You're definitely correct, and I'm afraid our friend has been seriously misled. Luther and Calvin and Zwingli all write about why they want those books removed from the Bible.

The history is crystal clear if you research it; here's a good link if you want to go deeper.

God bless you!

- Father Shane

You know that's almost identical to a question asked in the YouCat? Which means I get to copy the answer for you, since it's perfect. :-)

May God bless you!

- Father Shane

A fascinating question... Yes, there is nothing more opposed to faith than subjectivity. If I'm the one "deciding" what's true about the world and the universe and God, then that's not faith at all. If religion isn't true and if our faith isn't based exclusively on some unimpeachable Truth that comes from outside ourselves, then maybe it can make us feel good, but it's not what we seek.

So our faith is really about being taught. We are obedient to what we hear about things that we can't see for ourselves.

Hence the challenge, because none of us are particularly good at being taught or at obeying. All of us struggle with some aspect of the faith, and none of us can ever hope to understand -- in this life and with these brains -- mysteries like the Holy Trinity or the hypostatic union.

So the solution lies in putting our trust in God as teacher... submitting our little brains to infinite intellect and acknowledging that we can be (and are very regularly) wrong about the most trivial things, and that getting the Big Things right is mostly completely beyond us.

But how did God speak to us? At the risk of major oversimplification, it's the big divide between Catholics and Protestants. Can he speak through his Church, or does he just speak through Scripture and personal inspiration? Because if he speaks through his Church, the obedience that we are called to give to truth is due to what the Church teaches.

Things get complicated there, of course. The Church very wisely doesn't (and can't) ask for the same type of obedience about applications of doctrine to momentary political circumstances as it does about the elements of the Creed. But at all times, we will find more perfection in obedience than in figuring things out for ourselves.

Translations of the Bible aren't ever presented as definitive by the Church, so don't worry too much about that. You won't find an "official Catholic Bible," though of course there are standard Bible translations we use at Mass simply for the sake of uniformity. Those translations can be and have been changed on occasion, and the US (and a couple other countries) uses the second-last edition of the NAB whereas the UK (and many more countries) use the Jerusalem Bible. For example.

Regarding Mary, have you done lots of reading on it? It's a complicated issue, but the Catholic Church will never force you to treat Mary in a particular way; there are lots of styles of devotions that have grown up over the centuries, and the reverence Mary was given in the ancient Church is a different style from what she receives nowadays... but at all times her own prophecy is being fulfilled: "All generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48).

So the key is trusting obedience, which of course is harder than it sounds, for each and every one of us. God bless you!!!

- Father Shane

Sure, it's part of our theology. It's just that word preferences tend to vary a lot between denominations, as I'm sure you're aware. In my own preaching, I would probably choose to use the word "redemption" a lot more, which isn't all that far from atonement, though of course there are nuances.

For example, here's what our Catechism says in #616:

I'm sure you would agree with that, right?

God bless you!

- Father Shane

Well, all of us share a common Baptism (Ephesians 4:5) in Christ, so we are all baptized into his Church. However, our degree of communion with that Church can be anywhere from full to very limited.

For example, the Orthodox Churches have retained the ministerial priesthood and the seven sacraments, but they're not in full communion with the Catholic Church because of different interpretations of what it means for the Pope to be the visible head of the Church. In one sense it's "political," since it's a question of authority in the Church, but it's not political in the sense of human beings picking leaders; either Christ desired the successors of Peter to be visible heads of the Church or he didn't... it's a doctrinal matter too.

Likewise, we would say that Protestants are in only partial communion with the Church because they lack some of the things that Christ desired to give his Church (the fullness of the ministerial priesthood, the sacraments, etc.), though they of course have many others (the Bible, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when in grace, forgiveness of sins in Baptism, etc.).

Within the Catholic Church there are many families: congregations and orders (like the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, or the Legionaries of Christ to whom I belong), prelatures (like Opus Dei and the new prelatures created for former Anglicans), new harder-to-categorize families (Neocatechumenal Way, Communion and Liberation), and dioceses and parishes. But those families are all in communion with the Church, so think of your country: The country is united, but within the country are many families with different characters and different spirit which are also united in themselves, but which don't take anything away from the unity of the country.

But of course Our Lord prayed very specifically for us all to be united in full communion in him and with each other:

May the day come soon when that unity truly shines forth!

God bless you!

- Father Shane

Sure they're Christians!

But read that along with this...

God bless you!

- Father Shane

Good question! Regarding scriptural support, I would simply point to the Scriptures themselves and the way we understand them.

If I as a Catholic believe that the Eucharist in the Catholic Mass simply literally is (Luke 22:19 and all the other institution narratives) the Body of Christ, but a non-denominational Christian believes that it's simply a symbol of Christ, our difference simply is a Scriptural difference.

So if a Protestant comes to a Catholic Mass, and I sincerely believes that he could be incurring in what's mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:29, it's obviously charity to ask him to acknowledge our doctrinal differences and that we have not yet achieved the full unity described about the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 10:17, and therefore not to participate in what should be the greatest visible sign of that unity.

More details in our Catechism starting with #1396.

Let's pray for full unity, to fulfill Our Lord's desire (John 17:20-21)!

- Father Shane

Tell you what, let me just give you two excellent links:

Hope it helps! God bless you!

- Father Shane

Don’t worry. It’s just one of those frequent cases where a very nuanced teaching has to be communicated right, or it will easily get warped into something horrible-sounding.

We do believe that all salvation is mediated through Christ’s Church. But there are different levels of participation in the Church, so some of us can be in full communion with her and some only partially.

I like the way Peter Kreeft puts it:

Here’s what Vatican II said, which is the definitive teaching at this point:

In other words, their salvation is already being worked out. But they don’t have all the helps for that salvation that we do… especially several of the sacraments: the Eucharist, Reconciliation, etc. (That’s why the “they do not profess the faith in its entirety” is being applied to Protestants here.) It’s a real shame! We would love for them to share in what we have, even though we don’t always appreciate well the things we ourselves have. We also have sure guidance in matters of faith from the Pope and the bishops, which they don’t.

So do we believe that they won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Certainly not. But the Kingdom of God is already “among us” (cf. Luke 17:21) through the power of grace, and we have it easier in sharing in the fruits of that Kingdom than others do.

Let’s pray that we all achieve the unity amongst us that Christ prayed for at the Last Supper (John 17:21)!

God bless you.

- Father Shane

St. Paul is the one who spelled it out for us, most notably in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. Essentially it's a real phenomenon and a way the Holy Spirit can speak through people, though there are many other gifts to ask for that are far more important.

The principle "Ask (insistently and with faith) and you will receive" applies here, as it does in most things in the spiritual life. So it's no surprise that these extraordinary gifts flower today most commonly in the communities where they are sought most ardently: the charismatic communities, both Catholic and Protestant.

That said, the extraordinary and impressive nature of tongues and gifts like them can easily trigger the less edifying elements of the human psyche, so psychological suggestion and outright fraud can give rise to things that look like the Spirit's action but aren't. 

Still, the genuine article is found more often than you might think. There are many ways in we "hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:7): this isn't the primary one (Church teaching through Spirit-guided Magisterium is) but it's a very real one. It's messy and hard to manage (the Spirit's action always is) and it's only ever at the service of charity and it's not for everyone, but it's real. Check this out if you want to go (a lot) deeper.

God bless you!

- Father Shane

Sorry to take forever to get back to you!!!!!!!!!

The rest of your question, for the record, was "stick with just us Catholics? I feel like no matter what, we should praise the Lord with anyone we can, but to what extent should Catholics be involved with non Catholics? Thank you for your time and may God bless you."

Sure, we definitely all have a lot to gain from hanging around each other. There's no way we can all work to make Jesus' desire for unity a reality!

If you're confident about your Catholic faith, then you believe that you bring a lot to your Protestant friends: namely, gifts like the Eucharist and Confession that they haven't received in their tradition. And you know as well that they can often teach you a whole lot about enthusiasm for your faith as well as -- of course -- love for the Scriptures and knowledge of them. As the YouCat puts it, "All of the gifts present there, for example, Sacred Scripture, sacraments, faith, hope, love, and other charisms, come originally from Christ. Where the Spirit of Christ lives, there is an inner dynamic leading toward 'reunion,' because what belongs together wants to grow together" (#130).

They have gifts you need, and you have gifts they need. You have to believe that. It's not about just "convincing" them of something or trying to ward off those who convince you of things. It's not about the head or even the heart... it's about God's desires for all of us.

It was human hardness of heart that drove us apart: that's the only way that books of the Bible could be jettisoned in the Reformation (God's inspired Word!) and that Catholics of the time could be so turned against reconciliation. None of us nowadays were responsible for what happened, but we all live with the consequences.

That's where contemporary attitudes come from too: Hardness of heart and of mind is still with us, so that's something to keep in mind and to be realistic about. Sure, you can listen in on other Biblical interpretations, but make sure you know what Catholicism says first. After all, if we really believe that the Biblical interpretation of Popes and Councils down through the centuries have the Spirit's action as the guarantee of their accuracy, then we can't not be loyal to them.

So to be brief: We're all in this together. Catholics need to be involved for Protestants' sake, and Protestants need to be involved for Catholics' sake. Anyone who says otherwise is living in secret fear of the Truth. And we all need to be friends and fellow Christians and missionaries to this world, or we're not really worthy of the names we call ourselves.

God bless you!

- Father Shane

Great question! I think it's one that a lot of people have.

Part of the answer has to do with what the Catholic faith is and what a non-denominational community is. If the Catholic Church really is the group of believers that Jesus founded, and that has held to the same truths and the same doctrine for 2000 years (i.e., these people), and if non-denominational communities all split away from that at some point over some doctrinal dispute, well...

Part of the answer has to do with what the Catholic Mass is and what a mere worship service is. If it really is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of Calvary made present once again on the altar by the powers granted the priest through the laying on of hands down through the centuries, and if Jesus Christ really does come into my body and soul with all of his humanity and divinity there in the most wondrous touch of love, well...

Part of the answer has to do with what Jesus wants from you. Certainly he wants you to be humble and compassionate and kind and everything you mention, but Saint Paul's letters challenge us to a very high level of virtue that goes beyond the "being nice to each other" that society recommends, and to live all of that consistently we need a great deal of grace, the kind that flows most assuredly and most abundantly from the Catholic sacraments. Sure, Jesus says that we should imitate him as meek and humble, but he also says things like "Do this in memory of me" and "What you did to one of these little ones you do to me" and "If you forgive others' sins they are forgiven them." So...

You need a personal relationship with Christ. You really, really do. It's absolutely essential to living your faith as an adult. And sometimes we Catholics -- especially priests -- are really bad at helping people to do that. I don't think I need to go into details; you could tell me plenty yourself! :-) But we've got graces up our sleeve that no non-denominational community can offer you. Because faith is more than feelings; it's also standing or kneeling before Jesus in the Eucharist, hearing the words "The Body of Christ," and saying "Amen. I believe."

So yes, get yourself a personal relationship with Christ. But then supercharge it with sacramental grace. The Catholic kind.

God bless you in your faith journey!

- Father Shane

A very important question... The answer is complex! After all, God commands Moses to make statues in Exodus 25 for the Ark of the Covenant, of all things! Here's a very complete answer to your question. 

God bless you!

- Father Shane