Life After Death, Saints, Traditions, Art & Holiness

A Response to Jimmy Swaggert Ministries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Catholics Really Believe in Life After Death

You spend one third of your document on closing comments. To make sure that you attack everything in sight you make some running remarks. You condemn Purgatory as a second chance after death; although it simply represents the final purging from sin necessary in those who have already been gifted (not earned) heaven (pp.41-43). Only those who have not been totally perfected in Christ endure this final weaning from sin and cleansing. If someone hates God and has damned himself, no amount of prayers will save him. I will not quote 2nd Maccabees, realizing that your tradition censored it out of the bible. We pray for these dead because we acknowledge our solidarity to one another. It is the response God wants of us to show our fraternity.

The Saints Reflect Christ

You use dishonestly the style of saying, "I could speak of...," and then speaking your mind all the same. You would discount the prayers of the saints and thus impute a disbelief in Christ's resurrection, that he and all who believe in him, are alive! Easter is the great feast which reminds us that love is stronger than death. Those who have gone before us, continue to love us in that one great love of God. Like the answer of a child in a church regarding saints, she looked at the stained-glass, and responded, that saints are those who let the light shine through. This is the kernel of this mystery. That as new Christs, the saints are totally and completely dedicated to Christ. The Light of Christ, and no other, shines through them to us. We even find examples of this in this life with certain special people who are so filled with the presence of Christ that we feel the divine very near. We ask their prayers and help above just as we would ask a friend who is still in pilgrimage with us here below.

Saints are canonized, not with any right or ability of the Church to vote anyone out of heaven, but to offer up good and holy men and women as examples to us of different ways in following in the footsteps of Christ (p. 44).

Valuable Traditions

As for the ancient traditions, I already mentioned that celibacy as mandatory for Western priests only goes back to the eleventh century; you give the date as 1079 under Pope Gregory (p. 44). This and eating meat on Friday are simply disciplines. As for the manner of going to confession, such things are admittedly variable. Even today, there is both the confessional booth, face to face, individual practices, and community penance services. It is the fact of this sacrament and not the manner that is at question. There the early Church and even the bible do speak.

The Church did not simply decide out of air in 1870 at the first Vatican Council that the Pope was infallible. Again, you are repeating yourself (p. 45). God help us, some of the things you say are so ill-conceived! Jumping to the subject of Mary again, you claim that the teaching of Mary's assumption only goes back to 1950 under Pope Pius XII. The whole Church was polled regarding that issue and it was found to conclusively believe it. In regards to the bishops this is a visible example of their unity or collegiality; in regards to the laity, it is what is called the affirmation of the "sensus fidelium" of the Church. The teaching was ancient, although only recently defined. The Orthodox believe it as well, calling it the Dormition of the Theotokos, although they have not issued any kind of official pronouncement. You lie when you say that it was not Catholic teaching prior to 1950. There are even ancient icons which display it. The only controversy regarding tradition was whether or not she died or not. She was held to be preserved from corruption. It was the witnessed experience of the early Church, which had not even formulated the canon of the Scriptures for several centuries yet, that we have preserved and protected. Alongside this, you criticize the teaching of her Immaculate Conception once again, defined on December 8, 1854.

The Value of Art

As for graven images, there is always the danger that the simple will give too much attention to the statue and to little to the figure it signifies. However, the use of Deuteronomy as you have it was not the way the Jewish community of Jesus' time interpreted it. Early Christians, especially in a pagan culture would be careful to either destroy or appropriate statues in order to give them a Christian significance. They should lead us to prayer and not be a hindrance to it. The Orthodox developed icons as sort of a compromise between overly realistic figures and none at all. They would almost even designate icons as being a focus for venerating Christ present in the community. I can see no easy resolution of this issue with Fundamentalists. The Puritanical mind set will never appreciate the ability of art, like words, to help raise one's mind and heart to heavenly matters. As for candles and incense, the candle is an ancient symbol for Jesus, burning himself up to give us light (truth) and warmth (healing). The smoke of incense is connected with our prayers which we also raise up to heaven (pp. 46-47). Your inordinate stress upon the written word might allow some room for the poetic, then why not for the artistic as well?

Look in the Mirror - You Are the Cult

Dear friend, the Catholic Church is 850 million and counting, [NOTE: a billion now] reaching the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In comparison, you are nothing. When your days are through, you and your cult, will disappear like so many others before. You and your personal and often fraudulent interpretation of the Gospel claims not merely parallel authority, but even worse, seeks to be in competition to the Word of God. We are no contempoary cult, but the Church of Jesus Christ (p. 48).

More Deceit

Over and over again you repeat your untruths. The timelessness of the maturing truths of the Church stand in contradiction to your opinion that they are fickle and change yearly (p. 49). Quite frankly, most dissenters are upset because the Church is so staunch in upholding the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Wholly Holy Catholic Bible

Your haranguing becomes virtually impossible to endure in the final pages of your letter. You say the Catholic Church has no authority and that the bible was never delivered to it (p. 50). And, I say to you that the churches written to in the Scriptures were indeed one and the same with the Catholic Church of today. We are in communion with them just as the various local churches were in communion with each other then. It was members from this one faith that we have the various letters and Gospels of our New Testament. One Catholic evangelist recently joked, "It was a pity that we Catholics did not get a copyright on our book!" There is truth to this. It was even the Church which would decide which materials to include in the bible. Indeed, some of the literature of tradition, and therefore not viewed as inspired by God, was the Didache (which almost made it), the Revelation of Peter, and the Shepherd of Hermas. It was only with the Synod of Rome in 382 AD (West) and the Synod of Carthage in 397 (East) that the present canon was set.

You Discount Holiness

After this interlude regarding the bible, you return to your objections to the Popes, Bishops, Priests, and Apostolic Succession; you mention confession for the third or forth time; and you reject the value of tradition. You discount the holiness and wonders of the Church to criticize what you consider to be iniquity and unthinking superstition (p. 52). And yet, is your camp any better off by accepting a fundamentalist approach to the bible, neglecting the various literary styles, use of hyperbole, myth, and poetic license? Are your members better off shaking in the ecstasy of only God knows what kind of spirits moving them? Are you and they any less sinners? Can you say this?

Gift's From God's Church

You say that the bible does not rest with any denomination; to an extent this is true (p. 52). The Catholic Church has offered it to the world, not to be distorted, but to be raised up as the standard of our faith and as the Word of God. However, when you extend this argument to the "keys" or authority of the Church, you fall straight on your face (p. 53). You would seek to steal these keys from Peter and take unto yourself the special authority to wield the Scriptures. You will not take advise from your own leadership or from any one else's. You denigrate and mock the first of all Christian communities, the Roman Catholic Church. You decry her as the anti-Christ, and thus jeopardize your soul by aiding the atheists and bigots of the world in their two-thousand year quest to destroy the Church founded by Jesus. I am fearful of what will become of those who folow you. Will their ignorance save them? Will it save you?

Incompatibility with Catholicism

You acknowledged that many of your Catholic friends would be angered by this message and never turn to your television program again (p. 55). Maybe this is for the best? You make clear that you view it as impossible for the Catholic Christian priest, nun, or layman to be both loyal to you and to remain in the Catholic tradition. Here is honesty at long last. I promise that in Christian love and charity, I will continue to pray for you.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,
A Catholic Friend