HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF BECOMING A CATHOLIC? |
What’s the Process of Becoming a Catholic Once I Get More Serious?
The process by which adults come into the Church has come to be known as "the RCIA", which is short for "The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults."
Who is the process for?
In the case of children who have reached the age of reason, the pastor should be consulted for information about Baptism and the other Sacraments of Initiation.
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is not for adult candidates for confirmation who have already received their First Eucharist in the Catholic Church. They should have their own formation process and be confirmed at a celebration other than the Easter Vigil.
What does the process look like?
The Rite of Christian Initiation is based on the principle that the process of conversion proceeds gradually, in stages. Progress from one stage to the next is marked by a liturgical celebration in the midst of the parish community. The experience and needs of those in each category described above differ, and so the length of time may vary for each person. Nevertheless, there are certain similarities among all the groups and the process they will experience, and these can be listed as follows:
Precatechumenate
The first stage is called the period of inquiry (or the precatechumenate). This is when the individual first expresses an interest in becoming a Christian or a Catholic, and begins to explore, with the help of the parish community, what his or her relationship with Christ might be and how that might be enriched and deepened by joining this Christian community. There is no liturgical rite to mark the beginning of this stage. This period of inquiry may last several months or several years and ends either when the inquirer decides against continuing in this direction or when the inquirer feels ready to move on and the community is prepared to welcome him or her.
Catechumenate
The second stage is called the catechumenate and, for the un baptized listed above, who are now called catechumens, should last no less than one full year. For the baptized but un catechized the period should be a similar length. For the candidates for full communion, this stage could well be much shorter. The Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens and the Rite of Welcoming mark the beginning of this stage. Catechesis for this period is rooted in the Lectionary and the Word as it is proclaimed in the midst of the community. This is also a time for the catechumen or candidate to learn how to live as a Catholic Christian. This period ends when the catechumens and candidates express their desire to receive the sacraments of initiation and the community acknowledges their readiness.
Purification and Enlightenment
The third stage is the period of purification and enlightenment and coincides with Lent. During this time the elect (formerly the catechumens) and the candidates enter into a period of intense preparation and prayer which includes the three public celebrations of the scrutinies and is marked by the presentations of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. The Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion are celebrated at the beginning of this stage. This period ends with the celebration of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. (Note: only the elect are baptized. All the groups are confirmed and welcomed to the table.)
Mystagogy
The fourth stage is the period of post baptismal catechesis or mystagogy. At this time, the newly initiated explore their experience of being fully initiated through participation with all the faithful at Sunday Eucharist and through appropriate catechesis. The period formally lasts through the Easter season and may be marked by a parish celebration on or near Pentecost. On a more informal level, mystagogy is a lifelong process, one that all Christians are engaged in, as we all work to deepen our sense of what it means to live the Christian life.
It is important to note that those who fall into the third category above (candidates for full communion) do not always need to take part in the full process. Especially if they have been actively living the Christian life in another denomination, they are likely in need of very little catechesis and may be welcomed into the Church on any Sunday after a short period of preparation. According to the National Statutes for the Catechumenate, "Those baptized persons who have lived as Christians and need only instruction in the Catholic tradition and a degree of probation within the Catholic community should not be asked to undergo a full program parallel to the catechumenate."
I’m interested. What should my first step be?
Call the St. John of the Cross Office, explain you have an interest in the Catholic faith, mention that you have visited our web site, and request a meeting with Fr. John Pasquini to discuss specifics of the initiation process. Know that the prayers of a large number of Catholics in the Diocese of Palm Beach are with you as you complete your journey. Best wishes!
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How Do I Begin Pursuing the Catholic Faith?
That all depends on where you think you are on your walk. You may have simple questions or more complex ones. If you can’t find an answer on this web site or are under the pressure of time constraints to do so, send a note through the Question Box and we’ll get back to you. Be assured that a priest will review answers provided. You may sense a nascent desire for the Catholic faith, but are still not convinced. Perhaps some reading material could be suggested. We can help you target the need and make recommendations. Another suggestion would be to tune in to the Coming Home Network show on EWTN on Monday evenings from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. (Vero Beach cable, Channel 11). Marcus Grodi, a former Protestant minister, hosts the show and usually interviews a Protestant pastor who has recently converted to the Catholic faith. This is a good way to learn about the obstacles the guests faced, how they overcame them and what their ultimate motivation to convert was.
You could attend a Mass at St. John of the Cross and witness the richness of our liturgical worship. We could even arrange to have the Mass explained to you as it is being celebrated if you wish. The Mass is the greatest event on earth. Know why.
You can enroll in a Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) class. These classes are for those desiring entry into the Catholic Church. However, you can do this not having made any commitment to convert and merely absorb and participate in the discovery phase. You can decide to continue or leave at any time. See the next section for more information
If you are closer to the decision, perhaps first you would like to talk to a priest. Possibly there are some perceived obstacles to overcome and you would like to discuss your personal situation with a priest. Call the parish directly to obtain an appointment.
Anglicans call this the “three-legged stool.” By turning to Scripture, tradition, and human reason they hope to have a secure teaching authority. I came to realize, however, that this solution also begs the question. Just as we have to ask the Protestant who believes in sola scriptura, “Whose interpretation of Scripture?,” we have to ask the Anglican, “Whose reason and whose tradition?” In the debate over women’s ordination (and now in the debate over homosexuality), both sides appeal to human reason, Scripture and tradition, and they come up with wildly different conclusions.
In the end, the Anglican appeal to a three-legged stool relies on individual interpretation, just as the Protestant appeals to sola scriptura. The three legged stool turns out to be a theological pogo stick.
A Son of Benedict Speaks
About this time I had a conversation with the Abbot of Quarr Abbey (a Catholic Benedictine monastery on the Isle of Wight). He listened to my situation with compassion and interest. I explained that I did not want to deny women’s ordination. I wanted to affirm all things that were good, and I could still see some good arguments in favor of women’s ordination. He admired this desire to affirm all things, but he said something that set me thinking further:
Sometimes we have to deny some lesser good in order to affirm the greater good. I think you have to deny women’s ordination in order to affirm the apostolic ministry. If the apostolic authority says no to women’s ordination, then to affirm the greater good of apostolic authority you will have to deny the lesser good of
women’s ordination. Because if we deny the greater good, then eventually we will lose the lesser good as well.
He hit the nail on the head. His words led me to explore the basis for authority in the Catholic Church. I already had read and pretty much accepted the Scriptural support for the Petrine ministry in the Church. I also had come to understand and value the four-fold marks of the True Church – that it is “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.” As I studied and pondered the matter further, however, I saw twelve other traits of the church’s authority.
These twelve traits – in six paired sets – helped me to understand how comprehensive and complete the Catholic claims of authority are. I came to realize that other churches and ecclesial bodies might claim some of the traits, but only the Catholic Church demonstrated all twelve fully.
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Exploring the Church
Topics of Interest:
The Sixth Station
Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
Pray the Stations of the Cross On-line:
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The Explorers - Those to whom this page is directed The Un-churched - According to the Barna Group, which conducts research that is especially focused on religious trends in American culture, the "un churched" are nearly 1/3 of the U.S. population. In a culture where most people claim a belief in God, the un churched is approaching 100 million. If this group were a nation of its own, they would be the 11th most populous nation on earth. If you are in this group, by all means we welcome you to this web site. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to help you think about becoming a Catholic. Further down on this page there are helps to do just that. For faithful Catholics, we must not look upon the un churched with indifference. The survey indicated that most active Christians do so. Many of the un churched are at a stage in their life when all they would like is to be asked. Like many they may be asking themselves where the solid ground is these days. Be not afraid to ask if they have ever thought of becoming a Catholic. Chances are they have been turned off by overt emphasis elsewhere upon a personal rather than a communal faith journey, another survey finding. As Catholics, we know our journey to be "both" "and." Invite them to experience the Mass at St. John of the Cross explaining that our Catholic liturgy invites one and all to experience the presence of God, most notably in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. A call to action and prayer is incumbent on us to reach out to the un churched. |
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Non-Catholic Christians - Be you fundamentalist, evangelical, pentecostal or one of the over 33,000 different non-Catholic, Christian denominations in the U.S., we welcome you to this web site. You must be here for your own personal reason, be that as it may. We accept you wherever you are on your faith journey. We know that you value the heritage of your faith and we respect that immensely. We know how well you are versed in Sacred Scripture and our mutual growth in this area comes to mind. We know that many of you share the moral values that faithful Catholics have and this comforts us. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to help you think about becoming a Catholic. Further down on this page there are helps to do just that. For faithful Catholics, we must understand that our Lord prayed that we all be one. It's time we take that seriously. It was taken very seriously in the early Church when council after council resolved difficulties between groups. It is incumbent on us to pray daily for this unity. Together, we can be a more powerful force to change the culture, change lives. Praying first, it is also incumbent that we reach out to our non-Catholic friends and family members. A common comment in RCIA programs across the country is that converts often thought of becoming a Catholic, but were never asked. Sad, isn't it? So, be not afraid to ask a friend if they have ever thought of becoming a Catholic. Be prepared for the "yes." Refer them to our web site if they are interested in starting there. Or, introduce them to Fr. John. Offer to assist along way. |
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Non-Catholic Christians Having Liturgical Worship - You know who you are. We know that many of you have faced very troubling and conflicting times in your denomination during the last decade. Issues and decisions that made sense to some have made no sense to others. As Christian brothers and sisters we are sorry for the suffering that you are going through and have compassion for what you are experiencing both inside your denomination as well as outside in the media. We Catholics have had our difficulties, too, throughout history, most recently beginning in 2001 with the sexual abuse crisis. It has been suffering for different reasons, mainly sin of the clergy, but suffering just the same. Some of you reached out to us in compassionate ways. Thank you. We know how you love and value liturgical worship. We have much in common. We do have our differences, most notably in the area of Church authority. If we can be of any help to you in explaining the role of the Pope and the Magisterium in the Catholic Church, we invite that dialog. There are various places within this web site where this is discussed including on this page, namely, "Clearing the Bases - Top Ten Questions Catholics Are Asked." Our beliefs on the Eucharist also differ. We discuss the Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist, that it truly becomes the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus at the Catholic Mass, on the FAQs page and on the Sacraments page. We also discuss this on this page in "The Top Ten Question..." section. In matters liturgical, you can get a glimpse of the liturgy at St. John of the Cross by visiting the About Us page in the "About St. John of the Cross" section. You recognize, as Catholics do, that the way we worship (the liturgy) has been important to God and directed by God from the beginning. As you remember, Moses led the people out of Egypt because they could not worship in the way God had directed. New Testament liturgy built upon Old Testament liturgy and we continue to be a liturgical people to this day, directed by the awesome God of both the Old and the New Testaments. |
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Fallen-Away Catholics - You were once Catholic, having been baptized in the Catholic Church. There are a number of reasons why you left your Catholic faith and became a non-Catholic Christian. We reach out to you and ask that you consider returning to the Catholic faith. Chances are that you have been gone away from the Church for quite awhile. Perhaps you went through a divorce, remarried and chose not to pursue an annulment before doing so. Possibly no one reached out to you with compassion at the time of your need and it left you discouraged and unconnected. Possibly you were not well catechized and could not explain or defend your faith to non-Catholic Christians or your children and that led to you and your family drifting away. Your Catholic parish may not have had programs meeting your family temporal needs and you found them elsewhere. Sadly, we understand. Now you may be at a point in your life where you really miss the Eucharist. Or, you may feel a need to return to liturgical worship. Possibly, you are now troubled by the 4th Commandment: Honor your father and your mother. Your father and mother thought enough of you to have baptized you Catholic. You have drifted away and now feel it is up to you to carefully examine Catholic theology which formed them and was the basis for your parents decision. You feel the burden of proof is on you. Obviously, there are many reasons why you are considering a return to the faith of your baptism. We welcome you. We understand. We will be happy to work with you through that return. We know there may be problems that seem huge to you, but no problem is too big for God. We're here to help. We are well aware that you may have been the recipient of commentary not complimentary to the Catholic faith. There are areas on this web site that address many issues that people have questioned about the Catholic faith. The FAQs page addresses a wide spectrum of both faith and moral questions that might help your research. A few questions and answers are also addressed on this page under "Clearing the Bases...." The About Us page gives you a window into St. John of the Cross and the place of worship that we are. There is also the Question Box that you can use to begin any dialog. Be assured your use of the Question Box implies confidentiality. First name or pseudo names are fine. Can we begin? |
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Explorer Motivations on the Path to conversion There are many reasons and circumstances leading people to change their faith. For example, non-Catholic Christian churchgoers switch churches often. According to a study by LifeWay Research, a publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, more than half those that switched houses of worship say they switched denominations as well. Fifty eight percent of those who changed their house of worship did so when they moved. The remaining 42% said they switched because another church offered more appealing doctrines. With many new arrivals in Vero Beach, we at St. John of the Cross Catholic Church reach out to those above categories of people and ask them to consider a more profound change, to becoming a Catholic and enjoying the fullness of truth on both faith and morals. Many non-Catholic folks have become bewildered, confused and anxious. Some discover that their church is less than 200 years old and ask, "Was God on vacation for 1800 years?" They begin yearning for a church with deep historical roots. There are also those, possibly coming here from larger cities, who are disillusioned with the trend to megachurches. Were they trying to get more members for the sake of getting more members rather than for winning souls for Christ? Amidst the food courts, ATM's for God, and entertainment venues, where was Christ? Some folks have matured to the point where they now recognize that worship should not be a form of religious entertainment. Deep down they have begun to see the value of liturgical worship. Others may have strong feelings about certain immoral behaviors, have been led to believe that a particular denomination shared their views, joined it, and later found out that was not the case. If you connect with these aforementioned feelings, we at St. John of the Cross would like to introduce you to the majesty of liturgical worship, the fullness of truth with deep historical roots, and Catholic moral teaching that has remained resolute and never contradicted itself in 2000 years. Caution. Entering a coming evangelical danger zone: If you are an astute observer, you are beginning to realize that denominational identities have been strategically de-emphasized within evangelicalism and, as a recent survey suggests, as many as 70% of young evangelical adults have no denominational allegiance. Coincident within this group is a loss of interest in theology and an understanding of its importance. Most young evangelicals know little about theology and, worse, see no reason theology should be an issue. The net affect of this is that young evangelicals are increasingly unable to articulate and defend the historic Christian world view and are drawn instead to postmodern ways of thinking. (see antidote: “How Do We Know It’s the True Church? below.) Thus, enter the danger zone. Without theological moorings, young evangelicals are without a spiritual rudder and are at the mercy of the prevailing winds of personal feelings and having the culture form their conscience. For many, leaving the faith was not far behind. Are you among the young, and not so young, evangelicals who are turned off by theology lite and hunger for a richer, more traditional theology? If so, as illogical as it may sound to you at this moment, perhaps your destination should be Catholicism.1 The bewilderment, confusion, and anxiety mentioned above is not limited to non-Catholic laity. Many non-Catholic pastors are suffering in silence. All the denominational bickering is taking its toll on their enthusiasm which is so necessary for their ministry. These non-Catholics are disillusioned with the chaos, confusion, and rebellion within and between their various denominations. The Coming Home Network International, an organization missioned and dedicated to assisting these pastors in making a transition to the Catholic faith, has 1318 non-Catholic pastors in their database as of May 2007: 729 have made the journey into the Catholic Church, and 589 are still somewhere on the journey home. There are even female pastors included in this group. They do so with their eyes wide open knowing that the Catholic Church can never allow women's ordination, thus accepting Christ's plan for the all-male Eucharistic priesthood. If you are a non-Catholic pastor and wish more information about the Coming Home Network, please contact the webmaster via the Question Box. It will remain confidential. You can also tune into the Coming Home Network program on EWTN which is broadcast locally on cable at 8:00 p.m. on Monday evenings. Marcus Grodi, himself a former non-Catholic pastor, interviews other pastors who had made the decision to "cross the Tiber." These interviews are many times riveting because their conversions were at great cost. The Coming Home Network is there to help their recovery. Lastly, there is one, very common theme in the stories of those who were motivated to explore the Catholic Church. It is The Early Church Fathers. When going into the depth of Christian history to the Fathers, they plainly see the Catholic Church then as it is now, thus answering the question of where the solid ground is these days. If you wish to explore this area, please contact the webmaster via the Question Box for assistance. |
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Clearing the Bases - Top Ten Questions Catholics Are Asked This section addresses the ten most common questions asked of Catholics. The questions are most often asked in a negative way and come from a misunderstanding of what the Catholic Church believes, or the disciplines it practices. We realize that most Protestant have been taught incorrect things about the Catholic Church. During the last few decades, it was like a straw man was created to which attacks and ridicule were made, free of any rebuttal. It was done from the pulpit and in church classes and in schools. And people believed it. They never questioned it. It stuck! Well, your exploration of the Catholic Church is owed answers to these questions so that you can decide, after thinking about these answers, to focus on the true Church and then make your own decision. Let's try and clear the bases together. So, here are the questions and answers in descending order: |
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10. Are your beliefs found in the Bible? All Catholic beliefs can be found in the Bible in some form, whether plainly or by an indirect indication. It is not necessary for everything to be absolutely clear in Scripture alone, because that is not a teaching of Scripture itself. Scripture also points to an authoritative Church and Tradition, as St. Paul says in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians: "Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2 Thes 2:15 - see also 1 Cor 11:2; 2 Thes 3:6; 2 Tim 1:13-14, 2:2). When the first Christians had a significant disagreement, they didn't simply open their Bibles (which didn't even exist at that point) to decide who was right; they held a council which made binding decrees (Acts 15:1-29). The very books of the Bible had to be determined by the [Catholic] Church, and that didn't happen until the late fourth century. Therefore, Sacred Tradition and authority were necessary for us to even have a Bible today. [Emphasis added.] 9. Why do you obey the Pope? Catholics believe that Jesus commissioned St. Peter as the first leader of the Church. Matthew's Gospel has the most biblical indication of the papacy: "And I tell you, you are Peter [meaning literally "rock"], and on this rock I will build my church....I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 16:18-19). Based on this statement of Jesus himself, Peter is clearly portrayed in the New Testament as the leader of the disciples. A pope can make infallible, binding pronouncements under certain conditions. Infallibility doesn't mean that absolutely everything a pope says is free from error. All Christians believe that God protected Holy Scripture from error by means of inspiration, even though sinful, fallible men wrote it. We Catholics also believe that God the Holy Spirit protects his Church and its head from error (Jn 14:16) by means of infallibility, even though sinful, imperfect men are involved in it. 8. Why do you call your priest "Father"? "And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven" (Mt 23:9). In this passage, Jesus is teaching that God the Father alone is ultimately the source of all authority. But He is not speaking absolutely, because if so, that would eliminate even biological fathers, the title "Church Fathers," the founding fathers of a country or organization, and so on. Jesus, himself uses the term "father" in Matthew (15:4; 19:5; 19. 29; 21:31), John (8:56), and several other places. In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus actually presents Lazarus as using the address "Father Abraham" twice (Lk 16:24, 30 - see also Acts 7:2; Rom 4:12; Jas 2:21). St. Paul also uses the term when he writes, "I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel" (1 Cor 4:15 - see also 1 Cor 4:14-16), and refers to "our forefather Isaac" (Rom 9:10). |
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7. Why do you pray for the dead? The Bible clearly teaches the rightness of prayers for the dead in Maccabees (12:40, 42, 44-45): "Then under the tunic of every one of the dead they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids Jews to wear. And it became clear to all that this was why these men had fallen....[A]nd they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out....For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead....[H]e made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin." St. Paul teaches this in a similar way: "Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?" (1 Cor 15:29). This indicates prayer and fasting for the dead. The word baptism often symbolically refers to penances (Mk 10:38-39; Lk 3:16, 12:50). The apostle Paul also appears to be praying for a dead person, Onesiphorus, in 2 Timothy (1:16-18). 6. Why do you pray to idols (statues)? No Catholic who knows anything about the Catholic faith has ever worshiped a statue (as in pagan idolatry). If we cherish the memory of mere political heroes with statues, and that of war heroes with monuments, then there can be no objection to honoring saints and righteous men and women: "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor" (1 Pet 2:17 - see also Rom 12:10; Heb 12:22-23). Statues are simply a visual reminder of great saints and heroes of the faith (Heb 11), who are more alive than we are (2 Cor 3:18),as is evident by their praying: "O Sovereign Lord ... how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?"(Rev 6:10 - see also Ps 35:17). The saints in heaven were never intended by God to be cut off from the Body of Christ on earth. They are involved in intercession, just as the saints on earth. They are involved in intercession, just as the saints on earth are, and they are described as "so great a cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1).
5. Why do you confess your sins to a priest? Jesus Christ gave His disciples - and by extension, priests - the power not only to "loose" sins (that is forgive in God's name). but also to "bind" (that is impose penances): "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you looses on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (MT 18:18 - see also Mt 16:19). "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn 20:23). The priest serves as the representative of God and of His mercy. Confession gives new courage, confidence, and a fresh start. One learns humility by this practice, receives additional grace in order to avoid sin, and attains a certainty of forgiveness that is superior to mere feelings. Confession is also indicated in Matthew (3:5-6), Acts (19:18), and 1 John (1:9). |
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Catholics do not worship Mary. We venerate her because she is the mother of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Veneration is completely different from the adoration of God. It is the honoring of a person, not the worship of Almighty God, our Creator. Catholics believe that Mary is the highest of God's creatures because of her exalted role. But of course, like any other human being, she had to be saved by the mercy of God. She herself said, "My spirit rejoices in God my savior" (Lk 1:47). We believe that God saved Mary by preserving her from the stain of original sin at the moment of her conception (the Immaculate Conception). The very fact that God took on flesh and became man (Jn 1:1, 14) indicates He wished to involve human beings in His plan of salvation for mankind. Mary was a key person for this purpose, so that is why Catholics honor her so highly. |
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A consecrated host or wafer at a Catholic Mass is the true Body and Blood of Christ, not merely bread; so Catholics are worshipping Jesus, not a wafer. In the Gospel of John (6:51-56), Jesus states repeatedly that "he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (6:54). He is speaking literally, and He is so firm that many followers object and leave Him (6:52, 60, 66). St. Paul agrees with this interpretation and writes that those taking Communion "in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27 - see also 1 Cor 10:16). We don't sin against someone's "body and blood" by destroying a photograph (which is a mere symbol) of the person. Moreover, in the Last Supper passages (Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20), nothing suggests a metaphorical or symbolic interpretation. The Last Supper was the Jewish feast of Passover. This involved a sacrificial lamb, and Jesus referred to His immanent suffering (Lk 22:15-16, 18, 21-22). John the Baptist had already called Him "Lamb of God" (Jn 1:29). |
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2. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? Catholics have an assurance of salvation if they are faithful and keep God's commandments (1Jn 2:3). If they die in that state, they are assured of heaven. But to enter heaven, one must be perfectly holy, because "nothing unclean shall enter it" (Rev 21:27 - see also Is 4:4; Mal 3:2-4). The cleansing and purifying of any remaining sin, which makes us fit for God's holy presence, is what Catholics call Purgatory. This is clearly indicated in St. Paul's writings: "Each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done....If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer lose, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor 3:13, 15, emphasis added). "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body" (2 Cor 5:10, emphasis added). 1. Are you saved? Catholics can be as sure as anyone else that they are in God's good graces. The apostle John states that "you may know that you have eternal life" (1Jn 5:13 - see also Jn 5:24). But this "assurance" has to be understood in light of John's other teachings in the same book: "For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments" (1 Jn 5:3, emphasis added - see also 1 Jn 2:3-6). "We know that "any one born of God does not sin" (1 Jn 5:18, emphasis added). "He who loves God should love his brother also" (1 Jn 4:21, emphasis added). "He who commits sin is of the devil" (1 Jn 3:8, emphasis added - see also 1 Cor 6:9). Likewise, St. Paul does not regard salvation as a one-time event, but as a goal to be sought after, one that can be lost: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12 - see also 1 Cor 9:27, 10:12; Gal 5:1, 4; Phil 3:11-14; 1 Tim 4:1, 5:15). |
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How Do We Know It's the True Church? TWELVE THINGS TO LOOK FOR By Fr. Dwight Longenecker (see sidebar to the right) MY CONVERSION TO THE CATHOLIC FAITH began in the world of Protestant fundamentalism. After being brought up in an independent Bible Church, I attended the fundamentalist Bob Jones University. While there I became an Anglican; Later, I went to England to become an Anglican priest. My pilgrimage of faith came to a crisis in the early 1990’s as the Anglican Church struggled over the question of the ordination of women. By instinct I was against the innovation, but I wanted to be positive and affirm new ideas rather than reject them just because they were new. I decided to put my prejudices to one side and listen as openly as possible to both sides of the debate. As I listened I realized that from a human point of view, both the people in favor of women’s ordination and those against it had some good arguments. Both sides argued from Scripture, tradition, and reason. Both sides argued from practicality, compassion and justice. Both sides honestly considered their arguments to be persuasive. Furthermore, both sides were composed of prayerful, church-going, sincere Christians who genuinely believed the Holy Spirit was directing them. How could both be right? From a human point of view, both arguments could be sustained. This led me to a real consideration of the question of authority in the Church. I realized that the divisions over women’s ordination in the Anglican Church were no different, in essence, than every other debate that has divided the thousands of Protestant denominations. Some groups split over women’s ordination, others split over whether women should wear hats to church. Some split over doctrinal issues; others split over moral issues. Whatever the issue and whatever the split, the basic problem is one of authority. If Christians have sincere disagreement, who decides? Wobbly Three-Legged Stool Evangelical Protestants say the Bible decides, but this begs the question when the two warring parties agree that the Bible is the final authority. They eventually split because they can’t agree about what the Bible actually teaches. I had moved away from the Protestant understanding that Scripture is the only authority, and as an Anglican, believed that authority rested in Scripture, tradition, and reason. |
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Testimony From a Convert to the Catholic Church From Jewish to Catholic by Way of Abortion by Chris Aubert A Skeptic by nature, I am a curious person. The "what" is interesting to me, but I am often more fascinated with the "why." Growing up in New York, for example, I was a loyal Yankees, Giants, and Knicks fan. Many people were just the opposite- they liked the Mets, Jets, and Nets. Similarly, as a younger man, I tended to favor the Democratic political agenda, but as I grew older, I gravitated toward the Republican agenda. Others go in the opposite direction. Why is that? The same is true for religious faith, theology, and salvation- some people go one way with their beliefs, while others go a different way. So there is a "What" and a "Why" component to religious faith as well. For me, the "What" is: I am a proud, happy Catholic convert on fire for the faith. But how about the "Why"? Why did I convert to the Catholic Church instead of staying Jewish? Why didn't I convert to some branch of Protestantism? Well, like the Grateful Dead once sang, "What a long, strange trip it's been." The Trip Begins I was born in New York City in 1957 to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father. I was not baptized. My father, Henri Aubert, grew up in France and Poland before being taken as a young boy to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany during World War II. He survived Buchenwald by entertaining the SS troops with violin music, and was actually forced to play his violin for the troops during the death march that brought his parents and sister to the cremation. When the Russians advanced, 12,000 prisoners, including my father who was 14 at the time, were taken on a 16-day march to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Warsaw, Poland. When the war was over and the prisoners were liberated by General Patton's army. my father, like many holocaust survivors, sought a better life in America. He met my mother and married her, and I was born in New York City on May 19, 1957. Interestingly, despite his Jewish faith, my father wanted to name me Christian (my parents eventually settled on Christopher) because, fearing another holocaust like the one he just survived, he wanted no one to know of my Jewish roots. Little did he know how an American Holocaust would so profoundly affect his son's life. When I was two years old, my parents divorced, and when I was 14, my father died of brain cancer. When I was five, my mother, whose Catholic faith was not terribly important to he, married another Jewish man, and converted to Judaism. I was then raised Jewish and was Bar Mitzvahed on May 23, 1970. Leading up to my Bar Mitzvah, we were, frankly, the Jewish version of "C & E" (Christmas and Easter) Christians. For the most part, the High Holy days were the only times we went to Temple. So my Bar Mitzvah, regrettably, was the last time I recall being in Temple. I don't really know why this was the case, other than to say that religion was just not a vitally important part of my upbringing. It's Just a Blob of Tissue, Right? In 1985 I got a girl pregnant. The girl was not a serious girlfriend and marriage was not in the cards, so she decided to have an abortion. I readily agreed to the abortion, using the same excuses that still proliferate today: "It's just a blob of unviable tissue mass," "Hey, it's her body and she can do with it what she pleases," and "This is America, and our Supreme Court says abortion is perfectly legal." This abortion was such a non-event for me that I didn't even go to the clinic with her. I just wrote a check, dropped it off at her house when I knew she was not home, and that was the end of it. I am ashamed to admit that I never gave that day, or that girl, much more than a passing thought over the next few years. |
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In 1991, I got another girl pregnant. Unlike the first abortion, this girl was a steady girlfriend. Nevertheless, marriage was still not an option, mainly because I remained caught up in my own selfish life. We talked about what to do with this "little problem" we had created, and I happily agreed with her decision to have an abortion, for the same reasons as six years earlier. This tim, though, I went to the clinic, paid the bill, and took her to lunch afterwards. At lunch, I don't think we talked much, if at all, about what we had just done. To this day I remember the eerie silence. Although I freely and even anxiously agreed to this second abortion, something about it felt wrong, even though I couldn't put my finger on it. I also started to think more about the second abortion. The American Holocaust In the early 1990's, I heard someone call abortion the American Holocaust. The magnitude of abortion had never before registered with me, and I began to get curious why abortion was such a big issue for so many people, to the extent that some even called it the American Holocaust. I had always accepted-- at face value and without much thought--society's big lie that abortion was strictly a woman's issue. I had agreed to the two abortions because, as I saw it at the time, we were not killing a baby, we were just exercising a woman's right to choose what to do with her body. Why wouldn't I think this? Everywhere I turned, it seemed that choosing abortion was the enlightened position. It never occurred to me to consider what God thought about abortion. Truth be told, it didn't matter what God thought at all because I was still the "pope" of my own church and I made all the rules in my life. I may have been the pope of my own church, and I may have been a smart lawyer, and I may have been a successful businessman, but I was finally realizing that I was most certainly not a man. Jesus, Who Is He Anyway? In 1992, as I matured into adulthood, things slowly started to fall into place for me spiritually. I guess I always believed in God, but I had long been a relativist. What's true for you is true for you, and what's true for me is true for me-- we can both be right. I felt this way because I had no real understanding of God or His truth. As for the Bible, I couldn't even tell you the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. I had never even read the book! I didn't know if it was a history book, a fantasy, a work of fiction, or something else. Heck, I don't think I even owned a Bible. When I was occasionally asked what religion I was. I said "Jewish," but that was more out of habit and his troy than any set of beliefs. More amazingly, perhaps, is that I was a well educated 35-yearold lawyer and I literally did not know who Jesus Christ was. I did not know if he was a fictional character or a real person, what he had done (or not done), or why Christians thought he was so important. I remember being asked once by a Christian if I was "saved" and thinking, "What does that mean? Saved from what?" Having been in New Orleans for 17 years at the time, I had made many Christian friends, mainly because the south in general, and New Orleans in particular, are very Christian, and very Catholic, places. For the first time in my life, through my friends I started to develop a basic knowledge and understanding of Christian values. Wanting to know why Christianity was so important to so many people, I tried to learn more about it. Christianity started to make sense to me, and I found it attractive. But I couldn't be a Christian! After all, I was Jewish. And besides, I knew that organized religion made no sense. Furthermore, I didn't even know what I was supposed to do if I wanted to be a Christian. Did I have to go somewhere? Take a test? Fill out an application? I truly did not know. The Miracle of Modern Medicine In October 1992. I met my future wife. Rhonda was a "cradle Catholic" from New Orleans and I started learning from her a little more about Catholicism, Jesus Christ, and all the things that go with it. Rhonda is a wonderful and beautiful woman inside and out, but at the time she was also, unfortunately, what many Catholics are: C.W.C. (Catholic When Convenient). Rhonda and I got married in June 1994, and she got pregnant about two months later. A watershed day in my faith journey was seeing the first ultrasound when Rhonda was about eight weeks pregnant. I vividly recall pointing at the screen excitedly and saying, out loud, "I want to meet the person who says that is not a baby!" I had never had this thought so strongly before, and a flood of emotion from my two abortions came back and convicted me of how wrong abortion was. The light had finally come on and I now got it! I became convinced that abortion was indeed the American Holocaust, a holocaust not unlike the one my father survived, or the one he feared would come again. I kept this conviction to myself, though, mostly out of embarrassment and shame; feelings I had never before associated with abortion. Off to Rome Our daughter Christine arrived in May 1995, and seeing her--this glorious miracle from God--convicted me even more. I was convicted because things were now clear: I had allowed my first two children to be dismembered and thrown into a garbage can because I was not a man and because I did not know any better. Heck, I had even paid for the privilege. When I coupled my newfound conviction with the majesty of this astounding gift from God, the emptiness of my religious life overflowed. At one moment I felt so blessed with God's love while holding my beautiful daughter, and yet so empty and lost at having no clue of the mysteries of God's grace and role in my life. There had to be a bridge between these two extremes, and my life of relativism surely was not it; there was most definitely a truth--an absolute truth-- about abortion that could not be found in relativism. But what does a New York Jew do about these feelings of conviction and religious confusion? Thankfully, my wife solved this problem for me in late 1996 when she enrolled me in the St. Peter Parish RCIA program in Covington, Louisiana. By the grace of God, I entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass in 1997, just one day after God gave me a second miracle--my first son Kyle. You're Catholic??!! Now that I was Catholic (the "What" part part of my faith journey), my desire to learn about my new faith--the "Why" part of the journey--was growing, but I was still a novice. As soon as I became Catholic, I learned for the first time in my life of the many different branches and denominations of Christianity. I also, sadly, discovered that many of my friends were fallen- away Catholics, and some were even subtly or even overtly anti Catholic. When a friend. who I later learned was a fallen- away Catholic turned hard-shell Southern Baptist, invited me to a Bible study, I quickly accepted. A wonderful and kind non-denominational pastor who was obviously on fire for his faith led this Bible study. At my first meeting, I was told that the group seeks to "leave denominational differences at the door, and just look at what the Bible says." Not knowing any better, this sounded fair and reasonable to me, and I started attending regularly. There were about 10 guys in the group, two or three of whom were Catholic. In the first few months of this Bible study, things occasionally came up that, for reasons I could not explain, seemed a little "off." I was hardly an expert in the Catholic faith, but I would hear things that sounded inconsistent with what I thought I understood the Catholic Church to teach. For example, I recall one person saying, "Matthew 23:9 says 'call no man father'--why do you Catholics call your priests 'father' when that goes directly against the Bible?" This made me uncomfortable because, after all, Matthew 23:9 did say just that. I let this comment slide without discussion or investigation. Truth Never Contradicts Truth I recall a particularly troubling day when the pastor explained that when Jesus said, in John 6, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life ... My flesh is real food, and my blood is true drink," He was speaking figuratively. I thought, "Gee, I sure don't read it that way." I didn't voice my concern, though, because this pastor had a seminary degree, and I did not have enough confidence in my own knowledge of the faith to discuss or debate it. I just sat in silence and scratched my head. Later that day, I could not shake my confusion. Why did this pastor tell us that John 6 meant something that it rather obviously did not say? I decided that I could not accept this "non-denominational" teaching at face value, so I went to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I quickly realized that my pastor friend had a very different view of John 6 than the Catholic Church did. As a lawyer, I had to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. As a budding anti-relativist, I also knew that truth never contradicts truth. Thus, my pastor friend's and the Catholic Church's teachings on John 6 could not both be true. Putting aside for a moment whose teaching was true, it was clear to me that one of them was untrue. To put it more bluntly, one of them was dead wrong. But which one? Since this was not an insignificant difference of opinion even to my novice Catholic mind, I started to wonder how I could leave this "denominational difference at the door" of the Bible study, which I had agreed to do. I didn't know what to do, so I again decided to do nothing, mainly because I still did not know who was right, or why. As time went on, despite my revelation about John 6, I kept hearing things in the Bible study that sounded to me, as a rookie Catholic, to be so clear and so against the Catholic Church. My Catholic faith was teetering. Feet Planted Firmly In Mid-Air The words "blind faith" don't fit me well. Despite the apparently persuasive weight of these anti-Catholic teachings I kept hearing, I could not accept them merely because someone who seemed more informed than I encouraged me. Even though I liked and respected my friends, knew what they believed, and presumed they may be right, I felt like I had to learn why they believed what they believed. To "fish or cut bait," as they say in Louisiana, I compiled a list of many reasons my friends had given me to support their decision to leave the Church: Call no man father, Jesus had brothers, worshipping Mary and statues, praying to dead people, purgatory works righteousness, infant baptism, adding books to the Bible, sinful popes, dead liturgy, and so on. With this list, I was going to figure out how, and more importantly, why my learned and faithful friends believed these things, when the Catholic Church plainly said otherwise, and why my friends had fallen away from the Church. I assumed that they had made the right decision, but I needed to prove to myself and for myself that the Catholic Church was wrong, so I could, in good conscience, abandon what I had joined a year earlier and join the "upper echelon of Christianity," as one of my closest ex-Catholic friends called his new faith. What a failure I was, thanks be to God. God had a different plan for me as I embarked on this part of my journey, and gratefully, while my mind was made up, God made sure it was not closed. The first thing I learned was that virtually all anti-Catholic beliefs I had heard were grossly exaggerated, or worse, outright false. My friends, accidentally or by design, had created a straw man and then attacked the straw man. They did not know the true teachings of the Catholic Church, and as a result, they certainly were not proving the true Catholic Church wrong at all. They were only exposing their own lack of knowledge, or worse, their intellectual dishonesty. I next learned the true teachings of the Catholic Church on the issues my friends thought they understood. I began to fully comprehend--for the first time--biblical context, the difference between veneration and worship, the role of works in our salvation, the real meaning of papal infallibility, and all that goes with the majesty of Holy Mother Church. A momentous event in my faith walk was reading what Bishop Fulton Sheen said about our Church: "There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church." So simple, yet so profound. And exactly what I had personally experienced. The more I studied, the more it appeared that Bishop Sheen was right. The Catholic Church did have a reasoned, thoughtful, and biblically based theology that was taught from the time of Jesus on, and that had been accepted virtually unchallenged for 1500 years until Martin Luther came along. I was finally able to see this so clearly because, unlike my friends who had chosen to leave the Church for many and varied reasons, I was not reading the Bible or seeking the truth through a smeared lense with an agenda. I was open to the totality of the biblical and historical evidence, and when I looked at it, my glasses were clean. The whole picture of truth, frankly, could hardly have been clearer. A House Built on Firm Ground As I neared the end of my journey to prove the Catholic Church wrong, which, thanks be to God, had turned into a galactic failure, I came to the end of the line. In the last Bible study I ever went to, my pastor friend was discussing baptism and whether it was necessary for salvation, or just symbolic. Being a little bolder after many weeks of study, I was not shy to speak up and say, "Yes, baptism is definitely necessary for salvation." He challenged me that my belief was not biblical. I knew that it was, but I was still not good at finding the addresses in the Bible, so I backed off. But only temporarily! Later that day, I went before the Blessed Sacrament to read the Catechism and some other resources on baptism. I then emailed my friend a lengthy analysis of the Catholic position with two citations from the Catechism supporting my view of baptism: John 3:5 ("Jesus answered, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit'") and Mark 16:16 ("Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved ..."). My challenge to him was, "Explain to me why the Catholic Church is wrong on this." He wrote me a lengthy epistle on why, in his view, the Church did not properly understand or interpret John 3:5. He did not, however, address Mark 16:16. When I called this apparent oversight to his attention, he at first did not answer. When I reminded him a day or two later that he had not answered, he sidestepped the question twice more before eventually dismissing the question without answer. It had finally become apparent to me that he did not have an answer to this question. This, of course, is now easily understandable. There is no coherent answer. At that moment, I invited my pastor friend to lunch and told him I would not be returning to the Bible study. Seeing this as his last chance to save me from the "Whore of Babylon" and the "Antichrist," he pulled out all the stops. Thanks be to God, I now was ready to defend my faith with confidence in two ways. First, I had the confidence to know, with certainty, that the Catholic CHurch has an answer to all challenges, and that the answers are profound, thoughtful, and deep. No matter the anti-Catholic claim, the Catholic Church has heard it before, and has an answer that only the Church that Jesus Christ started-- the one true Church with the fullness of truth--could have. Second, I had become familiar with at last the first layer of the Church's multi-layer teachings so I could light the fire of defense to most anti-Catholic claims. It was at that lunch that I severed all ties with concern or doubt about Holy Mother Church, and became a house built on firm ground, a seed planted planted in rich soil. Since then I have become a warrior for truth. Time and again, I marvel at the depths of the treasure of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and time and again, my faith is comforted with truth. God's Gifts Bring Me Home God's goodness is awesome, particularly how he can bring good out of evil. Without God showering down his love and grace on me after my two abortions, and giving me eyes to see and ears to hear, I don't know if I would have learned the truth. Without God giving me the blessings of curiosity and skepticism, it would not have occurred to me to consider why people leave the Church, and I would not have undertaken the study I did to "prove" something wrong that could not be proved wrong. For a long time after I found my true faith, I couldn't help but explain my conversion in extreme detail to anyone who would listen. I had discovered that the amount of evidence to support the Catholic faith was overwhelming and could not be challenged logically. I was on fire for the faith! My zeal, however, at times, was overpowering. So now, when asked why I believe in the Catholic faith, my answer is far simpler: Because it is true. Chris Aubert serves on the board of the "Fullness of truth" apostolate dedicated to educating about abortion and contraceptives in light of Church teaching. In addition to serving as a board member, Chris also is a frequent speaker at conferences, focusing particularly on contraception and abortion from a man's perspective. If you would like more information, visit their web site at www.fullnessoftruth.org. |
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Offshoots referenced above:
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Yeah. But the Catholic Church Has All These Rules... "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened..." (Matt 11:28-30). "If you struggle daily to do what is morally right even when those around you take shortcuts, then come to Jesus. If the life of selfish pleasure and illicit gain seems exceedingly attractive, then come to Jesus. If you are burdened with your patterns of sin and weaknesses of character that affect your vocation as a spouse, a parent, a friend, a consecrated soul, a Christian..., then come to Jesus. If life seems unfair and God seems distant at best, then come to Jesus. He calls us not to a set of principles and noble ideals, but to his very person. We do not follow rules for the sake of rules; we follow Jesus. Only when we have first come to him will we understand the need for the rules which simply help protect the dignity of the relationship"3 The rules also protect the dignity of every human person from conception to natural death. For more on this "rules" issue see the FAQs page, morals section. |
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