Holy Ground: Full-time Faith

Earlier we looked at a major between Catholics and Protestants by how they display their allegiance to Christ. The difference lies in the source of authority. For Catholics the Authority is not the Scriptures but Sacred Tradition. For Protestants authority rests in the Scriptures alone.

In today’s post we’ll examine Castaldo’s first of five reasons why believers have left the Catholic church. He begins by explaining God’s purpose for the creation of man is to reflect God’s image. To represent God’s image on earth (Gen 1:26, Psalm 8). Again Catholics would agree at this point. However the difference is how that representation or ambassadorship occurs.

Catholics have established a formal clerical priesthood while Evangelicals have a priesthood of believers. According to the Catechism of the Catholic church,

“The whole Church is a priestly people. Through Baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the ‘common priesthood of the faithful.’ Based on this common priesthood and ordered to its service, there exists another participation in the mission of Christ: the ministry conferred by the sacrament of Holy Orders, where the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ the Head in the midst of the community.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1591-92)

Castaldo explains that the Catholic Church provides a two-tiered system where there is clergy and laity and as a Catholic you will be in one category or the other. So as a Catholic church-goer you are “limited” in what you are able to do in your representation of Christ. You don’t participate in ministry that the NT calls every believer to do (Eph 4:7-13). To be fair, Vaitcan II addresses this issue however in the majority of parishes there still remains this two-tiered clergy-laity disjunction.

As a former Catholic this is exactly the life I experienced in the Catholic church. We attended Sunday Mass and that was it. The one-another ministry was merely the “peace be with you” and that was the extent of our talking with other people in the church (unless of course we already knew them through school or family parties). The only other time anything spiritual took place would be at the observance of Catholic Sacraments like CCD or Confirmation or funerals.

The “spiritual life” was part-time and practiced only on Sundays and other rare occassions. It is no surprise that the former Catholics in Castaldo’s survey felt like they could not fully be ambassadors for Christ (2Cor 5:20) in the Catholic church. In short they sought after a faith that was full-time and wanted to live the fullness of life that God has called all of His people.

I appreciated this chapter since it does discuss something exactly how the differences are experienced. However I do hope that in later chapters Castaldo will explain more fully at why the experiences are different. Specifically with an explanation of the new birth and the new heart that now wants to serve Christ.

Holy Ground: Introduction
Holy Ground: Fundamental Differences