Sunday, August 17th, 2014
Fr. Anthony Brankin
I read a lot—I see a lot. I spend much of my days and nights trying to make sense of the things that are happening. And I have noticed that so many of the wrong ideas and misbegotten beliefs from forty and fifty years ago are returning. We thought they were dead beliefs. We thought these modernist doctrines had been swept into the dustbin of history—that they were something that people would read about in a hundred years and say, “Weren’t those Catholics at that time silly”. But they’re back! This sometimes seems to me like the religious version of Zombie Apocalypse—and unless these modernist beliefs take a head shot—they just keep coming at us—and if we are not careful—they will consume us and make us like them.
One particularly wrong idea that keeps coming back concerns the nature of the Catholic Church and its relationship to all the other religions in the world. You will hear this from all kinds of priests and writers and even bishops and cardinals—that no one needs to convert to the Catholic religion. No one needs to be Catholic. Forget anyone even venturing to say that the Catholic Church is the One True Church. All we ever hear—again—just like it was 1968—is that people only need is to sincerely believe in their own religion and that will be enough for them to get to heaven. This naturalistic nostrum even includes atheists—who—the modernists assure us—will end up in a heaven they didn’t even want to go to. From these latter day religionists, you will hear that Muslims need only to believe in the Koran. The Jews do not have to accept Jesus as the Messiah. The Protestants do not have to believe all the things that would make them Catholic, like the Holy Eucharist or the Virgin Mary or the sacraments or the Authority of the Church. All that anyone needs is to be sincere.
Why Should Anyone Be Catholic?
Well, excuse me, but if no one else has to be Catholic—why do I have to be Catholic? If it is fine for Protestants and Jews and Muslims to believe what they believe and remain what they are—why do the rest of us have to be Catholic? Are we to conclude that being Catholic is just our accident of history? That it is just some tradition handed on to us from our mothers and fathers and so we are stuck in it? Are they trying to teach that our faith—our Catholic religion has nothing to do with its being true or false? It is just something that is—and there is no more to it? And Catholicism is no more valid or true than anything else out there
I don’t think they realize that when they say that no one needs to be Catholic they are saying that Jesus therefore came only for the Europeans and Mexicans and South Americans and Filipinos. That He did not come for the Jews or the Muslims or the pagans. They are implying that the Incarnation was intended to benefit no one else in the world except the ones who today are already Catholic—since no one else in the world needs even to hear about Jesus. But when the Virgin Mary told Juan Diego that she was the mother of everyone—was she
joking? When Jesus said “Go out to all the world and teach them everything I have commanded you.” Was He being facetious?
Do not believe the modernists. Do not come close to believing these things. Even if an angel of light shall tell you that all beliefs are true in their own way, that all beliefs are equal and all religions are a path to God—and that no one has to believe in Jesus or God to be saved—and everyone has their own way—Do not believe it. It makes no sense. Because if I—if we—believe that the Catholic Church is the One true Church, then we are saying that our beliefs are true. And these beliefs are true not just for us—but true for everyone. If non-Catholics do not believe in the truth of the Catholic faith, then they are—quite simply—wrong. This does not mean they are bad or immoral. Certainly it is not their fault that they believe in false teachings. But if someone does not believe all that the Catholic Church believes and teaches, then they are mistaken. They are in error. And to live in that error will not help them live this life, nor help them get to heaven. That is why it is actually necessary for those who are not Catholic to become Catholic and that is why it is necessary for everyone who is Catholic to do what we can—by word and by deed—to bring others to Jesus and to become Catholic. That is why we have a Catholic School. That is why we have a Catechism program and a high school program. We teach the truths of the Faith. It is not good for people to be ignorant of the truth of Our Lord and of His Virgin Mother.
Truth is Truth
For the very same reason that it is necessary for us to be within Holy Mother Church, it is spiritually dangerous for anyone to be outside of her. Because it is only Jesus and all of His revelation—all of His teaching—all of his Instruction found within the Catholic Church, that is going to save them—just as that is the only faith that will save us. And why? Because it is true and any belief that contradicts it is false. Those who are not Catholic need to become Catholic. Everyone who is Catholic needs to do what we can—by word and by deed—to bring others to Jesus and let Jesus come to them to bring others to the truth of the Catholic Faith. And we do so not only by being living examples of holiness and goodness—bringing people to Jesus by our attractiveness, but also by knowing as much about the Faith as we can.
When people ask us who we are and why are we Catholic we must be able to tell them. This is not being proud or boastful or arrogant. This is being loving. And it is an act of love on our part to evangelize and proselytize and introduce to all those outside the Church—to Jesus, and teach them all that Jesus wants them to know. If Jesus is God—then he is God for all of us—and everyone needs to know Him—and we need to know that.