Recommended to be purchased. good book. loved it. Cliff notes report on a recommended book which we have purchased and read The book is entitled Myth-Busting Apologist Sets Record Straight. It was written by Gerard Verschuuren. Dated 2018.
Preface
“Many ‘liberals’ and ‘progressives’ do not oppose Catholics because they are Catholics . . . but because Catholics . . . have certain beliefs ‘out of line’ with mainstream thinking.” [ix]
“Our goal is religious correctness rather than political correctness.” [x]
Catholicism and the Bible
“Protestants advocate myths about this era because their movement depends on the belief that the Catholic Church is a corruption of the early Church, and hence that the Reformation was a return to the apostolic faith.” Yet we know that the early Church was the Catholic Church, and the real story of history illustrates the continuity of the Faith through the centuries.” (23)
LIE: “Catholics are forbidden to read the Bible.” [5 →]
“Catholics . . . always hear the Scriptures, for you can’t go to Mass [regularly] without hearing Scripture readings over and over again.”
“Catholics who go to church are regularly exposed to a wider range of biblical texts than are most Protestants.”
“Catholics listen to 4 Bible readings every Sunday, and many [more throughout the week].”
“. . . for many centuries, the faithful were [illiterate].”
“. . . copies of the Bible [especially copies translated into local languages] were hard to come by before the printing press . . . .”
“. . . the printing press created new problems.”
“poor translations”
“heretical translations”
“. . . in direct response to . . . heresies, the Bible was forbidden to all, except priests, . . . . The people would hear the Bible [weekly] in church anyway, but at least not through questionable translations.”
“. . . later Bible translations . . . contained erroneous or questionable translations as well as anti-Catholic footnotes.”
“If the [Catholic] Church were really against the Bible, why did her monks work so diligently through the centuries making copies of it?”
LIE: “Catholics added books to the Bible.” [13→]
“. . . the Protestant Reformers . . . discarded [7 whole] books [and parts of others] because . . . these books contain decidedly Catholic doctrine. . . ..”
“. . . Luther’s doctrines were not based on the Bible ; rather, his Bible was defined by his own doctrines..”
For example, he rejected the Letter of James because ”St. James says, ‘What does it profit . . . if a man says he has faith but has not works?’ (2:14)”, since this goes against Luther’s sola fides (only faith, not works) doctrine
“[So] Catholics did not add books to the Bible, but Protestants did remove some – thus violating their own . . . doctrine of sola Scriptura [only Scripture] [which] prohibits anyone from changing anything in the Bible.”
LIE: “Catholics think the Bible is not enough.” [19→]
“Catholics . . . claim that we need Tradition in addition to Scripture. The idea that Scripture is our only authority in matters of faith is deceiving.”
So what’s wrong with sola Scriptura?
“sola Scriptura is nowhere to be found in the Bible” [ironic]
“sola Scriptura . . . requires Protestants to show, based on Scripture alone, which books belong in Scripture. But this is . . . impossible because there is no canon list to be found in Scripture.”
“. . . the Church is not the product of Scripture ; . . . Scripture is the product of the Church.”
“. . . although the Church was very much alive, . . . for most of the 1st century, . . . there was no New Testament.”
“ . . . sola Scriptura prohibits adding anything to or deleting anything from the Bible. But not only do Catholics accuse Protestants of removing books, but Protestants accuse Catholics of adding books. . . . . Apparently, there must be something other than ‘Scripture alone’ that makes them do so. ‘Scripture alone’ is not enough to explain their actions.”
“. . . Scripture [is] open to various interpretations. Hence, Scripture cannot be interpreted by itself. . . . Besides, if the doctrine of sola Scriptura were true, [we’d] expect that all Protestants would [agree] with each other in terms of doctrine . . .”
there are an estimated 200,000 various Bible manuscripts in existence, leav[ing] Protestants in the position of not knowing whether they possess what the Biblical authors originally wrote.”
The Catholic Bible is “based on original texts that have since perished.”
“No Christian wants to be at the mercy of translations and copies . . . made by people who had their own personal reasons for changing things.”
“. . . if any . . . denomination claims that its own interpretation is correct, . . . ‘the problem here is that such an act violates sola Scriptura [by] setting up an authority outside [of] Scripture.’ (Joel Peters)”
“Scripture . . . tells us that not all of the things that Jesus said and did were written down.
“. . . there is more to Christian faith than Scripture alone. This ‘more’ is called Tradition . . . . There must be something before and beyond Scripture that creates Scripture, determines what belongs [in[ it, and interprets it.”
“Scripture is the product of Tradition – the Tradition of the early Church, in particular, the Apostolic Succession, connecting all . . . generations with the first generation of Apostles, and thus in a direct line with Jesus Christ Himself.”
In fact, there is no Scripture without Tradition. ‘Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 97). The Catholic Church is the living continuation of the Tradition in which the Scriptures were born.”
LIE: “Catholics manipulated the Ten Commandments.” [29→]
“Catholics simply group the Commandments differently than most Protestants.”
“. . . we are merely dealing with a numbering issue.”
LIE: “Catholics invented new sacraments.” [35→]
“. . . we need to look at Tradition, because that’s where the ‘manuals’ of the sacraments and liturgy were developed.”
“An important source for this Tradition is the Didache, . . . the oldest known written catechism, composed no later than . . . 90 AD and perhaps as early as 60 AD.”
“. . . Catholics . . . believe . . . that [the sacraments] truly are [conduits] of the power of Christ in and of themselves. They also give efficacious grace.”
“. . . the Catholic Chur ch recognizes 7 sacraments:”
BAPTISM : “has a strong scriptural basis” and “Jesus Himself was baptized”
CONFESSION (a.k.a. PENANCE, a.k.a., RECONCILIATION : the earliest Christian communities forgave sins . . . while invoking the authority of Jesus Christ, Who said: ‘If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them ; if you retain that sins of any, they are retained’ (John 20:23)”, and ‘Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ (Matt. 18:18).” So “by Christ’s will, the [Catholic] Church possesses the power to forgive the sins of the baptized and exercises it through priests, normally in the sacrament of Penance’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 986).”
HOLY COMMUNION : the Real Presence of Jesus, ; His actual body and Blood under the appearances of bread and wine
CONFIRMATION : in the early Church ; the Holy Spirit and His spiritual gifts
ANOINTING OF THE SICK : clear indications in the Gospels and in the Didache
HOLY ORDERS (a.k.a. ORDINATION) : the Catholic priest is an alter Christus (an other Christ), and stands in persona Christi (in the person of Christ), re-presenting the sacrifice of Christ to the Father for us
MATRIMONY (a.k.a. MARRIAGE : Ephesians 5:32-33, among others ; and Jesus attended the wedding feast at Cana
LIE: “Catholics invented Purgatory” [47→]
“. . . modern Protestants . . . still avoid the [term] ‘Purgatory’ [but] now sometimes speak of ‘the middle state’.”
“ ‘The Bible does not mention the exact word “purgatory”, but instead it makes reference to a place which can be understood as [such]’ (Andres Ortiz).”
Purgatory “is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who depart this life in God’s grace. ‘All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified . . . undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven’ C.”
There are “several indications in both the Old and New Testaments that Purgatory does exist.”
“ ‘But nothing unclean shall enter [Heaven].’ (Revelation 21:27)
“ ‘. . . he . . . will be saved, but only as through fire’ (1 Corinthians 3:14-15).”
“What is being referred to can’t possibly be Heaven because there are imperfections that need to be ‘burned up’ ; it cannot be Hell either, because souls are being saved. So [it is] Purgatory.”
Jesus ends one of His parables with: ‘[if you] be put in prison, truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.’ . . . [i]n Heaven no last penny needs to be paid, and from Hell there is no [release] at all ; hence. This reference must apply to a third place – Purgatory.”
“We also find references to Purgatory in early Christianity.”
“. . . praying for the dead . . .”
“Such prayers would make no sense if [they] thought the souls of the dead were already in Heaven or in Hell, for they could no longer benefit from prayers.”
Catholicism and its Controversies
LIE: “Catholics are led by the antichrist.” [55→]
“. . . popes . . . always refer to Christ Himself. When has any pope required worship of himself . . .?”
“The pope cannot be the antichrist. For him to deny that Christ has come in the flesh would undercut the basis of his position . . .”
“Besides, the Catholic Church is seated at the Lateran and the Vatican, on Vatican Hill, and these locations are certainly not on or near Rome’s 7 hills, mentioned in the book of Revelation.”
“Christ promised to protect the teachings of the Catholic Church when He said, ‘He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.’ (Luke 10:16) So rejecting the pope is rejecting Jesus Himself.”
“Besides, the notion that the antichrist would be a pope . . . was never once mentioned by a single writer in the early Church.”
LIE: “Catholics think salvation can be earned.” [61→]
“. . . salvation ultimately comes from God’s grace, not from our doings.”
“But . . . God’s grace does not take away any responsibilities on our [part]. Although we do not earn salvation – for it is a gift – we do have the choice to accept or reject that gift through our [choices].”
“Salvation is something we must receive. . . . No matter how hard we try, God must invite us into Heaven . . . . But whether we arrive there also depends on how we live our lives. So, salvation depends also on what we do ourselves.”
LIE: “Catholics invented priests.” [67→]
“. . . this claim itself was invented – during the Protestant Reformation.”
“”. . . Christ Himself is the only High Priest . . .”
“. . . at the Last Supper, Jesus invited His Apostles to a very special role in His ministry [--] the ordained priesthood . . . to make sacrifices .”
“When Jesus gave them the command – with the command, the power – to do what He had just done, He made His Apostles priests. Thus, Jesus instituted the ministerial priesthood.”
“. . . He also commanded His Apostles to ‘do this in memory of me’ – to re-present the sacrifice He had presented at Calvary.”
“The ordained priesthood guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments . . .”
“. . . during every Mass, [the priest] offers sacrifice to the Father in the person of Christ.”
LIE: “Catholics wrongly call their priests 'father’.” [77→]
“When God gave us the commandment, ‘Honor your father and mother’, He hardly meant, ‘Honor your mother and me’.” “
What about when Protestants call their ministers ‘pastor’? ‘Pastor’ means ‘shepherd’, and “. . . in John 10:16 Jesus said, ‘So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.”
“. . . there is nothing wrong with calling our priests ‘fathers’, for they are our spiritual fathers.”
LIE: “Catholics have an easy way out: Confession.” [85-- > ]
Firstly, . . . “Catholics do not confess their sins to a Priest ‘instead of to God,’ but directly to God through a priest, appointed by our Lord as an official stand-in for Christ (alter Christus).”
Secondly, “[o]nly God forgives sins (cf. Mark 2:7). Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, ‘The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’, and exercises this divine power . . .”
Thirdly, “[s]ince he would not always be with the Church physically and visibly, Christ delegated this power to . . . men . . .so that the Church would be able to offer forgiveness to future generations.”
Fourthly, [w]e must always keep in mind that the priest is not the one who forgives – the forgiveness comes from Jesus.”
Fifthly, “[i]n John 20:21-23, Jesus tells the apostles to follow His example, . . . . ‘If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven ; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ Thus, He delegated the power to forgive sins to the apostles. When Catholics confess their sins [through] a priest, they are simply following the plan laid down by Jesus Christ.”
Sixthly, “[e]arly Christian [sources] . . . state clearly that confession is to be made to a priest . . . in church . . .”
Seventhly, far from a revolving door type of thing, Confession is the way to unload the burden of sin. Besides, “. . . it requires quite some humility to confess one’s sins.”
Eighthly, “[m]any people underestimate the power of Confession. . . . When asked, ‘Why did you join the [Catholic] Church?’, G. K. Chesterton answered . . . ‘To get rid of my sins.’ For there is no other religious system that does really profess to get rid of people’s sins.”
Catholicism and its uniqueness
MYTH: “Catholics are not Christians.” [93→]
“Both terms have a very early origin.”
“ ‘catholic’ simply means ‘universal’.”
“. . . Catholics are . . . both – both ‘Christian’ and ‘Catholic’.”
“Catholics trace their identity back to the one and only Jesus Christ.”
“Stephen Ray, a former Baptist Bible teacher, explained his conversion to Catholicism as follows: ‘The more I read, the more I realized that the early Church was Catholic and did not support my Evangelical conclusions.’ “
“The first Catholics – [a.k.a.,] . . . the first Catholics – are not much different from Catholics nowadays . . . [--] their beliefs are basically the same, in spite of having gone through . . . twenty centuries.”
“The Catholic Church did not betray her Christian origins but vigorously protected what she had received from the . . . apostles, who had [and thus we have] an unbroken link with Jesus Christ Himself. The Catholic Church never broke [from] the early Church . . .” [but the Protestants did].
“Catholics are Christians, and Christians should be Catholics.”
LIE: “Catholics [worship] Mary as a goddess.” [101→]
“. . . Mary plays an important role in the Bible.” She is in:
All 4 Gospels
The Acts of the Apostles
The Book of Revelation
Her ‘yes’ to God the Father to be the Mother of His Son was integral to our salvation
Mary is:
Perpetually virgin
Our best intercessor
The model disciple
The Queen of Heaven
But “[n]ever can Mary receive the worship due to [The Holy Trinity] alone.”
“Catholics do, however, venerate Mary . . . . with reverence and devotion because she is The Mother of God.”
“. . . when Catholics pray, they always pray to [the Father/Son/Holy Spirit] alone, but frequently through and with Mary.”
LIE: “Catholics venerate statues.” [109→]
“The First Commandment is not about using images of God. The Bible tells us that God did in fact reveal Himself under visible forms . . .”
“He commanded their use in religious contexts.” [114]
“What God forbids is not [the] using [of] images, but ‘worshipping them as gods, . . . depending on them, and ascribing to them attributes which belong to God alone.”
“An idol is anything that replaces God . . . something that we venerate instead of God.”
“. . . not to be confused with icons.” [like photos of loved ones]
“There is nothing wrong with using objects such as icons to enhance our faith, but the danger lies in losing focus . . .” on the one true God.
“. . . when Catholics bow before a picture or statue, they do nor venerate that object.”
“”It’s not idolatry to hold up human examples of what it means to be like Christ.”
LIE: “Catholics live by rituals..” [119→]
“The Didache – written as early as 70 AD – contains already a rather fixed liturgical manual.”.
“Undoubtedly, the most important ritual . . . is the Sacrifice of the Mass, . . .”
“”Rituals are not a goal in themselves, but a tool to a much higher goal: divine adoration.”
“They are bodily expressions of what the soul intends.”
LIE: “Catholics wallow in Christ’s Passion.” [125→]
“The crucifix is a cross with the figure of Christ crucified upon it.”
“To show Jesus on the cross is not incompatible with belief in His Resurrection.”
“The Church added the figure of Christ to remind the faithful of the great suffering that had brought about our redemption.”
“St. Paul [wrote]: ‘We preach Christ crucified, . . .’ (1 Cor 1:23-24).”
“Of course, Catholics believe in the Resurrection, , but they also know that . . . [w]ithout the Crucifixion, there would be no Resurrection . . . no salvation.”
“And that is why Catholics want to keep their crucifixes, because they are wary of Christianity without a Cross.”
“The crucifix tells us at what price our salvation had to be bought: Jesus had to die for us. It is precisely the crucifix that shows us the cruel suffering of Jesus’s death and the depth of Christ’s passion and love.”
LIE: “Catholics consume Jesus' Body and Blood.” [131→]
Guilty as charged!
“John 6:53 could not put it more clearly, ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.’ “”
And Jesus let the doubters walk away.
“. . . although the mysteries of the Catholic Faith may be beyond reason, they are not against reason . . .“
Transubstantiation takes place at Catholic Mass, when the “bread and wine . . . change into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ without changing their appearances.”
“. . . at His Last Supper, Jesus said: “This is my body” and this is my blood.
Ever since then, numerous Eucharistic miracles have proven this
“. . . it is hard to find cases in which the substance changes while the appearances remain the same, . . .”
LIE: “Catholics are required to believe in apparitions.” [137→]
“. . . there is a long record of documentation proving the authenticity of such events.
“. . . physical evidence . . .”
“. . . thousands of witnesses . . .””
Important: “Apparitions are private revelations” [emphasis added], and therefore belief is not required
they are “. . . not new revelations.”
nor are they contrary to God’s public revelation
and if, upon examination, they turn out to be one or both, they are wholly rejected by the Church
“. . . apparitions must be subjected to all relevant theological and human tests of credibility.”
“Although not required, belief in approved apparitions is recommended. [emphasis added]”
Catholicism and other religions
LIE: “Catholics think Heaven is only for them.” [145→]
“ ‘Outside the Church there is no salvation’ is one of the most misunderstood teachings of the Catholic Church.”
“. . . there is no salvation without Christ, but because this salvation has come to us through the Church, salvation cannot be found anywhere else – only inside the Church.”
“. . . does this mean non-Catholics are bound for Hell? Not necessarily so..”
Only God knows why some do not believe in Him or His Church.”
Some perhaps “ ‘through no fault of their own, . . .’ “ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 16)
“Redemption is universal, but salvation” may not be.
“. . . salvation cannot be found anywhere else – not in any other religion, not in communism, not in any other kind of ideology, . . . That’s why the Catholic Church can say that salvation cannot be found ‘outside’ or ‘without’ the Church.”
LIE: “Catholics claim to own the truth.” [151→]
“ ‘Since there are so many religions with truth claims, none of them can be true.’ “
“You cannot consistently claim that there is no truth.”
“ ‘All religions have only part of the truth, but together they may have the whole truth.’ “
Refutation: the fable of the blind men and the elephant
Refutation: ‘the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts’
“ ‘. . . we invented different religions.’ “
“. . . the deciding factor is reason . . .”
“Religious beliefs that are against reason cannot be true ; . . .”
“ ‘All religions share the same truth: God.’ “
“If the descriptions of God in different religions are in contradiction with each other, then they cannot all be true . . .”
“Only one religion has the truth: Catholicism. How do we know this?
“. . . because the King of Heaven has spoken. God has revealed Himself in . . . the life of Jesus Christ. Because of this, one religion [has] the whole truth. . . . That’s what the Catholic Church claims.”
“Jesus Christ, and the long line of apostolic succession, is the foundation of Catholicism.”
G. K. “Chesterton speaks of ‘ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.’ “
“. . . 3 positions. . :”
“. . . they are all false. . . “
“. . . they are all partially true . . .”
“. . . only one of them is fully true.”
“The Catholic Church has many reasons to claim she has the full truth, . . .”
LIE: “Catholics take orders from the pope.” [163→]
“Catholics do not follow papal orders, but they do follow papal teachings that flow . . . from Jesus . . .”
“. . . the Church has one head, Jesus Christ. So . . . the Church is not a human institution . . .”
“. . . it is . . . the Body of Christ. . . . it is not an organization but an organism . . .”
“The teaching authority, or Magisterium, of the Catholic Church (headed by the pope) has a God-given mission to interpret and teach . . .
“The Church is infallible because Jesus said so!”
“. . . Christ . . . said that the Church . . . would not teach error . . .”
“Without that infallibility {in matters concerning faith and morals], the certainty of Christian belief is not possible.”
Don’t confuse infallibility [no error] with impeccability [no sin].
“Private, personal interpretations of Scripture do not matter.”
“Based on private interpretations, Protestants have become divided into [tens of] thousands of denominations . . .”
“. . . private interpretation can easily become a pathway whereby an individual turns away from authentic teaching and begins to follow erroneous teaching.”
“The authority of the Catholic Church, and in particular of her pope, goes back to what Jesus Himself instituted.”
“It is thanks to the authority of the Church that we have been [spared] from numerous heresies . . . “
Catholicism and its history
LIE: “Catholics celebrate pagan feast days.” [173→]
“The fact that pagan feasts and Catholic feasts sometimes coincide . . . does not mean there is a causal connection.”
Perhaps the Church supplanted some of those feast days – “a victory for Christ over paganism.”
“There are no indications that the Catholic Church celebrates feasts that have a pagan origin.”
“All arguments to the contrary are based on misinformation, flawed reasoning, highly unreliable sources, and very unlikely hypotheses.”
LIE: “Catholics are Crusaders against Islam.” [181→]
This lie is “the rhetoric of the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther.”
“. . . the real motives behind the Crusades”:
preventing the continued “molestation of pilgrims in the Holy Land”
“to restore access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem”
ending “the desecration of holy Christian places”
relieving “the plight of Eastern Christians”
“. . . the Crusades . . . were . . . defensive wars”
“They were a direct response to Muslim acts”
“. . . the Crusaders did not wage a ‘holy war’ but a just war”
“. . . at no point did the Crusaders attack the Muslim homeland, Arabia”
“Crusaders were not out to kill infidels, as some Muslims are.”
“. . . Catholics were not crusaders against Islam, but against the occupation and desecration of holy Catholic places”
LIE: “Catholics killed thousands during the Inquisition.” [189→]
This “rhetoric came during the rise of Protestantism.”
“If you have ever heard of gruesome lists of instruments of torture, be are they were an invention of the post-Reformation propaganda machine rather than the reality”
“A vast, papal-controlled, grand and singular Inquisition never existed in Europe – it is a fabrication.”
the Inquisitions:
were local
focused solely on Christian heretics
freed many a falsely accused person
used codes and manuals
offered a ‘period of grace’ for conversion
then offered forgiveness and penance
used torture in very, very few cases
never used execution
Protestants had their own state-run kind of inquisitions” including the death penalty
“. . . conservative estimates indicate that thousands of English and irish Catholics were put to death . . . for refusing to become Protestant.”
“. . . all countries that had dissolved their ties with the Catholic Church had witch trials conducted by secular courts under the control of Protestant leaders.”
“There is strong evidence that the Protestant ‘witch’ burnings in Germany alone killed more people than all the various . . . Inquisition[s] in Catholic Europe combined.”
LIE: “Catholics helped establish Hitler.” [199→]
“The roots of Nazism were not in Catholicism but in antiCatholic ideologies.”
“. . . even if some of the Nazi leadership were baptized Catholics, . . . they were former Catholics who had renounced their religion.”
The Nazis persecuted the Catholic clergy, press, and schools.
“. . . only small numbers of Catholics voted for the National Socialists.”
“In early 1931, the bishops . . . condemned National Socialism.”
And the overall Catholic Church did so in March 1937”
Pope Pius XI issued a “more-than-daing encyclical”, to which “the Nazis responded with an intensification of Church oppression”
“. . . Catholicism follows God’s goal ; Nazism favors Satan’s goal.”
LIE: “Catholics were told to ignore the Holocaust.” [209→]
“Pope Pius XII was not silent . . .”
But he was sometimes less vocal “because he did not want to make the situation worse.”
“Pope Pius XII was in fact heavily and personally involved with the protection of the Jews.”:
As a result, 85% of Rome’s Jews survived!
LIE: “Catholics don’t use their heads.” [217→]
“. . . reason comes from God as much as faith does.”
a Catholic motto: ‘Faith and Reason’ [emphasis added]
“. . . the Catholic Church . . . is arguably unique in Christianity, and even among religions, for so strongly advancing the role of reason in religion.”
“She does not accept beliefs that go against reason or are otherwise unreasonable.”
“Indeed, the Catholic conception of [faith + reason] is quite radical.”
“What we know through reason can never be in conflict with what we know through faith, and [vice versa]”
“Catholicism is arguably the most rational and coherent of all religions.”
LIE: “Catholics still live in the dark ages.” [223→]
“. . . the only reason any achievements, scientific or other, made it through [those] “dark” ages was because of the Catholic Church’s hiding all her books from the rampaging and pillaging . . .”
“Had it not been for the Catholic Church, all schools of learning and their libraries would have been lost . . .”
“. . . science was born in the Catholic cradle of the Middle Ages.”
“. . . the scientific project – even the scientific method itself – was an invention of . . . Catholic pioneers.” [see list in book]
“Had it not been for the Catholic Church, the scientific revolution most likely never would have happened. After all, science did not take root in:
South America
Africa
The Middle East
Asia”
“It took place [only] in Christian Europe.”
“The first universities . . . were Catholic universities. They were a hotbed for . . . great technological and scientific advancements, as well as achievements in nearly all other fields of knowledge.”
“. . . the doctrines of the Church have been a permanent ally of, rather than an obstacle to, the success of the scientific enterprise in the West.”
“. . . the reason science arose in Europe, and nowhere else, is because of Catholicism.”
“. . . science and scientific exploration . . . were nurtured in a culture with a distinct Judeo-Christian tradition.” [p 244]
LIE: “Catholics believe in double truth..” [233→]
“[No, there is no double truth. Catholics believe [t]here is only one truth, but there are two ways of getting to the truth: by reason and by faith.”
“Science has theories – they are subject to change . . . [and] religion has dogmas – they never change . . .”
“. . . Islamic philosophers . . . introduced the idea that there could be ‘double truth.’ ”
“In Islam, Allah could will one thing today and its opposite tomorrow.”
“. . . the Catholic Church claim[s] that the truths of faith must agree with the truths of science, because God is the author of both . . .”
“The idea of ‘many truths’ is as detrimental to our cognitive health as the notion of ‘double truth.’ “
LIE: “Catholics have held science back.” [241→]
“The Catholic Church has always been very favorable to . . . science, [enjoying a mutually] long-standing [and] existential relationship . . . .”
“No wonder then that many scientists have thanked the Catholic Church for her support, [e’g’,] Oppenheimer. . ..”
“In the Catholic mindset, the universe is:
the creation of a rational Intellect ; and
capable of being rationally interrogated.”
“It is [these very beliefs] that make science possible
“It is this Catholic understanding that the world is both good and intelligible to us that laid the foundation for science . . .”
LIE: “Catholics lost the case against Galileo.” [247→]
“Galileo did not discover that the earth is round.”
“Galileo did not invent the telescope.”
“Galileo was not the first to advance heliocentrism.”
“Galileo did not prove heliocentrism.”
“Galileo was not an impartial scientist. He was . . . ignoring the existence of alternative theories . . .”
“Galileo was not silenced by anti-scientists.”
“Galileo did not have an open mind. [He] was not willing to listen to wise advice.”
“He refused to present his theory as merely a hypothesis instead of established truth.”
“And when Galileo deliberately ventured into theological territory, he was asking for more trouble.”
“Galileo did not mutter, ‘And yet it moves’ “
“Galileo was not burned at the stake, nor was he tortured [n]or incarcerated.”
“. . . he spent the last 8 years of his life under house arrest.”
“. . . Galileo suffered an honorable detention and a mild reproof, before dying peacefully in his bed.”
“Galileo was condemned by the Church not for his astronomy but for his promoting a theory that seemingly contradicts Scripture as being certain, true, and proven, while not offering sufficient scientific evidence or mentioning any alternatives.”
LIE: “Catholics are troubled by the Big Bang.” [253→]
“Catholics do not feel troubled by the big bang theory – one of them actually invented the idea” – a Catholic priest from Belgium named Fr. George Lemaitre.
“. . . in 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council [taught] that the universe was created ‘out of nothing at the beginning of time’ – . . . which is now a commonplace of modern cosmology.”
LIE: “Catholics believe in a 6-day creation.” [263→]
“. . . never has the Church officially declared that the world cannot be more than 6 millennia old – or any other number of years . . .”
“. . . there is no conflict between the idea of creation and the idea of evolution.”
“. . . does not mean that Catholics are forced to believe in evolution, although they do have to believe in creation [per se]. . . . [T]here may be creation without evolution, but there cannot be any evolution without creation.”
“The Catholic Church does not enforce a literal reading of all parts of the Bible.”
LIE: “Catholics make God a magician.” [273→]
“. . . we live in a world that we can trust and count on because it follows some God-given laws of nature in a predictable way.”
“It is God, the Primary Cause of all creation, who ordains that the universe . . . be governed by a series of secondary causes through the laws of nature.”
“God is the First Cause who operates in and through secondary causes.”
“Does . . . this mean that God cannot perform miracles anymore? Certainly not.”
“God does not violate the laws of nature, but He can manipulate them for His own purposes. That’s called God’s providence.”
“ ‘Why should God be capable of creating the world from nothing but incapable of acting within the world He has made?’ (Avery Cardinal Dulles“
Catholicism and Society
LIE: “Catholics reject modern ideas.” [281→]
“The Catholic Church does reject them when they come with monopolistic claims. She rejects[:]
materialism
rationalism
relativism
liberalism
secularism
scientism”
“They can basically be traced back to the period of the Enlightenment, – although some of them have a much longer history.”
“. . . modernism has been condemned by the Church on several occasions for trying to transform Catholicism . . .”
“. . . . what was true in Church doctrine yesterday cannot be false today or tomorrow, and what was immoral yesterday cannot be moral today or tomorrow.”
“Pope Pius X denounced modernism as ‘the synthesis of all heresies.’ “
“What the Church rejects is not progression but regression – that is, the loss of vital elements of life, society, and tradition.”
“Relativism: . . . the statement ‘all truth is relative’ leads to a contradiction.”
“Rationalism: . . . itself is based on faith – faith in the power of reason.”
“Secularism: . . . freedom from religion . . . humanity to be the measure of all things . . .”
“Liberalism: . . . ‘humanism without God’ – or secular humanism.”
“Scientism: . . . claim[s] that science provides the one and only valid way of finding truth.”
“First, . . . the truth of the statement ‘No statements are true unless they can be proven scientifically’ cannot itself be proven scientifically.”
“. . . scientism claims there is nothing else in this world than what is material . . . . However, this verdict itself is not material . . .’
“ ‘The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.’ “ (G. K. Chesterton)
LIE: “Catholics are against free speech.” [289→]
“. . . the Catholic Church has always been a staunch defender of human freedom.”
“. . . the relationship between the Catholic Church and freedom of speech is much closer and more existential than many realize.” {p 294]
“The ultimate aim of the Index of Forbidden Books was to protect the faith and the morals of the faithful by preventing exposure to heretical and immoral books – ranging from heretical treatises to pornography.”
“. . . other institutions have had similar reasons for making their own index” [sic]
“The United States . . . had one . . .”
“China still . . . filters . . .”
“. . . book burnings are certainly not an exclusively Catholic phenomenon.”
“Book burnings were also very popular among Protestant reformers.”
LIE: “Catholics are against women.” [299→]
“Jesus affirmed the dignity of women by treating them the same as He did His male disciples.”
Note that men and women are equal but different (like 3 + 4 = 5 + 2)
The Catholic Church championed (and still champions) issues that greatly benefit women, too:
permanent monogamy
consent to marriage
no divorce
education
The Church bans women priests because that’s what Jesus taught us.
“Jesus chose only men to be His apostles – excluding even His holy Mother – and He passed on to these men [the] authority to carry on his work . . . (p 302) “ ‘. . . ordained men . . . by virtue of their masculinity, act in persona Christi.’ “
“Because Jesus came . . . in the form of a man, He determined that the ones who represent Him and stand in for Him are to be men as well.”
“ ‘The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.’ “ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1577)
“. . . Christ . . . did not view women as inferior to men. Christ simply made clear that this vocation – the sacramental priesthood – would be reserved for men. In obedience to the will of God, the Catholic Church has and will continue to follow this practice of ordaining only men to the priesthood.”
What about feminism?
the Church is against radical feminism because radical feminism is against family and religion, and for abortion and the like
“on the other hand, there is another form of feminism that the Church is not opposed to . . . true feminism . . .”
“. . . true feminism is about equality for both genders, while encouraging . . . respect for gender differences.”
“ ‘. . . God gives personal dignity equally . . . . Masculinity and femininity are complementary – different but equal . . . . Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his [or her] sexual identity.’ “ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2393)
LIE: “Catholics impose their own ‘Sharia law’.” [309→]
“. . . the Catholic Church . . . promote[s] natural law . . . [and] Islam promotes Sharia law. Burt, in fact, they are very different.”
“Sharia law is much more invasive . . .”
“. . . [it] regulates everything in life from A to Z.”
“. . . punishments are severe.”
allows “no separation of mosque and state.”
“. . . is tightly connected with Islam . . .”
“. . . imposes moral directives . . .”
“. . . [in contrast,] the natural law . . . is based on the reality of human nature . . .”
“. . . the Catholic Church makes a strong distinction between church and state . . .”
“. . . is not tied to any specific religion but to [common-sense] reason in general, shared by all humanity.”
“. . . is focused on the common good of society and is ingrained in human nature.”
“. . . proposes” moral directives
LIE: “Catholics use religion to discriminate.” [315→]
“Secularism . . . has shifted from freedom of religion to freedom from religion.”
“Secularism is intolerant of religion and imposes its own totally seculare standards on everything else . . .”
“Modern secularism rejects the impact not so much of any beliefs – for secularism itself is a belief – but of religious beliefs . . . ‘and toward Catholicism in particular.’ “ (Bishop Barron)
“[But y]ou cannot reject the rights of others by labeling them as mere beliefs, while refusing to do the same for yourself.”
“Since morality is a function of human nature, . . . moral judgment [is not] merely private beliefs ; it speaks to the things that are right or wrong, just or unjust, . . . universally . . .”
If “discriminating” means “making a distinction,” then yes “Catholics have valid reasons to discriminate . . . based on the natural law that” applies to all humans.
LIE: “Catholics are highly selective in morality.” [323→]
“. . . moral laws (the natural law) [is]:
universal (applicable to everyone everywhere)
absolute without exceptions
timeless (even if we do not know [it] . . . yet)
objective (given, independent of us and of any human authority”
“. . . murder is always wrong, . . . [but] [k]illing for self-defense does not automatically change killing into murder.”
“According to th[e] principle of double effect, it may be morally permissible to perform an act with [two] effect[s], but only if all of the following criteria are fulfilled:
the act is not intrinsically evil
the bad effect is not directly intended
the bad effect is not the means for attaining the good effect
the good effect outweighs the bad effect”
“. . . the Catholic Church is highly consistent in matters of morality”
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