The Parishioner - Edition 25

Catholic not only by her own members but even by all her enemies” (TheTrue Religion, 7, 12). And again, “The very name of Catholic, which, notwithout reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so manyheretics, so much so that, although all heretics want to be called Catholic,when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of theheretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house” (Against theLetter of Mani called “The Foundation”, 4, 5).The early usage and importance of the word can also be seen by itsuse in both the Apostles and the Nicene Creeds. If you were a Christianin the first mellenia you were a Catholic, and if you were a Catholic yourecited the Creeds affirming the “one holy, catholic, and apostolicChurch.” Unhappily, some people today try to make a distinction betweenCatholic with a capital “C” and catholic with a small “c”, but such adistinction is a recent development and unheard of in the early Church.Jesus commissioned his apostles with the words “Go therefore, andmake disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fatherand of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all thatI have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the endof the age” (Mt 28:19, 20). As Frank Sheed reminds us, “Notice first thethreefold ‘all’—all nations, all things, all days. Catholic, we say, means‘universal.’ Examining the word ‘universal,’ we see that it contains twoideas, the idea of all, the idea of one. But all what? All nations, allteachings, all times. So our Lord says. It is not an exaggerated descriptionof the Catholic Church. Not by the wildest exaggeration could it beadvanced as a description of any other” (Theology and Sanity [SanFrancisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1993).Jesus used the word church twice in the gospels, both in Matthew.He said, “I will build my Church” (Mt 16:18). He didn’t say churches, nordid he imply it would be an invisible church made up of competing groups.He was going to build a visible, recognizable church. And in Matthew18:17 Jesus said that if one brother offends another they were to take itto “the Church”. Notice the word “the” referring to a specific entity. Not“churches” but one visible, recognizable church that can be expected tohave a recognizable leadership with universal authority.One can see the sad state of “Christendom” today by comparingJesus’ words about “the Church” with the current situation. If a Methodistoffends a Baptist, or a Presbyterian offends a Pentecostal, which “church”do they take it to for adjudication? This alone demonstrates the problemwhen 33,000 plus denominations exist outside the physical bounds of the“one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” Jesus expected there to beone universal, authoritative, visible and Catholic Church to represent himon earth until his return.Just before he was crucified, Jesus prayed not only for theuniversality and catholicity of the Church, but for her visible unity:“That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I inYou, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that Yousent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, thatthey may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that theymay be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me”(Jn 17:21).The early Church understood Jesus’ words. What good was aninvisible, theoretical, impractical unity? For the world to see a catholicunity, the oneness of the Church must be a visible, real, physical, andvisible reality. All of this the Catholic Church is. Since the earliestcenturies Christians have confessed that the Church is “one, holy, catholicand apostolic.” One because there is only one, visible, organic, and unifiedChurch; holy because she is called out of the world to be the Bride ofChrist, righteous and sanctified; catholic because she is universal, unified,and covers the whole world; apostolic because Christ founded her (Mt.16:18) through his apostles, and the apostles’ authority are carried onthrough the bishops. Through the centuries, this creed has been thestatement of the Church.In these challenging days, Christians need to stand confident andobedient in heart of the Catholic Church. She has been our faithful Mother,steadfastly carrying out the mandate of Jesus Christ for 2,000 years. Asan Evangelical Protestant I thought I could ignore the creeds and councilsof our Mother, the Church. I was sadly mistaken. I now understand thatJesus requires us to listen to His Church, the Church to which he gavethe authority to bind and to loose (Mt 16:19; 18:17)—the CatholicChurch, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim 3:15).ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS,Or, as my mother would say, ”Words are Cheap” Our blessed Lord is recorded as saying, ”By their fruits you shall know them”Father Paul GibbonsDo you ever wonder why a person is attractedto the Catholic faith? For years I thought itpossible to be catholic and not a RomanCatholic, that is to say not in communion withthe Bishop of Rome. For the greater part of mylife I was an Anglo-Catholic priest. I saidMorning and Evening Prayer and offered theHoly Sacrifice of the Mass daily. I believed thatI received the Body and Blood of the risen Lordin Holy Communion. I went to confession. Iobserved the fast from midnight beforeattending Mass in which I prepared to make communion with the Fatherthrough the sacramental Presence of Jesus in the enabling power of theHoly Spirit I venerated Our Lady, and felt part of the Communion ofSaints, my older brothers and sisters who had gone before me in faith,and I looked forward to meeting them in my post resurrection body,alongside my parents, Godparents and friends following the GeneralJudgement.Very slowly it dawned upon me that I was a displaced catholic, thatin fact I was in the wrong boat in the Church of England which, followingthe zeitgeist (spirit of the age), had adopted government by Synod,whereby the majority vote won the day. The result of which led to adisregard of revealed truth as recorded in the Bible, the Fathers andHoly Tradition; to acceptance of mechanical forms of birth control bycontraception, to abortion, to women priests and bishops, tohomosexually active priests and to a desire to be popular and politicallycorrect in the eyes of our secular society ostensibly in order to attractthem to the faith of the all-inclusive Church of nice!Then came alongside Pope Benedict XVI andAnglicanorum coetibus, or as Monsignor AndrewBurnham, at that time the bishop of Ebbsfleetcalled it, the life boat named RITA (Rome Is TheAnswer) as a means of getting aboard the MainLiner headed for the harbour of Heaven. PopeBenedict, much influenced by John Henry CardinalNewman, a former Anglican, had beenapproached by a number of Anglo Catholics whosaw that the Church of England was at the mercyof the storm and headed for hell and high wateras a result of denying its Catholic roots, and he extended a ‘lifeline’. Iapproached the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady ofWalsingham, now Monsignor Keith Newton, who was my former bishopof Richborough, who applied for and received authority from the Vaticanfor me to be accepted. Having undergone instruction, I became aRoman Catholic and I was ordained by Archbishop Peter Smith incommunion with St. Peter’s successor, the Bishop of Rome, following acourse of Formation at Allen Hall Seminary in Chelsea.I now pastor a small group of former Anglicans, members of theCatholic Church based at a private chapel in Wateringbury, where wecelebrate the Liturgy on Sundays and Thursdays at eleven. I am alsopart of the Clergy Team here at St. Francis thanks to the initial kindnessof Canon John Clark and now to that of Canon Luke Smith.I am sad that so few followed me into the Personal Ordinariate, andthus into the Catholic Church. However we continue to evangelize and towelcome people of any faith or religion and any who seek revealedtruth, to our fellowship.6