Word of God, Human & Divine Meet, Christ's Church

A Response to Jimmy Swaggert Ministries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Word of God

Problems with the bible, and let us be fair, they only came about with the invention of the printing press, revolved around the canonical numbers of books set in the early centuries and revoked by reformers, and the interpretation (including translation) of the Scriptures. Because of the difficulty in acquiring texts, the Church had long since relied upon its art, stained glass, liturgies, and homilies for the Word of God to be promulgated. Change of habits for an institution already over a millennium in age were difficult. Because of the danger of personal interpretation, especially in regard to the naive, the Scriptures were not often advocated for reading unless commentaries and spiritual guides were available. The way your communities splinter, you must surely have some personal awareness of this problem. The accusation that Catholics were prohinited from reading Scripture is a gross distortion of the truth.

Priests and the Scriptures

If these inaccuracies were not enough, you then assert that the priest's breviary or prayer book is simply an censored or edited bible, and that even the the ministers of the Church are not encouraged to study Scripture (p. 17). Here my consternation reaches new heights in regards to the credibility of a so-called messenger of the Gospel. The Liturgy of the Hours is a prayer book to sanctify the parts of the day with praise, petition, and thanksgiving. It uses the psalms, arguably the original prayer book of Jesus, and offers readings of edification from the Scriptures and of holy men and women in the Church's legacy. It does not replace the bible, nor was it ever meant to do such a thing! The breviary, meditative prayer, the liturgy, spiritual reading, and most importantly, the Scriptures fill the life of the man who participates in Christ's priesthood. If anything, the lectionary of the Word of God at Mass forces the priest to preach on most all the bible, and not only over certain well-worn passages that Protestants are keen to repeat ad nauseam. The fact that there are such people who fail in their responsibilities is no excuse to condemn a whole order of the faithful who put aside all else to follow Jesus Christ and to serve his people. With no wife or children of his own, the People of God become most dear to him as his sacred responsibility. You short-change these courageous men and do them a great dishonor.

Human and Divine Meet

You attack the credibility of the Church by saying that its doctrines are based upon fictional folklore and made-up human traditions instead of upon God's Holy Word (pp. 17-18). Given a two-thousand year history, there are bound to be some apocryphal elements to Catholic culture, but the doctrines are safe and solid. What will they say about you in time? Not only do all faiths have legends, so do nations like the United States. What else is a character like Paul Bunyan? However, even if the imagery is less than realistic, the legends have a message for us, as a people about our rugged American identity, or as a Church, that God has always been marvelously at work in our midst, making even the impossible, possible. Apocryphal? Certainly the bible takes center stage, but other literature, some of it pre-dating parts of the bible, helps us to understand our roots and even to aid us in the proper interpretation of the Scriptures. Sure, we also have some human traditions mingled with the divine. This was what the incarnation was all about. Guided by the Spirit, the human and the divine meet in the Catholic Church, in us as individuals, and among us as a corporate body of believers. However, to say that such things have no basis in the Word of God is another falsehood. Indeed, it comes after such a long list of errors that I must wonder about whether you are intentionally dishonest or just incompetent in religious matters? In the parts of the Mass, in our prayer, in the official documents of the Church, the Scriptures are our life's blood. I would rather place my trust in the Word of God as evoked in the believing community of God than in mere empty and false human rhetoric.

Calling the Kettle Black

Considering your personal history, you have some nerve in accusing Catholics of vile immorality and intellectual laziness. We all have to be careful not to play the part of the Pharisee. Relics and cultural traditions are not to be a poor reflection upon the immense depth of Catholic wisdom. These things are the signs of affection which show that our faith reaches both into our minds and into our hearts. Sentimentality for the Catholic is not viewed in crocodile tears to coerce the viewers of the electronic media to dig deeper into their pockets; for the Catholic it is an intimate expression of his love of God and neighbor.

The Church Christ Founded

Dear friend, if that is what you really are, how can you maintain that the framework and structural organization of the Catholic Church is not remotely Christian (p. 18). Historically, most mainline traditions agree, the Catholic Church has existed from the beginning. It is the true faith from which all those who have dissented or from those most appropriately called pretenders originated. Its claims are true. The Scriptures verify not only the sacraments of God's love but also the structure of the Church body. The episcopoi (bishops or elders) succeeded the Apostles themselves. To aid them in their work, especially as the Church grew, they selected others to celebrate the sacraments in their place, while they retained jurisdiction over all. These men were called the presbyters (priests). In addition to help with the work of proclamation and to assist the poor (remember the Hellenic widows) some men were chosen as representatives of the episcopoi, the deacons. This structure, in addition to various ministries involving holy men and women, comes down to us from the most embryonic period in the Church's past. All believers, yourself included, should be open to a legitimate historical record and the honest will of God.