Catholicism FAQ

Q.  How do I know that God loves me?

"Because He made you in His image and likeness," which He did not have to do.  Quite simply, God made you because He knew you would like it.  God needs no companions.  He does not need our praise.  His creation of us was a gift.  He also made you because He wants you to experience the bliss and unspeakable joy that will come from spending eternity with Him.

We also know God loves us because Scripture says, "God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that everyone who believes might not perish but might have eternal life" (John 3:16).  If He did not give His Son as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, we would all have perished in hell because of sin.  Sending His Son was an act of love.

Q.  Can we earn our way to heaven with good works?

No.  Nothing we do can earn salvation, it is a complete gift from God.

Q.  So all I have to do is believe in Jesus?

If by "believe in Jesus" you mean just intellectually accepting what He says, no.  A saving faith in Jesus, by definition, is a faith that is active in the constant pursuit of holiness, in prayer, in worship, and in service to others.  God enables us with His grace to do good things, and we must accept that grace.  Our works certainly matter to our salvation, as Jesus Himself clearly taught (Mt 25:31-46).  Faith is absolutely essential, but a faith that is not active in our lives is a dead faith (Jas 2:17).  Think "both/and", not "either/or."

Q.  Does purgatory give us a second chance after we die?

No.  Purgatory is a spiritual cleansing that takes place after a saved person dies, but before entering heaven.  Heaven is a place of perfection, and while we may die in a state of grace (and therefore will go to heaven), we must be cleansed of any impurities that may remain.  Purgatory is God's mercy and love at work.  He will perfect us and then bring in to His very presence forever. How wonderful is our God!

Q.  Why do Catholics pray to saints?  Why not just pray to Jesus?

We absolutely should pray to Jesus! But that does not mean we should not pray for each other and/or ask others to pray for us.

Prayers to saints are, simply put, asking holy people to pray for us.  The Bible tells us that the prayers of holy people are powerful (Jas 5:16).  The saints in heaven are aware of what happens on earth (Heb 12:1, Rev 6:10), and their prayers are offered to God (Rev 8:3-4).  Asking for prayers from saints does not interfere with our relationship with Jesus, it enhances it!

Q.  Why do Catholics say that we need to believe as teachings of Jesus doctrines which are not found in the Bible such as purgatory and the Virgin Mary? 

Because of the following reasons:

• Jesus did not give us a list of beliefs in writing, instead He gave us a spoken, oral doctrine which He guaranteed to be accurate and integral through the Holy Spirit;
• St. Paul in his letters to Titus and Timothy reminds us to be faithful to the traditions of the Church which he, Paul, had received and passed on to his converts;
• The early Church did not have a New Testament to give to its converts but only the spoken tradition of what Jesus had taught as preserved in oral tradition;
• The New Testament books were not completed until about 60 – 70 years after the death/resurrection of Jesus;
• The Catholic Church did not authenticate the books of the New Testament and promulgate them as divinely inspired until 350 years after the death/resurrection of Jesus;
• These are the same New Testament books which Protestants, Orthodox and Mormons accept today in addition to Catholics;
• The New Testament books arose from the oral tradition begun by Jesus and given to the Apostles under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and reflect it;
• The New Testament books come from the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church did not come from the New Testament;
• When we remove the New Testament books from their source and origin, the Catholic Church, we introduce immediate, basic misunderstandings/misinterpretations.
• Many doctrines found in this oral tradition such as the Assumption of Mary, purgatory, etc. were not discussed in the New Testament since its books center on Christ;
• The New Testament books seek to answer the questions rampant in the early church about Jesus - whether He is/was divine, human, both and why and how?

Q.  Who began the Catholic Church, St. Peter? 

No, Jesus.

Q.  Why is the Catholic Church so wedded to political power with the Pope as a political sovereign? 

The Church began independent of the state, in fact the political power persecuted it.  Then Constantine, a Roman Emperor, embraced Christianity and began to give help and recognition to the Church and not persecution and opposition.  This wedded the church to the Roman state whether Catholics liked it or not.  In Western Europe the Roman Empire collapsed with nothing to take its place and civilize the barbarian invaders.  The Catholic Church was the only entity surviving this catastrophe and encouraged the people to pay allegiance to local war lords, usually barbarian invaders or their descendants, in the interest of stability and security.  The medieval form of government and eventually modern European states came out of this arrangement.  But these early states had arisen under the protection of the state and were accustomed to church/state union.  When they became sufficiently powerful and no longer needed the Church's tutelage, these states then began to control the Church as a political subdivision of the government.  Catholicism as such does not want union of church and state but rather a cooperative separation of the two. 

Q.  What is papal infallibility?

The Holy Father when speaking of faith and morals and when he extends to activate his power of infallibility which flows from God at that time speaks infallibly.  When an Ecumenical Council proclaims the truth of faith and morals it speaks infallibly by reason of its ordinary magisterium (teaching authority).  The above is not an everyday occurrence.  Many non-Catholics, and even some Catholics, wrongly believe that the Pope is infallible in everything he says.  In fact, the use of papal infallibility is rare. There are only a few times history that popes have taught infallibly, and only once in the past 100 years:

• "Tome to Flavian", Pope Leo I, 449, on the two natures in Christ, received by the Council of Chalcedon.
• Letter of Pope Agatho, 680, on the two wills of Christ, received by the Third Council of Constantinople .
• Benedictus Deus, Pope Benedict XII, 1336, on the beatific vision of the just prior to final judgment.
• Cum occasione, Pope Innocent X, 1653, condemning five propositions of Jansen as heretical.
• Auctorem fidei, Pope Pius VI, 1794, condemning seven Jansenist propositions of the Synod of Pistoia as heretical.
• Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX, 1854, defining the immaculate conception.
• Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII, 1950, defining the assumption of Mary.

Q.  Why does the Catholic Church have seven more books than the Protestant Churches?

While Protestants are in agreement with the Church as to the works of the New Testament (27 works), most Protestants do not accept seven works of the Old Testament which have judged canonical by the Church.  These works at issue are called the deuterocanonical works, or the Apocrypha, as the Protestants refer to them.

Why the difference?  The canon (the official list of biblical books) was formally settled in the 5th century AD (though earlier councils and canons had already approved the same), at the time when St. Jerome translated the works of the OT and NT into the common language of the time, Latin.  His translation, the Vulgate, functioned as the official text of the Church for well over a thousand years.  But at the time of the Reformation, Protestant leaders rejected or diminished the value of the seven works of the OT which had been debated in the early centuries of the Church.  Their reasons for rejecting these works, after so long a history of use by the Church was principal related to a clash of theology, especially over the matter of prayers for the dead.  In short, many Protestant leaders did not like the theology of some of these works of the OT, and so they dismissed them from the canon.  Some Protestant Bibles will not include these works at all, while other will put them in a special section, for those who wish to reference them.  It is a loss of the fullness of divine revelation, and, among other things, has reduced the number of prayers for the dead.

Q.  What is a martyr? 

A martyr is someone who sheds their blood (dies) for their faith.  There have been thousands of such martyrs in the Church though the ages.  Their love of God was so great that when they were faced with a choice between death or turning their back on Christ Jesus they chose death! Some where killed by the sword or at gun point, some were thrown to the lions, some had their heads cut off, some were drawn and quartered (had their bodies pulled apart in 4 different directions by oxen or horse) some were starved to death, some were skinned alive, some were thrown in into fire and other were killed in a thousand other ways, suffering incredibly for their faith but holding fast to the end.  Today, in places like China and the Sudan, several men and women give up their lives every day for their Catholic faith.  The Church considers martyrdom to be the greatest act of love.  If someone is killed because they will not renounce their faith they immediately enter Heaven.  But they cannot give up their life on their own.  The Church teaches that martyrdom is a gift we cannot earn.  In fact, no one should presume that they have this gift. That means we should avoid situations in which we may have to face a life or death decision for or faith unless God calls us to it.  Sometimes, however, those situations are un avoidable. 

Q.  How can Catholics call Mary the Co-Redemptrix when there is only one Redeemer and that is Jesus Christ?

The "co" denotes cooperation with Jesus but not equality with him.  Mary cooperated with Redemption by giving Jesus the flesh which he used to save the world from their sins.

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