Why Is She Bearded?
Here’s a sidelight to “Anti-Catholicism Graduates to Video” [May 1993]. St. Liberata, also known as Wilgefortis, Uncumber, Kummernis, among other names, is the most fanciful virgin martyr in the annals of legend. She was supposed to have been one of septuplets born to the queen of Portugal and miraculously grew a beard to discourage a distasteful marriage, whereupon her father had her crucified. Women would make offerings of oats to her shrine in England to be freed from undesirable husbands. Her bizarre image is supposed to have arisen from misunderstandings about Romanesque crucifixes wearing crowns and long robes, but nothing in hagiography is ever that simple.
Sandra Miesel
Indianapolis, Indiana
Stupid “Truths”
Thanks for your in-depth coverage of the video Catholicism: Crisis of Faith. The video was scheduled at our local First Baptist Church and promoted as a guide to “confronting Catholic errors with love.” What made the matter worse is that First Baptist, through its sheer size and visibility, has been a leader in the local Christian community for some years. My wife, Sandra, and I, both lifelong Catholics, have enjoyed much friendship and Bible study there, among people who knew we were Catholic. I’d even put on Joseph’s robes and set my wife (as Mary, of course) on a donkey for their Living Nativity at Christmas.
We were amazed and felt disappointed and betrayed when this ever-outreaching church put this video debacle on display. We expressed in writing our feelings to the pastor, with no response except from the anti-Catholic “ministry” behind the showing. Sandra even resigned from a “biblical counseling” course with only two class sessions remaining.
It is a bit frightening the power a video like this seems to take on, even though the stupidity of its “truths” would make you think otherwise. The situation points out, for the zillionth time, that knowing our Catholic faith is more than affectionate enrichment. It is armor against an attack.
It is very difficult for those of us who labor to find common ground among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants to deal with videos such as this, except when we remember, as your article was careful to point out, that none of these mainstream faith traditions is likely to touch an embittered, error-filled mess likeCatholicism: Crisis of Faith.
Meantime, the work goes on, deepened in commitment by this conflict. It is unlikely that we’ll be invited to play Mary and Joseph at First Baptist again.
John DeMers
Slidell, Louisiana
No Longer Homeless
I praise God for your good work. I am a pre-catechumenate, and I have much thanks to hand on to this organization for helping me to sort out “What Catholics Really Believe.” I’m proud of the Church that I will officially join next Easter Vigil, and I will pray for Catholic Answers in the hopes that more Christians are brought “home.”
Tracy Neibel
Irvine, California
East vs. West
My husband was raised a Baptist, and I’ve been praying for his conversion to the Catholic Church: touting the liturgical nature of her worship, the significance of her apostolic succession, the antiquity of her traditions. So now what’s my husband interested in? Greek Orthodoxy!
At this point he tends to make unfavorable Catholic vs. Orthodox comparisons. He’s down on the Catholics for emphasizing systematic theology rather than devotional mysticism, the development of doctrine rather than the conservation of tradition, papacy rather than collegiality, centralized bureaucratic organization rather than autocephalous governance, and public, political, and ethical concerns rather than personal spirituality and liturgical dignity.
On the one hand I think, “Well, Orthodoxy is better than Baptist. It’s closer to Catholic. It is Catholic, kind of. Its pedigree is ancient, its liturgy uncorrupted, its sacraments valid. It’s true Church too, kind of. Except, unfortunately, no pope.”
On the other hand I think, “Aargh. Why doesn’t my husband just simmer down and be a Catholic? Doesn’t Christ want there to be one Church and one shepherd? Doesn’t he want his Church to manifest visible unity? Why jump from sectarianism into schism?”
On the other hand (I now have three hands?) I realize that the Orthodox version of the schism is that the Catholics split off from them.
I’m no scholar, but I can see how a case could be made that, when it comes to the apostolic and patristic traditions, the Orthodox are the true conservators and the Catholics are innovators whose unauthorized novelties (filioque, the monarchical papacy) ended up splitting the Church. I am tender toward Orthodox spirituality and greatly respect the Orthodox liturgy. But still, I love the Pope, and I appreciate the doctrinal development of the last thousand years (emphatically including Humanae Vitae, which I take to be proof of the Holy Spirit’s guidance of the Catholic Church). So what insights can you give me about Orthodoxy?
Juli Loesch Wiley
Johnson City, Tennessee
Editor’s reply: In this letters column, not much. We are planning to run an article covering the concerns your husband brings up, but that article won’t appear for some months. In the meantime, some debating points: You might remind him that, unlike Catholicism, which has developed doctrine, Orthodoxy (or most of it) has changed doctrine; for example, Orthodoxy permits divorce and remarriage, but the early Church didn’t.
As for Catholicism’s supposed lack of “devotional mysticism,” don’t overlook John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Catholicism is fairly strong in “devotional mysticism” and very strong in systematic theology, while Orthodoxy is strong in the first and quite weak in the second; I think this gives the points to Catholicism.
Yes, Catholicism is centralized (but so is heaven); Orthodoxy’s organizational weakness has been its persistent Erastianism, which has been with it from the first. I grant that Catholicism, especially liturgically, is going through a period of turmoil and bad taste, and this makes Orthodoxy attractive, but these Catholic troubles too shall pass–though not, undoubtedly, before your husband feels he needs to make a decision.
My own perception is that, as of today, Catholicism must be declared the winner doctrinally, but Orthodoxy maintains the upper hand in terms of dignified liturgy. The intellectual winner is Catholicism, the affective winner (temporarily) is Orthodoxy–or so, I think, neutral observers would conclude.
Extra Ecclesiam, etc.
Our parish priest gave a course in Church history last year and said that doctrine doesn’t change, but the philosophical underpinnings may expand. He gave as an example of this unfolding of doctrine the idea that there is no salvation outside the Church. The twelfth-century interpretation of this doctrine was that the Church was the Roman Catholic communion and you had to be baptized and actually affiliated with a parish to be a part of that communion or you couldn’t be saved.
In the twentieth-century the doctrine remains the same, but the definition of the Church has expanded, and now we realize that the Holy Spirit resides in all churches to some extent, but perfectly within the Roman Catholic communion. This has been codified in Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution of the Church. In section 16 it says, “Those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does divine Providence deny the help necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, but who strive to live a good life, thanks to his grace.”
So anyone who responds to the promptings of grace and makes a move to the good, even if that means as simple an act as worshiping a rock, has put himself in the Body of Christ and is eligible for salvation–baptism of desire, in other words.
Thus Texe Marrs has some basis in part for his statement that Pope John Paul II has “accepted voodoo and such false religions as Hinduism and Buddhism.” He seems to interpret this passage to mean that all religions are equal, but he’s caught up in the Constance Cumbey conspiracy theory of history. That’s his mistake, but there it is in the Dogmatic Constitution. It’s not as if he’s pulling his objection out of thin air, as you have implied on two occasions. Ironically, Marrs decries the very mechanism by which he himself may be saved, membership in the Church.
Barbara Chilton
Arlington, Virginia
Editor’s reply: If Marrs isn’t pulling his objection out of thin air, he’s pulling it out of a gross misreading of the Catholic position. His argument is that the Pope puts non-Christian religions on the same level as Christianity. Not so, but the Pope does say that other religions, even the strangest, are not entirely off base.
Still, Vatican II taught not only that in other religions we find elements of truth, but that the Church Jesus established “subsists” only within the Catholic Church. This means only within Catholicism is the fullness of Christianity found; elsewhere we find portions of it admixed with error.
The issue of “no salvation outside the Church” (commonly given in the classic formula Extra ecclesiam nulla sallus). is another that we’re arranging an article on, but this article too will appear only some months from now. In the meantime, for more on Marrs, see this month’s “Dragnet.”
Impressionless
I am 32 years old and hardly knew anything about the Catholic religion, even though I was raised and confirmed Catholic. It was not until this year that I started to seek answers. Thank God I looked at my own religion first, otherwise who knows what church I would be attending today. I realized after years of catechism classes I was still ignorant of my religion. Why? The best I can come up with is nobody left an impression on me. The really sad thing is that I am not alone. My whole generation is like this. After talking with Catholic friends and family members, I realized many people have no idea what the Catholic Church believes and (most importantly) why we believe it. If we can first educate the Catholics, then maybe we can combat the anti-Catholics. I have become involved with the religious instruction classes in my parishes, and I hope I can make an impression on the children and light a fire of faith in them.
Lori Ryan
Simsbury, Connecticut
God’s Gift Subscription
My husband and I received our first year of This Rock without first having heard of it and without having paid for it. We can only conclude that ours was a gift subscription from God himself, and are we ever grateful! My husband (a convert) and I (a cradle Catholic) have learned more from your magazine than from any other source.
Mary Anne Bastian
Richmond, Michigan
Islam’s Inroads
Before we moved to Seoul, South Korea, in July, we lived in Augusta, Georgia. I had always thought before I got to Augusta that black Americans were not Catholic. I was surprised to find in Augusta as well as in Savannah some Catholic parishes which were in large proportion black. Sadly, like in other Catholic groups, there are losses to Protestant sects. There is an additional danger in Islam, especially among young males. The point was driven home for me when one of my friends’ sons became Muslim. His mother is a devout and dedicated Catholic, a member of the Legion of Mary, very active in her parish. I hope that Catholic Answers may publish some material on Islam spreading among Catholics.
Michelle Liewehr
Seoul, Korea
Editor’s reply: Surprise! This is yet another theme we intend to address soon. Please stay tuned.