Hot Buttons of the Faith

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 16, 2024

Recruits to the Catholic faith are often more receptive to the hot buttons of the faith than many cradle Catholics.

The Proclamation of Jesus

St. Paul writes: “When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.… [My] message [was] not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:1-5) The words and deeds of Jesus are the core of Catholic teaching.

The Eucharist

Jesus teaches: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” (Jn. 6:47-48) The Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ—the Real Presence—regardless of what any individual believes. Only properly disposed Catholics should receive Holy Communion.

No Salvation Outside the Church

Jesus teaches, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (Jn.14:6)

Echoing St. Augustine in City of God, the Fathers of Vatican II invoke Scriptures and Tradition and teach that the Church “…is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms, He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.” (Lumen Gentium 14)

The Fathers continue:

Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.

Jesus is the truth. Non-Catholics who follow the truth in goodwill are unwitting followers of Jesus and His Church. But the Fathers warn, “Often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator.” (LG 16)

Church and Hierarchy

Jesus teaches: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” (Mt. 16:17-18)

The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. Peter and the Apostles are the first bishops. Members of the Church’s hierarchy are successors of the Apostles by ordination.

Mary is the model of the Church. The Church is holy and sinless. Peter and the Apostles are the models of the hierarchy. The hierarchy is never without sin. Jesus even rebuked Peter—the foundational pope—because Peter dared to resist Jesus’ prophecy of His passion and death (cf. Mk. 8:31-33)

Valid ordination enables priests—sometimes egregious sinners—to celebrate the sacraments, above all the Eucharist and sacramental absolution.

Infallibility of the Pope

Jesus confers His authority on Peter and guarantees the Church’s ultimate victory: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the [gates of hell] shall not prevail against it.” (Mt. 16:18)

Pope John Paul II explains the papal charism of infallibility:

Infallibility is not given to the Roman Pontiff as a private person, but inasmuch as he fulfills the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians. He also does not exercise it as having authority in himself and by himself, but ‘by his supreme apostolic authority’ and ‘by the divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter.’ Finally, he does not possess it as if he could dispose of it or count on it in every circumstance, but only ‘when he speaks from the chair,’ and only in a doctrinal field limited to the truths of faith and morals and those closely connected with them….(General Audience, March 24, 1993)

The dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Mary’s Assumption are examples. The exercise of papal infallibility is reasonable, binding, and rare.

The Priesthood and Apostolic Succession

The Church ordains men as priests because Jesus, the High Priest, in His humanity, is male. The Apostles were male, and the constant tradition of the Church affirms an all-male priesthood. The Christian family is a mirror image of the Church. A priest is a father. A woman cannot be a father, and a man cannot be a mother.

Matrimony

Jesus teaches: “From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.’… What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Mk. 10:6-9)

Intrinsically Evil Actions and Prudential Judgments

The Church’s moral teaching distinguishes between intrinsically evil actions and prudential judgments open for debate. Hot-button topics like the abuse of sexuality, contraception, direct abortion, in-vitro fertilization, mutilation—and indiscriminate attacks on population centers—involve acts that are always and everywhere evil. Policies formulated in goodwill, on issues such as immigration, taxes, and other public policy questions, are arguable prudential applications of the Commandments.

The Church answers contemporary hot-button controversies with faith and reason. Jesus gives us the grace to open the Church’s treasure chest to discover and rediscover His saving truths and our human dignity.