Roman Catholic Evangelization

 BASIC R.C.BELIEF

From the encyclical ON EVANGELISM IN THE MODERN WORLD, Pope Paul VI, 12/8/75. "This preaching, inserted in a unique way into the Eucharistic celebration (Mass), from which it receives special force and vigor. The faithful expect much from this preaching, provided it is faithful to the magisterium. This supernatural life finds its living expression in the seven sacraments and in the admirable radiation of grace and holiness which they possess. We also insisted on the grave responsibility of preserving unaltered the content of the Catholic faith which the Lord entrusted to the Apostles. The full, supreme and universal power which Christ gave to His Vicar is this especially exercised by the Pope in the activity of preaching. This is the desire that we rejoice to entrust into the hands and heart of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary."

CATHOLIC JOURNALS

From NEW COVENANT, November 1990 report on Indianapolis '90 - Congress on the Holy Spirit and World Evangelism. "Roman Catholics were by far the largest group at the Congress."

From A CATHOLIC SURVIVAL GUIDE, NEW COVENANT, February 1991 "If the Eucharist were just a symbol, it wouldn't matter so much. But we Catholic Christians follow an almost 2,000-year-old tradition that the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ. I would die for my belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the bread of life and the cup of salvation... Our devotion to Mary must be expressed in some practical way, the most common being the Rosary..."

RELIGIOUS JOURNALS

From CHRISTIANITY TODAY 2/6/87, "Roman Catholics are planning a billion dollar project that could turn out to be the largest evangelistic effort ever attempted by the 810 million member church. Called `EVANGELISM 2000', the ten-year project will culminate with a world-wide satellite telecast on Christmas Day in the year 2000. During the telecast, the pope is scheduled to speak to a potential audience of 5 billion people.

"Tom Forrest, a Redemptorist priest, is in charge. It was conceived in 1984 by Catholic charismatic and conservative Catholic student movement. Forrest said, `The object is to give Jesus Christ a 2,000th birthday gift of a world more Christian than not.'

"The 1400 member Catholic charismatic Community of God's Delight in South Dallas will produce television programs which will be beamed to portable satellite receiving disks.

"Forrest is planning to organize a retreat for the world's Catholic bishops in 1989. A world conference for 7000 priests is planned for 1990. Both conferences will provide these men with books and sermons on evangelism.

"Other aspects include a papal proclamation of a decade of evangelism, a world wide prayer crusade and traveling evangelistic teams."

From message by Tom Forrest, Redemptorist priest, at Indianapolis '90. "Now because I love being a Catholic, my job, my role in evangelism is not just to make Christians. Our job is to make people as richly and fully Christian as we can by bringing them into the Catholic church. No, you don't invite someone to become a Christian. You invite them to become Catholics. There are seven sacraments, and the Catholic church has all seven. On our altars we have the body of Christ; we drink the blood of Christ. As Catholics we have Mary. And that Mom of ours, Queen of Paradise, is praying for us till she sees us in glory. As Catholics - now I love this one - we have purgatory. Thank God! I'm one of those people who would never get to the Beatific Vision without it! it's the only way to go. Our job is to use this remaining decade evangelizing everyone we can into the Catholic Church."

EVANGELICAL CATHOLICS, by Keith Fournier, has a Foreword written by Chuck Colson. "...distrust between Catholics and Protestants goes back centuries. The church has often be plagued by war within her walls, crippling her in the battle against the encroaching armies of secularism.

"But at root, those who are called of God, whether Catholic or Protestant, are part of the same Body. What they share is a belief in the basics: the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, His bodily resurrection, His imminent return, and the authority of His infallible Word. They also share the same mission: presenting Christ as Savior and Lord to a needy world. Those who hold to these truths and act on this commission are evangelical Christians.

"Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said that our efforts at reconciliation are far too slow - the world is perishing a hundred times more quickly. It's high time that all of us who are Christians come together regardless of the difference of our confessions and our traditions and make common cause to bring Christian values to bear in our society. When the barbarians are scaling the wall, there is no time for petty quarreling in the camp.

"Keith Fournier stands in the breach - truly orthodox in his adherence to Catholic doctrine and fully evangelical in his relationship to Christ and His creation. Keith's ministry is one of healing. Without compromising or diluting his faith, without any false ecumenism, he calls all of us as Christians to our common heritage and mission. He is building alliances against our mutual enemy. This book is going to make an immense contribution to the cause.

"I've found very few people with more gifts and talents being used for the glory of the Lord than Keith Fournier. I am proud to count him among my dearest friends. I pray that this book will be read by Catholics and Protestants alike, that it will be a bridge across many of the historic divisions in the church that have weakened our stand in today's culture.

"If, like myself, you count yourself a Protestant in the Reformed tradition, you may be surprised to discover yourself more at home with Keith's thinking than with that of many of your Protestant brothers and sisters. If you are an orthodox Catholic, you may find you are truly part of the evangelical camp.

"We have much to forgive, much to relearn. But EVANGELICAL CATHOLICS can help us do both so we can band together against the rising tides of secularism which threaten to engulf us.

"May God grant healing to His church."

COME BACK HOME

(Often one hears this in a Catholic parish, and it is directed to former Catholics and Protestant Christians. The thinking behind this movement was aptly put in print by a priest identified only as "Fr. Tito.")

"Whoever you are, wherever you are, come back to the church of your roots. Why do you keep fighting the invitation that God gives you? How can you forget your roots?

"Why do you spurn the faith you received when as a child you were presented for Baptism? You cannot remember how proud your parents were on that day. They took you to church and tried to keep you from crying. And when they were asked, `Do you want this child to be baptized in the faith we have professed with you?' Proudly they answered, `We do.' And at that moment God gave you three beautiful presents, Faith, Hope and Love. So why are you now wasting your heart on a foreign religion or no religion at all?

"As a Catholic you spent your happy childhood, learning about the great church that Jesus gave us. As a happy youngster you approached the altar of our Lord to partake of His banquet, His body and His blood. As a young bride or a gentle groom, you went to that altar and, filled with joy, became one with your savior.

"And Catholicism grew up with you, its beauty interwoven with your life's adventures. In that faith you expressed your happiness, your sorrows and your grief. In that faith you humbled yourself, begging God to forgive all the wrong things you did. Filled with joy you left the confessional knowing how much God loved you. And if you still think you are a lost sheep, remember that the shepherd is still looking for you, he is still searching to bring you back to the fold. He wants to welcome you home.

"Now you are grown up. You have heartaches and headaches. You married and have a family of your own. Would you deprive your children of the joy you knew as a happy child? Do you think for one moment that no matter what your condition of life is, the church will ever disown you? Would a mother ever disown an infant she bore in her womb? Was it not that mother church opened for you the treasure of her groom, Jesus?

"Love whatever you want but never disown the roots of your ancestors. How can the church, your mother, ever offend you? Did she ask too much of you? Did you find the grass greener on the other side. Were you stabbed in the back by your own mother church because life was not as you imagined it to be? Do you consider yourself such a big sinner that not even your mother can forgive you? Do you really believe there is no hope or place for you in your mother's arms?

"Look at the whole world, look at everything around you. If they can be of service to you, accept the challenge but never drive out that which is of the home. Come back home, the doors are always open."

CHRISTIAN COMMENT

Excerpts from CAN VISION 2000 SEE THE DEEP END by Amos Gottleib.

Vision 2000 is an ecumenical strategy fathered by the Lausanne II Committee for World Evangelization which held a conference in Manila in July 1989. Official observers and special guests at this conference came from the Vatican and from the World Council of Churches. Dr. Leighton Ford was questioned about Roman Catholic involvement, and replied that Lausanne II's purpose was "not to draw as narrow a circle, but as wide a circle as possible."

A workshop dealing with evangelical/Roman Catholic dialog was conducted; "Evangelization 2000," which is the Catholic program of worldwide evangelization, was presented as a viable model for evangelicals to consider; and many statements were made during the conference which clearly indicated that the majority of evangelicals are, indeed, favorable to working with Roman Catholics more and more in the days to come.

"The Holy Spirit will not be locked into any one form of religious faith...Global interdependence requires a global ecumenical awakening so that the power and blessing of healing and compassion that all faiths can teach their people might ignite all peoples of the world in which we live. The ecumenical movement--understood as the energizing of all faiths of this planet by celebration, by interaction for justice and compassion, by dialog and mutual study of one another's faith--holds out for then human race one of the last great hopes for redemption." (Quoted from MANIFESTO FOR A GLOBAL CIVILIZATION by Matthew Fox, R.C. theologian.)

"55...inter-religious dialogue is a part of the Church's evangelizing mission...56. Through dialogue, the Church seeks to uncover the `seeds of the Word', a `ray of truth which enlightens all men;' these are found in individuals and in all the religious traditions of mankind." (from REDEMPTORIS MISSIO, John Paul II, 1/22/91.)

"In many parts of the world the decline of the ecumenical movement has been replaced by a new sort of ecumenism, the sharing of those who have discovered fresh life in the Holy Spirit - a sharing which goes right across denominational and cultural norms, and touches the place where dogma can't reach...Pope Paul VI affirmed, `The Church needs an eternal Pentecost,' and it is significant that it is the Roman Catholic Church, in some ways the most structured and traditional of all churches, that this renewal movement has broken out most strongly and has been most influential." (From I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT by Michael Green, Plenary Speaker at Vision 2000 National Leadership Consultation.)

REVIEW OF EVANGELICAL CATHOLICS

Condensed from Dave Hunt's CIB BULLETIN, February 1991 Fournier claims to be both fully evangelical and fully Catholic. The book is a plea for Protestants to join Catholics in a joint evangelization effort. His book discusses none of the serious issues that divide us.

Without offering any proof, he calls the belief by Protestants that Catholics have a false gospel "arrogant triumphalism." He trivializes issues for which hundreds died at the stake.

He calls Protestants to "return home" to Rome. He declares that for anyone "to belong to Christ is to belong to his church" (p. 44). He makes it clear he is talking of "the [Catholic] church of my childhood."

He denies charges of Roman Catholic mariolatry, even though to read any article put out by the Blue Army would convince any honest person that to call someone "co-redemptrix of the human race" is a violation of Acts 4:12

Fournier's view that "conversion" is "a continual process" is clearly not the Biblical gospel evangelicals preach. How then can Protestants join Catholics in "evangelization" when each presents a different "evangel?"

EVANGELICAL CATHOLICS

A REPLY TO THE PAPER OF THE SAME NAME (DUBLIN, IRELAND. NOV. 1990)

by Bill Jackson

This paper says, "Evangelical Catholics would believe that the Roman Catholic Church is a Christian Church that has taken on some un- Christian practices over the centuries." Which of its practices are considered un-Christian is not stated.

It also states they believe "there are many God-made traditions in the Roman Catholic Church which will last the test of time."

Since the paper is quite vague on many points, we wonder what these "God-made" traditions are.

They state their intention of keeping away from a theological statement about sacrament, ministry and authority. Are they serious? Can a Roman Catholic enunciate any position without taking these into consideration? If the sacraments are the ordinary means of Grace that bring salvation, how can a paper about the "Good News" omit them? If the priest is the ordinary minister at baptism when one is supposedly born again, can he be left out? And what is the final authority? While scripture is used, do we still have some "God-made" traditions lurking about?

The Mass is mentioned twice. They try to make it sound innocent, but why is a priest necessary if it is just "entering into that one all- sufficient sacrifice by Grace"? The purpose of the priest is to offer a sacrifice. Historical and contemporary catechitical statements make the Mass much more than they want it to appear.

According to THE WHAT AND WHY OF CATHOLICISM, with an imprimatur by Cardinal Spellman, "The Mass forms a pivot upon which all else turns. If it is what Catholics believe it is, then here is the greatest external manifestation of the love of God for man and the most magnificent testimonial to the validity of Catholicism; but if it be false, it is the worst farce and blasphemy ever perpetrated upon God or man, and the Catholic faith collapses into nothingness."

Or take John Hardon's THE CATHOLIC CATECHISM. "The sacrifice on the altar is no mere commemoration of Calvary, but a true and proper act of sacrifice whereby Christ, the high priest, by an unbloody immolation offers himself a most acceptable victim to the eternal father, as he did on the cross."

Both Vatican II popes, John XXIII and Paul VI, re-affirmed their acceptance of Trent. Is the Mass therefore "a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead" - or is that one of the un- Christian practices into which Rome fell over the centuries?

There have always been Christians who wanted to believe that the Catholics were OK. After all, we are living in an age of brotherhood, and why write off the largest church of Christendom, especially when openly opposing her can lead to misunderstanding, loss of friendships and even economic ruin? These will be very glad to hear of these new "evangelical" Catholics, and, without any questions, will welcome them.

Then there are other Christians who think that wearing a label "Roman Catholic" automatically excludes you. God does not read labels; He reads hearts. While we have good reason for believing one who so labels himself has a real problem, we cannot judge just by the label.

We must give every "evangelical" Catholic an opportunity to show his true colors. I Thess 5:21 says "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good." We can ask him these questions.

1. Does he believe that Baptism washes away original sin and makes one a Christian?

2. Does he believe that the sacrament of Pnance grants absolution for sin?

3. Does he believe the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice?

4. Does he believe in transubstantiation?

5. Does he believe there is a purgatory for the final cleansing from sin?

If he honestly says "no" to all of these, he is an evangelical, and I welcome him.

If he says "no" to any of these, he is not a Catholic. If he considers himself to be one, he is either ignorant, disobedient or hypocritical.

He may be ignorant of what his church really teaches, or of what the Bible says. Over the years, we have met many people who have ceased to believe what the Catholic church teaches about salvation, and have placed their trust completely in Jesus only. Sometimes because they have not been taught, they will automatically think they should go back to the Catholic Church. When they go to Mass, they don't think of it as a sacrifice, yet their church teaches that it is. Or they might be ignorant of the biblical teaching to "come out from among them." When he truly understands where his church is, and how the Bible teaches, he should then come out.

He might know he should leave, but disobey God. Disobedience will keep a Christian from being all he or she should be for God, but it will not rob one of his salvation. There are many disobedient saved people in the world.

He might say that he intends to continue to act like he is a Roman Catholic (go to Mass, etc.) because he believes this is the best way to reach his family and friends. If this is the case, he is a play- actor (hypocrite) and we know that God does not use our deceits to save people from sin.

A Catholic charismatic once said he'd leave Catholicism when the Holy Spirit told him to. I asked him if he wanted a personal letter from the Holy Spirit, or would he obey II Cor 6:17?