No one in their right mind can seriously doubt the reality of the crisis of faith: More and more people, especially those of my generation, are leaving the Catholic Church and religion altogether. But even more staggering than that, an alarming increase in Catholics either do not believe in or are ignorant of what the faith actually teaches. A relatively recent Pew Research study reported that around 70% of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist! Instead, they hold that the Holy Eucharist is nothing more than a symbol of Christ’s body and blood. Let that sink in for a second: The most important sacrament toward which all the other sacraments point, the “source and summit of the Christian life” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares, the very body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ is rejected by 70% of Catholics. It’s no wonder that people are leaving the faith in droves…they have no idea what the faith even is! But that’s not even the most disturbing part. The Pew Research Center also tells us that while 22% of believers know about the doctrine of transubstantiation and reject it anyway (which is still problematic), a whopping 43% had no clue that the Church taught the Real Presence. If this statistic doesn’t shake up Catholics and make them realize the utter crisis of faith we’re in right now, I don’t know what will.
The sad truth is that many who call themselves Catholics are in fact “cafeteria Catholics;” they pick and choose which parts of the faith they like and which they don’t, just like at a cafeteria. I remember reading a discussion post for one of my classes where someone wrote that while she considers herself Catholic, she rejects the Church’s teaching on abortion. Unfortunately (and this is really sad that it’s come to this), I can’t say that I’m in the least surprised. Too many Catholics don’t know their faith. Sometimes, not even priests get the faith right. Once, I heard a priest say at Mass that hopefully, one day women will be ordained to the priesthood, which caused visible shock and perplexity (and rightfully so) among the laity. What I want to do in this post, then, is to delve more deeply into this concept of cafeteria Catholicism, rampant among Catholic university students, your everyday parishes, and even the church hierarchy.
When I was in tenth grade, one of my history teachers said that Christianity, but more specifically Catholicism, is very rigid and firm in its teachings: you’re either in the faith or you’re out. But many eastern religions, like Shintoism, are more inclusive of new ideas; they tend to assimilate other gods, religious practices, and beliefs into their own religion, and so it’s not a simple in-or-out matter. To the current secular culture, Catholicism's exclusivity may seem like a cardinal sin, especially during this modern trend of extreme tolerance and political correctness. But if you really understand Catholicism, you’d see it through a different lens.
You see, the Catholic faith professes to hold the fullness of truth. Now, regardless of whether you are a Catholic or not, set your beliefs aside for just a second. Assume that Jesus was correct in saying “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” that Catholicism is the one, true church established by Christ, and that, as Jesus promised to the Apostles, the Holy Spirit guides the church to all truth. If the Catholic Church is the vessel of truth, then it would make perfect sense to be “exclusivist,” as my history teacher pejoratively described the Church. You either accept the truth or you reject it. And even if you reject one binding teaching of the Church, you thereby reject the fullness of truth and the teaching authority of the Church.
Now, you might ask, “But why does it have to be so black and white? Isn’t it a little harsh to say that you must accept all of the Church’s teachings, and that by rejecting one of them you reject the truth?” Well, let’s clarify something a bit. I’m not suggesting for a minute (and I know that people will misinterpret me, so I’m just clarifying it now) that those outside the Church don’t have any truth. Of course they do. As the Second Vatican Council declared in Nostra Aetate, other religions do possess some truth. For instance, Buddhists recognize the fleeting nature of this material world, Muslims believe in one God, Jews accept the Old Testament as divine revelation, and Protestants accept the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the Old and New Testaments (albeit without seven Old Testament books). Even Satanists have a tiny sliver of truth, for they at least acknowledge that Satan exists. But what I’m saying is that Catholicism possesses the fullness of truth, which cannot be found outside the Church. Now, truth works in this way: either you have it or you don’t. If something is true for the most part, yet false in one aspect, it is false, because it falls away to some degree from the truth. That’s why the Catholic Church is “exclusivist;” the very nature of truth is exclusivist. Either you’re right or you’re wrong. Sure, you could have some truth, but some truth is not the same as truth itself; it’s something else.
The irony of cafeteria Catholics is that they claim to be Catholic for certain things, but not for everything. Take so-called pro-choice Catholics as an example. They say they’re Catholic when it comes to the Trinity perhaps, maybe even the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. But when it comes to abortion, absolutely not! The Church is wrong about abortion! But wait a minute…if you accept the teaching authority of the Church on other matters of faith and morals, how can you just cherry-pick what you like and what you don’t? Do you accept the Church’s authority or not? If the Holy Spirit guides the Church to all truth (not just the truth that you like), then that literally means all truth, even if its confusing, off-putting, or backward-sounding. That doesn’t mean, however, to just blindly follow the Church. That’s called being credulous, and quite frankly, it goes against the Catholic Church’s repeated insistence on the unity of faith and reason. The doctrines and dogmas of the Church can be understood, defended, and articulated through the light of reason, but picking and choosing the doctrines you wish to accept as true shows complete disregard for truth and for the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, and it clearly shows a lack of understanding on how the Church works. Dogmas and doctrines are not suggestions, as cafeteria Catholics seem to believe. They’re authoritative and binding on the faithful. You can either believe the teachings of the Church, whether or not you have warm and fuzzy feelings about them, or you shouldn’t even call yourself Catholic. But please, don’t be a half-baked cafeteria Catholic. You cannot serve two masters.
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