Read Part Three.
Note: Mr. Vennari’s article was originally published in The Fatima Crusader, Issue #87 (2007).
Meaning of “Church” in Scripture
1) Paul Whitcomb said his first discovery was that the “Church” defined in the Bible was to be “one body” – and not only a human body, but a Divine Body – the Mystical Body of Christ Himself.
“Again, He is the head of His body, the Church.” (Colossians 1:18)
“Now you are the body of Christ, member for member.” (I Corinthians 12:27)
“We are members of His body, made from His flesh and His bones.” (Ephesians 5:30)
2) Mr. Whitcomb also discovered that this Church was not to be a disjointed body, but a unified body.
“There shall be one fold and one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
“And the glory that Thou, Father, hast given Me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one.” (John 17:22).
“You were called in one body … one spirit … one hope … One Lord, one faith, one Baptism.” (Ephesians 4:4-5)
Mr. Whitcomb saw clearly that this body – the Church – was to be constituted as one: one in membership, one in belief, one in worship, one in government.
3) Next, he saw that this Church is to be a teaching Church. And not only that, but an infallible teaching Church:
“All power in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matt 28:18-20)
4) He saw that Our Lord pledged a divine protection to that teaching authority:
“These things I have spoken to you while yet dwelling with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatever I have said to you. When the Advocate has come, Whom I will send you from the Father, He will bear witness concerning Me, because from the beginning you are with Me.” (John 14:25-26 and 15:26-27)
He read further in I Timothy 3:15:
“I write these things to thee … that thou mayest know how to conduct thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and mainstay of truth.”
Now after reading all this, he noted, “I was disturbed by the discovery of this Biblical truth … because [as a Protestant] I was not a member of a teaching Church, much less an infallible teaching Church.”
This is because no such “church” even exists in the Protestant system.
Truth Compels Conversion
Mr. Whitcomb continues:
“The church I was a member of, like all other Protestant churches, held instead that the Bible is the only divinely authorized dispenser and guarantor of truth, that if anyone would be saved he must learn from the Bible what is required of him to be saved.
“The sole responsibility of the Church, according to Protestant belief, is to make known and to provide the ‘saved’, those who profess Christ as Lord and Savior, with a place they can join together in the ‘fellowship of prayer’.
“This despite the fact that for the first four hundred years there was no published Christian Bible;
“This despite the fact that for the next one thousand years until the invention of the printing press, there were scant few Bibles;
“This despite the fact that those who have made the Bible their sole rule of Faith have come up with hundreds of conflicting rules of faith;
“This despite the fact that the Bible itself states that many who interpret it privately (II Peter 3:16) will interpret it wrongly.”
To make a long story short, Mr. Whitcomb explained that the only “Church” that fit the description of “Church” found in the Bible was the Catholic Church. (He also noted that the Bible does not say it all, since John 21:25 tells us, “there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.”)
It was the Catholic Church, vested with the infallible authority given it by Our Lord that gave us the Bible, and it is only through the authority of the Catholic Church that we know for certain that the Bible is truly the word of God. This is why the great Saint Augustine, in the Fourth Century, said: “I would not believe the Gospel itself, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.”
Now I am just scratching the surface of these topics. I did not have the time to develop for you the biblical basis for praying to angels and saints, for devotion to Our Blessed Mother, and for other points of Catholic doctrine.
But I wish to reiterate that solid, Catholic counter-reformation apologetics are more important than ever.
Do Not Imitate Protestants!
I also think it necessary that in order to stop the flow of Catholics into Protestantism, it is important that in our efforts, we do so not by imitating Protestantism or Protestant mannerisms, but, rather, by imitating the saints.
And the saint I am thinking of in particular is a saint who spent time in Latin America, Saint Anthony Mary Claret, the former Archbishop of Santiago, Cuba, who is renowned for his gifts of miracles and of reading souls.
I want to relate to you a little lesson he gave to a priest, which took place in Madrid, Spain, before the saint came to Cuba.
A priest named Don Hermenegildo (in Spain) was known for his eloquent preaching, and one day he preached a brilliant and animated sermon. Saint Anthony Mary Claret assisted at the function.
Don Hermenegildo received many congratulations for his sermon, but Archbishop Claret did not compliment him, but quietly retired.
This greatly disturbed Don Hermenegildo, so early the next morning, he visited Saint Anthony Mary Claret.
Dom Hermenegildo said to Archbishop Claret, “Pardon me, Your Excellency, for troubling you with this inopportune visit. I need to unburden my heart to you. I have not been able to sleep all night. Tell me, Archbishop, did my sermon not please you yesterday? Your silence has been a warning and a reproof for me!”
Anthony Mary Claret, having the charity of a saint, wanted to console and encourage him, but also wanted to give him important advice.
The Saint responded, “Tell me, Don Hermenegildo, have you ever preached on the salvation of the soul or on the terrible misfortune of the damned?”
“No, Your Excellency, I have not yet preached on those subjects.”
“Have you preached on death, on judgment, on hell, on the necessity of conversion, on avoiding sin and doing penance?”
“I have not preached directly on these subjects either.”
“Well then, my friend, I am going to speak to you with all sincerity, since you have asked me to do so. Your sermon did not please me, nor can I approve the procedure of those who in their sermons omit these great truths of Christianity and only touch upon such subjects as serve but little to convert souls. I do not think that such sermons are either agreeable to or shall be approved by Our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
We Need Authentic Catholic Apologetics
Don Hermenegildo listened and was silent, and it wasn’t long before the people of Madrid saw a radical change in this famous preacher. Formerly, the people would applaud Dom Hermenegildo’s eloquence, but now his sermons caused them to weep in pious contrition.
As for Saint Anthony Mary Claret, he came to Cuba in 1850 and was there for only six years. In that short time, he restored, both materially and spiritually, the languishing Archdiocese of Santiago. He more than doubled the number of parishes; he re-established the diocesan seminary from which no priest had been ordained in 30 years; he lifted the morale and zeal of the clergy and had obtained an increase in their salaries; he also helped establish a number of religious communities, where formerly they had been suppressed and prohibited by law.
I’m sure there is much we could learn from a careful study of his life to apply to our present situation.
In closing, I believe that solid Catholic counter-reformation apologetics, fidelity to the Message of Our Lady of Fatima, and an application of the approach, piety and missionary zeal of the saints – such as Saint Anthony Mary Claret – will go a long way in evangelizing people and in reclaiming Catholic Latin America to the Catholic Faith.