Teach Mormons about Catholicism (Home)
Table of Contents:
1. Prophets of God 7. Man
13. The Restoration
19. Baptism
2. One God 8. The Image of God
14. Tradition
20. Confirmation
3. Jesus Christ
9. The Fall of Adam
15. Catholic
21. Marriage
4. The Holy Spirit 10. Original Sin
16. The Church
22. Purgatory
5. The Holy Trinity 11. Faith and Grace
17. Apostle
23. Heaven and Hell
6. The Creation 12. Authority
18. The Priesthood
24. Eternal Life
12. Apostolic Authority
Mormonism: After the Apostles died there
was no true authority (GP
Chapter 16)
Catholicism:
- The Apostles Took Care to Appoint Successors To Pass On Authority
- The Unbroken Succession Transmits the Apostolic Authority
- Christ Built His Church On The Rock of Peter's Faith
- The People of God Receive the Faith Which Was Once For All Delivered
- From the Churches Very Beginnings There Arose Certain Rifts
- Christ's Kingdom On Earth is an Everlasting Dominion
- Christ has Joined Himself to the Church In An Everlasting Covenant
In order that the mission entrusted to them might be continued after their death, [the apostles] consigned, by will and testament, as it were, to their immediate collaborators the duty of completing and consolidating the work they had begun, urging them to tend to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit had appointed them to shepherd the Church of God. They accordingly designated such men and then made the ruling that likewise on their death other proven men should take over their ministry [Acts 20:28] (CCC861). In the office of the apostles there is one aspect that cannot be transmitted: to be the chosen witnesses of the Lord's Resurrection and so the foundation stones of the Church. But their office also has a permanent aspect. Christ promised to remain with them always. The divine mission entrusted by Jesus to them "will continue to the end of time, since the Gospel they handed on is the lasting source of all life for the Church. Therefore,... the apostles took care to appoint successors" [Mt 28:20] (CCC860).
Just as the office which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as first of the apostles, destined to be transmitted to his successors, is a permanent one, so also endures the office, which the apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a charge destined to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of bishops. Hence the Church teaches that the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ (CCC862). In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority. Indeed, the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time (CCC77).
Jesus entrusted a specific authority to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" [Mt 16:19]. The "power of the keys" designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection: "Feed my sheep" [Jn 21:15-17; 10:11]. The power to "bind and loose" connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgements, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles [Mt 18:18] and in particular through the ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom (CCC553). To fulfil their exalted mission, the apostles were endowed by Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and by the imposition of hands they passed on to their auxiliaries the gift of the Spirit, which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration [Acts 1:8; 24; Jn 20:22-23; 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6-7] (CCC1556).
The Second Vatican Council "teaches... that the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by episcopal consecration, that fullness namely which, both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of the Fathers of the Church, is called the high priesthood, the acme (summa) of the sacred ministry" (CCC1557). Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling.... In fact ... by the imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that bishops, in an eminent and visible manner, take the place of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona agant). By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them, bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have been made pontiffs and pastors (CCC1558). Amongst those various offices which have been exercised in the Church from the earliest times the chief place, according to the witness of tradition, is held by the function of those who, through their appointment to the dignity and responsibility of bishop, and in virtue consequently of the unbroken succession going back to the beginning, are regarded as transmitters of the apostolic line (CCC1555).
Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and confess: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' [Mt 16:16]. On the rock of this faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ built his Church [Mt 16:18] (CCC424). Peter is made the foundation of his future Church (CCC586). The Church is apostolic. She is built on a lasting foundation: "the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Rev 21:14). She is indestructible (Mt 16:18). She is upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops (CCC869). The Lord made St. Peter the visible foundation of his Church. He entrusted the keys of the Church to him. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal Church on earth (CCC936). The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful. For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered (CCC882). As Christ's vicar, each bishop has the pastoral care of the particular Church entrusted to him, but at the same time he bears collegially with all his brothers in the episcopacy the solicitude for all the Churches: Though each bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock entrusted to his care, as a legitimate successor of the apostles he is, by divine institution and precept, responsible with the other bishops for the apostolic mission of the Church (CCC1560).
Simon Peter holds the first place in the college of the Twelve [Mk 3:16; 9:2; Lk 24:34; 1 Cor 15:5]. Jesus entrusted a unique mission to him. Through a revelation from the Father, Peter had confessed: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Our Lord then declared to him: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it" [Mt 16:18]. Christ, the "living Stone", [1 Pt 2:4] thus assures his Church, built on Peter, of victory over the powers of death. Because of the faith he confessed Peter will remain the unshakeable rock of the Church. His mission will be to keep this faith from every lapse and to strengthen his brothers in it (CCC552). Jesus, "the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage" [Heb 2:14-15; Acts 3:15]. Henceforth the risen Christ holds "the keys of Death and Hades", so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" [Rev 1:18; Phil 2:10] (CCC635). Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God [Phil 2:10; Acts 2:24; Rev 1:18; Eph 4:9; Pss 6:6; 88:11-13] (CCC633).
Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" [Mt 28:19-20]. Strengthened by this mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it" [Mk 16:20] (CCC2). This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer [Acts 2:42] (CCC3).
The Church, "the pillar and bulwark of the truth", faithfully guards "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints". She guards the memory of Christ's words; it is she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles' confession of faith [1 Tim 3:15; Jude 3] (CCC171). Aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority (Magisterium),... receives... the faith, once for all delivered to the saints... . [Jude 3] (CCC93). The apostles entrusted the "Sacred deposit" of the faith (the depositum fidei), [I Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:12-14] contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church. "By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practising and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful" [Acts 2:42] (CCC84).
It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New (CCC120). As she has done for the canon of Sacred Scripture and for the doctrine of the faith, the Church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her "into all truth," has gradually recognized this treasure received from Christ and, as the faithful steward of God's mysteries, has determined its "dispensation" [Jn 16:13; Mt 13:52; 1 Cor 4:1]. Thus the Church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord (CCC1117).
Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel [Acts 1:6-7] which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and peace [Is 11:1-9]. According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church [Acts 1:8; 1 Cor 7:26; Eph 5:16; 1 Pt 4:17] and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching [Mt 25:1, 13; Mk 13:33-37; 1 Jn 2:18; 4:3; 1 Tim 4:1] (CCC672). Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers [Lk 18:8; Mt 24:12]. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth [Lk 21:12; Jn 15:19-20] will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh [2 Th 2:4-12; 1 Th 5:2-3; 2 Jn 7; 1 Jn 2:1 8, 22] (CCC675). Christians must make every effort to proclaim the good news to the poor. There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD" [Am 8:11] (CCC2835).
In fact, in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame" (CCC817). Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him (CCC2089). The Church... will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven, at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations. Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king" [2 Cor 5:6]. The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will all the just from the time of Adam, from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,... be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence (CCC769).
To carry out the will of the Father Christ inaugurated the kingdom of heaven on earth. Now the Father's will is to raise up men to share in his own divine life. He does this by gathering men around his Son Jesus Christ. This gathering is the Church, on earth the seed and beginning of that kingdoms (CCC541). As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body [Eph 1:22]. Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church. The redemption is the source of the authority that Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. The kingdom of Christ [is] already present in mystery, on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom [Eph 4:11-13] (CCC669). The coming of God's kingdom means the defeat of Satan's: "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" [Mt 12:26, 28]. Jesus' exorcisms free some individuals from the domination of demons. They anticipate Jesus' great victory over "the ruler of this world" [Jn 12:31; Lk 8:26-39]. The kingdom of God will be definitively established through Christ's cross: God reigned from the wood (CCC550).
Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion", for the Father "has put all things under his feet" [Eph 1:20-22]. Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are "set forth" and transcendently fulfilled [Eph 1:10; 4:10; 1 Cor 15:24, 27-28] (CCC668). Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom, the fulfilment of the prophet Daniel's vision concerning the Son of man: "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed" [Dan 7:14]. After this event the apostles became witnesses of the "kingdom [that] will have no end" (CCC664). Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth [Lk 21:27; Mt 25:31]. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover [2 Th 2:7]. Until everything is subject to him, "until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God" [2 Pt 3:13; Rom 8:19-22; 1 Cor 15:28] (CCC671).
The unity of Christ and the Church, head and members of one Body, also implies the distinction of the two within a personal relationship. This aspect is often expressed by the image of bridegroom and bride. The theme of Christ as Bridegroom of the Church was prepared for by the prophets and announced by John the Baptist. [Jn 3:29] The Lord referred to himself as the "bridegroom" [Mk 2:19]. The Apostle speaks of the whole Church and of each of the faithful, members of his Body, as a bride "betrothed" to Christ the Lord so as to become but one spirit with him [Mt 22:1-14; 25:1-13; 1 Cor 6:15-17; 2 Cor 11:2]. The Church is the spotless bride of the spotless Lamb [Rev 22:17; Eph 1:4. 5:27]. "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her" [Eph 5:25-26]. He has joined her with himself in an everlasting covenant and never stops caring for her as for his own body [Eph 5:29]. This is the whole Christ, head and body, one formed from many... whether the head or members speak, it is Christ who speaks. He speaks in his role as the head (ex persona capitis) and in his role as body (ex persona corporis). What does this mean? "The two will become one flesh. This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the Church" [Eph 5:31-32]. And the Lord himself says in the Gospel: "So they are no longer two, but one flesh" [Mt 19:6]. They are, in fact, two different persons, yet they are one in the conjugal union,... as head, he calls himself the bridegroom, as body, he calls himself "bride" (CCC796).
He chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people.... All these things, however, happened as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ... the New Covenant in his blood; he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit" [Acts 10:35; 1 Cor 11:25] (CCC781). The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church [Rom 11:28; Jn 11:52; 10:16.18]. They would be the root on to which the Gentiles would be grafted, once they came to believe [Rom 11:17-18, 24] (CCC60). The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus [Rom 11:20-26; Mt 23:39]. St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old" [Acts 3:19-21]. St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" [Rom 11:15]. The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles", [Rom 11:12, 25; Lk 21:24] will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all" [Eph 4:13; 1 Cor 15:28] (CCC674).