, the infallibility with which the
divine Redeemer willed his church to be endowed in
defining doctrine concerning faith or morals; and that
such definitions are therefore irreformable of
themselves, and not from the consent of the
Church."
Dogmatic Constitution I on the Church
of Christ, iv. -
November
1, 1950, Pope Pius XII's
Munificentissimus Deus. -
The
Second Vatican Council. -
The
Second Vatican Council, "The Dogmatic
Constitution on Divine Revelation," section 9. -
Mark
2:23-28 -
Mark
7:1-13 -
2
Corinthians 11:3-4 -
1
John 5:13
Catholicism: Crisis of
Faith
James G. McCarthy
(©) Copyright 1991
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