The Present Crisis in the Catholic Church

(Unless noted, all quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Catholic Edition (Catholic Book Publishing Company, New York 1954). Imprimatur: Francis Cardinal Spellman).

For the first time ever many Catholics are seriously questioning whether or not their Church IS the holy and apostolic Church. The primary reasons behind this massive disillusionment are because of the rampant pederasty[1] within the ranks of the clergy and the way in which the Cardinals and Bishops attempted to protect these predators -- hiding their unnatural behavior and moving them from parish to parish where they continued to sodomize teen-age boys. How can such a Church be either holy or apostolic?

The fact that the Catholic Church has pervert priests does not prove that she is not the apostolic church and in this writer’s opinion one treads on dangerous ground when he attempts to argue otherwise. For over the years many preachers and elders within the Lord’s church have scandalized His people with their sexual promiscuity. In and of themselves, does their immoral behavior have anything to do with our claim to be churches of Christ? What determines this (at least in part) is how we respond to their sin.

Until recently, it has been the practice of the Roman Catholic Church in the US and throughout the world to reassign pederast and pedophile priests to other parishes or dioceses—where they continued to serve in some sort of pastoral fashion—and to pay-off their prey with the condition that they take a vow of silence with regard the matter. Even at the recent meeting Cardinals in Dallas, Bernard Cardinal Law and his fellows refused to take all of their sexually immoral brethren out of circulation, allowing those who have been caught only once to remain in a pastoral or semi-pastoral role. Is this the sort of action that one should expect from an apostolic church?

In the first century church pastors (shepherds) were also known as elders (presbyters) and bishops (overseers) (cf., Acts 20:17, 28-31; Titus 1:5-7). They were chosen in accordance with the qualifications given by the Holy Spirit to the apostles, which qualifications are preserved in the writings of Paul in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. According to these qualifications they “must be blameless” and “have a good reputation with those who are outside” the church (1 Timothy 3:2, 7). These are not the only qualifications, but they do reveal that any bishop guilty of fornication with a consenting adult or with a minor ought not to remain in that office. How could he since he is no longer “blameless” and no longer possesses a good reputation? In apostolic times pastors guilty of sexual immorality would never have been allowed to continue in that office, even if he did do it only once! For blamelessness and “a good reputation” are not optional but necessary – a bishop “must” possess these things. If the Catholic Church were what she claimed—the apostolic church—wouldn’t she know of these qualifications and wouldn’t she act accordingly? The fact that she ignores them says more against her claim than do her pederast pastors.

The Roman Catholic Church is not the apostolic church and it is not simply her mishandling of this sexual scandal that proves this. She disregards apostolic tradition in other matters that pertain to the pastorate. Apostolic tradition, for example, teaches that a bishop “must be … the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2; cf., Titus 1:5, NASB) and that he be a good father “having his children in submission with all reverence” (1 Timothy 3:4, NASB); who are “not accused of dissipation or rebellion” (Titus 1:6, NASB). God intended the home to be the proving ground for those who would be shepherds in the house of God. For “if a man cannot rule his own household, how is he to take care of the church of God?” Apostolic tradition also teaches that congregations having men qualified for the bishopric always had a plurality of bishops, never just one (cf., Acts 14:22 (vs. 23 in the NASB); Titus 1:5). But in each of these matters the Catholic Church shows that her loyalty is not with apostolic tradition at all, but with doctrines that find their origin with “deceiving spirit and … demons” (1 Timothy 4:1-3, NASB). For instead of having a plurality of qualified bishops in every congregation, she has made a law forbidding marriage to bishops and then she appoints one to oversee a plurality of congregations.

The Catholic Church gives lip service to the sacred writings. However, submitting to them has never been one of her strong points and this is why she cannot be the or even an apostolic church. Apostolic churches were loyal to the “the teaching of the apostles” continuing “steadfastly” in it (Acts 2:42). They were known for keeping the apostolic traditions just as the apostles themselves had delivered them (2 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 11:2). And today they will be known for doing exactly the same things. But the Catholic Church is notorious for disregarding them and not only with regard to the pastorate. While the traditions delivered by the apostles teach that…

1.      … God is the only proper object of worship (Matthew 4:10) and that Jesus is the one mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5-6), the Catholic Church insists that Mary too is a mediatrix between God and man and deserves to be honored in ways that can only be described as worship.

2.      … Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus (Luke 1:34-34) and that Joseph “did not know her till she brought forth her firstborn son” – Jesus (Matthew 1:25), the Catholic Church say that Joseph never knew her sexually; that Mary was an “ever virgin.”

Is it possible to love Jesus and not do what He has commanded through the inspired apostles who walked and talked with Him in that special time? Is it possible to be loyal to Him and in fellowship with God the Father while refusing to listen to and obey those apostles? In answer to the first question, Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments … He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word …” (John 14:15, 21, 23). In answer to the second, Jesus told the apostles “…if they kept My word, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20) and John said, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6).

Because of the sexual immorality within the ranks of the Catholic Church many Catholics are seriously questioning the apostolicity of their Church. This is helpful for the cause of truth, but let’s not forget that it is neither the pedophilia nor the pederasty that shows this Church to be something other than an apostolic church. Instead, it is her unashamed disregard for the apostolic teaching revealed in the New Testament scriptures. This is what we must present to our Catholic friends. This is how we can help them to break the hold that Romanism has on their heart and mind and turn to them to Christ.

Kieran D Murphy