Here’s Why I am Staying Catholic

by Letters Editor · Published June 8, 2022 · Updated June 8, 2022

(Photo: Rita Laura/Cathopic)

By AD Sam, Gqeberha – Thank you for an excellent editorial on reasons to remain in the Catholic Church (“We’re Staying Catholic”, March 2022). I especially liked your line: “If one looks even with half an eye, one finds Christ very much at work in the Catholic Church.”

In addition to those mentioned in your article, my reasons for remaining in the Church are the following:

I can have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ through participation in the Holy Eucharist, for he said: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:56).
I have recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation for the forgiveness of my sins, for he said: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (John 20-23).

The liturgy celebrated in the Catholic Church is substantially the same as was celebrated in the 2nd century, as St Justin Martyr explains in a letter to pagan emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161).

The Church is founded by Jesus Christ as he proclaims: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church…” (Matthew 16:18). We acknowledge this fact when we proclaim during the Offertory: “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.”

The Church has been given authority, as we read in Holy Scripture: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). Bind or loose was a phrase of the Jewish rabbis; it means to permit or forbid and their decisions would be ratified in heaven. Thus Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis could declare: “The Church has no authority to declare priestly ordination of women.” And thus Pope Francis, in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, can state that “the reservation of the priesthood to males….is not a question open to discussion”.

The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the Apostles, as we read in Ephesians: “…built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone” (2:20).
The Holy Mass is the highest form of worship.
The Church compiled the Canon of the Bible.

This letter was published in the May 2022 issue of the Southern Cross magazine