*What’s the difference between the Catholic Church and another Church

Luther Trying to Find the Real Catholic Church: "Is it in here?"


With Churches, Temples, Synagogues, Mosques, and even coffee houses on almost every block of “main street” America today, a Texas based Catholic ministry asks the question; Why be Catholic? When you can be anything else!

You see, we believe in truth, not some abstract concept, but, rather, truth is a person, its Jesus Christ, who said 'I am the way, the truth, and the life... he who seeks truth hears my voice!' Therefore, it stands to reason that there is only one version of truth, not countless choices, just as there is only one Church, one body, which Jesus founded, and if that Church is the Catholic Church, which we claim it is, it should have no problem answering the question... Why Be Catholic? When you can be anything else!”

Joe McClane http://www.fullnessoftruth.org





In the last few months, I’ve stumbled upon a number of blogs and combox participants who lament the Catholic Church they’ve found since becoming Catholic. Some of them even appear disillusioned. I’ve also read a number of posts by Protestants who are adamantly opposed to conversion on the grounds that there are two Catholic Churches: the one you read about and the one that actually exists.

I want to respond to these problems with a few observations. 

First, I should say that I was lucky enough to be exposed to nominal, heterodox Catholicism very early in my journey. In fact, my first experience in RCIA was devastating to my wife’s journey. I won’t go into details, but will only relay that had Catholicism been measured by that experience it would be found drastically wanting.


The problem, though, with judging the Catholic Church on such an experience is manifold–and a casual reader would even feel the force of admitting it. For starters, you don’t come to the Catholic Church like you come to a Protestant sect. You are not looking for an über awesome local church that “feeds your soul” and gives you chill bumps. If you become Catholic for that reason, you would have become Catholic on accident. A Catholic journey is one where you are looking for the Church Christ established. She is not the sum-total of one parish, because she is not some evangelical mega-church.

Second, a mere perusing of the New Testament will quickly lead you to the conclusion that while Christ established a Church, it was a Church full of humans. Bickering brothers, a hot-headed leader, and 8.3%  (1/12) followers of which are guaranteed to sell their soul to the devil. If you think you will find something different in the Church Jesus Christ established, think again. It’s the barque of St. Peter we are sailing in, and there’s all kinds of animals on board.

Lastly, stop looking for the ideal which is mostly just some form of the “American dream” church. The “American dream” is the left-overs of Manifest Destiny smoking the pipe of modernist industrialism, all the while pining for an inhuman Romantic ideal grounded in our European sensibilities. Some people want to fall in love with an angelic Church. Unfortunately, you will have to die to get into that one–so stay tuned. The Catholic Church is made up of people like you and I, and the last time I checked…

So, I can hear my objector saying, “So, what’s the difference between the Catholic Church and another Church. Brent, you are basically saying the Catholic Church isn’t perfect, but neither is my Protestant church. So what gives?”

The difference is in the ontological reality. In other words, if I tell you my wife isn’t perfect and then tell you your wife isn’t perfect, it doesn’t mean that I’m just as well off to go home with your wife tonight. Poetry about the beloved will always be grandiose, and an evening cleaning up around the house with the beloved–her hair up in a do–might lead someone to consternation over the paradox between poetry and reality. Of course, this only shows the the interpreter’s failed grasp at all the contours of love.

Moreover, at the centre of our faith is the Eucharist, and ultimately a belief in the abiding presence of the divine Paraclete (helper), the Holy Spirit, who we ask to “come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us: the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Like bread and wine, we are simple. Yet somehow in the mystery of God’s eternal plan, He has sent His Spirit to be with us until the end of the age, to lead us into all truth, to fill up His Body–the Church: the ground and pillar of truth. We believe that about the Church he established so we don’t leave her–in spite of ourselves.

So, be Catholic for a good reason, with faith in the Triune God and not some romantic idealism.
I'm not saying you won't get anything 

by November 2, 2011 AD