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Richard N. Neumann
In a class I took to better understand religions of the world it was necessary to do a paper on the strengths & weaknesses of a religion of my choice. I chose my own religion.
All churches have their strengths and weaknesses. What is important is your faith, not your condemnations. Although I am biased towards the Catholic denomination I am not that closed-minded to accept the fact that it has its problems and faults. It would be easy for me to list only the strengths of the Catholic church. At first, I was hesitant to look into the weaknesses of the church. Who wants to discover or expose faults of something that they believe in so dearly. In the acquisition of knowledge of any kind it is necessary to look at both sides of the coin. Looking at both the strengths and weaknesses of the church has only furthered my devotion to this Christian denomination. Some Christians, including some Catholics, have trouble seeing what church laws and doctrines have to do with salvation. Catholicism appears to many people to be a complicated system of beliefs and religious practices that are a far cry from the simplicity of the gospel. The basic message of the gospel is indeed simple, and the Catholic church has always taught that salvation depends mainly on believing in and practicing that simple gospel. Yet over the course of two thousand years, the church has had to consider many other issues and questions. Gradually, the church developed a body of teachings to clarify, interpret and apply the truth found in the Bible and in the early church. Among Christians there are two views about the "church" ( the body ). One group believes that being a Christian is first and foremost an individual relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The church is a community of believers who have come together because they all believe in Christ. Put this way, it is not important what denomination you are. What matters is your personal relationship with Christ. These various denominations are of a human rather than of a divine institutions. The other group identified as Catholics believe that being a Christian is not only an individual matter. From the beginning of Christianity, Christ gathered a community around Him called disciples. Among them He chose twelve apostles whom He sent out with His authority to preach and convert. After Christ's death and resurrection, these same twelve apostles minus one, (+ one after words) acted with authority of the Spirit of Christ to found church communities all over the world. In this view, the church is a divine institution, part of the will of Christ, and it is important which church you belong to because you have to find the church or churches which have this visible link with the original "apostolic" church founded by Christ. Only there is to find the true doctrine and the true discipline of the founder of Christianity, Jesus (Pasco and Redford 117). One of the greatest strengths of the Catholic church is its hierarchy, the authority of the church. Any organization, a civic group, a debating team, or a religious order for example needs some sort of authority if it is to be and to do what it is supposed to be and to do. It also needs to be able to develop. John Newman, an Anglican clergyman, struggled over the question of authority until his conversion to Catholicism. There he found that the Catholic's had preserved the authority of Christ by developing it. Newman argued that in matters of religion, "the stream is not purest near the source; instead, religious belief is purer and stronger when its bed has become deep, broad and full"(Newman 65). In a higher world it is otherwise. Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. Christ spoke with authority and those who came to believe in Him accepted His authority as infallible from the Father. Catholics believe this authority is handed down to the successors of Jesus, the popes, the first being the apostle Peter whom Jesus entrusted with the keys to His kingdom. In Matthew sixteen where Jesus changes Peters name from Simon, Jesus assigned Peter his vocation. Jesus says: " You are the rock on which I will build my church "(Doubleday 26). Peter hence became the first pope of the Catholic church. Another very important strength of the Catholic church and other Christian churches is that the faith of Christ and His church takes people as they are. With all their faults and failings, they give them the opportunity to become truly themselves, children of God, their heavenly Father. It is a church of human beings. One of the secrets of its success is that it has had so many failures ( Pasco and Redford 123 ). Some of the weaknesses of the Catholic church resulted from some of these human failures. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there was a great need for reform within the church papacy. The church did have its reform in 1545 - 1563; however, heresy, conciliarism and corruption had taken their toll on the church. Luther, Calvin and a host of others attacked this corruption and refused to help reform the church; thus, western schism developed within the church (Encyclopedia Britannica 923). Many unjust things have been said about the Vatican's financial secretiveness. Malachi Martin a church historian and its public conscience, took a critical look a one of the most controversial complex aspects of the Roman Catholic church: it's vast wealth. Instead of helping the third worlds starving, disease ridden masses, Dr. Martin claims " the church, like any capitalists, seeks to increase it's profit making" ( Rich Church Poor Church 1). Another weakness or limitation within the Catholic church is its declining number of priests. In recent years, thousands of Catholic priests in the United States decided to give up their vocations and resign from the priesthood. Their reasons for leaving were many and varied but the problem of celibacy and bureaucracy was the most common. Father John O'Brien a research professor of Theology composed a book of intimate stories from priests who left the church. Many of these priests felt there will always be a problem of celibacy. The need to lead a useful and rewarding life can come from an open, mature and loving religious community; however, some priests find they require the attention and devotion found only in the marital state. While the high number of resignations has shocked the hierarchy and laity of the church, not much has been done to rectify the problem (O'Brien 37). Although I personally don't see this as a weakness this is a perceived weakness seen by others of other denominations. Celibacy is a beautiful gift an or grace. I am called to be a father & husband first and would love to be a priest. I have done some extensive research with work and family issues amongst the married clergy of other denominations and have found celibacy {to be less "problematic"} a more viable life for the call of full time ministry. All churches have their strengths and weaknesses. The ones that survive are the ones that learn from their faults. Strength not only comes from the church authorities, but from another source just as important, its parishioners. This is also true about its weaknesses. A common excuse of many for not going to or supporting their church is "I don't get any thing out of it." I was guilty of saying this same phrase. The antidote for this can apply to sports, school and work as well as to church. It is not only what you get out of it but more importantly what you put into it. Former President John F. Kennedy said it well with a similar phrase: but what you can do for your country."
Doubleday and Company, Inc. The Jerusalem Bible. New York: Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1968. Martin, Malachi. Rich Church Poor Church.New York: Putnam, 1984.
Newman, John H. A Essay on the Development of
O'Brien, John. Why Priests Leave. New York:
Pasco, Rowanne., and Redford, John.Faith Alive. Roman Catholicism. Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropaedia 15th edition, 1988. |
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