What is Actual Catholicism?
At it’s most basic level, Catholicism is simply the credo:
In Latin (and in English below):
Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae. Et in Iesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum, qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine, passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, descendit ad inferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis, inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem, remissionem peccatorum, carnis resurrectionem, vitam aeternam. Amen.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
There are, of course, many more dogmatic issues beyond this that have been logically concluded from both the Bible and the traditions of Christianity, because remember that Christianity always was Catholicism, and only Catholicism, for over a thousand years, and yes, with Popes and latin Mass and everything else that Catholicism has had from the start. In fact, there was even some news report that they thought they had found St. Peter’s home in Israel with mosaics in it that confirmed the mass was done way back in the first century as it is still today. The fact that there is no way to confirm that was indeed St. Peter’s house is typical of mainstream media hyperbole, but the archeological discovery is real and dates back to about the real period too.
Some of these main points are:
- The Virgin Birth of Jesus.
- Belief in transubstantiation during Mass.
- The Perpetual Virginity of Mary.
- The Immaculate Conception of Mary.
- The Veneration of (which is NOT worship of) Mary.
- The Intercession of Saints (again, this is NOT worshipping or praying to Saints in that worshipful fashion).
- The Trinity.
- The infallibility of a VALID Pope but only when making EX CATHEDRA Pronouncements (the infallibility of the Valid Pope in these circumstances, and the Church in general is NOT due to the Pope being an infallible human, in fact, even many VALID Popes were atrocious people, the infallibility is provided by Jesus’ supernatural protection, because He stated he would be with His Church until the end times, and since God is infallible, so will His Church. Do corrupt, evil, and even erroneous if good intentioned men exist in the Church? Absolutely yes, and they always will as long as humans exist.
- A duty to protect the innocent or in self defence, including pre-emptively and pro-actively and in the case of Just War.
- The belief that there is No Salvation Outside of the Catholic Church.
- The shunning of Heretics worse than Heathens, and Satanists and Freemasons worse than Heretics.
- Our having Free Will.
- Purgatory, where almost anyone who will ultimately be saved will go before being able to enter heaven. And yes, it is Biblical.
There are also many Church rules which were put in place to better manage the longest empire that has ever existed on Earth, things like having Cardinals be the only ones who can vote in a Pope and so on. These can and have changed over time, because they are human rules, not divine laws.
The reality is that everyone alive today is almost certainly in error about what the Catholic Church is and what it appears to be. This is because the Catholic Church has been every infiltrated and gradually corrupted since the late 1700s and in 1958, this culminated with the first of the currently unbroken line of fake “Popes” usurping the See of Peter. So since 1958, and the promulgation of the entirely heretical documents of Vatican II, the Catholic Church has been robbed of its wealth, physical assets and had every faithful Catholic clergyman ejected form the Vatican, which is today only a hive of Satanists, Freemasons, pedophiles and homosexuals hellbent on the destruction of the Church. So you would need to refer to Catechism’s from before 1958, since the last Valid Pope, Pius XII died on October 9th 1958. In summary, only what are now known as Sedevacantists are properly Catholic. This means that the fake Novus Ordo, Vatican II “clergy” are all impostors and in the absolute majority of cases, knowingly and intentionally so. Nominal “Catholic” laypeople who consider themselves Catholic are not themselves heretics, but at a minimum they can be accused the sin of sloth, for not even bothering to really learn about their supposed religion. They are, in the main, fooled and deceived ignorants. But if you are one of them and are reading here, well… if you continue to ignore Sedevacantism and the Code of Canon Law of 1917, which Pope Pius X began and Pope Benedict the XV finished, precisely as an impregnable fortress against the corruption, modernism and Satanry that they saw coming, that lazy approach to your salvation is entirely your doing.
There have also been many vicious lies spread about Catholicism from the time of the “Protestation” of those rebelling against the Church and God, mostly because they wanted to have sex with Nuns, and sex in general, and murder-divorce their wives, and wanted to steal and appropriate the lands of the Church and not provide any money to it. Even non Catholic honest historians, like Rodney Stark, have commented on this at lengths (see his book Bearing False Witness for example). At any rate, if you study the real history of the Church yourself, like Rod Bennett did as a Protestant “Pastor” originally, you will inevitably come to the conclusion that only Catholicism is and has ever been Christianity. The Crusades, the Bible itself, and all the martyrs throughout history that were fed to lions, burnt alive as human candles by the Romans and so on, would not exist with Catholics having done those things.
I have written two books to introduce the topic in as simple and clear a fashion as possible, while providing plenty of references for your own research. You can get them in paper copy on Amazon, or cheaper in electronic format in the version of your choice direct from my e-store (link to Amazon is also in the description at the E-store) these are BELIEVE! (short and direct, and Reclaiming the Catholic Church (longer and detailed).
Ultimately Catholicism is both simple and direct enough that it can be followed and practiced easily by illiterate peasants and detailed and nuanced enough that it can be delved into for a lifetime by the most brilliant minds that have ever graced the Earth. Doctors of the Church like Thomas Aquinas and so on.
In the end, it is up to you, since we have Free Will, if you want to know the Truth or not. And so are the consequences of your choices.
