For 2,000 Years Catholicism Has Not Changed

For centuries every Catholic knew that Catholicism was the one true faith.  They also knew that non-Catholics would probably end up in hell when they died.  But then this seems to have changed.

Out of Vatican II (VII) came Nostra Aetate (In Our Time), Unitatis Redintegratio (Restoration of Unity), and Lumen Gentium,  ([Christ is the] “Light of the Nations”).  Together these documents acknowledged the possibility of salvation for non-Catholics through God’s mercy.

As the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” says, “847 This affirmation [Outside the Church there is no salvation] is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

There was now hope for Protestants and non-Christians who died but had lived good lives. They too, might “achieve eternal salvation.”

More than a few ‘uber’ Catholics were (and still are) upset by this.  In fact, many Catholics, including some not-so-uber Catholics, were upset by some of the development in teachings and the new  practices that followed Vatican II.  But even with the doctrinal developments and practice changes, what being a Catholic was all about had not changed.

Every man for himself?

I couldn’t help but think about some of the confusion resulting from Vatican II after reading Tom Collingwood’s “Why Catholic? There is No Other Option” article and Rory Fox’s “Was Vatican II a Pastoral or a Doctrinal Council?” article here at CS.  For some reason these articles triggered a memory of an essay by Raymond Kowalski at Onepeterfive.com, “Every Man for Himself.”

In that essay Kowalski said he is a “Bishop Sheen Catholic.”  He said that “it started with Pope Francis’ “Who am I to judge” remark, in 2013.

“Since then,” he said, “there have been so many actions, pronouncements, appointments, dismissals, attacks, defenses, exposés, and ambiguities that the Bishop Sheen Catholics have reached what Steve Skojec calls “outrage fatigue.” Each new affront to our faith sets off waves of profound commentary by extraordinarily well-educated and experienced experts.

“Comes now this papacy, bringing with it a Catholicism that Fulton Sheen would not recognize.”

And so, he says, “this Bishop Sheen Catholic does not have the time to wait for a resolution of the current mess, for consensus as to how the faithful should respond, or for help from Holy Mother Church that will not come in my lifetime. For us, it’s every man for himself.”

Catholicism has not changed

But the Catholic Church is not the Pope, Bishop Sheen, Cardinal Newman, or St. Thomas Aquinas.  And despite the pronouncements and mixed messages that have been delivered in recent years, dogma is still dogma and Catholicism is still Catholicism.

Anyone who is familiar with Church history knows the Church is no stranger to contradictory pronouncements, dubious appointments, scandals, heresy, mistakes, and so on.  Within just its first 500 years the Church had to deal with no less than nine false doctrines –Adoptionism, Apollinarianism, Arianism, Docetism, Modalism, Monophysitism, Monotheism, Nestorianism, and Psilanthropism.

Through the centuries, the Church has had great Popes, okay popes, and even a few bad popes.  At least 32 different times there were even two popes at the same time.  One pope, Benedict IX, was even the pope three different times.

During the Middle Ages simony was a much too common practice.  Nepotism was also rampant in Rome and throughout Christendom. And more than a few popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests had mistresses and illegitimate children.  Scandal, one might say, was rather common.

Also during the Middle Ages, Pope Sixtus V imposed the death penalty for adultery.  Catholics were also forbidden to read certain books, and printers who printed these “forbidden books” were subject to excommunication.  And the sale of indulgences became such a problem that Martin Luther included it in his list of grievances against the Church that sparked the Reformation.

For centuries the Church also taught that in marriage wives were to be submissive to their husbands.  Today, however, we have a different understanding of how this submissiveness works.

Scandals and disagreements amongst the hierarchy happened and still happen.  Today we have Cardinals openly disagreeing with one another and criticizing each other in public.  They did so in the past as well.  Members of the laity and even parish priests disagree with the pope and/or Church Doctrine today.  But this is not a new thing either.

Humanae Vitae

In 1968 Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae (HV).  HV affirmed Church Teaching against abortion and all artificial methods of birth control.  It said using artificial birth control is unlawful and is to be condemned.  HV resulted in a firestorm when it was propagated.

Many Catholics, including bishops, priests and theologians, were very vocal in their strong disagreement with HV. They argued that not all methods of artificial birth control should be unlawful or condemned.  Today there are still many Catholics who disagree with HV.  In fact polls say that today more Catholics disagree with HV than agree.

Even though Pope Paul VI specifically tells priests in HV that they have a duty “to spell out clearly and completely the Church’s teaching on marriage,” I wonder how many priests do so.  How many priests today are telling parishioners to follow their consciences when it comes to artificial birth control, as I was once told by a priest in Confession many years ago?

Confusing pronouncements

Even in more ‘minor’ matters, there are plenty of confusing messages.  During Pope Francis’ papacy we heard a number of messages that tended to make one scratch his or head and say, “say what?”

Confusion seemed to be ongoing during the Francis’ papacy.  Or perhaps a better word might be ‘tension.’

While past Popes have decried the use of nuclear weapons and called for disarmament, Pope Francis said that in his opinion the mere possession of nuclear weapons is to be “firmly condemned.”

Unlike many “seamless garment” thinkers, however, Pope Francis did not equate nuclear deterrence and abortion.  He simply stated that nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction and the world would be a better place if they did not exist.  And he may be right.  The U.S. should get rid of its nuclear weapons – just as soon as all the bad guys get rid of their nuclear weapons.  Or maybe we should at least keep a couple on hand in case a big asteroid heads our way.

Pope Francis also opined that the death penalty “is in itself contrary to the Gospel” and, as such, should be abolished.  Both of his predecessors also called for getting rid of the death penalty but stopped short of saying it is contrary to the gospels.

Quite a bit of discussion ensued on various Catholic websites over the legitimacy of the death penalty.  If Francis was trying to induce discussion (or tension) he certainly succeeded.  But despite the conflicting opinions, Catholic doctrine on the death penalty has really not changed.

Pope St. John Paul II said capital punishment (the death penalty)  should be a rarity.  Pope Francis said, as does now the Catechism, that it is “inadmissible.”  But inadmissible simply means unacceptable.

Fr. Raymond de Souza said in an opinion piece, “The Puzzling Pontificate of Pope Francis”: “To say that the death penalty is intrinsically evil would be a departure from Catholic tradition. But the new teaching did not say that. It said that it is “inadmissible,” a novel term with no fixed meaning in Catholic theology.

“Indeed, that term was evidently chosen because it was new and had no fixed meaning. So it is not possible to conclude that the teaching of Pope Francis on the death penalty contradicts earlier teaching.”

Amoris Laetitia

And, of course, Pope Francis’ exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL) is still a topic of heated discussion.  But unlike HV, which only had two sides – agree or disagree – AL seems to offer a choice of three positions:  1) nothing has changed because AL must be read in light of existing Catholic teaching; 2) AL allows divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist in certain instances; and 3) AL allows divorced and remarried Catholics be allowed to receive the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist in certain instances, AND this is inconsistent with existing Church teaching AND is badly in need of correcting.

Where everything will end up in regard to AL is anyone’s guess.  For now, some bishops are allowing communion for the divorced and remarried while others are not.  This issue is clearly an important one and clarity is needed.

But let’s be realistic.  Our bishops can’t even agree on a trivial matter like how to handle eating meat on St. Patrick’s Day when it falls on a Friday during Lent!  As such, I tend to think the communion for the divorced and remarried issue is going to take quite some time to get resolved.

Homosexuality

And then there’s the topic of homosexuality, and statements by Cardinal Marx and priests like Fr. James Martin, Fr. Steven Wolf, and Fr. Gregory Greiten.

Fr. Greiten delivered the same message that LGBTQ activists have been delivering for many years now:  ‘Gay is okay; God created us this way.’  But that message is a lie.

Yet, despite clear Catholic teaching on homosexuality, there are those, even amongst the clergy, who disagree that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” (CCC 2357).  That’s the world we live in today.  It is confusing.

The Pope is not the Church

But God knows what He is doing even if we do not.  As apologist Joe Heschmeyer pointed out, when it comes to the papacy and the Church “a biblical view of the papacy shows that Jesus established it to work amidst the all-too-human failings of St. Peter and his successors.”

As stated, the pope is not the Church.  Similarly, neither is Cardinal Marx, Cardinal Müller, Cardinal Parolin, Cardinal Sarah, or Cardinal Burke.  Neither is Fr. Martin, Fr. Greiten, or Fr. Wolf.  And for that matter, neither is Raymond Kowalski, and neither am I.

The 1.2 billion Catholics throughout the world, all together, are the Catholic Church, and it’s head is Jesus Christ.  We have the Bible and, thanks to Pope St. John Paul II, we have the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”  (CCC) that clearly states what we should believe as Catholics and how we should live our lives.

It’s not a case of every man for himself.  We are all in this world together.  And those who are baptized make up the Body of Christ.  Some parts of the Body, however, are confused.  And it seems that other parts are in denial.

There will always be progressives and conservatives in the political arena. This way of looking at life bleeds over into religion, truth, and Church Doctrine.  And there will always be the easily swayed, the stalwart, the morally corruptible, and the morally incorruptible. As such, there will always be those who are saints, those who are definitely not saints, and a whole bunch of folks in between.

New schools of theological thought will come and go.  Older schools of thought will be tested and challenged.  And there will always be those who succumb to emotional arguments and those who adhere to reason and logic.

Catholicism has not changed

As a good priest once said to me, there are going to be a lot of priests who will have to answer for what they’ve said and done on the day of their particular judgement.  Priests, Cardinals, Bishops and Popes are, after all, still people, and sinners, just like the rest of us ordinary Catholics.

But even if a priest in the state of mortal sin were to stand at the altar during the Consecration at Mass, as long as he says the correct words over the right substances, we know the miracle of transubstantiation takes place.  This is because it is Jesus Christ, working through the priest, turnig the host into His own Body and Blood.

The Catholic Church is still Jesus Christ’s Church and the Holy Spirit will always guide it.  Perhaps the Holy Spirit will prompt Pope Leo XIV will clear up some of the confusion. Or maybe it will continue.

In any case, a wise person adheres to the teachings in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.”  It’s an instruction manual on how to become a saint and get to heaven.  That’s what being a good Catholic is all about.  And this really has not changed in 2,000 years.