Why Catholic...

For the next series of FYCV we are going to consider Catholicism specifically.  The primary sources for this series are Patrick Madrid’s Why Be Catholic? And an article by Fr. Dwight Longenecker, “How Do We Know It’s the True Church?”

Madrid and Longenecker offer two different frameworks for testing the legitimacy of a Church as established by Christ.  So along with Madrid’s three signs, I want to strengthen his case by adding what I believe to be the four most compelling traits from Fr. Longenecker’s list of six.  I will then conclude the series with comments on a few of an array of blessings that the Church established by Jesus of Nazareth provides.

It is helpful to think of each sign or trait as a single strand, that taken together, form a rope of evidence that can readily carry the weight of the Catholic Church’s bold claim to be the Church established by Christ.

First we’ll take up Madrid’s three signs:  Visibility, Foundation, and Preservation. Protestants teach that the Church is invisible.  That it is comprised of all people everywhere who believe in Jesus, and that the true members of the Church are known to God alone. Although there are some traces of truth, this model leaves out critical features that Christ taught about the nature of the Church.