What I Love About the Roman Catholic Church

I recently put up a blog post that begins with some pretty harsh criticism of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.  I am committed to speaking the truth as I know it in this blog, but I must admit that when that call to speak the truth leads to criticism of the Roman Catholic Church it feels a bit like I’m biting the hand that once fed me, and fed me very well.  My Master of Divinity degree is from the School of Theology and Ministry of Seattle University.  Seattle University is a Catholic university, specifically a Jesuit university.  Seattle University welcomed me and a great many other Protestant students into the Institute of Ecumenical Theological Studies of the School of Theology and Ministry.  There, where my teachers were mostly Catholic, I learned the joy and the challenge of Christian ministry.  I learned theology and church history.  I learned the practice of prayer and other spiritual disciplines.  I was challenged and supported, encouraged and criticized, all with an eye to making me a competent minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I will forever be grateful to the SU School of Theology and Ministry and to the many wonderful Catholic people there who were my teachers and my classmates.

There is much that I truly love about the Roman Catholic Church.  I love its ritual.  The Roman Catholic mass is a worship service of great beauty and spiritual power.  In the mass the symbols of the Christian faith are lifted up and surrounded with actions of devotion, actions of love.  The ritual of the mass works in my soul, drawing me to God with a power beyond words.  I wish the Eucharistic table of the Roman Catholic Church were open to me, for I know that receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ as part of a well-done Catholic mass would have great spiritual meaning for me. 

The Roman Catholic Church is immensely rich in the ways of spirituality, ways that I’m afraid much of the Protestant world has lost.  The Church follows the traditional Christian calendar more faithfully than many Protestant churches do.  In the Catholic Church the repeated rhythms of the church year speak powerfully to the people and draw them to Jesus Christ.  The Roman Catholic Church has many spiritual traditions and practices that aren’t limited to the mass.  Franciscan spirituality celebrates God’s creation and the divinity apparent in nature.  Benedictine spirituality stresses hospitality that is beautiful and welcoming for all people.  Jesuit spirituality is strong in its commitment to quality education and to social justice in the world.  The Catholic social teaching, something that even Catholics call the best kept secret of the Church, is a powerful voice for social and economic justice for working people and for the poor around the world.  The Vatican has discouraged it, but the liberation theology that Catholic people have developed, especially in Latin America, continues that strand of the Catholic tradition that calls and works for justice.  Many great Catholic people have given their lives in the struggle for justice.  Archbishop Oscar Romero is but one of the better known of them. 

So yes, there is much that I love about the Roman Catholic Church.  That love is not diminished by my critical attitude toward much of what the church’s hierarchy has done and is doing.  The Roman Catholic Church nurtures Christian faith in hundreds of millions of people around the globe.  Catholic people do much great work in the causes of peace and justice.  I pray that my occasional criticisms of other aspects of the Church will not obscure my great love for and appreciation of Catholic spirituality and the Catholic commitment to social justice.