| UP |
Revised September 19, 2015
| Sections: | A. Current size and organization |
| B. Brief history | |
| C. Similarities |
The world population is approaching 7½ billion. (See the population "clocks" at www.census.gov/popclock/.) We would like to know how many of these souls are Roman Catholic. However, we must keep in mind that, when it comes to the number of adherents of the various world religions, all statistics are approximations. There are several reasons why we must be cautious when we look at such statistics. First, most religions outside Christianity do not keep membership statistics. Second, in Asia it is not uncommon for individuals to claim membership in more than one religion. Third, those religions which do keep statistics do not necessarily use the same method for counting members. For example, Roman Catholics count as members all individuals (including infants) who have received baptism, while Protestants count only those who have actively joined the church.
Yet, the approximations can be instructive. The percentages in the following chart are taken from the CIA World Factbook (www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html).
| United States (2007 estimate) | Worldwide (2010 estimate) |
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As you can see from the above chart, Roman Catholicism claims approximately one-fourth of the population of the United States and approximately one-sixth of the world, which means that there are over one billion Roman Catholics around the world. Worldwide there are over 400,000 priests and nearly 3,500 bishops (Trigilio, p. 24).
The Roman Catholic Church is described by its adherents as a monarchy, and by its enemies as a dictatorship.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church is the pope, whose complete title is "Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, and Sovereign of the State of Vatican City." He is addressed as "Your Holiness" and in his official documents refers to himself as "Servant of the Servants of God." His vestments are always white, and he wears a gold cross that is said to contain a relic of Jesus' actual cross. The rank of various other clergy under the pope runs as follows: cardinal, archbishop, bishop, priest (pastor), deacon, subdeacon. Cardinals wear red, bishops purple, and priests black.
The pope is the ruler of Vatican City, has an actual throne, and wields considerable power. Vatican City is an independent city state contained entirely within the city of Rome, Italy. As a state, the Vatican sends ambassadors to other countries and receives ambassadors from them. In size, Vatican City is extremely small. It covers 109 acres (one-sixth of a square mile), is roughly three quarters of a mile across at its widest point, and has less than a thousand inhabitants. The city is dominated by the huge, domed Saint Peter's Church which, according to both ancient tradition and more recent archeology, is said to stand over the crypt of Saint Peter.
In addition to his temporal powers, the pope maintains absolute religious authority in all matters of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the governor, teacher, and judge all in one. It is claimed that, when he speaks as pope (ex cathedra, or by virtue of his office) on matters of faith and morals, he cannot err. He can absolve individuals from certain sins, excommunicate persons, make and change church laws, canonize saints, change the borders of a bishop's diocese, approve new religious orders, and call ecumenical councils.
The Sacred College, or College of Cardinals, serves as a group of advisors to the pope. The pope appoints all cardinals. Many Cardinals head the various Roman Catholic dioceses around the world, while others hold administrative positions in Vatican City.
But the college or body of bishops has no authority unless it is simultaneously conceived of in terms of its head, the Roman Pontiff, Peter's successor, and without any lessening of his power of primacy over all, pastors as well as the general faithful. For in virtue of his office, that is, as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff has full, supreme, and universal power over the Church. And he can always exercise this power freely. (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, section 22)
When a pope dies, the Sacred College temporarily takes over the administration of the Church and starts the process of electing a new pope. The cardinals meet in a closed, locked-down session known as a conclave and those who are age 80 or younger vote four times a day until one of them receives two-thirds of the votes.
The pope is elected to his office for life. No one (and no council) can remove him from office, even if he becomes insane or corrupt. A pope can voluntarily resign, and several have done so.
Roman Catholics claim a succession of 266 popes from the apostle Peter through Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) who was elected pope in 2013. The average length of reign has been 7½ years. There is some historical uncertainty regarding the number 266, which could be as low as 262 if certain popes were actually "antipopes" because the removal of their predecessors was illegitimate. (Sources include: National Catholic Almanac)
The official language of Roman Catholicism is Latin. All important formal declarations pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole, such as papal encyclicals and general council decrees, are written first in Latin and then translated into the vernacular of each region.
For the typical person born into a Roman Catholic family in the United States, the religious milestones are baptism during infancy, first communion around age 7, and confirmation during early adolescence.
One way to look at the history of the Roman Catholic Church is to adopt the Roman Catholic viewpoint. Roman Catholicism claims that, as a church, it has a continuous history which extends back to New Testament times, particularly through the succession of popes which supposedly extends back to Peter as the first "bishop of Rome." This issue of papal succession will be examined later.
Because we are focusing on the teachings rather than the organization of the Roman Catholic Church, as mentioned in the introduction, there is a more appropriate way to approach the church's history. We must recognize that the system of teachings and features which has been central to and unique to the Roman Catholic Church throughout its history was not present during the first century A.D. and was present only in an incipient form during the next three centuries. Those distinctive elements, which make the Roman Catholic Church what it is and distinguish it from other major Christian groups, gradually came into existence after New Testament times. Thus, because of its altered teachings, gradually over a period of several hundred years the Roman Catholic Church emerged as a separate organization with its unique identity.
Below is a diagram of the history of the Roman Catholic Church, focusing on its teachings. As with many diagrams, this one is an oversimplification of a complex subject. Nevertheless, it attempts to illustrate several important aspects of that church's history and teachings.
One important aspect indicated by the following diagram is the fact that the Roman Catholic church does not extend all the way back to the time of Christ and the original twelve apostles. Rather, it began gradually during an incipient period between A.D. 95 and 450. During these years we observe the church's reliance on apostolic succession rather than on the apostles' writings, the centralization of church authority in Rome, and the church becoming entangled with the state. Around 95 Clement described and approved of the succession of the office of bishop from the office of apostle. Around 180 the historian Hegesippus described apostolic succession in Rome and Corinth. The same year, Irenaeus argued for apostolic succession and for the supremacy of Rome. In 313 Constantine, emperor of Rome, issued the edict of Milan which accepted Christianity as one of many legal religions. In 325 Constantine called the Council of Nicea. In 330 Constantine declared the empire's official religion to be Christianity. In 380 Theodosius I issued an edict making Christianity the only religion of the empire. Between approximately 400 and 430 Augustine argued in favor of infant baptism, the sacraments, and the papacy. And finally, in 450 Pope Leo I claimed the supremacy of the Roman bishop over all other bishops. This centralization of power in Rome remains a hallmark of the Roman Catholic Church and the single most distinctive part of its name. Other groups claim to be the true church and to be catholic (universal), but there is only one Roman Catholic Church. For this reason, we consider the date of the formal beginning of the Roman Catholic Church to be A.D. 450 with the various developments that led up to this date belonging to the incipient period of its history. During this incipient period certain distinctively Roman Catholic teachings began to emerge, such as prayer for the dead, private confession of sins to a priest, a celibate clergy, the papacy, emphasis on the sacraments, and the elevation of Mary. These things are observed during this incipient period and became more fully developed later, but did not exist in New Testament times.
Another important aspect indicated by the following diagram is the fact that the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church continually drift away from those of the Bible. While the biblical teachings remain constant because they are grounded in written documents that do not change, the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church yield to the influences of the current culture and thus change over time.
To keep this diagram simple, only a few key dates are indicated. In the Appendix is a more complete list of events and teachings in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, along with a few major world events. Many of those listed teachings are at variance with the teachings of the Bible, as will be explained in the following sections.
What we have presented in the above diagram is not unique to the Roman Catholic Church. If we look past the details to the larger picture, we see the essence of what has happened – a human organization gradually departed from its original divine intent. This pattern of departure is inherent in human organizations. It does not matter if the founding of the organization is divine, as long as human beings are given responsibility for the direction of the organization, it will tend to go astray and will need to be repeatedly called back to the original divine intent.
This same pattern of departure can be seen in ancient Israel. Indeed, the book of Judges illustrates this pattern over and over as Israel follows the influence of surrounding nations and God uses those nations to chasten Israel and then sends judges to deliver Israel. The same pattern of repeated departure is seen during the period of Israel's kings and the prophets who called Israel back to the Law. Josiah's reform is an explicit example of the nation returning to the writings, that is, the Law (2 Kings 22-23).
In our time the same basic pattern of departure from the fundamentals of the faith is seen within many branches of Protestantism. Many liberal churches have blindly accepted evolution, turned the Bible into the word of man rather than the Word of God, made God a mere human idea instead of a trinity of three real divine persons, redefined Jesus, and preached an empty psychological gospel. And the neo-orthodox response of Carl Barth and his progeny was not a return to the truth, but a further departure. As always, such departures from the true faith involve the weakness of the human leadership following the influences of the surrounding culture. Indeed, the above diagram (without much alteration except for a change of dates) could be used for any of these examples of departure. This serves as a warning to all other Christian church denominations and organizations.
Immediately after the ascension of Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Father, the church on earth consisted of a small band of believers who had a savior, a message of salvation, and a mission of evangelism. Our best source of information regarding that time is the New Testament itself, especially the book of Acts and the epistles.
Many theologians refer to the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus' followers to speak the message of salvation to Jews from all over the Roman Empire, as the birthday of the church. And the idea that the church has a birthday certainly fits Jesus' own statement that he would build his church upon the foundation of himself (Matthew 16:18). But there is another sense in which the church has no birthday, but is the continuation of spiritual Israel (as opposed to national Israel). This is the concept underlying Jesus' teaching regarding the transfer of the kingdom from Israel to his "little flock" of followers (Matthew 21:43-45; Luke 12:32). It is also the concept of the church which Paul presents in his analogy of the olive tree which makes spiritual Israel the root and New Testament believers the branches (Romans 11:17-24).
During that first century the church did more expanding than organizing. As Jesus had commanded, his followers spread the gospel outward from Judea, then Samaria, to the rest of the known world. The organization arose naturally from the expansion, with the believers in each city becoming a "local" church. Notice such references as "the church at Antioch," and "the church in Cenchrea," and even "the church that meets at their house" (Acts 13:1; Romans 16:1, 5). And each local church had elders and deacons. Elders are the same as bishops, overseers, and pastors; see Chapter 31 of Effective Christian Ministry. Thus, at the end of the book of Acts, all church offices were local church offices. The hierarchy, if you can call it that, was only one level deep. There was no explicit hierarchy of offices outside the local church. As would be expected, during the years while the apostles were still alive they were consulted on doctrinal issues as recorded in Acts 15.
Up through A.D. 300 Christianity was still not recognized as a legal religion in the Roman empire. That changed during the reign of Constantine, the first emperor to become a Christian. The state's recognition of Christianity opened the door to much that is contrary to the true gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
In A.D. 312 the armies of Constantine and Maxentius, the two principal contenders for the throne of the western half of the Roman empire, were preparing to fight. Constantine claimed that, before the battle, he had a vision in which he was promised victory if he fought under the sign of Christ. He placed the letter χ (chi, the first Greek letter in the title Christ) on his soldiers' shields and banners, won the battle, and thus became emperor of the west and a strong supporter of Christianity.
In 313 Constantine met with Licinius, emperor of the eastern half of the empire, in Milan, Italy where they established the policy known as the "Edict of Milan" which legitimized all religious groups including Christianity. Because of this edict Christians gained freedom and could worship openly. The church was recognized as a legal entity and could hold property, and property that had been previously confiscated from Christians was returned.
However, Christians also "gained" something else, which initiates one of the primary influences that gives rise to the Roman Catholic Church. Constantine gave many gifts to the church including large estates. He also built several famous cathedrals including the Lateran Basilica in Rome which became the cathedral of the pope.
Moving from persecution and illegality to official recognition and freedom is one thing. But by accepting such gifts, the church moved to a type of alliance with the state and dependence upon civil powers that would quickly lead the church astray. It is the view of this writer, as it was the view of the so-called radical reformers in Europe during the 1500's, that the entanglement of the church with the state, which started with Constantine, was a key factor in the departure of the church from the biblical standard.
In 324 Constantine gained supremacy over Licinius to become ruler of the entire Roman empire. In 325 it was Constantine (not the Roman bishop) who called the first general council of the church in Nicea (in what is now Turkey) to deal with Arianism which denied the full deity of Christ. Pope Sylvester I did not personally attend the sessions. Constantine presided over the opening session and took part in the discussions. After the council condemned Arius, Constantine exiled him.
Even though the capitol of the empire had been in Rome, Italy, the western half of the empire was weakening. So in A.D. 330 Constantine moved the capitol to the leading city of the eastern half of the empire, Byzantium (presently Istanbul, Turkey), which was renamed Constantinople in his honor. That same year he declared Christianity the empire's official religion.
In 380 emperor Theodosius I issued an edict making Christianity the only religion of the empire.
In 410 the city of Rome fell to the Visigoths and the Roman Catholic Church, having attained significant political power, was able to step into the void. As the Western part of the empire crumbled over the next seven decades, the Church did provide some measure of stability but at the same time spread its tentacles ever deeper in the political realm.
The historian Earle Cairns evaluates the effect of the church's early entanglement with the state.
Looking back at the steps by which Christianity, a despised sect with small numbers, became the official religion of the mighty Roman Empire, one might well believe, with the advantage of the perspective of time, that this victorious march was detrimental to the Church. It is true that Christianity had raised the moral tone of society so that the dignity of women was given more recognition in society, gladiatorial shows were eliminated, slaves were given milder treatment, Roman legislation became more just, and the spread of missionary work was speeded up; but the Church also found that, while there were advantages to close association with the state, there were also marked disadvantages. The government in return for position, protection and aid demanded the right to interfere in spiritual and theological matters. Constantine at Nicea in 325 arrogated to himself the right to arbitrate the dispute in the Church, even though he was only the temporal ruler of the Empire. The long vexatious problem of the struggle between the Church and state had its beginnings in this era. Unfortunately, the Church, when it gained the power, too often became as arrogant a persecutor of paganism as the pagan religious authorities had ever been of the Christians. It would appear on balance that the rapprochement between Church and state brought more drawbacks than blessings to the Christian Church. (Earle E. Cairns, Christianity through the Centuries, Revised Ed., Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1961, pages 135-137)
Boettner explains how the entanglement with the state opened the door for pagan beliefs and practices.
Constantine ... after he had become ruler of all of the empire, made Christianity the official religion. The result was that thousands of people who still were pagans pressed into the church in order to gain the special advantages and favors that went with such membership. They came in in far greater numbers than could be instructed or assimilated. Having been used to the more elaborate pagan rituals, they were not satisfied with the simple Christian worship but began to introduce their heathen beliefs and practices. Gradually, through the neglect of the Bible and the ignorance of the people, more and more heathen ideas were introduced until the church became more heathen than Christian. Many of the heathen temples were taken over by the church and re-dedicated as Christian churches.
Thus in time there was found in the church a sacrificing and gorgeously appareled priesthood, an elaborate ritual, images, holy water, incense, monks and nuns, the doctrine of purgatory, and in general a belief that salvation was to be achieved by works rather than by grace. The church in Rome, and in general the churches throughout the empire, ceased to be the apostolic Christian church, and became for the most part a religious monstrosity. (Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, 5th ed., Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., after 1965, p. 11)
Testa (a former Roman Catholic) adds:
… Christianity was declared the state religion, and multitudes of pagans were admitted to the church by baptism alone, without conversion. They brought with them their pagan rites, ceremonies and practices which they gradually introduced into the church with Christian names, all of which corrupted the primitive faith and the church became Romanized and paganized. (Stephen L. Testa, Is Romanism in the Bible?, p. 3, quoted in Boettner, op. cit., p. 23)
From A.D. 396 - 430 Augustine served as bishop of Hippo, Algeria in northern Africa. He was perhaps the Roman Catholic Church's most influential theologian, defending the sacraments and the power of the papacy.
Around 450 Pope Leo I declared that as bishop of Rome he possessed the "primacy of Peter," making all other bishops subject to him. This declaration formalized an idea which had its roots in earlier times and established one of the primary distinctive elements of the Roman Catholic Church. The idea created opposition among those in the eastern half of the empire – a dispute that would smolder for centuries and remains unresolved today.
Pope Leo I had great political power and is given credit for using his diplomatic influence to stop the advance of the Huns in 452 and to stop the Vandals from destroying Rome in 455.
The order of monks founded in 529 by Benedict helped preserve learning and culture through the dark ages.
Pope Gregory I, who reigned from 590 to 604, required that the clergy be celibate, and attempted to eliminate the widespread practice of simony, the sale of church offices.
Besides simony, other problems plagued the papacy during the Middle Ages. Besides selling church offices, church property was also sold for personal gain. Various kings gained control of the papacy and appointed their own colleagues as popes. Also, during the mid 800's the east-west conflict, which had been smoldering for four centuries, flared up. Pope Nicholas I denounced Photius, patriarch of Constantinople (primate of the Eastern church), who in turn announced that he was no longer a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
For over a thousand years, from 756 to 1870, the pope reigned over several provinces and cities in central Italy, including Rome, known as the Papal States. Part of this territory had been given to Pope Stephen II by Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, and another part given to a later pope by Pepin's son, Charlemagne. During this period church and state were thoroughly entangled and the pope's temporal power extended well beyond the Papal States. Popes crowned kings and kings confirmed the election of popes. This occurred first in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans, and again in 962 when Pope John XII crowned Otto I of Germany ruler of what was later known as the Holy Roman Empire. Otto, in turn, kept close control over the elections of several popes. And from the mid 900's to the early 1000's the Crescentii family of Rome manipulated the papacy. Pope John XVII (1003) was one who was widely known as a puppet of the state. And it was not just political pressure that various emperors used to get "their own man" on the papal throne. Sometimes military force was used, most often by the kings of France and Sicily. There were also occasions when factions within the church would set up an antipope (a pope "improperly" elected). It was not until Pope Nicholas II, who became pope in 1059, that the Sacred College (now also known as the College of Cardinals) was formed in order to return the power to select the pope back to the church. But emperors continued to have some say over the makeup of the Sacred College.
In the Papal States, Jews were forced to live in isolated ghettos and wear a yellow hat or badge identifying them as Jews.
In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated the western pope, Leo IX. This resulted in a formal split in the church which remains today. In spite of the fact that the Eastern Orthodox Church adheres to the first seven ecumenical councils, and despite the formal reversal of the excommunication in 1965, the differences in the celebration of mass (the Latin rite used in the West versus the Byzantine rite used in the East) mean that members of the Roman Catholic Church (Western) cannot receive communion in an Eastern Orthodox church, and members of an Eastern Orthodox church are not to receive communion in a Western church. (Eastern Orthodox Churches are not to be confused with Eastern Catholic Churches which do recognize the primacy of the Roman pontiff.)
In 1305 a French archbishop was crowned Pope Clement V at Lyon, France. His election was influenced by France's King Philip. Four years later Pope Clement moved the seat of the papacy to Avignon, France, where he appointed only French cardinals. For the next 68 years and seven popes the French king greatly influenced the papacy. This period is known as the Babylonian Captivity of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1377 Pope Gregory XI returned the papacy to Rome.
During the 39 years known as the Great Schism of the West, the church hierarchy was split into two parts, then three. It started in 1378 when the cardinals who elected an Italian as Pope Urban VI claimed that they had been forced. Later that same year they elected a French cardinal as Pope Clement VII. Several European states recognized Urban, while others recognized Clement. Each pope appointed his own group of cardinals and thus perpetuated the split through several more popes in each line. In 1409 the general council of Pisa was called to unite the papacy, but instead it elected a third pope, Alexander V. In 1417 the Council of Constance elected Pope Martin V who was accepted by all sides.
Another example of the entanglement of the church with the state is seen in the life of the cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He was simultaneously cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church and lord chancellor of England, exerting a controlling influence over the affairs of England for fourteen years. In 1529 he failed to quickly obtain a marriage annulment for King Henry VIII and fell from power. Shortly before his death, while facing condemnation in the court, he said, "If I had served God as diligently as I have done the king, He would not have given me over in my grey hairs" –a confirmation of Jesus' words that "no one can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24).
Although the date of the Protestant Reformation is usually fixed at 1517, there was plenty of discontent expressed during the preceding centuries. In the 1370s John Wycliffe opposed the papacy and the doctrine of transubstantiation, and translated the Bible into English. In 1492 Savonarola, a member of the Dominican order, preached against the immorality of pope Alexander VI, for which he was hanged. And in 1510 Desiderius Erasmus published Adagia and Praise of Folly, satirical criticisms of the clergy's ignorance and over-reliance on ceremony. Then in 1517 the Catholic monk Martin Luther, disturbed by the corruption he saw in the church (mainly the selling of indulgences), posted his list of 95 points of debate on the door of the Catholic church in Wittenberg, Germany. Although Luther hoped to reform the church, the church tried him and finally condemned him, forcing him to flee for his life and making the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Counter Reformation inevitable. The Protestant Reformation centered around three themes: the scriptures as the sole authority, justification through faith, and the priesthood of all believers.
During the 1520's the Anabaptist movement erupted in Switzerland, Germany, and other European countries. The Roman Catholic Church taught that baptism was a sacrament which imparted salvation to the infant and could not be repeated. And certain reformation groups continued their own versions of infant baptism, namely, the Lutherans, Reformed (the Calvinists and Presbyterians), and Anglicans (the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in America). However, the Anabaptists rejected infant baptism and boldly baptized adult believers – a practice which cost many of them their lives at the hands of Roman Catholic officials. Although the name "anabaptist" means rebaptizer, they did not see adult baptism as a second baptism because they completely rejected infant baptism as a blasphemous formality. They believed that individuals should be baptized after they became believers in Jesus Christ, which would be impossible during infancy. They held that baptism should follow salvation as a symbol of the believer's identification with Christ and new life in him. The Anabaptists, besides holding to the same three central themes common to all the reformers and to believer's baptism, also insisted on the complete separation of church and state, autonomy of the local congregation, and non-resistance.
In 1534 Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), which played a key role in the Roman Catholic Church's Counter Reformation.
For three centuries various priests and members of various Roman Catholic orders had expressed opposition to the papacy and to key Roman Catholic doctrines. The feeling ran so deep and strong that when the English Parliament adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648) it said this about the church:
There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God. (Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter XXV, section VI)
During the 1800's the papal states were controlled by France, then Austria, then Italy. For nearly sixty years, beginning in 1870, four different popes considered themselves prisoners of Italy and remained in the Vatican. In 1929 the Lateran Treaty with the Italian government (the dictator Mussolini) gave the pope sovereignty over the Vatican and nearly $90 million compensation for the loss of the papal states.
In 1864 Pope Pius IX issued the Syllabus of Errors – 80 articles claiming exclusiveness of authority for the Roman Catholic Church (see especially article 21). Even today, after Vatican II, this syllabus and its claims remain in force.
Thus, the true church, which was united during the early days of persecution, became entangled with Roman government, split over the issue of authority, and became corrupt. This resulted in the various branches we have today, the three largest being Roman Catholic (western), Orthodox (eastern), and Protestant. Each of these three groups claims to be the true church of Jesus Christ.
For centuries after the Protestant Reformation the Roman Catholic church maintained that it was the only true church. However, since Vatican II (1963-65) it has given a mixed message on this subject. In December, 1965 Pope Paul VI officially reversed the excommunication of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a move that was intended to heal the split of 1054.
Nevertheless, at times the Roman Catholic Church declares that it is the only church and the only way of salvation.
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it. (1994 Catechism, par. 846, quoting Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, sec. 14)
At other times the Roman Catholic church asserts that others outside her membership are saved and have eternal life, as long as they are baptized.
The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter. (1994 Catechism par. 838, quoting Vatican II Lumen Gentium sec. 15)
And even those who are not baptized may have a "baptism of desire."
Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity. (1994 Catechism, par. 1260, italics in original)
Roman Catholicism has not been immune to the influences of its surrounding culture. It has accepted the notion that human beings evolved from lower forms of life. It has accepted the higher criticism of the biblical documents which virtually destroys the notion of the divine inspiration of scripture and makes the biblical documents products of social pressures and human "genius." It has also followed the lead of the neoorthodox movement with its emphasis on inner faith and personal encounter with God and its de-emphasis on the objective truth of such key biblical events as creation, the fall, and the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. This has led to a mixed message coming from the Roman Catholic Church on some of these subjects. These failings are explained in various sections below.
The basic doctrinal positions of the Roman Catholic Church are embodied in certain historic creeds including the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the Creed of Pope Pius IV, and the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent. Similarities between Roman Catholic teachings and the Bible's teachings include certain basic doctrines as described below.
Roman Catholicism teaches that God exists as an objective personal reality, and that God is a unity consisting of three persons known as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
There is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity (1994 Catechism, par. 233)
Regarding the relationship between the three members of the trinity, the Roman Catholic Church maintains both the oneness and the threeness of God – that there is only one God as far as nature or essence is concerned, yet there are three individual persons each of whom is fully God.
The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity." The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves [as though each person is one-third God] but each of them is God whole and entire: "The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e., by nature one God." (1994 Catechism, par. 253)
Roman Catholic teaching avoids modalism, a common misunderstanding about the trinity which claims that there is only one divine person who appears to man throughout history in the three different modes or forms of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The divine persons are really distinct from one another. … "Father," "Son," "Holy Spirit" are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son." (1994 Catechism, par. 254)
Some early Catholic leaders (such as Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople) taught that the Holy Spirit was a servant on a level with the angels. However, at the Council of Constantinople in 381 the church condemned that view and ever since then has maintained the full deity of the Holy Spirit.
In its summary of the doctrine of the trinity, the 1994 Catechism (par. 266) quotes from the Athanasian Creed (late 300's), which is a sound and biblically accurate statement of the relationship between the three members of the trinity. For a more complete discussion of the biblical doctrine of the trinity, see the paper "The Trinity."
The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God – it is not produced by the parents – and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final resurrection. (1994 Catechism, par. 366)
Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. … One must first recognize the profound relationship of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him … . (1994 Catechism, par. 386, italics in original)
The paragraph following the paragraph quoted above distinguishes sin from such things as a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, and the consequence of an inadequate social structure.
The Roman Catholic Church attempts to maintain an actual fall.
The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents. (1994 Catechism, par. 390, italics in original)
However, as explained in the section on evolution, the church's acceptance of evolution casts doubt upon its ability to maintain a real historical fall.
Of course, by including Jesus Christ in the trinity, the deity of Christ is established. Here, however, are additional explicit indications that the Roman Catholic Church teaches the deity of Christ.
We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth ... is the eternal Son of God made man. (1994 Catechism, par. 423)
Jesus calls himself the "only Son of God," and by this title affirms his eternal preexistence. (1994 Catechism, par. 444)
The New Testament uses this full sense of the title "Lord" both for the Father and – what is new – for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself. (1994 Catechism, par. 446)
Throughout his public life, he demonstrated his divine sovereignty by works of power over nature, illness, demons, death, and sin. (1994 Catechism, par. 447)
Jesus, the God-Man, having a fully divine nature and a fully human nature in one divine person, is the core and center of Catholic belief. (Trigilio, p. 66)
Jesus is the second person of the Holy Trinity – God the Son. And God the Son (Jesus) is as much God as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. (Trigilio, p. 70)
… the Resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the apostles' encounters with the risen Christ. (1994 Catechism, par. 647)
The movement of return to God, called conversion and repentance, entails sorrow for and abhorrence of sins committed, and the firm purpose of sinning no more in the future. (1994 Catechism, par. 1490)
To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell." (1994 Catechism, par. 1033)
The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. (1994 Catechism, par. 1036, italics in original)