Bring ‘Em Back! Part 14

This is the fourteenth in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic. 

Excuse #7 and the Anti-Institutionalist

Excuse #7 is “Organized religion is hogwash; it’s full of hypocrites.”  While this excuse is also hogwash, prudence is the watchword here.

Usually the lapsed Catholic who offers this excuse has become an un-churched individual, such as a Deist.  It’s possible, however, the individual still thinks of him or herself as a Catholic.  If so, he or she is a Catholic who has developed a strong dislike for the Institutional Church – how the Church is organized.

Part 13 of this series focused on re-evangelizing the un-churched/Deist.  In Part 14 the focus is on dealing with an ‘anti-institutional Catholic.’

Just like with the Deist, the question you have to ask the individual who offers Excuse #7 is “Can you explain to me how you came to that conclusion?”  You need to understand the person’s thinking before you enter into a discussion

Dealing with the Anti-Institutional Individual

If your lapsed Catholic friend or loved one has formed a dislike for the institutional Catholic Church, he or she will probably respond to your request for an explanation by offering some combination of Excuses 1 through 6.  Even so, your loved one or friend may not have abandoned all of his or Catholic beliefs.  But in a misguided effort to protest perceived institutionalism and corruption, the individual has just stopped going to Mass.

You are going to have to overcome his or her “objections” to the institutional Church one by one.

So, let’s say Sam or Samantha responds to your question by saying:

“The Catholic Church started out okay but over the last 2,000 years it’s become one of the richest organizations on the planet.  Bishops and Cardinals are living in luxurious mansions and jet-setting all over the place and all the poor shlubs in the pews are stuck picking up the tab.”

This response is a variation of Excuse #4 – the collection plate excuse.  It’s even possible Sam or Samantha leans a bit toward socialism and also has ‘problems’ with the idea of a free market economy!  He or she may even try quoting Acts 2:44-45 to make his or her point –

“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.”

This Scripture verse has been used by socialists and liberation theologians to support the claim that the early Christians were socialists.  But this is hardly the case.

Theologian Antonio Fuentes refutes these notions in an article at Catholic Answers entitled “The Book of Acts.”  Apologist Trent Horn takes the refutation further in an article entitled “No, the First Christians Were Not Socialists.”

No Organization is Perfect 

You can certainly agree with Sam or Samantha that throughout the 2,000-year history of the Church some members of the Church hierarchy have been corrupted by money, power or lust.  We have even had some really bad Popes.  The sad fact is all of us are sinners – even clerics.

The good news, however, is that despite its human faults it is still the Church that Jesus Christ put in place on earth.  Recall what Jesus told Peter in Mathew 16:18:

“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”

Jesus also makes it clear that He intends for His Church to be an organized community of believers.  Notice that He did not say ‘I will build my religion . . .”  And recall His instructions to His disciples on how to deal with “A Brother Who Sins” in Mathew 18:17: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.”

Ya, sure, but . . .

When confronted with this evidence a hard-headed anti-institutional individual is still not likely to fold.  The probable response to this will be, “Ya, but Jesus never intended His Church to become the wealthiest institution on the planet!”

Your reply to such a statement should be a two-parter.  “So if I’m hearing you correctly, you actually agree that Jesus Christ instituted an organized Church. Your real beef is that you have problems with corruption and the wealth the Church has accumulated over 200 centuries.”

More than likely the response to this will by something along the lines of, “Ya, I guess so.”

If so, you’ve made an inroad.  Now you have to put the Church’s wealth into perspective.  You can start by pointing out that the Church is not the immensely rich organization some make it out to be.

Ask Sam or Samantha, “Who do think is richer, Michael Bloomberg or the Catholic Church?”

A 2023 online article at marketplace.org says the Catholic Church has “at least — and we’re putting a huge emphasis on “at least” — $73 billion in assets.”  It goes on to say, “That makes the church almost as rich as Michael Bloomberg, about as rich as the state of Rhode Island, and wealthier than Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan or Croatia.”

So after roughly 2,000 years the church has managed to accumulate almost as much wealth as Michael Bloomberg, who has $96.3 billion. Yet Bloomberg has  only been on the planet for 81 years.  If the Catholic Church was a business, its performance would be considered pretty dismal.  Wells Fargo, for instance, has only been in business since 1852, yet it has $1.876 Trillion in assets.  The Catholic Church doesn’t even hold a candle to Wells Fargo.

The Church Doesn’t Own Your church

Your lapsed Catholic friend or loved one might also be surprised to learn that “the Catholic Church” does not own all of the churches and properties around the world that are called Catholic.  In the U.S., for instance all properties titled Catholic are, in some measure, under the local bishop’s control.

The legal model in use by the Catholic Church in the U.S. is called Corporation Sole.  Under this model the bishop of the diocese or archdiocese is the corporation from a legal standpoint.  The bishop actually owns most of the Catholic properties in the diocese, not the Church.  (Catholic high schools, colleges, and hospitals are usually independent entities not owned by the diocese/bishop.)

But this also means the bishop is legally responsible for all misconduct of clergy and employees of the diocese.  He is also responsible for every possible liability on church property.  (This is why, in the wake of the sex abuse scandal, a number of diocese’s have filed for bankruptcy.

In other countries, other legal models are in force.  In France, for instance, as Steve Weidenkoph explains an article entitled “The Wealth of the Church,” “Since the 1905 secularization laws were instituted in France, all churches built before 1905 are owned by the government.”  This includes the famous Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Vatican

“Ya, but what about all the priceless works in the Vatican?” Sam or Samantha will probably respond.

Weidenkoph addresses this in the article already mentioned.  “Even if the pope wanted to liquidate those assets and give them to the poor, he would be hard-pressed to do so.”  How, for instance, could the Church sell the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?  How could it sell the walls of buildings on which magnificent frescoes are painted?

And while the Vatican Museums houses many treasures, so too, does The Met in New York and the Louvre in Paris.  And just like the Met and the Louvre, the Vatican sees itself not as the owner of priceless art but as the caretaker of the art.

But remember, too, that the Vatican is actually a city-state.  It is the smallest country in the world at just over 100 acres in size.  And the priceless art, buildings, and manuscripts housed in the Vatican, are part of the city state’s assets.

The Vatican functions much like any other country. It mints euros, prints stamps, and issues passports and license plates.  But the Vatican also has no taxes, no restrictions on imports or exports and no customs fees.  The Vatican is funded primarily by the sales of stamps, coins, souvenirs, and entry tickets.

The Catholic Church

But the Catholic Church is not the Vatican.  It is the over 1.2 Billion Catholics throughout the world.  It is the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints, and the people of God.  The Church is the Sacraments, the Holy Mass and the Eucharist.  It is the Church instituted by Jesus Christ Himself.

It would be outstanding if every member of the clergy were immune to the snares of the devil, but, alas, clerics are only human.  Clerics like Blessed Father Solanus Casey, St. Padre Pio, St. Francis, Pope St. Gregory the Great, and Pope St. John Paul II, are all too rare.  But keep in mind that even these great clerics are not the Church.  Even the many outstanding Catholic women like St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Joan of Arc, Mother Theresa, and Mother Angelica, are not the Church.

Ask the person if he or she still believes that breaking one of the 10 Commandments is a mortal sin.  If the answer is yes, remember the question in Part 11. “So you are saying because the Church is corrupt you are going to commit a mortal sin every week.  Does that make sense?”

His Mystical Body

Fr. Martin Fox, a priest at Saint Remy Parish in Russia, Ohio, commented on his blog that he left the Church “at 19 and came back at 29. I came back not because I thought the Church had especially holy bishops and priests; no, not even because I thought the ordinary person in the pew was especially holy. No, I chose to re-embrace my Catholic Faith for one very simple reason: I became convinced that Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church, and I wanted to be in the Church that is his mystical Body.”

Fr. Fox’s words are also a good response to Excuse #7.

You might also remind your loved one or friend that even if the priest saying Mass is himself in a state of mortal sin the miracle of Transubstantiation still takes place.  This is because it is not the priest who is changing the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus Christ making this miracle.

Next Monday, Part 15:  Hell is real.

Part 1 is here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here; Part 4 here; Part 5 here; Part 6 here; Part 7 here; Part 8 here; Part 9 here; Part 10 here; Part 11 here; Part 12 here; Part 13 here; Part 15 here.