Do Not Leave the One, True Church

Catholics will often leave the Faith for motives related to a pope’s, bishop’s, or parish priest’s politics, morals, or lack of conformity to doctrine. Those who leave the Church for these reasons fail to understand Christ never promised that any of His representatives would be decent and virtuous.

Our faith should be based on Christ and what He did. We should not lose our faith due to His representatives or disciples.  One of Jesus’s first Apostles was Judas Iscariot, who was a traitor and scandalous sinner. 

God gave us a Judas to remind us that even the closest person to Christ could turn on Him for thirty pieces of silver. Similarly, even the most pious clergy can fall. If one leaves the Church because of the evil acts of men, one’s faith was in men and not in God.

Judas might have been the first “cleric” to cause scandal with his actions, but we later have had abundant numbers of representatives of the Lord do the same. In modern times, many popes, bishops, and priests have caused or are currently causing scandal. Their scandalous words or actions betray Christ and forsake His commands. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

“The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.” (CCC #2284)

It is understandable how scandalous clerics could deeply damage if not totally extinguish the light of faith within their flocks. When faced with the latest story of a corrupt cleric, a Catholic might better be able to remain steadfast in the Faith if he asks himself the same question Peter did, “Where else would I go?”

“…From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’” (John 6:66-69).

Catholicism Is the One, True Church

Catholic quitters think the solution to the problem of experiencing a “bad” pope or weak bishops is to move on to join a different Christian denomination. They fail to recall that Christ founded one Church, the Catholic Church. He did not launch any of the 47,000 denominations begun over the past five centuries, from Lutherans to Baptists to thousands of miniscule-sized Christian sects.

The Catholic religion is the only genuine, original, and authentic Christian Church. Only one Church can claim a divine person as its founder. Worldly, sinful humans formed all other Christian denominations.

Our Lord had one, and only one, Church in mind which he founded it in the year 33 A.D. and named the Apostle Peter as its first leader. Jesus used the singular word “Church” when he said to Peter:

“You are Rock and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19).

Later in 325 A.D., the Church established the Nicene Creed when it held its first ecumenical council, so to preserve the faithful from a variety of heresies. This so-called “mission statement” of the Church includes the assertion that Christians “believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”

These purposeful word choices all point to the belief from the beginning of Christianity that there was never a plan for denominations and sects to form. Christ in no way desired such a fractured and disjointed Church 

Fracturing Away from the Church

Certainly, the most famous fracture of Jesus’s Church was in 1520 when a Catholic priest, Martin Luther, broke away to set up a new church according to his own ideas, not the Lord’s. Luther’s protest against the Catholic Church was implying that Christ failed with the original Church He established, and so Christians had to leave it and begin a new church.

The actions of Luther and the other tens of thousands of Christian sects started after him contradict God. Any Catholic who breaks away from the Church to create or join other denominations are heretics who are making a mockery of Christ. They are implying that He could not keep His promise to protect the Church against radical corruption.

Clergy in the Catholic Church during Luther’s time certainly executed abuses deserving of exposure and correction. There is definitely corruption continuing today that makes it tempting for Catholics to want to walk away from their Faith. Christ Himself predicted there would be such abuses and corruption.

There is no Scriptural evidence of the need for or the Lord’s call for independent local churches to break off from the original Church and start up a new, unauthorized “franchise.”  Protesters and rebels who renounced Jesus’s original, solitary Church by beginning their own Christian denominations undermined His authority.

These dissenters are textbook examples of the worst sin of all – the sin of pride – as they believed their own invented catechism was more perfect than the teachings of Christ’s Catholic Church. They appointed themselves as “Pope” or “Rock” because of their self-focused, self-elevated egotisms.

A Catholic’s Requirement

Regardless of who is sitting in the Chair of Peter or which cleric is overseeing a particular diocese or parish, a concerned Catholic needs to remember that Jesus is the true head of the Church. Jesus promised that the forces of evil will not prevail over His Church. Hence, a “bad” pope or weak bishops cannot destroy the Church.

It is necessary to understand that true Catholics believe in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Church) more than we agree with any one pope’s, bishop’s, or priest’s remarks. A Catholic is not required to go along with whatever Church leaders opine on.

For example, only a pope’s words that are made ex cathedra – meaning officially from his seat in the Vatican – are considered binding and infallible. When a pope or other Church leader does or says things that are in conflict with the Deposit of Faith, Catholics have every right to disagree and ignore.

There is a distorted idea of the papacy which some poorly formed Catholics assume is true and many non-Catholics argue we have – that the pope is a kind of mystical, prophetic, perfect guru and that Catholics must agree with everything he says and does. No, the pope is not perfect; he’s a sinner like you and me, as was observed from the get-go with our first pope, Peter, when he denied Jesus three times.

The papacy is basically an office (albeit an extraordinary one), and the pope’s personal opinions on politics or even his explanations on theology could at times be erroneous. Similarly, bishops and priests are not perfect. They too can be erroneous in their opinions or downright evil in their actions.

Popes, bishops, and our parish pastor will come and go. There will be some we love and some we barely tolerate. It is sort of like our bosses at work throughout our careers. Take solace in realizing that a cleric who makes bad statements, even scandalous ones, will eventually be replaced by one who speaks more orthodoxly and virtuously.

Catholics are to conduct ourselves in a way that reflects a recognition of the superiority of Christ. While both praying for and criticizing any pope, bishop, or priest who speaks awkwardly, acts disgracefully, or even preaches heresy, we fix our eyes on Jesus. We are to stay cemented in the Church He founded, knowing that there is no salvation outside it.

When It Becomes Difficult to Follow

Lastly, Catholics will leave the Faith not only due to disappointment in clerical leadership but also due to sensing it is too difficult to follow some hard teachings of the Church. Most notably, deserters will name the doctrine and traditions regarding contraception, homosexuality, and patriarchal leadership as being too old-fashioned or narrow-minded.

Instead of remaining resolute in following Christ and remaining in the Church He founded, these forsaking Catholics consider themselves wiser than Jesus by jumping to a “franchise” which appears to be more modern, less restrictive, and more comfortable.

One of the reasons the world is in such turmoil these days is because the tens of thousands of Christian churches hold a variety of positions on the spectrum of faith and moral issues.  For example, some denominations endorse so-called gay marriage, some support divorce, and most do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. A weakened, broken Christianity not speaking with one voice has produced much bad fruit.

Does one really think Christ envisioned 47,000 divisions when He instituted His Church? Whereas, all the Christian churches have elements of the Truth, the fullness of the Truth resides in the original, supreme unparalleled, OG – the Catholic Church.

Keep the Faith

Catholic Church history is not a rose-tinted tale. It may be filled with the highest of Saints, but it is also filled with the lowest of sinners. A strong faith is needed to keep one from walking away from the Church that Jesus found.

[ Note: It is understandable that those who have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest have a need for a special grace and a most courageous faith to stay in the Church. We should pray deeply for those victims. ]

It is important for one to not only pray for the faith to remain strong but to also pray that our Catholic clergy remain loyal and trustworthy. We need our leaders to resist the urge to cause scandal or to water down traditional teachings.

Poor or weak clergy will often go soft in their erroneous attempt to keep their flocks from departing to the more “open-minded, easy-going” denominations. But Jesus did not water down the Truth that His body truly was the Bread of Life, even though it caused many to leave Him. 

Might I suggest to any Catholic who is either currently struggling to stay with the Church or has already left to take two fundamental actions. If you want to quit or have already deserted due to clerical corruption, objectionable doctrine, or tempting comforts from neighboring denominations:

1. Turn your gaze away from those doubts and disconcertments
2. Turn back to the Lord and the one Church He instituted almost 2,000 years ago.