Expert: Griff Ruby - 4/4/2008

Question
Dear Griff,

              What is wrong with these non catholics? I mean I was called dumb for being a CATHOLIC. A catholic! Dont they know we Catholics are the only true church? I pray for Holiness to those whom do not know what it truly means.O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who, by the will of the Father, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, have by Your death given life to the world, deliver me by this Your Most Sacred Body and Blood from all sins and from every evil. Make me always cling to Your commandments, and never permit me to be separated from You. Who with the same God the Father and the Holy Spirit, live and reign, God, world without end. Amen.

I am convinced that the Catholic Church conforms much more closely to all of the biblical data, offers the only coherent view of the history of Christianity (i.e., Christian, apostolic Tradition), and possesses the most profound and sublime Christian morality, spirituality, social ethic, and philosophy. I am a Catholic because I sincerely believe, by virtue of much cumulative evidence, that Catholicism is true not false, and that the Catholic Church is the visible Church divinely-established by our Lord Jesus, against which the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Mt 16:18), thereby possessing an authority to which I feel bound in Christian duty to submit.

Catholic unity makes Christianity and Jesus more believable to the world Jn 23:17 Catholicism avoids an unbiblical individualism which undermines Christian community (e.g., 1 Cor 12:25-26).

Catholicism rejects the "State Church," which has led to governments dominating Christianity rather than vice-versa.
Catholicism retains the elements of mystery, supernatural, and the sacred in Christianity, thus opposing itself to secularization, where the sphere of the religious in life becomes greatly limited.

The secular false dichotomy of "church vs. world" has led committed orthodox Christians, by and large, to withdraw from politics, leaving a void filled by pagans, cynics, unscrupulous, and power-hungry. Catholicism offers a framework in which to approach the state and civic responsibility.

Protestantism leans too much on mere traditions of men I have family that is protestant but that doesnt mean I hate them I love the dearly I just think that(every denomination stems from one Founder's vision. As soon as two or more of these contradict each other, error is necessarily present).
Protestant churches (esp. evangelicals), are far too often guilty of putting their pastors on too high of a pedestal.

      In effect, every pastor becomes a "pope," to varying degrees (some are "super-popes" as a protestant calls them). Because of this, evangelical congregations often experience a severe crisis and/or split up when a pastor leaves, thus proving that their philosophy is overly man-centered, rather than God-centered.

My Dear Friend,

 More than likely, if you have managed to keep your sanity in today's sad and sinful world, you may have been scandalized even at what has been happening in the Catholic Church the non catholics and anti catholics are stirring up hatred towards Jesus.

At the present time, she seems to have fallen prey to all the snares of Satan, set to trap not only the weakest of men but also the most brilliant of theologians.

How is it, you may well ask, that as a Catholic I can still profess allegiance to my Church? In the Old Testament the Jewish Tabernacle was the work of God - not man. It was God who drew up its plan, giving its exact dimensions, stipulating the materials to be used in its construction, describing its sacred furnishings and vessels for the service, and the vestments and ornaments for the priests who would minister therein. He gave it a suitable constitution, appointed its rulers, and defined the extent of their power. (See Book of Exodus, chapters 25 through 31, entire Book of Leviticus; Book of Numbers, chapters 1, 3 through 8, and 17 and 18.) 50, since the Tabernacle of the Old Law (which was but a shadow, a figure, of the Church to come) was the work of God, surely the Church of the New Testament (the substance, the reality) must likewise be the work of God.

It is easily shown that it was Christ Himself, not His followers, not even His Apostles, who established the Church: Christ declared His intention of founding a Church, by the institution of a living authority, when He said to Simon Peter: "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18). Now, if Christ intends personally to build His Church, it is not to be the work of man. Christ Himself will therefore give it all the necessary elements of a true social body, and, consequently, a ruling authority. And, that there might be no room for doubt, He added: "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt. 16:19). This authority was actually established and the Church founded, when Our Lord after His resurrection said to Peter: "When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' He said to him, 'Feed my lambs.' He then said to him a second time, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' He said to him, 'Tend my sheep.' He said to him the third time, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?' Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, 'Do you love me?' and he said to him, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.' (Jesus) said to him, 'Feed my sheep.'" (John 21:15,17). Many also feel this was Christ's way of healing Peter after Peter had denied him three times. He allowed him to affirm himself three times. During His mortal life Christ Himself was the visible head of the infant Church, but after His Resurrection the office of visibly feeding the flock was to be discharged by another, to whom Christ gave the necessary authority and office. And as the followers of the Law of Moses under the Old Testament formed one compact body, so too were the followers of Christ to be One Body: 'One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5). From the moment when first the Church, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, appeared before the world, we find a compact, fully organized society, with the apostles at its head. "Those who accepted his (Peter's) message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers." (Acts 2:41-42).

It was by the preaching of the apostles, it is true, that the faithful were gained for the Church; but it was not the apostles who devised the plan of this body, made baptism the condition of membership, appointed the first supreme head, and invested him with authority. It was Christ Himself who did all this, and by so doing founded the Church. A "church of the future" is, therefore, no less absurd than a Christian religion of the future, for the founder of the Christian religion was at the same time the immediate founder of the Church. Being outside the Church was considered by the early Church Fathers as being a non-Christian. 'He is no Christian," says St. Cyprian (died 258), "who is not within the Church of Christ" (Ep. ad Antonian, 55, n.24).

So their you have it Griff, I am still upset though on how a Baptist called me DUMB! For being a Catholic he called me a harlot, a woman of evilness, and a false untrue believer. I was so upset he even said I am in a cult. I was so mad I wanted to scream in his face. And say how dare you in the name of the evilness of this world declare my faith false, how dare you call me a HARLOT, how dare you say you are a christian but act arrogant and wreckless. You are a persecutor and a Pharisee that is what I wanted to say to that mans face Griff. He got me so mad I had tears rolling down my cheeks. DO you think that guy was rude and arrogant for claiming the catholic faith false? What do you think?  

Answer
This is typical of the kinds of persecution the Church has endured from the very beginning, and actually one of the lighter ones.  We all know the history in which Christians were fed to lions and otherwise tortured to death merely for being the good Christian citizens they were, show how truly evil the world the flesh and the devil are despite all appearances to the contrary.
In the ancient Roman times the Christians were falsely accused of all the worst sorts of crimes, and even more amazingly, the general run of society believed such lies despite their patent absurdity.
And through all that time it has always been the duty of the Christian to bear such wrongs patiently.  So it is today.  The Baptist persecutes the Christian, not the other way, as your experience has shown, thus showing that he is no Christian (but wasn't it obvious from his rejection of the Church Jesus Christ founded?).  This just goes to show the following:
The only really CHRISTIAN Christians are the Catholics.
And the only really CATHOLIC Catholics are the Traditionalists.
Not that some other folks (Protestants, Novus Ordoites, members of other religions) might not be in some individual cases be "Catholic-at-heart" (only God will really know who this applies to), but not to be a real traditional Catholic is to be visibly separated from Christ and His Church, and in a very grey and murky area regarding the state of one's soul.  And then there are some folks (as you encountered) who show their complete lack of love for God or fellowman, and the only thing to do for such is to pray for them.  Your Baptist friend is on a Hellward path and will finish up there if he does not repent, but it is YOU who has the duty to pray for him that he might repent and find the life that Jesus Christ has for us.  I include a short story of mine titled:

"Can We Pray For Our Enemies?"

   "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." - Matthew 5:43-44.
   "I won't!" screamed Sam, interrupting the Catechism lesson on forgiveness, after the teacher had just finished commenting on the above scripture reading by saying that we should even pray for the salvation of our enemies.
   "What's that?" the Teaching Sister looked at Sam over her bifocals.
   "I said, I won't pray for Joey to be saved!" Sam repeated even louder.
   At this point, the teacher, who had been about to launch into a reiteration of the parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35) as the curricula materials indicated, then realized that this was a perfect opportunity for what some choose to call a "teaching moment," one of those times that one must deviate from the lesson plan or else lose the class. If she merely ordered Sam to be quiet, or used the old ruler-on-the-knuckles strategy, then everyone might think that Sam had a reason to doubt everything else she was trying to teach.
   Furthermore, the problems brewing between Sam and Joey were in need of attention since they had already disrupted the class several times before and she had not as yet had a chance to take each aside (perhaps with their parents as well) to deal with it. Joey was the class bully and Sam the smallest boy who, for that reason, frequently was the victim of Joey's pranks and mischief.
   Stalling for time, she began asking Sam some questions, hoping that the time given or the responses might provide a chance to persuade Sam to forgive Joey and be willing to pray for his salvation. She started by asking him, "Don't you want Joey to go to Heaven?"
   "No, I don't want Joey to go to Heaven. I want him to go to Hell."
   "How can you say that? You shouldn't want anyone to go to Hell. Do you want me to go to Hell also?"
   "Not you or anyone else, just Joey!"
   "Why is that?"
   "Because he keeps shooting spitwads at me, he always laughs at me, and then he put bubble gum on my seat, …" Sam launched into a litany of all the terrible things Joey had been doing to him.
   "Yes, but what has all of that got to do with whether or not Joey goes to Heaven?"
   Sam had to think about this for a short while before he answered. Finally, he said, "Because Heaven would be just terrible if it had anyone like Joey in it. If he goes to Heaven, then I would rather go to Hell."
   At this point, the teacher knew exactly where to go with this. She would entirely scrap the lesson plan that day and give the class, through this incident, a lesson on the nature of Heaven, Hell, Salvation, and being good which would help the whole class to see the value of praying for one's enemies, since almost the whole class was beginning to nod in agreement with Sam, except for Joey himself who glared at Sam with an "I'll get you for that" look on his face.
   In the seasoned wisdom of her many years as a Catechism teacher, she continued the questioning without letting the students know that it was only at that moment that she figured out where to go with this interruption.
   "What do you think salvation is?" she asked Sam.
   "Salvation means you get to go to Heaven," Sam replied.
   "And Damnation means you have to go to Hell," Peter, another boisterous student, piped in, feeling a necessity to complete the information on Heaven and Hell.
   "That's enough, Peter," she rebuked Peter sharply for interrupting, "This is for Sam to answer." She then continued:
   "Yes, that is true that to be finally saved is to end up in Heaven, and yes, as Peter said, to be finally damned is to end up in Hell. But who do you think God lets into Heaven?"
   "The good people who love God and obey His commandments."
   "Very good. So what does that mean you must do to get to Heaven?"
   "It means that I must love God, be good, and obey God's commandments in order to get to Heaven."
   "Very good. So how do we know in this life whether you are going to Heaven or not?"
   "If I am loving God, being good, and obeying God's commandments."
   "Wouldn't that be, in a manner of speaking, what having salvation would mean while you are still in this life (actually, the proper word would be "justification' rather than "salvation," since being in this life we can still lose it through subsequent sin), before it is time to go to Heaven?"
   "I suppose so."
   "So, if someone were praying for your salvation, would that not mean that they are praying for God to help you to love Him, be good, and obey His commandments?"
   "I guess so."
   "It is so. If you were doing bad, if, for example YOU were shooting spitwads at someone or putting bubble gum on their seat, you couldn't very well be allowed to go into Heaven, now could you? God doesn't allow spitwads in Heaven, nor any other kinds of meanness or mischief."
   "I guess not."
   The teacher now had Sam right where she wanted him. She then asked him, "Now, did you think that praying for Joey's salvation meant praying for God to let Joey into Heaven while still being the sort of bully who shoots spitwads and so forth?"
   "Yes."
   "But now you know that God doesn't want Himself and His friends, the Holy Saints in Heaven, all covered with spitwads forever and ever, right?"
   "Right."
   "So, the only way for Joey to be saved," the teacher caught Joey's eye to make sure he was listening, "is for Joey to stop being the sort who cannot be allowed into Heaven. He needs to stop doing those bad things which are not allowed in Heaven. So if," she then turned back to Sam, "you pray for Joey's salvation, what you are really praying for is for Joey to stop being such a bully and become your friend instead. For if you are good and obey God's commandments, then you cannot throw anymore spitwads or do any other unkind thing to anyone, and if you truly love God then you must also love your neighbor as well."
   It was now Joey's turn to talk. "But if I am nice to Sam, the other kids will laugh at me and make fun of me."
   "Hey, we'd all laugh at you anyway, you big clumsy oaf!" Peter again interjected.
   The Teaching Sister glared a warning look at Peter, and then turned her attention back to Joey, saying, "I don't think that's true, but let's pretend for a moment that it is. If you start being good to Sam, for the sake of pleasing God, and the other kids begin laughing at you, then all that means is that you need to start praying for their salvation."
   After that, Joey was silent, and so was Sam. At the beginning, it was asked if we can pray for our enemies. Knowing all this, how can we NOT pray for our enemies?