Becoming Catholic: Objections

Becoming Catholic comes up in conversation with me regularly. I get a lot of objections to this, and some of them are really valid. This week has reminded me of the Things I Don't Like... things that deserve discussion, concern, and our earnest prayers for the Church.

Obviously, there are lots of things that typical evangelicals object to that I enthusiastically defend. I'm down with the Catholic Sacraments (I can discuss later why I believe in the Real Presence, approve infant baptism and value confession and penance). I am not bothered by the Eucharistic rather than literary focus of the Mass. I do disapprove of certain aspects of Catholic teaching (e.g purgatory, intercession of dead saints, the political supremacy of the Bishop of Rome) and I am a bit irritated and concerned about certain Catholic practices (e.g excessive Marian devotion, excessive dependence on physical relics and such, the fact that it's so darn difficult to find a good Bible study, you know). However, I really only have one serious objection at this point, and it has to do with ecclesiastical exclusivity. I think it's wrong to teach that the Catholic Church alone enjoys the legacy of legitimate apostolic succession (an unbroken line of leadership and tradition going back to the apostles). And above all I think it's wrong to deny fellow Christians communion. Really wrong.

But the wrong here is on both sides of the schism. I do believe that the Church is right and good. I want to see unity restored to the Body of Christ. I don't know what to demand that the Catholic Church do better when many Protestants are unwilling to place themselves in the timeline of church history and think about how their Christian religion has been handed down to them from the church fathers. Some even consider the Church to be a corrupt (or worse, apostate) institution. How can I want the Catholic Church to speak with inclusion about people who don't want to be included? Well, this frustrates me.

I understand not sharing the Eucharist with those who deny the Real Presence of Christ in the host. That makes sense, I hate to admit, and this points to a familiar theme in ecumenical dialogue where disagreements perpetuate the rift and resolution seems millenia away. I see it like this: Catholics won't invite Protestants to the table, and most of them don't want to come anyway.

In all this, I am encouraged by the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"The Church is One."

817 "In subsequent centuries serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame." The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body... do not occur without human sin.
818  "However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers... They have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church."
820 The Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her. That is why Jesus himself prayed at the hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying to his Father, for the unity of his disciples: "That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us... so that the world may know that you have sent me."

Notes:
I omitted footnotes and cross references. Please refer to the full text here.

Regarding communion, I am aware that I am not addressing Orthodox or certain Anglican groups, and that they provide notable and interesting exceptions.

The icon above shows Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea holding the Nicene Creed of 381. This discussion comes from the Four Marks of the Church specified in the creed. I also like the undeniably Catholic flavor of the statement of orthodoxy that unites all Christians.