1. Why am I presenting a study on the Catholic Church?

I believe that there is a lot of misunderstanding among Protestants about whom the Catholic Church is, and how and why they came to believe the doctrines that they continue to cherish. However, I am in no way an expert on Catholicism. There will probably be questions that you ask tonight that I will not be able to answer.

2. What I am NOT doing:

I am not here to defend the Catholic Church, and I am not here to verbally attack the Catholic Church.

3. What I AM doing:

I am presenting as close to an unbiased, objective answer to those questions that many of us have about the rituals and practices of the Catholic Church that tend to baffle most Protestants.

4. Show of Hands:

Ask for a show of hands to see whom in the audience has ever a) been raised in the Catholic Church, or b) attended the Catholic Church for any length of time.

5. This is a historical Q&A session, not a contemporary Q&A session.

The nature of the Catholic Church allows for a unique feature when dealing with some of these questions. Although these practices and rituals came about hundreds of years ago, they are often given contemporary reasons for their existence today. But for the record, I am not actively involved in following the contemporary purposes for the Catholic Church’s actions today. I am more interested in their origins. For example, rosary beads. Many Catholics might not be able to explain how they came about, or why the practice of praying with them began. But they can tell you why they use them now. I am more interested in why the practice started then in why many religious persons use them now.

6. If this group has enough questions tonight, then what I will do is go through this initial set of questions that I’ve answered, and then take your questions and write a follow-up study for next week.

1. Why do they call themselves the Catholic Church?

The word "catholic" simply means universal. Some of you may be familiar with the Apostles Creed. Listen for the word "catholic":

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

When we refer to the Roman Catholic Church, we capitalize the C in "Catholic". However, the Church as a whole around the world can also be called "catholic", with a little "c", because we are the universal church. When the Apostles creed came to be written in the first couple of centuries after the resurrection, the church that considered itself orthodox began to call itself the catholic church, in order to distinguish itself from heretical elements in the church.

2. Why do Catholics follow the Pope? Where is there a mention of the Pope in the Bible?

The word "Pope" simply comes from the Latin word "papas" meaning father. The Pope is the bishop of the church in Rome. Catholics believe that each Pope is directly descended from the first bishop at Rome, the apostle Peter. Why is this important? Look at Matthew 16:13-20. This is the passage where Peter confesses to Jesus that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus replies with these words:

Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

So from this passage, Catholics assert that the keys to the kingdom were handed to Peter. Hence, when we tell jokes about going to heaven, Peter is always the first person a deceased person meets at the pearly gates. But Catholics take their interpretation of this passage very seriously, because they believe that Peter was made the pre-eminent apostles during this conversation, and that because Peter went on to Rome to become its first bishop, the keys to the kingdom were handed down to each successive bishop afterwards. This doctrine became very important in the first few centuries after the resurrection, when the catholic church needed to defend itself against heretics. They would claim that the succession of popes from Peter meant that the catholic church was continuing the preach the same pure gospel as Peter, while the heretics were in error because they were deviating form that gospel.

In summary, there is not a literal mention of a pope in the New Testament, but there is this passage in Matthew that gives background to their doctrine of paper succession.

There are other interpretations for this passage than the Catholic interpretation. Another way of looking at the passage is to interpret Jesus’ saying of "on this rock" to mean himself, that Jesus himself is the rock. Many church fathers interpreted Jesus to mean that all of the apostles were the rock upon which the church would be built.

3. How do Catholics interpret Scripture?

Let me begin by making sure everyone here knows how we Protestants interpret Scripture. We practice a method known as sola scriptura. We believe that all matters of faith should be determined by Scripture only. Baptists are well known for having no creeds "other than the Bible". We believe that only those things that are taught in the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament should be believed, practice, and passed down to future generations. If there is a question about salvation, we go to the Bible. If there is a question about a moral issue, we go to the Bible.

We also believe that every individual can be taught a correct interpretation of Scripture by the Holy Spirit. There is no authority that can force us to interpret Scripture in their ways.

The Catholic Church does not teach this doctrine. They believe in a combination of Scripture and Tradition to form their beliefs and doctrines. They believe that the Church alone can interpret Scripture, because we men and women are fallible in our thinking and corrupt in our minds. Only a collective interpretation by the Church, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, can help us to correctly understand a passage when we read it.

I would like to get your thoughts on this. I will admit that even as a Protestant, I struggle with this question. The reason is because I look at what has happened since a man suggested that each individual had the right to interpret Scripture outside of the Church. We now have thousands of Protestant denominations, while the Catholic Church maintains some form of hierarchy and structure.

4. Where is Purgatory in the Bible?

You can search your Strong’s concordance all day long and never find the word purgatory in the Bible. Yet, Catholics believe in a place that is not heaven, nor is it hell. How did this happen?

Here is the best way I can describe this from a Scriptural perspective. Let’s begin with Genesis 3:17-19:

OK, look at this passage. God gave two punishments to Adam and Eve for their sin. What were those two punishments? 1) a temporal punishment, 2) an eternal punishment. Therefore, whenever we sin, we have 2 punishments forthcoming, a temporal one and an eternal one. Jesus’ action on the cross took care of our eternal punishment. We were condemned to death, separated from God for eternity. But Jesus’ sacrifice removed that penalty. However, the theory goes in Catholic doctrine that the temporal penalty must still be satisfied. That is why Catholics practice penance. In the Middle Ages monks even wrote whole books describing what penance would be required for what sin.

This is all fine and good, you may be asking yourself, but so what? Again, why the need for Purgatory? Well, let’s propose the possibility that you died before you had a chance to pay your penance for the last few sins you committed. What then? You can’t go to heaven, because you haven’t been purified. And you can’t go to Hell, because as a member of the Church you have Jesus’ sacrifice to pay your eternal penalty. So this is where Purgatory comes in. That’s the place you go to pay your penance for whatever sins you still haven’t been cleansed of.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also refers to a passage in the Apocrypha where Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.