I Believe and Profess

“I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.”

When I was received into the Catholic Church I had to make that statement of faith after the Nicene Creed, and by that declaration of faith to the Church’s minister, I became a Catholic. Anyone who has been truly baptized into the death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ but outside the Catholic Church becomes a Catholic simply by acknowledging the truth of these words: I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.

What immediately follows is the administration of the other two sacraments of initiation: Chrismation and the Holy Eucharist, and only then is the once non-Catholic Christian said to be in full communion with the Catholic Church. But it is the profession of faith added to the reality of Holy Baptism that causes a non-Catholic Christian to become a Catholic Christian, and this means that at the heart of the difference between Catholic Christians and non-Catholic Christians lies the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the Gospel (all that has been revealed by God) and the credibility of what the Church teaches.

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20) In the Great Commission, the Lord Jesus directly links his own authority to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel and celebrate the mysteries or sacraments of the New Covenant, beginning with Baptism.

This is why Saint Augustine wrote that “I would not believe the truth of the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved me to this.” (Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus, 6) The authority and credibility of the Church’s teaching office is what guarantees that the whole Gospel without addition or subtraction will be proclaimed until the Last Day, and Christ himself established and protects this teaching office by the action of the Holy Spirit. “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)

Now, here’s the rub. If a non-Catholic becomes a Catholic by accepting “all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God,” what happens to a Catholic who no longer believes those things? What happens when a Catholic comes to believe that the Church is teaching falsehood about something which she claims is part of the deposit of faith, meaning a supernatural gift of divine revelation? Does that Catholic cease to be a Catholic? Or at least cease to be in full communion with the Catholic Church? And what happens when the Catholic in question is ordained or belongs to a religious community and holds an office of any sort in the Church?

If Christianity is not a revealed religion, then it is a false religion. But if it is a revealed religion, then accepting with the obedience of faith all that has been revealed by God is essential to belonging fully to Christ’s Church and to exercising any office in the Church. One reason the Church in our time is in such distress is that many baptized Catholics no longer believe all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God, and not a few of those are ordained or have professed vows in the Church and hold offices in the Church despite their infidelity in some degree to the Gospel, to “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3) This is among the chief reasons we need a New Catholic Reformation.