Dealing with anti-Catholic Christians

A book by James G McCarthy titled ‘The Gospel According to Rome’ (1995) poses one of the most serious challenges the Catholic Church has to deal with in our time. It was written as a direct response to The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which had become a bestseller in the United States.

McCarthy presents an analysis of the teaching of the Catholic Church, side by side with Scripture passages, quoting copiously from the Catechism and from pronouncements of various Church Councils and from papal encyclicals and other important documents of the Catholic Church. He deals systematically with the teaching of the Church on key matters of faith and argues that the teaching of the Church is unbiblical and false.

The following are only a few of the issues that might disturb Catholic readers:

• Starting from the premise that a person is justified or put right with God by faith only and not by works or by baptism, he argues that infant baptism is unbiblical and unwarranted because “The infant is incapable of exercising saving faith” (p32).

• The sacrament of Penance or Confession is seen as unbiblical because, among other reasons, the Bible teaches that confession is to God alone, not to a priest.

• The idea of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is seen as unbiblical because, among other things, Christ asked to be remembered, not to be sacrificed; Christ’s work of redemption is finished and cannot be repeated through a sacrifice; Christ made every believer a priest, not a select few. Furthermore, the bread and wine are only symbols and do not turn into the body and blood of Christ.

• The teaching of the Church on Mary the Mother of Jesus is seen as false and offensive to God because by giving her titles such as “the Mother of God”, “the Immaculate Conception”, “the Queen of Heaven” and so on, the Church has given Mary titles, prerogatives and powers that belong to God alone. Furthermore, referring to her as “Ever Virgin” is wrong, McCarthy argues, for, while it is true that she was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, Mary had other children with Joseph subsequent to Jesus’ birth. McCarthy concludes that the Catholic Church’s treatment of Mary is “nothing more than pagan goddess worship dressed up in Roman Catholic gowns” (p 226).

• The claim that the pope is Peter’s successor is seen as unfounded. It is not true that Jesus made Peter the head of the universal Church, says McCarthy. Although Peter was a leader among the apostles, he was not the supreme leader over the apostles and the early Church. There is no evidence that Peter was ever bishop of Rome ruling the universal Church. Ergo, the pope is not Peter’s successor, according to McCarthy.

McCarthy’s findings lead him to conclude that the Roman Catholic Church “is not the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” founded by Christ. McCarthy’s message to Catholic readers is: “Leave the Roman Catholic Church”. To the non-Catholic Christian reader the message is to “convert Catholics to an evangelical church”.

Among the challenges the book poses are the following:

• It would be useful for parents, young Catholics and all who are disturbed by the book (and books like it) to have at their disposal a scholarly response from expert Catholic theologians which can act as a point of reference for them in dealing with the issues McCarthy raises.

• McCarthy was brought up as a Catholic who never read the Bible until he was invited to a home Bible study. After this he got to know God in a personal way, left the Catholic Church and threw away the baby with the bath water. The lesson here for me is that Catholics need to read the Bible and be as informed about the Bible as Protestant Christians. In this way they will be able to discuss the Bible and their own faith with fellow Christians and to engage the type of issues McCarthy raises with greater confidence.

• McCarthy rejects any kind of cooperation with the Catholic Church. I think the challenge to all of us Christians, in the face of the differences the book identifies, is to resolve to come together in a spirit of Christian love and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in finding solutions to what divides us.