Why I love my Catholic Church!

1. Why I love my Catholic Church! A personal and comprehensive view of Catholic Church By Fr.Bosco Gali

2. Why are you a catholic? • Most of you have been catholic for years more than me. • Suppose if I were to ask you ‘why are you a catholic?’ • What will your answer be? • How many of you can explain and say this is why I am a catholic? • Apart from the reason ‘I was born a catholic.’

3. This is the challenge I was faced with? • For years I was thinking I am catholic because my parents and grand parents were catholic; therefore I am catholic. And I loved it. • But later on I felt that is not enough. I need something more.

4. Then I began to reflect; Why am I a catholic? • Specially in In India, where Hinduism is the majority and privileged religion, why am I a catholic? • That made me to think. These are my personal answers. You may agree or disagree.

5. Aim • But My aim for having this class and sharing these views is; • That by the end of this class: • You yourselves will come up with some of your own reasons for being catholic. • You will find out what are the things that are keeping you catholic.

6. Know why? • If you don’t know why you are a catholic? • If you don’t love being catholic for specific reasons • Then if someone comes and says something, • Or you read a scandal in the catholic church somewhere, and you are disturbed, • There is a great danger that your faith may be shaken. So know why you are a catholic and what you love in this church.

7. I love my catholic church because of • What it is! • What it says! (Teaches) • And what it does!

8. What is the Church? (1) What is the Church? Christ handing the keys to St Peter by Pietro Perugino

9. What is the Church? (2) What is the Church? The Church is the mystical body of Christ, established by God on earth to gather humanity to divine life in heaven. KEY DEFINITION

10. What is the Church? (3) What is the Church? • God desires all the faithful to be a single family, united to him and to one another in one ‘mystical body’. • This assembly is the Church, the body of Christ, which God has established as: • “the instrument for the salvation of all” (Lumen Gentium 9§2, ccc. 776).

11. Compendium of CCC • The word Church refers to the people whom God calls and gathers together from every part of the earth. • They form the assembly of those who through faith and Baptism have become children of God, members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit.

12. Mistakes about the Church (1) Mistakes about the Church The Ordination of Saint Lawrence by Fra Angelico. The ordination of St Lawrence by Pope St Sixtus II reminds us that the Church is essentially hierarchical and united around the successor of St Peter, the Pope.

13. Mistakes about the Church (2) Mistakes about the Church

14. Mistakes about the Church (3) Mistakes about the Church

15. Most non-Catholic Christians do not believe that Jesus Christ established a visible Church that is governed by a hierarchy of leaders who can teach with authority

16. Instead, they believe that the Church is an invisible association of believers in Christ, loosely connected by a common belief in the Bible alone as the rule and guide of faith.

17. They believe this despite the fact that this understanding of “church” was not espoused by any Christian figure until 1517, when Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church and developed the novel doctrine of :Sola Scriptura.

18. The foundation of the Church by Christ (1) The foundation of the Church by Christ Christ Teaches his Disciples by Duccio di Buoninsegna. This picture reminds us that Jesus founded his Church on his twelve apostles, whose successors are the bishops.

19. The Scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ left behind a visible and hierarchical Church with bishops, priests and deacons on whom He conferred His own divine teaching authority and instructed to perpetuate His mission by passing on their authority to successors

20. The Scriptures teach us that Jesus specifically built His Church upon the Apostle Peter,* to whom He gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven,* Mt.16:19

21. The foundation of the Church by Christ (2) The foundation of the Church by Christ Jesus Christ established a group of followers under twelve leaders he called ‘Apostles’. He gave one of them, Simon Peter, overall authority. “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. 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 16:18-19

22. What is the Church? (5) What is the Church? The Twelve Apostles were also given the power to bind and loose when united with Peter, their head. Jesus Peter Keys of the Kingdom given by Christ to St Peter, symbol of the supreme authority of Peter and of his successors, the Popes. This picture symbolises the founding event of the Church on earth.

23. and the special mandate to rule over His flock. Read John 21: 15-17 Do you love me? Feed my lambs…

24. The foundation of the Church by Christ (3) The foundation of the Church by Christ He gave his disciples his teaching to pass on to all peoples under the direction of the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost. This teaching is found in Scripture and Tradition, and is interpreted by the Church with the authority of Christ. He also established the sacraments to enable his saving power to be present through the ministry of the Church. “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19).

25. Kingdom of God: Where? • Those who deny that Christ left a visible, hierarchical and authoritative Church are forced to argue that the kingdom of heaven Jesus was talking about in Matthew 16:19 refers to the heavenly kingdom of eternal glory (as if Peter’s keys relate to a gate—keeping duty of letting people into heaven). • Otherwise, the Catholic understanding of a visible, earthly kingdom-Church built upon Peter and invested with Christ’s divine authority is compelling.

26. But let us examine of parables of the kingdom to see what type of Kingdom it is? • Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a field of good and bad seeds in reference to good and bad people? This kingdom must refer to the earthly Church and not eternal state of glory for there are no bad people in heaven.

27. Parable of the Mustard seed • Jesus also says the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that grows into a tree. • This refers to the growth of the universal Church on earth — not heaven, which is eternal.

28. Parable of the leaven • Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like bread that is mixed with three measures of flour to become leavened.” • This refers to the earthly kingdom of God, which grows in holiness.

29. The metaphors “mustard seed” and “leaven” also demonstrate that the Church would change in appearance over time, but would be in essence the very same Church of Jesus Christ and His apostles.

30. Parable of net • Jesus also says the kingdom of heaven is like a net which catches fish of every kind.‘ • This describes the universal (“Catholic”) Church, which unites people of every kind into the body of Christ.

31. Parable of the ten virgins • Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to ten maidens, five of whom were foolish. • Again, this kingdom refers to the Church on earth, because there are no fools in the glorious kingdom of heaven!

32. So, • When Jesus declares that the kingdom of God “has come upon you”* or “is at hand,” He is referring to the earthly kingdom of God, and not the eternal state of glory • Similarly when Jesus gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven, He is referring to God’s kingdom on earth.

33. Ecclesia • That is why he named his kingdom “Ecclesia.” Ecclesia is the Greek word for a formal, hierarchical assembly with visible leadership. Jesus only uses this word twice in the New Testament, each time in reference to His Church. • He chose a special leader • He chose twelve apostles from many disciples • And gave them the power to bind and to loose.

34. He also enabled them to choose successors In the Acts of the Apostles (1:15-26), we see that the first thing Peter did after Christ’s Ascension into heaven was to appoint a successor to Judas Iscariot. Even though Judas betrayed Christ, the authority of his office” (or bishopric) was respected and preserved (v.20). Thus, Matthias succeeded to Judas’ office with full apostolic authority (v. 15-26).

35. in Acts 6, the twelve apostles expanded the apostolic college by an additional seven men: “They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them” (Acts 6:5-6).

36. A few chapters later, the Church ordained Barnabas and Saul at the direction of the Holy Spirit. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off (Acts13:2-3).

37. All these go to show that the church established by our Lord Jesus Christ Is the catholic Church And the structure of the church as we have it now is as biblical as it was in those days. Catholic church is the church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ on the foundation of his apostles and their successors.

38. The Church in the Creed (1) The Church in the Creed Pentecost by Duccio di Buoninsegna This descent of the Holy Spirit was the beginning of the Church’s mission to the world.

39. The Church in the Creed (2) The Church in the Creed

40. Compndium • The Church is one because she has as her source and exemplar the unity of the Trinity of Persons in one God. As her Founder and Head, Jesus Christ re-established the unity of all people in one body. As her soul, the Holy Spirit unites all the faithful in communion with Christ. The Church has but one faith, one sacramental life, one apostolic succession, one common hope, and one and the same charity.

41. The Church in the Creed (3) The Church in the Creed

42. compendium • The Church is holy insofar as the Most Holy God is her author. Christ has given himself for her to sanctify her and make her a source of sanctification. The Holy Spirit gives her life with charity. In the Church one finds the fullness of the means of salvation. Holiness is the vocation of each of her members and the purpose of all her activities.

43. The Church counts among her members the Virgin Mary and numerous Saints who are her models and intercessors. The holiness of the Church is the fountain of sanctification for her children who here on earth recognize themselves as sinners ever in need of conversion and purification.

44. The Church in the Creed (4) The Church in the Creed

45. The Church is catholic, that is universal, insofar as Christ is present in her: “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch). The Church proclaims the fullness and the totality of the faith; she bears and administers the fullness of the means of salvation; she is sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race.

46. The Church in the Creed (5) The Church in the Creed

47. Compendium • The Church is apostolic in her origin because she has been built on “the foundation of the Apostles” (Ephesians 2:20). She is apostolic in her teaching which is the same as that of the Apostles. She is apostolic by reason of her structure insofar as she is taught, sanctified, and guided until Christ returns by the Apostles through their successors who are the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter.

48. Where is the Church? (1) Where is the Church? San Marco Altarpiece by Fra Angelico

49. The Church on earth (1) The Church on earth The Seven Sacraments by Weyden. The primary mission of the Church on earth is to sanctify and save her members, particularly through the sacraments.

50. The Church on earth (2) The Church on earth St Paul calls the Church the ‘body of Christ’ (Eph 1:22-23). As a body, she has an ordered structure and a visible unity. As Christ’s body, she is both a divine and human reality (ccc. 771). The principal visible elements of this structure are the bishop of Rome (Pope), all the bishops of the world in communion with him, their priests and deacons, those in religious life and the lay faithful.