I wanted to take this time of the year when most Christians celebrate the waiting period for the celebration of the birth of God into human history called advent, to personally share my deep theological convictions about my core beliefs about what I believe by stating why I’m not of a particular other belief system. If you venture on to read my thoughts you will learn why I’m not an atheist, a protestant, or a sedevacantist but a post-conciliar Catholic who believes in God, believes in the Catholic faith and believes that the reforms of the 2nd Vatican council are part of the same 2000-year tradition of the church.
These are 3 of the most common groups of believers that voice strong objections online to post-conciliar Catholic faith which is why I address them in this essay. There are of course many more, but I’ve limited it to these 3. I’m sure others will cheer the reasons that I give. Others will pick it apart and knock it over like Jenga blocks and others will just find it boring and dull. It doesn’t matter I just wanted to share what I believe and so here we go.
I believe in God
Everybody has a story. Some are boring. Some are exciting. But most are probably somewhere in between. Whatever our experiences are, they help shape our beliefs about life. My life’s experiences, circumstances, and situations have formed my mind to believe in God. The God as taught by the Judeo-Christian tradition.
The God Catholics proclaim is not an old man sitting in some otherworldly cosmic dimension. He is not a solitary being. He is not the supreme being. He is the sheer act of ‘to be’ itself.” A trinity of persons but remaining still only one God. If you don’t fully grasp what that means other great Christian thinkers like St. Augustine feel you’re pondering.
I was brought up by a very devout Methodist mother and an even more extremely devout Catholic father. On Saturday mornings when I could be watching cartoons, I went with Dad to Saturday morning Mass. He brought me to his night rosary group, in which there was one, I think, every night of the week somewhere. I saw him reading the bible. He prayed practically all day long at different intervals in his later years. Starting at 4 AM and lasting till he went to bed. He took time off to eat, take a nap, play Yazzie with my mother, watch Walker Texas Ranger and go to Mass and Night Rosary. He did meals on wheels. He treated his wife and kids with kindness and compassion.
Despite the very religious atmosphere I was raised in, we all have to make our own decisions about faith. And I never saw any reason to doubt God existed.
This is why I’m not an atheist.
I never saw any reason to doubt Jesus’s claims to be God. I don’t expect everyone to be convinced by the reasons of why I’m not an atheist. This follows for the other reasons I give why I’m not other things as well. Everyone will have their own reasons of why they believe and why they think others should believe what they believe. The only person I have to convince of what is real and true is myself. I have no control of what others think or how they process information. And everyone process’s the same information differently. Everyone has a different perspective. Which brings us to our next part of why I’m not something other than Catholic.
I Believe in the Catholic Faith
Certain protestant Christians like to ask non-believers and Catholics ‘Are you Saved?”
Scott Hahn, a former Protestant pastor who converted to the Catholic faith after a long search for the truth, provides an excellent response.
“The Catholic should reply:
‘As the Bible says, I AM ALREADY SAVED (Rom 8:24, Eph 2:5-8),
but I’m also BEING SAVED (1Cor 1:18, 2 Cor 2:15, Phil 2:12), and
I have the HOPE THAT I WILL BE SAVED (Rom 5:9-10, 1 Cor 3:12-15). Like the apostle Paul, I am WORKING OUT MY SALVATION IN FEAR AND TREMBLING (Phil 2:12), with the HOPEFUL CONFIDENCE IN THE PROMISES OF CHRIST (Rom 5:2, 2 Tim 2:11-13).’” –ARE YOU SAVED? HOW A CATHOLIC MUST RESPOND. – Catholics Striving For Holiness
When I went to a non-denominational youth group in High School called Young Life, there was a session at one of the summer camps I went to in which you could dedicate your life to Christ and join a session with other like-minded people who were already Christians or who were accepting Christ for the first time. I was one of those who joined the group of those who were already believers in Christ.
I never doubted Christ. But I did doubt his church. Someone gave me a tract while I attended Dean Jr. College (190 – 1992) in which made me wonder about the Catholic church. Did I really want to belong to a church that didn’t take their faith in Christ seriously. Ther were very many lukewarm unexcited Catholics for Christ. So, for about the next year or so I searched for Christ’s true church. I went to a Baptist church, a Lutheran Church, some non-denominational churches. I listed to Christian radio to help me understand faith more. Protestant Pastor Charles Swindoll helped bring the bible alive for me in a way I hadn’t experienced before. While I was searching, I’m sure my father was praying for my return.
I was in a bookstore in Beverly Ma, when I came across an issue of the Christian Research Institute magazine. CRI had a radio show hosted by Hank Hanegraaff called the Bible Answer Man. Since that time long ago in the 90’s Hank has moved from a protestant stylized faith to an Eastern Orthodox believer.
Their issue that month was on ‘What Think Ye of Rome’. So I picked it up, as I had not totally ruled out Catholicism. It quoted an author I had never heard of before named Peter Kreeft. I picked up a book of his called ‘Fundamentals of the Faith’. In the book he had this to say.
There are things wrong with the sola scriptura doctrine. First, it separates Church and Scripture. But they are one. They are not two rival horses in the authority race, but one rider (the Church) on one horse (Scripture). The Church as writer, canonizer, and interpreter of Scripture is not another source of revelation but the author and guardian and teacher of the one source, Scripture. We are not taught by a teacher without a book or by a book without a teacher, but by one teacher, with one book, Scripture.
-Peter Kreeft, The Authority of the Bible Catholic Education Resource Center
This convinced me to be Catholic again.
This is why I’m not Protestant.
I’m not protestant because I believe the claims of the Catholic church that it was the one church Christ started. The church gave us the bible after all. I began to take some RCIA classes at the Newman center to reeducate myself in the faith. Since that time I have worked in a Catholic bookstore, got a degree from a Catholic university named Franciscan University, worked at CatholicTV and St. Patrick’s Manor. I am now currently part of Men of St. Joseph at my local church Holy Apostles down the street. I’m still pondering whether to become a Deacon or not.
Despite having wondered away from the church for a short time I have no distain for my protestant brothers and sisters. Even the nasty ones who hate Catholics. My mother was a devout woman of faith and several of my friends are non-Catholic Christians. My mother read her devotional every night called ‘The Upper Room’, and prepared communion for her Methodist service. When I see my fellow Catholics trash non-Catholic Christians, it bothers me.
I Believe in the Post-Conciliar Church
Remember that you are only Catholic due to the grace of God. If you want others to join Christ’s church know by elevating your prideful superior-ness over others you are not witnessing to His love, truth, beauty and joy. For the Love of God don’t repel others by being toxic. We should want to give them a reason to want to be Catholic and by acting all holier than thou is not the road to evangelization.
Saint Francis de Sales says, “A spoon full of honey gets more flies than a barrel full of vinegar.” The Bible says “Love is patient and kind” 1 Cor. 13: 4. I’ve noticed in many of these Catholic discussions I have online, that people tend to get heated and sometimes nasty. Isn’t an important part of sharing Jesus and his church to do so in love and not in anger? Isn’t being civil and polite part of sharing our faith? I guess I would call it the Theology of Civil Discussions. How can we all be better at this?
I believe that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. I believe that God did not leave his church despite all the nasty people who have been in charge of it. I don’t believe that Mohammad got the rest of the story when he crafted the Koran and started Islam. I don’t believe that Martin Luther and the other reformers were doing favors by going off in their own direction during the protestant reformation. I don’t believe that Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons were sent to correct the apostasy of the Catholic church.
One of the main teachings of the church is the teaching that the pope is the visible head of the church. He is God’s chief steward. He holds the keys Christ gave him. Despite some bad popes the teaching of the papacy is still part of the faith. Pope John XXIII got all the bishops in the world together to hold an ecumenical council called Vatican II. It didn’t change church teaching but reworded it in a way that the modern world could understand better. It is for that reason that I believe the Second Vatican Council is a legit council and that every pope since then is a legit pope.
Certain Catholics hold that since the 1958 death of Poe Pius XII the occupiers of the Holy See are not valid popes due to what they believe is their espousal of one or more heresies and that, for lack of a valid pope, the See of Rome is vacant. They usually reject Vatican Council 2. This movement is called Sedevacantism. For the reasons listed above…
This is why I’m not a Sedevacantist.
Any Sede’s or Trads reading this take this advice from a former Trad of how to act towards those who believe in the splendor and glory of the Traditional Latin Mass.
I do believe that those of us who have been drawn to the majesty and solemnity of the ancient liturgy have a pearl of great price that should make us excited to be Catholic, and to share the goodness we’ve found with others. We should be happy at Mass, friendly to our fellow parishioners, welcoming to those who are new, and understanding to those who don’t yet see why we make so much effort to be a part of something so outside the norm. Condemnations, judgments, specious arguments, and morose dispositions do no favors for our cause, or its future. We’ve got something great going on, and it’s about time we acted like it.
Steve Skojec They Will Know We Are Traddies by Our Love (October 4, 2010)
What Encourages My Faith
Watching, reading and interacting with other devout Catholics and even other Christians help maintain, strengthen, and encourage my faith in Christ, his church, and the post-conciliar changes.
My friend Marshall who converted to the faith after persecuting me for my faith when he wasn’t Catholic.
My friend Jackson who converted to the faith after dating our adopted daughter, who also became Catholic by choice (but doesn’t practice anymore). He is now in marionette monastery as a postulant praying to become a brother.
Fr. Wilson at Immaculate Conception church who gives powerful thoughtful homilies about the faith. He shows episodes of the Chosen with Catholic actor Jonathan Romey as Jesus and then gives great insight into the episode.
Certain online authors and youtubers such a Bishop Sheen, Deacon Steven D. Greydanus, Fr. Casey Cole, Bishop Robert Barron, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Catholic Answer apologists Trent Horn, Joe Heschmeyer and the mysterious Jimmy Akin.
All the 20th Century popes before and after Vatican 2.
Saints such as St. Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of Lisieux, and St Carlo Acutis.
My protestant friends Dave Dube and Gabriel Andreson. He wrote this piece for the Catholic Bard.
It’s Healthy To Experience Grief |
How Experiencing Grief Is A Healthy Part Of Life
Of course, my mother and especially my father.
And my loving faithful wife who is a secular Carmelite and just got a certificate in spiritual direction. It is nice to have a daily living example of Christ living in your house you can see all the time.
And then there is doctrines unique to the Catholic church (and to the Orthodox) of the blessed mother and of the Holy Eucharist.
Plus there is all the particular Catholic things like architecture, art, culture, music, ect.
They all help reenforce the message that says…
Don’t Stop Believing.
Extra Bonus Thought
There are quite a lot of Orthodox Christians online who like to give their opinion of why you should be Orthodox and not something else. I mostly hear about them in commentaries by fellow Catholics on YouTube. Growing up I never ran into Orthodox believers or even saw their churches anywhere in my travels. They are there but seem scattered spread out. They don’t have the same impact on culture or history in this part of the world as atheists, protestants or Catholics. I hear more from Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, Agnostics, Hindus and Jews then I do Orthodox. They seem to matter more in certain geographical locations in the world as opposed to being spread out across the globe. I also believe in papal primacy which is
Why I’m not Orthodox
Although I’m glad that we have had good ecumenical dialogue in recent years.
Final Thoughts
I respect everyone where they are at in life but would hope that everyone would believe in God, His Church and the legitimacy of her councils. I wouldn’t follow it myself if I didn’t think it was true.
I could give deeper more well put together thoughts on all these subjects. In a simple little nutshell, these are the reasons that
I am not an atheist,
a protestant
or a sedevacantist.
And the reasons why I’m not any of those things includes the reasons why
I am a Catholic.
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