... I don't worship the Catholic church or any person in
it and I am aware that they have had their failings in matters
of faith and moral judgment and conduct in the past and will
likely to be able to fail or have the same kind of
failings aswell in the future.
So I admit that my Catholic church is not without blemish and I
tend to question some of its doctrines but that doesn't mean I do
not trust Christ wholly. Remember that the Catholic church claims
itself as the sole church Jesus intended to build. That claim
however remains a mere men's claim as the bible or any scripture
never specifically write or prophesy about the catholic church to
be the sole hierarchy that Christ intended. The claim that peter is
the first pope of the Catholic church also remains a mere men's
claim as Peter never specifically said anything about Holy Roman
Catholic church and the Catholic church hadn't even existed then
when he died on the reversed cross. It remains a mere claim by
men. ...
... I put my loyalty and faith in Christ alone not in any
hierarchy even one which claims to have been given from God. As it
is a mere claim by men....
Agree with you that we only worship God; not idols, not
individual persons, not the Catholic Church.
However, the Catholic Church was indeed "the sole church Jesus
intended to build". It was not "mere man's claim" that this was so.
Consider the following scripture verses:
We read in John's gospel that Jesus prayed to God the Father
that his followers (Christians) "may all be one, as you, Father, are in me
and I in you" (John 17:21). St Paul also describes the Church
(not Churches or the bible) as the "pillar and foundation of
truth" (1Tim3:15). When there are disputes on matters of faith
and morals, Jesus himself taught, "If he refuses to listen to
them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I
say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
(Mat 18:17). In other words, the Church is the final
arbitrator on faith and morals which Jesus gave the authority to
bind and to loose on earth.
From these verses (there are many more), we see that it was the
intention of Jesus for there to be a single universal
church, not in terms of physical location but in terms of
unity of leadership and doctrine (how else would we be able to
carry out Jesus' instructions to resolve disputes through the
church, right ? Or for the church to be the pillar of truth ?). It
was not Jesus' intention for there to be many churches each having
its own beliefs and doctrines.
We see that a church was already in existence during the time of
the apostles, headed by Peter. If we then trace the development of
this fledging church, we see how the leadership was passed from
Peter to successors and the church's explosive growth through the
centuries into a truly universal church that spans the globe, what
we now know today as the Catholic Church ('Catholic' comes
from a Greek word meaning 'universal').
If the Catholic Church had not existed during the time of Peter,
I would ask myself what was the church that he headed and what
became of it ?
It is certainly right to put one's loyalty and faith in Christ
alone but Christ gave us the Church to preserve and to teach the
Christian faith as well as to administer the sacraments to help and
to guide us on our journey to eternal salvation. There cannot be
contradictions between Christ's teachings and that of the church he
established, which he promised to be with till the end of time,
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Mat
28:19-20).
