Catholic Apologetics

First, you should show you understand where he is coming from. We Catholics can act like the passage is perfectly clear when Jesus says, “This is my body” – as if there is no room for a metaphorical interpretation. However, suppose you were having dinner with the fellow and explaining a car crash you were in. You pick up a couple dinner rolls, put them in position on the table, and say, “OK, this is my car and this is her car.” In that context it is obvious you are using metaphorical language. The same can apply to Jesus’ words on Holy Thursday.

Instead, you should admit that if we only had those words to go by, then it really could go either way. But then you can point out that we have many other passages to help us understand what Jesus meant. Among them would be Saint Paul’s words in 1Corinthians 10:16, where he says: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Or in 1 Corinthians 11:29 where he says: “Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” Then there is the bread of life discourse in John 6, where Jesus says: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Thus, by understanding the totality of the Scriptural witness about the nature of the Lord’s Supper, we can tip the scales in balance of a literal understanding of what Jesus was saying.
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There are many ways of dealing with this. The first way is to point to what the Church officially teaches about the honor we owe to Mary. The Catechism says: “The Church rightly honors the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. This devotion differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit.” [CCC 971]. Regarding our duty to only worship God, the Catechism states: “Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense" [CCC 2113-2114].

Now, a Protestant might object that while the Church may officially teach against the worship of Mary, it remains common in the unofficial devotional life of Catholics. From there I usually ask, “Have you ever met a Catholic who says he believes Mary is God and worships her?” Pressing this question eventually reveals that your interlocutor has never met a Catholic who actually admits to worshipping Mary. Rather, he is basing his accusation on his own interpretation of various Marian devotional practices which he thinks constitute worship.  

Now I suggest presenting an analogy. Suppose there was a person whose culture taught him that giving flowers was always an act of worship. And now suppose this person observed your Protestant friend laying flowers on his mother’s gravestone.  “Aha!” he says, “You are engaging in ancestor worship!” Ask your friend how he’d respond to this accusation. Given time, he’ll eventually explain your point for you. That is, we can’t cannot presume to know other people’s intentions by interpreting their actions through our cultural lens. Same goes with Catholic practices of Marian piety.
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The Church’s teaching on the male priesthood has a subtle nuance. Many think the Church simply chooses not to ordain women. Rather, the Church regards itself as having no ability to ordain women – that this authority was not given to the Church by Christ, making it impossible. That is why Saint John Paul II wrote on the matter:  “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” [Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 4] 

The principle reason given for this lack of ability is the example of Jesus and the Apostles.  Namely, that Jesus chose 12 men to be the first priests, and the Apostles instructions regarding the ordination of new priests always specified men [Acts 1:21, 1Tim 2:12, 2Tim 2:2, Titus 1:6]. This explanation is found in JPII’s letter and is echoed in the Catechism: “The Lord Jesus chose men to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.” [CCC 1577]

In regard to the changeably of this teaching; that question was posed to the Church in 1995. Cardinal Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, replied in a statement called “Responsum ad Dubium”. He wrote, “This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”
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The central text for establishing the papacy is in Matthew 16:18-19. This is the event at Caesarea Philippi where Jesus gives Simon the name “Cephas” (or “Rock”) and says His Church will be built upon this Rock. Disputes between Catholics and non-Catholics often center on what Jesus intended by this renaming. However, the important part is actually what happened next - Jesus bestows upon Peter the “Keys to the kingdom of heaven”. This bestowing of keys harkens back to an office found in the Davidic kingships - the chief steward. This office is described in Isaiah 22:15-23. The chief steward would be in charge of the king’s affairs while the king was away.  His office was signified by different symbols, one of which was the key to the kingdom. Isaiah describes his position as a fatherly role [v.21].  

A Jewish observer at Caesarea Philippi would have seen Jesus appointing Peter to be His chief steward, the bearer of the keys. This meant that Peter would be the earthly leader of all Christians after Jesus ascended to Heaven. He would have a fatherly role over the Church. This is why we call these leaders “Papa” or “Pope”.

We can see Peter exercising his authority when he leads the apostles in replacing Judas [Acts 1:12]. He also declares that Gentiles can be brought into the New Covenant [Acts 10:47]. Most notably, he settles the dispute over the role of circumcision at the Council of Jerusalem [Acts 15:1-13]. The office of chief steward was not reserved to only the first generation of Christians. Jesus instituted this office to bring unity to his Church for all time. The keys that Jesus gave to Peter now reside with Peter’s 266th successor, Pope Francis.
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The sign of the cross, like the entire Catholic faith, is simple enough for a child but so deep that whole theology textbooks could be written on it. First, let’s talk about angels. Angels are beings of pure spirit and intellect that live in perfect unity with God. Everything about angels, everything they are, is used to give praise and worship to the Almighty, singing “Holy, Holy, Holy!” [Isaiah 6:3]  

God created humans with body, soul, and intellect.  Some Christian groups treat the body as BAD and the soul as GOOD. However, having a body was part of God’s original plan for humanity – it is part of what makes us who we are. Humans are not angels, but we’re still meant to give our entire self over to God for His praise. As Saint Paul says, we must “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.” [Romans 12:1]

So for Catholics, prayer isn’t just something we say – it is something we do. This is why we kneel, stand, and sit during Mass. It is also why we make the sign of the cross when we pray. When making the sign of the cross, we draw out a cross on our bodies and say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” This action links together the two central mysteries of the Christian faith. Our bodies trace out the Cross – that weapon Christ used to win our redemption. Our spirit speaks the great revelation of God as the Trinity. This action orients our whole self to God and prepares us to pray.
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Everyone knows that Protestants and Catholics disagree about matters related to salvation. Sometimes this is summarized (inaccurately) as Protestants believing we’re saved by “faith alone” and Catholics believing we’re saved by “faith and works”. The real story is quite a bit more nuanced. As Catholics we DON’T believe we’re saved by “faith and works”, and we CAN believe we’re saved by “faith alone”… but it depends on what you mean.

I would begin by proposing this hypothetical: “Suppose a man is neglecting his children, committing adultery, and defrauding his employees… but believes in the promise of Christ to forgive his sins. In fact, he believes so strongly that he sees no reason to change his behavior. Let’s take him at his word that he really believes all that. Is he saved?” This hypothetical reveals that the word “faith” can mean different things. To that hypothetical fellow, it means believing in Jesus and trusting in Him for the forgiveness of sins. But we can all see – and hopefully your friend would agree – that there is something clearly deficient in his faith. That’s the key question for your friend: What is he lacking?

The answer is that a true saving faith can be broken up into different aspects, like sunlight through a prism. One of these aspects is the love of God which leads to repentance and obedience. As Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Saint Paul mentions this aspect of faith in Romans 1:5 when he references the “obedience of faith.” He likewise speaks of the necessity of love in 1 Corinthians 13:2 when he says, “If I have faith to move mountains, but not love, I am nothing.” So you can concede that we’re saved by faith alone, but then pivot to the question: What is faith, anyway?
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The Catholic and non-Catholic worlds have fundamentally different understandings of what it means for a believer to be integrated into Christ’s Church.  From the modern non-Catholic point of view, Jesus established the “Christian Church” which is constituted by certain shared fundamental beliefs.  This Church is then subdivided into various denominations with no group being inherently better than any other.  And for one group to say it is the true home of Christians would be the sort of arrogant factiousness which is condemned in Scripture.  All that matters is a person has a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Catholic Church has a different approach entirely. Non-Catholics would agree with us that we should desire to be fully integrated into Christ’s Church. But what is the Church? In Matthew 18:18, Jesus indicates His Church would be a visible organization with juridical powers.  In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said it will be a single, enduring institution with a special place for the ministry of Peter. In places like 2 Timothy 2:2 and Titus 1:5 we see that this Church has an organic lineage of leadership tracing back to the Apostles. In John 20:21 we see the Church has the authority to forgive sins in Christ’s name. All this leads to the conclusion that the fullest expression of Christ’s Church is the Catholic Church. And the various denominations are splinter groups which lack the full measure of the gifts which Jesus meant for us to have.

We can affirm that non-Catholics are joined to the Church through their Baptisms, and can celebrate their personal relationships with Christ. But as Christians we should not view our relationship with the Church as separate from our relationship with Christ. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:23, the Church “is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
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This is a reference to the book of Ecclesiastes, which says, “For the living know they will die, but the dead no longer know anything” [Ecc 9:5].  Some groups seize upon that statement to propose that the dead go into a state of suspended consciousness called “soul sleep”.  In this state they would cease to have any conscious experience or awareness until the resurrection of the dead.  What they fail to take into account is the type of literature one is reading in the book of Ecclesiastes.  Right from the start, the author says his task is to record the wisdom of the world [Ecc 1:12].  What follows is a cynical, pessimistic description of the world from an outlook that is devoid of God.  So you get gems like, “wine gives cheer to life while money is the answer to everything” [Ecc 10:19] and statements saying life is horrible and not worth living [Ecc 4:3].  It is in that perspective that the author says, “the dead know nothing.” 

On the other hand, in Luke 15 we find The Parable of the Lost Sheep, which Jesus concludes by saying, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” That shows the denizens of heaven will be aware of such an event. In Hebrews 12, the sacred author describes all the dead heroes of the Old Testament as a “cloud of witnesses.” Further, we see Moses and Elijah being aware of earthly events during the Transfiguration. Lastly, in Revelation 8:3 the martyrs in Heaven are shown crying out to God for justice to be done on the earth. Taken together, these show that our beloved dead do retain awareness of earthly matters.
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