The Roman Catholic Church

By far the oldest Christian Church, it has existed for over fifteen centuries and in the view of the Roman Catholics it goes all the way back to the days of the apostles. It is still the biggest Christian Church with regard to the number of members: about 15 percent of the world population considers itself Catholic. The word Catholic in itself means: universal in time and place and if you see how long Catholicism has existed and across how many countries and continents it has spread, the Catholics certainly fulfill the name they have given themselves. The Catholic Church has always claimed that it is the Church that the apostles themselves have founded and that is guided by the holy spirit. It came into being and began to flourish in ages when people did not possess Bibles yet and in an admirable way it has managed to convey the divine message to the people by just speaking to them. For this purpose the Roman Catholic Church has made use of things that are perceptible for the human senses like: church-buildings, priests, images of Biblical scenes, songs, sacraments and rituals and in this way it has managed to spread Christian teachings all over Europe.

---The Roman Catholic Church views itself as the only Christian Church which was founded by the apostles and is guided by the holy spirit. There is no objective way to establish if this claim is justified or not. But it is an undeniable fact that neither the Bible nor the history of Christianity tell us that the apostles appointed successors whom they could endow with the very special abilities and qualities which they had received direct from Christ. As regards the idea of being guided by the holy spirit: there are no objective proofs or indications that the holy spirit guides the Roman Catholic Church more or better than it guides other Christian Churches.

---The Roman Catholic Church claims that its tradition (ideas that the Church has passed on from one generation to the next and that have no Biblical foundation) is 100% inspired by the holy spirit and therefore an essential part of the Christian faith. Also as regards this claim there are no objective grounds which are acceptable for all people with which it can be accepted or rejected.

---During the first centuries of its existence the Christian Church certainly had no central authoritative institution which could guard and protect the unity of its doctrines and its religious practices. It was only in the fourth century that Christianity adopted the centralized and hierarchical structure of the Roman Empire. And this meant a radical break with the Church structure of the days of the apostles.

---Already in the third century A.D. the Roman Catholic Church began to interpret Matthew 16:18 (You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church) as proof that Jesus wanted Christianity to have a hierarchical structure with one man at the top who, as prince of the Church, would in all cases have the last word. The context of the Bible-verse, however, makes it clear that Jesus certainly did not use these words to appoint Peter as the first pope. In addition: there is no verse to be found in the Christian Scriptures from which it may be concluded that Peter exercised power or authority over the other apostles or over the Church as a whole.

Also the Catholic tradition that Peter traveled to Rome to take the lead of both the local Christian congregation and the international Church organization is not founded on any text that can be found in the Bible. Church history tells us that during the first centuries A.D. a big town like Rome had quite a number of Christian congregations and each had its own elders and its own overseers and there was not any one person who was in charge of the whole town, let alone the whole Christian world. From the third to the sixth century Christianity had a number of centers of power which competed with each other and there was not any supreme authority which was recognized by all Christians of all countries. These centers of power were: Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome. In addition it is clear that during the first ten centuries the Church leaders or bishops of Rome were chosen by the Christians of Rome without any interference from Christian leaders who lived outside the city. The seven big Councils (general Church meetings) which were held before the year 1000 A.D. were not convened by a bishop of Rome, did not take place in Rome, and did not have a bishop of Rome as their chairman. Summing it all up it may be said that the idea that the bishop of Rome is the successor of Peter, the substitute of Christ on earth and the monarch of the entire Christian Church finds no foundation in the Bible or in the religious practices of the Christians of the first ten centuries. It was not until the eleventh century that this idea was spread all over Europe. And there is not any Protestant Church which agrees with this Catholic view.

---From the Greek Scriptures it is evident that the apostles were no priests whom Jesus had ordained and that they did not ordain any other priests. In the first centuries the separate Christian communities were led by a council of elders, called presbyters, and their chairman was called an overseer. Within Christianity it took a number of centuries before the idea of ordained priests and ordained bishops developed. And it was not until the end of the Middle Ages that bishops were appointed by the pope and that priests were appointed and ordained by bishops. Before that time the appointing of ecclesiastical officers was a local affair for which the local worldly and spiritual leaders were responsible.

---The Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, Eucharist, confession and the anointing of the sick. Only baptism and the Eucharist (Holy Communion) have a Biblical foundation and are also recognized as sacraments by the Protestant Churches. The other five were added by the Catholic Church in the course of the centuries. Confirmation dates from the sixth century. Confession and matrimony from the seventh century. All the doctrines regarding the sacraments got their definitive form and formulation in the twelfth century. Through the sacraments priests make it visible and audible for the faithful how God comes to them to strengthen their faith or to help them as married persons or as priests. Within this context people should not forget that in the Middle Ages God could not approach people through the Bible because priests had no Bibles which they could give to their parishioners and which could tell them how people can approach God and how God approaches people.

---During the last Thursday evening before His death Jesus not only gave His disciples bread to eat and wine to drink with the command to view these as His body and His blood, but He also asked them emphatically to continue “eating His flesh and drinking His blood” until the day when He would return. All Christian Churches do their best to comply with this request. But the ways in which they do it differ widely. And one Church uses another name for this complying with Jesus’ request than another. Protestant Churches use words like The Lord’s Supper and the Communion Service. Catholics speak of the mass and the sacrifice of the mass. Characteristic of the Catholic view regarding this matter is that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that Jesus Christ is personally present in the church-building during the Holy Mass. From the ninth century onward the notion of Christ’s personal presence has led to the view that during the Holy Mass the priest changes bread into the real body of Christ and wine into the real blood of Christ (the doctrine of transubstantiation: the priest turns bread into real human flesh and wine into real human blood, the flesh and blood of Christ).

---Another essential characteristic of the Roman Catholic Church is the predominant role of priests who have been specially ordained for their profession. In the Middle Ages Christianity could not spread its message through the Bible. The message had to be conveyed by means of speech and through images, rituals and actions. Thus it was not the Bible that took up the central place in Christianity, but priests and these priests knew very well that the best way for them to get their message across was by means of a presentation that was as convincing and as impressive as possible. In beautiful churches, full of magnificent works of art, with candles and incense and a very elevated atmosphere and priests dressed in wonderful, dazzling garments. With priests who did not only deliver long sermons, but who also performed rituals and were able to bring salvation to the people in the form of sacraments. By the end of the Middle Ages the Catholic believers were convinced that the pope was God’s representative on earth. When the pope got the power to appoint all bishops of all countries these bishops, through their ordination, also became representatives of God on earth. When the bishops in their turn began to appoint all priests these priests, through their ordination, also became holy men. They were able to preach the Catholic religion, lead their parishioners in all fields of life, but also administer the sacraments and do things like forgiving people their sins, turn bread into the body cells of Christ, turn wine into the blood cells of Christ and see to it that dying people would go to heaven. The Protestant Churches came into being in a time when the art of printing had already been invented and it was possible to give the faithful Bibles, written in languages which ordinary people could understand. The Protestant Churches could choose to place either the Bible or professional religious leaders at the centre of their religious life and have chosen for the Bible. Their church buildings are sober and their ministers wear ordinary clothes and do ordinary things: mainly explaining the Bible and spiritual care.

---The Roman Catholic Church teaches that people have an immortal soul. This doctrine has no foundation in the Bible, but was adopted by Christianity from Greek philosophy, particularly the philosophy of Plato. According to Roman Catholic ideas about the meaning of death and life after death, people are not really dead after their passing away, but their essence, their soul, lives on in heaven or in hell or in purgatory. People who die sinless (for instance because they have confessed their sins on their death-bed and have received the sacrament of the anointing of the sick) go to heaven and live there in complete happiness for ever. People who have definitively rejected God go to hell and there they are punished and tortured in an indescribable manner for all time to come. People who qualify for admittance into heaven, but have committed sins and not confessed them go to purgatory where they have to undergo punishment and torture until the moment when God decides that it has been enough. The threefold destination of the souls of the dead (heaven, hell and purgatory) was developed as a Roman Catholic doctrine from the twelfth century and got its definitive formulation at the Council of Trent (1547). From the start of the twentieth century there has been a great deal of discussion, doubt and uncertainty regarding the above-mentioned traditional teachings among Catholic theologians and priests.

---In the Middle Ages practically nobody possessed the holy book, the Bible. In those centuries the Roman Catholic Church began to call all sorts of places, times, persons and objects holy which were available for everybody in almost unlimited quantities. Within this context the word holy means: specially dedicated to God, pointing to God in a unique sort of way and especially approved of by God. Very often the word also means: possessing God-given, supernatural powers. Thus the pope, the bishops and the priests became holy men. When they blessed water it became holy water. When they blessed churches they became holy buildings. Christian festival days (Christmas, Easter, Whitsun) became holy days (what we now call holidays).

---Already during the first centuries of Christianity a high degree of holiness was attached to Christian martyrs and ascetics. In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church proceeded to declare that dead people of whom the ecclesiastical authorities were sure that their souls were in heaven should be considered as holy saints. Living people could approach these saints through prayer and ask them to act as heavenly mediators between them and God. Then images of saints began to appear in churches and in homes. People began to kneel in front of these images, pray to them and honor them in all sorts of ways.

--- The notion of saints in heaven and worship of these saints and their images is still an essential characteristic of the Roman Catholic faith. Since the seventeenth century only the Pope can canonize (declare holy) dead persons and only after such a canonization are people allowed to pray to such a saint. About the year 1990 the Roman Catholic Church recognized some 450 dead persons as canonized saints. More than 80% of them are men. All Protestant Churches dismiss the existence of saints.

---Since the Council of Ephesus in 431 testified that Jesus was God, the Roman Catholic Church has called Mary the mother of God and has worshipped her as the greatest saint that mankind has produced. The Bible tells us practically nothing about Mary and there are no historical indications that there existed a special worship of Mary during the first five centuries A.D. But during the Middle Ages the worship of Mary assumed enormous proportions and since those days this worship has remained an essential part of Catholic religious practice. The very dominant place that Mary occupies within the Roman Catholic Church was strengthened even further in 1854 through the acceptance of the dogma (official doctrine) that Mary was born without original sin and always remained a virgin. For Catholics Mary is by far the most popular saint to approach when they want someone in heaven who can act as mediator between people and God.

--- Just like many other religions the Roman Catholic Church believes in miracles: manifestations of God and saints which can only be explained by referring to supernatural powers. Within this context we can think of appearances of saints, messages conveyed to people by saints and miraculous healings. The Roman Catholic Church knows lots of places where miracles have happened and lots of miracle-stories. The places where miracles happened have often grown into pilgrimage locations which draw thousands of visitors a year.