7 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IF YOU ARE NOT A CATHOLIC
1. We are The Church.
We are not a denomination since our Founder was Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. Jesus built His Church on the Apostle Peter (Cephas-Rock) in Matt. 16:18 as a Dynastic office supported by the Holy Spirit and those Apostles and Bishops in full communion with the Bishop of Rome who holds the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Pope is the direct and unbroken successor of Peter. No other Church in the world can trace its roots through Peter to Jesus. Only the Catholic Church has this.
2. Our name is the "Catholic Church".
We are not just Roman Catholics. Latin and Eastern Catholics form the Catholic Church, the world's largest single religious body and the largest Christian Church with 1.2 Billion members. The word "Catholic" means Universal; we are everywhere and for everyone, every nation, every race and every colour.
3. The Bible is a Catholic book.
The Catholic Church, by God's authority to bind and loose and to be led into All Truth by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 16:19), put the Canon (list) of the Bible together in the 4th Century. We chose 27 books for the New Testament out of 50+ choices, and 46 books of the Old Testament from the Septuagint as that was the Jewish Scriptures Jesus and the Apostles used for a total of 73. The words; Bible, New Testament, Old Testament were chosen by the Catholic Church to define the final terms of the Canon of Scripture. The Catholic Church put together the Bible you now use. The original Bible was intact with 73 books from 300 AD till the 16th Century. This was the Bible all Christians used (73 books) until the Protestants breakaway when they removed 7 books from the Bible and now have 66 though the Bible says we should not take anything away from it (Rev. 22:19). We still use the original Bible in our Churches.
4. Our form of Worship is called the Mass.
This is from the Apostles who inspired by the Holy Spirit gave us this Sacred Tradition making our worship Divine in origin. No other form of Christian worship, despite its respectful nature, is divine like ours. We worship as the angels do in heaven with incense (Rev. 8:4). This was the way the Apostles worshiped and this is the way they taught us to worship. We have a heavenly worship.
5. The Eucharist (communion) is the true and real presence of Christ; body, blood, soul and divinity.
While the species' properties remain bread and wine to the senses, they are in whole changed into the Flesh and Blood of Christ. Through our holy priesthood with valid Apostolic succession the prayers of consecration make this change, and the one time sacrifice of Christ on Calvary is represented to the Father. Only Catholic and Orthodox Churches have a valid Priesthood with Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. All other forms of celebrating the last supper in Protestant communions are symbolic in nature as they lack a valid Priesthood.
6. We do not worship Mary or the Saints.
We worship the one true God of the Holy Trinity (Trinity was a word invented by the Catholic Church to describe one God in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit). We honor Mary and all the Saints who did the will of God and lived heroically holy lives. All Saints are created beings and therefore are not Divine and worthy of Adoration which alone belongs to God. Since nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35) we believe that not even death can so we believe that all Christians who have died are alive with God and together we form one big spiritual family of God which we call the body of Christ and communion of Saints. Since they are already home with God (where we hope to be someday) and see God face to face, we ask them to intercede (pray) for us just as we ask our living brothers and sisters on earth to pray for us. They are our holy siblings just as we have physical siblings. If we believe in the power of prayers of human beings like us, how much more the power of people who are in heaven praying for us. Mary and the Saints are home in heaven with God our Father.
7. We accept all Protestants as our separated brothers and sisters in Christ.
Together, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants make up the one body of Christ. The Orthodox share the most in common with the Catholic Church as they are valid churches because they have retained Apostolic succession with all seven sacraments. They are wounded by their lack of union with the Bishop of Rome who holds Primacy among all Bishops, and serves as a source of unity which the Orthodox do not enjoy. Protestants have a valid Trinitarian Baptism and they are incorporated into the body of Christ and should be deemed worthy to be called a Christian though they have not maintained a valid Priesthood nor Apostolic worship. Over time Protestantism, by its very nature, has continued to divide from one another and water down the Christian faith, form of worship and Christian moral view. Off shoots from Protestantism like Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Unitarian, Church of Christian Science and Oneness Pentecostals are not considered Christian and are a completely different religion.
All Christians are to blame for our disunity. The Orthodox in rejecting the Primacy of the Pope, successor of Saint Peter. The Protestants in their revolt creating many man made ecclesial communions not founded by God rejecting parts of the Apostolic Faith. The Catholic Church while having the fullness of Christian Truth, has sinned against our neighbor at times creating unrest in the body of Christ, that was in part responsible for this division.
We pray as Jesus prayed for the unity of all Christians to return to full communion in the Catholic Church, sharing all their gifts in unity at the Eucharistic table of our Lord. We also pray for all non-Christian religions and non-religious to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour reconciling the whole world to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church for their is no salvation except through Jesus Christ.
Authored by Rev.Fr. Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah, Secretary to the Archbishop of Accra.
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