The Integrity of the Catholic Faith

By

Anthony Gonzales

Since the Modernist revolution, which began in the 1960's, we hear more and more about "Catholics" who believe things contrary to the Catholic Faith. For example there have been numerous polls taken of "Catholics" in the United States which indicate that a majority of "Catholics" believe that the official Church should change its position on a variety of subjects from artificial birth control to women priests. Unfortunately, what these men and women (who have little knowledge of the Faith) do not understand is that the Church is not a democracy and cannot be pressured to change anything that has been revealed by Christ in matters of Faith and Morals. The Law of God is not dependent upon a popular vote, nor is it influenced because a majority of people don't like it. Yet that is exactly what these polls indicate the majority of this country's "Catholics" want.

You see, dear reader, the truth of the Catholic Faith comes directly from Christ and the Apostles and therefore, to be a Roman Catholic you must adhere entirely to the complete teaching of the Church. We are not a cafeteria religion, like the Anglicans who pick and choose whatever they want to believe. The integrity of the Faith consists of the fact that every dogma and moral precept is intimately connected to every other dogma and moral precept. The Modernists like to point out that some dogmas (which they don't believe anyway) are more important than other ones. For example, they emphasize that it is absolutely necessary according to the nature of Christianity to believe that God is Three Persons in one Divine Nature but, according to them, it isn't as necessary to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary was Immaculately Conceived. This comparison or battle between dogmas has been created by the Modernists because they really believe that there is no objective truth and all "truth" is simply relative to time, culture, circumstance and individual evolution. The reality is that all the dogmas of the Catholic Faith are dependent upon one another and are like the multicolored facets of a globed crystal. The "Deposit of the Faith" which God has revealed to man for man's ultimate union with Him is an integrated whole. If you attempted to remove just one facet from the crystal you would destroy it. This is as true for the Church as it is for the crystal.

As Roman Catholics we are obligated to give assent with all of our hearts and minds to the Truth revealed by God through His Church. There is no pick and choose, there is only One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism and One Church established directly by Christ to teach, govern and sanctify all men, in every place and at all times. Isn't that beautiful? It means that God has given us the most precious gift He could give, next to our free will, i.e., that we can always know the fullness of truth without having to constantly search through billions of bits of information that can either be true, false or in-between. As Roman Catholics, we are unlike any other religion on earth; in that, we do not depend on searching through the darkness of our own minds in order to understand and grasp the truth. The fullness of truth has been revealed by Jesus Christ and preserved without dilution, compromise, or error by the Magisterium of His Church and protected from falsehood by the Holy Spirit as guaranteed by Christ our God. He did not come to leave us in darkness and death but to give us the burning light of His own revelation about Himself and the grace to love Him with every fiber of our being. As Catholics we do not depend on private interpretation and personal judgment to discover the truth. Therefore, if a person chooses to reject just one article of the Faith he does, by that very act, separate himself from the Church and, therefore, from Christ. As hard as that is to believe, especially after 30 years of indoctrination by the Modernists, it is nonetheless, true that by its very nature the Catholic Faith cannot be torn apart into little pieces. Jesus puts it this way: "He who hears you hears me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me, rejects the One who sent me." (Lk 10:16) or "Anyone who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters." (Lk 11:23) or "I Am the Vine and you are the branches. Who ever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without Me. Whoever does not remain in Me is like a dried up, rejected branch which falls to the ground. These dead branches will be gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burnt." (John 15:5-6). Finally, St. Paul always refers to the Church as the Body of Christ. In other words, a body is an integrated composite of many different parts which, combined, complete the body and make it whole. Without one part the whole body would suffer. The most seemingly insignificant parts of the body play an essential role and cannot be discarded without destroying its integrity.

This is what God wants from us: our total obedience and assent to His revealed truth. Without His Church to guide our path we would be lost, trapped in the tangled web of error and deception by the evil one. Without His Church we have no assurance that we are following His will or even know who He really is. Everything said outside His Church is merely hearsay and a person can never be certain that what he has heard is true or false. He can only hope that what he has read or heard is the truth. We, as Catholics, never hope that what we believe is true, we know it is true because of the authority of the One who gave and preserved it for us. Glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ. He has given us the Truth and the Truth has set us free.