Being Ambassadors of Christ to Our Catholic Neighbors
“Are you a Christian?”
“Yes, of course. I am Italian.”
My father was an ordinary Italian man, nominally Christian and devout to Saint Antony, but with little grasp of basic gospel truths. One day he was visited by a couple from the local evangelical church. They asked if we were Christians. His answer was yes. We were confusing our Christianity with our national and cultural identity, like many Catholics do in contexts where they are the majority.
This is often what happens when you approach your Catholic neighbor: she probably assumes that the Roman Church has somehow taught the gospel and that she is a Christian. In predominantly Catholic areas, many people think they “belong” to the Church because they were baptized there. This Catholicism is so embedded in culture (e.g. family ties, nationality) that it becomes indistinguishable from deeply-felt personal and social identities. How can Christians bring the gospel to them? It’s a great challenge, but it is possible.
Who’s Word?
First, it is important to examine the distinct differences between Protestantism and Catholicism. Without learning this, we will be intellectually unequipped to address the obstacles between a Catholic and the gospel.
One problem with Roman Catholicism is that its doctrines and practices are not based on the Bible alone, but also the traditions of the Church. Both the Bible and the traditions are then interpreted by the teaching office of the Church. The Bible is not the final authority—the Church is. According to this view, tradition holds priority over the Bible, and the Church’s voice is based on whatever the ongoing teaching of the Church advocates rather than biblical text. But the Bible cannot be the ultimate authority—it cannot teach, reproof, correct and train—if it’s not the final word. According to Roman Catholicism, the Bible is important, but incomplete. It is one form of revelation, but not the final one.
Take, for instance, the doctrine of Mary, or Mariology. The Bible gives us a sober account of the mother of Jesus. However, listen to how the Roman Catholic Church has developed it: “the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix” (Vatican II: Lumen Gentium, 62). These are all Christological titles that were passed onto Mary. What the Bible ascribes to Jesus alone, the Roman Church ascribes to Mary. Why? Because tradition takes precedence over the Bible and can therefore lead to these Mariological developments that detract attention from the Lord Jesus. It is no surprise that in many majority Catholic regions, the cult of Mary is more practiced in praying to her than praying to Jesus. The motto of Pope John Paul II was totus tuus, “totally yours,” which advocates that the Church belonging to Mary. Today’s Pope Francis has a strong Mariological spirituality, praying the Marian rosary daily and speaking about her all the time.
Salvation What?
There is a second fundamental problem in Roman Catholic teachings and practices, and it has to do with these questions:
What is humanity’s problem?
What is my problem?
How one is reconciled with God?
In other words, the issue of salvation is at stake here.
The Roman Catholic Church violently rejected the biblical doctrine of salvation by faith alone at the Council of Trent (1545-1562). Trent continued to use the word justification, but filled it with a completely different meaning. For Trent, justification was not an act of God, but rather a process—a process initiated by baptism, nurtured by religious works, and sustained by the sacramental system of the Church. It required purification in purgatory, and was perhaps enacted on Judgment Day. Rome reconstructed justification into a combination of God’s initiative and man’s efforts, grace and works joined together, and into an ongoing journey of justification that was ultimately dependent on the “clay and iron” of human works and ecclesiastical sacraments. What was missing was the declarative, forensic act of justification, the exclusive grounding in divine grace, and the full assurance of being justified because of what God the Father has declared, God the Son has achieved, and God the Spirit has worked out—the story of Jesus and his sacrifice. Trent came up with a confused (and confusing) teaching on justification that has been misleading people ever since.
Same words, different meanings
It is often pointed out that Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics have a lot in common. On one hand, there is an apparent “common orthodoxy” based on the ancient Trinitarian and Christological creeds, which use the same basic words of the gospel: God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, sin, faith, salvation, church, and so on. On the other hand, nobody can deny the profound differences that separate evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics in their accounts of the doctrines of Christ, the Church, and salvation (i.e. the core of the gospel), as well as Mary, the intercession of the saints, purgatory, papal infallibility, and the manifold practices that stem out of them. In many respects, Roman Catholicism is very alien to the evangelical faith.
The problem lies with the way in which the same words are understood differently. They are the same phonetically, but drastically different theologically. The decisive issue is the frame of reference that binds them together.
There is no other gospel than the biblically-attested message that Jesus Christ saves unworthy sinners like us through his sacrifice on the cross. The Bible is crystal-clear that we either accept that we are justified by God’s grace or we try to justify ourselves by our own means—the latter of which is a tragic deception. As the statement “Is the Reformation Over?” (signed by dozens of evangelical theologians and leaders worldwide) argues, “In all its varieties and at times conflicting tendencies, the Protestant Reformation was ultimately a call to (1) recover the authority of the Bible over the church and (2) appreciate afresh the fact that salvation comes to us through faith alone.” These are standing and unresolved issues that need to be approached in our conversations with our Catholic friends.
Here are three rules of thumb to reach out to Catholic believers:
Rule of Thumb 1: Show the Full Story of the Gospel
When I speak to my Catholic friends about my beliefs, my first rule of thumb is to avoid assuming that they already grasp the basics of the gospel. They may know some Christian vocabulary, but it is generally mired in distorted traditions and cultural baggage.
I also expose them to Scripture as much as possible. Although many Catholics seem familiar with some individual Bible stories, most are unfamiliar with the Bible’s overarching message. While it is true that the Bible is read in every Mass, it is nonetheless read selectively, avoiding entire sections of the Old Testament and not providing a sense of the flow of the biblical story. Due to this lack of teaching (and appreciating) the biblical story as a whole and how it fits the gospel of Jesus Christ, many of my Roman Catholic friends find it difficult to square the “violence” of the Old Testament with the “love” of the New Testament. But when faced with the love present in the Old Testament and the judgment central to the New Testament, they are often puzzled—they don’t grasp the Bible as a whole and the good news as law and gospel. It is important to help them approach Scripture as a full, completed text that places Christ at its center and the church as the servant of the Word. When understood this way, the Bible can reform our view of God and the world, our sin and need for salvation, and the good news of Christ’s love.
Rule of Thumb 2: Show the Exclusivity of the Gospel
Most Catholics I know are “pick-and-choose” believers who blend unbiblical traditions and secular unbelief. Their Catholicism is usually a layer of their stratified religion, which is also made of secular assumptions and anti-Christian views.
In our post-Vatican II era where Catholicism has become very pluralistic and diverse, you may find Catholics of all sorts: traditional, progressive, those selective in their faith and even more so in their moral lives. Many proclaim to be religious because they go to Mass once or twice a year, yet they don’t follow the rules of the Roman Church when it comes to their sexual life, and follow a secular example instead. Their belief system is a combination of multiple religious ingredients, with Roman Catholicism placed at the outermost circle. In Western countries, the combination will be between traditional practices and secular tendencies. In Latin America, Roman Catholicism is mixed with animistic beliefs. In Asia, it tends to blend the Catholic Catechism with forms of Eastern mysticism.
It is not the Christian’s task to become “moralistic” with these types of people, but we do have to show the exclusive claims of the gospel, and how they originate not out of bigotry, but celebrate the grateful obedience of sinners who are saved by grace alone and willing to serve God and the neighbors.
Rule of Thumb 3: Show the Community of Christian Faith
Finally, it is important to show the personal and the communal aspects of the faith in order to give viable alternatives to their daily lives. The gospel is not only a message for individuals on how to go to heaven, but a comprehensive message centered on how the lordship of Christ encompasses our whole life.
Many of my Catholic friends would assume that only priests are seriously engaged in the Christian faith. They are surprised to see “lay” people like me being passionate about the gospel (I am a pastor, but don’t qualify to be a “priest” according to Roman Catholic standards). They are touched when they see the impact of the gospel in my personal life both in times of struggle and times of victory. And they are touched when they see how the gospel shapes community life: the way we do things together—worshipping together, playing together, eating together, praying together, caring for one another together).
Maintaining a potent Church life is the primary evangelistic tool for Catholics, and so we should introduce the Christian church to Catholics as soon as possible—then, we can show how illuminating, supportive, and fulfilling a community can be when it is devoted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To read more resources from Leonardo De Chirico, visit here.
About the Author
Leonardo De Chirico is the pastor of the Breccia di Roma church in Rome, Italy and Director of the Reformanda Initiative, which aims to equip evangelical leaders to better understand and engage with Roman Catholicism.
He is married to Valeria and they have two sons, Filippo and Akille.