Catholic Sacraments

I took a class in Systematic Theology during the Spring term. One of the requirements was a 5-10 page term paper on some topic in the class. I did mine on the Sacraments of the Catholic Church vs the sacraments in Protestantism. I thought it was pretty interesting. Here it is. This sucker is 10 pages and may not be that interesting. If you want the gest you can skip to the heading "Sacramental Efficacy" and read from there.

Introduction

This paper will discuss the differing views of Catholics and most mainline Protestants on the Sacraments. The paper will show why Catholics hold to seven sacraments while most Protestants hold to two and why Catholics and Protestants differ radically on the meaning and power behind sacraments.

The Catholic View

The Catholic Church recognizes seven sacraments Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage and Holy Orders.* The first three are part of what the Roman Church calls Christian Initiation. The second two are sacraments of healing and the final two are for a particular purpose. We will discuss the Catholic sacraments individually and as a group after a brief introduction of each. Here are brief explanations of each according to Catholic Cathecism:¹

Baptism: “Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word."

Confirmation: “Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the "sacraments of Christian initiation," whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For "by the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit.” Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed."

* When speaking about or quoting Catholic doctrine we will use the capitalization preferred by Catholics. Thus we will refer to the Catholic Church and capitalize the Catholic rites. The reader will also note, however that the Catholics do NOT capitalize Him or He when referring to God or Her when referring to the Church. This is their convention not mine.

Eucharist: “The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.”

Reconciliation: “Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion."

Anointing of the Sick: “By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them. And indeed she exhorts them to contribute to the good of the People of God by freely uniting themselves to the Passion and death of Christ.”

Marriage: “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."

Holy Orders: Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate.

Protestant View

As on most theological topics, there are a wide variety of views among Protestants concerning the sacraments. However, generally Protestants and certainly most evangelical and charismatic churches contend that there are two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Most Protestants contend these are the only sacraments instituted by Jesus. Jesus was baptized and participated in the first Lord’s Supper with his disciple the evening before His Passion. Protestants say that the other sacraments introduced by the Catholic Church (and observed by Eastern Orthodox churches and to a lesser extent the Church of England) are not Scriptural but merely church tradition. The Catholic Church relies on the Council of Trent (1545-63) which declared that there seven sacraments, no more, no less. The Council went on to claim that each of the seven had been instituted by Jesus. According to Berkhof, the Council of Trent “imposed an impossible task on the theology of its church.” ² Apparently unmoved by Berkhof’s assessment, the Catholic Church has stuck with the Council’s standard and even now insist that Jesus Himself instituted the rites. Catholics insist on this despite the fact that marriages were not commonly held in churches until roughly 1400 years after the death of Christ³ and even 2000 years later the precise roots of Confirmation appear unclear.⁴

The Five “Extra” Sacraments

Allow me to first address the sacraments that the most Protestants would say are not Scripturally valid.

Anointing of the Sick: Any Bible believing Christian believes that prayer can heal the sick. Healing is listed as among the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and Romans 12. Most would have no trouble with using oil as the Catholic Sacrament proscribes as this is also Biblical. However, the Catholic tradition has two fatal flaws, one that has been partly corrected and one that his deeply embedded in Catholic tradition and unlikely to change soon. The first problem is that up until recently this rite was only performed on the dieing. Indeed, the sacrament has also been called Last Rites and Extreme Unction.⁵

The result was that it had no real effect other than some kind of comfort for the dieing. There appeared to be no belief that praying for the sick could actually work. Vatican II later renamed the rite Anointing of the Sick and noted that it should be exercised more liberally on all believers who are suffering illness.⁶

The more profound issue is that only Catholic priests may administer the rite and of course it must be done according to a precise script handed down by Rome. This goes to the very root of the difference between the Catholic Church and Protestants. Protestants believe in vary degrees in the priesthood of all believers. Grace Churches International would contend that any spirit-filled believer can pray for healing.

Still, in total, there is a relatively high congruence between the Catholic view of praying for the sick and the Protestant view.

Marriage: As I read the Catholic Catechism on marriage I found a lot to agree with. Certainly, Protestants believe that Christians should be married before God and rely on God for the health and vitality of their marriage. Most Protestants also believe that a church leader should officiate some type of ceremony. Most would further agree that the ceremony does indeed have some effect in the spiritual realm as two are united into one flesh.

However, the Catholic Marriage sacrament has two fatal flaws. First, as we will discuss in more detail below, Catholics believe that all Catholic sacraments are a means of grace. That is, the very act of being married in the church will confer on you God’s grace. In the case of other sacraments, the Church makes some effort to explain why Catholics believe the sacrament itself confers grace. In the case of Marriage, Catholic doctrine appears to make little effort to explain how the sacrament itself confers grace.

The second, more profound issue is annulment. Since, in the mind of the Catholics, only the church can begin a marriage, only the church can end a marriage. The church does not sanction divorce and divorced Catholics are technically not in right standing with the church. Though it appears this is not tightly enforced in many parts of the world.

A Catholic can not get divorced but a Catholic can have an annulment. The Catholic Church will tell you (for a fee of course) that in the eyes of God (or at least the Catholic Church, which in their mind is the same thing) -- you were never married! The fee to have an annulment is profoundly troubling as it smacks of the sale of indulgences that was so critical in sparking the Reformation. The church once had strict rules on what was needed to seek an annulment but has recently loosened the standards to the point of being comical or tragic depending on your point of view. Among the reasons that a Catholic can now present for wanting an annulment are lack of due discretion, defective consent and psychic incapacity. ⁷ These amount to (1) lack of due discretion- I was young/stupid/pressured and did not know what I was doing; (2) defective consent- he/she did not tell they were an previously married/alcoholic/a jerk /boring/not a New York Jets fan; (3) psychic capacity- I was an alcoholic/abuse victim/had mean parents and did not have the capacity for a relationship. There may be some extreme cases where one or more of these reasons have some validity. For example imagine a devout Catholic seduced by a cad who never tells her he is still married.

However, this type of case is more exception than the rule. Instead, parishes now use these loosely defined terms to annul just about any marriage they want to annul. Essentially the system has lost any foundation of reason or relationship to any type of absolute standard, Scriptural or otherwise and Catholics are more or less doing whatever they please.

Holy Orders: Holy Orders is the rite by which men are ordained as priests in the Catholic Church. Like marriage, Holy Orders, looks and feels much what Protestants may do in installing leaders. Most Protestants do some type of ordination, commissioning or sending forth when believers enter into some type of leadership position. Protestants would also generally agree that the ceremony does change things. The one ordained, the one on whom hands are laid is now called by God to another level of service and accountability. In this sense, the ordination of priests is similar. The critical difference would be the Catholic belief that only those that have been through Holy Orders can properly and effectively do much of the ministry of the church.

Confirmations: On the one hand this rite is so meaningless that it is hard to object to. What Christian can not agree that every believer can grow in the Lord, become more deeply committed to the Kingdom etc.? I can also agree that in some cases it may be appropriate to recognize a new level of commitment or maturity. This is one the things behind a Jewish Bat/Bar Mitzvah. I know some believers that have a ceremony when their adult children are brought to a new level of partnership with their parents and the rest of the church.

On the other hand, Confirmation is based on such shaky theology that the rite borders on nonsense. According to John McQuarrie, a professor emeritus at Oxford, the roots of the rite, even to world class scholars, remains obscure.⁸ Even after a careful reading of the Catholic Catechism I can only conclude that Confirmation is meant to bring a Catholic “more fully” into the Church. However, it is difficult to define what that means.

According to the Catholic Catechism, Confirmation is related to the idea that in the Book of Acts being baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit do not necessarily happen simultaneously. Thus, Confirmation, presumably, is when a Catholic receives the Holy Spirit. Catholics apparently are not bothered by the fact that the Holy Spirit appears to descend before, after and during baptism in the New Testament. Rather than concluding that God the Father sends the Holy Spirit when He sees fit, that there is no clear pattern, Catholics are apparently content to attempt to ritualize the Holy Spirits’ arrival well after baptism at a time of their choosing.

As if having no clearly discernable purpose, no clear meaning nor Biblical root were not enough, the biggest problem with confirmation is its relationship with infant baptism. McQuarrie contends that confirmation comes out of the Catholic insistence on infant baptism combined with a need to acknowledge that an infant can not possible have truly chosen to follow Jesus.⁹ Thus, Confirmation becomes something like an adult baptism in the Catholic Church where the person, truly and of their own volition, chooses to follow the Catholic faith.

Where All Can Agree-Sort of

Both Protestants can agree that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are legitimate parts of Christian worship. However, beyond that there is at least some disagreement on just about every other point worth disagreeing about.

Baptism

Catholics and Protestants agree that baptism is an important part of Christian life. The two groups can further agree that baptism is the first step in walking in the Christian faith. After that the two groups diverge.

The general Protestant position is that repentance and faith in Jesus is what leads to salvation and that baptism only makes sense after a person has met the Living God and professed his/her faith. Protestants disagree about whether baptism is essential to salvation or is merely an act of obedience meant to be a powerful symbol of a present reality for the newly saved. Protestants also disagree on the importance and meaning of various forms of baptism. Some denominations are quite insistent on full submersion while others feel any ceremony where the symbolism of being washed in water is sufficient.

In contrast, Catholics are eager to baptize a new born believing that not doing so means the child is in danger of damnation. Catholic theology dictates that baptism removes sin, including original sin. Thus, a ceremony that is obviously completely meaningless to the child can actually ensure that the child will be with Jesus. A Catholic can never be completely right with God, however. Each sin puts the Catholic in some level of difficulty with regards to their eternal state. Thus the Eucharist is meant to be a renewal of baptism.

Eucharist or Lord’s Supper

Protestants recognize the Lord’s Supper as a legitimate part of Christian faith and practice and contend that remembering Christ’s work on the cross through communion is a powerful tool in building the body of Christ. Some Protestants put more weight and meaning on communion than others but none even approach giving the Lord’s Supper the meaning accorded the rite in the Catholic faith.

It would be almost impossible to overstate the importance of the Eucharist in Catholic theology. As stated earlier in our summary of the Eucharist, “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it.” ¹⁰ Let me give you a sampling of some of what the Eucharist can presumably do according to Catholic doctrine. Each of these quotes is from an encyclical letter from Pope John Paul II written in April 2003.¹¹ In Catholicism this letter is on par with the Bible. Indeed to the extent Biblical text disagrees with the Pope’s letter, the Pope’s writings will rule. Among other things John Paul II proclaims that “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist”; the Eucharist is “the source and summit of Christian life”; “the most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth, Christ himself, our passover and living bread.”

Wow! All that from consuming a wafer and a bit of wine! Who knew the God of Genesis, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the mystery of the atoning work of the incarnate God, Jesus Christ and all the meaning of the Word of God could be reduced to such a small, simple thing? Catholic doctrine contends that during the Eucharist the elements do not merely symbolize Christ’s body and blood but they in fact ARE Christ’s body and blood. This doctrine is called transubstantiation. Catholics are instructed that in one moment that if asked to describe the elements they are to say “it is bread and wine” in the next moment, once the elements have been properly blessed if asked they are to say “it is the body and blood of Jesus.”¹² One might argue, “What is wrong with that? Christian faith is partly about not being able to see things yet still living as if they were real.” Faith for the supernatural and miraculous is wonderful and is part of a dynamic walk with God. Sadly, Catholic doctrine dictates that faith is not what gives Catholic sacraments their power. In fact faith is not even necessary for Catholic sacraments to be effective. This is their fatal flaw.

Sacramental Efficacy

The Eucharist is the most obvious and egregious example of Catholic doctrine pouring a ludicrous amount of meaning and power into a sacrament. Catholic doctrine states that each of the Church’s sacraments, in and of themselves, contain power. This idea is called ex opere operato which means that the rite confers grace independent of the faith or moral character of the celebrant. ¹³ This is obvious in the Catholic idea of infant baptism, the now discredited but once extremely common idea of saying a Mass for the dead and in the incredible power invested in communion by the Catholic Church. Catholic faith would say that merely performing the act correctly will earn merit for the faithful. This is called opus operatum. ¹⁴

This represents a theology of works that obviously must be rejected by any Bible believing Christian. Martin Luther was particularly harsh on the Catholic idea of transubstantiation saying it “is a figment of the human mind, for it rest neither on Scripture nor reason.”¹⁵ Instead, Luther contends that “sacraments are promises attached to visible signs and those promises are found in Scripture” ¹⁶ Sacraments are reminders of God and what he has done for us but do not embody God Himself. As Barth has said, “(sacraments) demand faith…..they are cognitive not causative”¹⁷

Conclusion

I was raised Catholic through age 18. I participated in four of the seven Catholic sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation and Penance). I later met the Lord at age 29 in an evangelical Protestant church. I began this paper curious to see what the Lord would show me about the differences between the Protestant and Catholic view of the sacraments. I confess that I saw more of God’s heart in the Catholic writing than I expected. Based on that bit of encouragement, I made a real effort to find something in the Catholic doctrine that I could connect with, admire or at least more or less agree with.

In the end, I could not find any substantial point where I felt the Catholic viewpoint was superior or even comparable to the Protestant view. Further, I see the Catholic doctrine that the rites themselves contain power as horribly flawed. I am unable to figure how a person could know the God of grace found in Scripture and truly believe that a simple ceremony (properly executed) could actually confer any part of God’s grace absent any accompanying faith. Still, I know from experience that there are people who have met the Lord and yet somehow believe in the power of the sacraments. I bless my Catholic brothers and sisters but must reject every bit of their theology in the area of the sacraments.

Bibliography

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church Prepared following the Second Vatican Ecumenical

Council Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano 1993.

2. Berkhof, Louis Systematic Theology Eardmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI 1996.
3. White, James T. The Sacraments in Protestant Practice and Faith Abigdon Press, Nashville 1999
4. McQuarrie, John A Guide to the Sacraments Continuum, New York 1997. McQuarrie is professor emeritus at Oxford.
5. Elwell, Walter A. editor Evangelical Dictionary of Theology 2^nd Edition, Baker Books

Grand Rapids, MI 2001

6. Catechism of the Catholic Church
7. Catoir, John C. Understanding Annulments St. Anthony Messenger September 1998.
8. see 4 above
9. see 4 above
10. see 1 above
11. His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano 2003
12. Anglican and Roman Catholic Commission Eucharistic Doctrine- Final Report, London CTS, SPCK 1989
13. Bouyer, Louis The Word, Church and Sacraments in Protestantism and Catholicism, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1960
14. Ibid
15. Luther, Martin Babylonian Captivity, Luther’s Works Volume 36, Philadelphia A. J. Holman, 1915 revised 2002
16. Ibid
17. Barth, Karl Church Dogmatics IV T & T Clark Edinburgh, 1969

Books referenced but not noted directly

18. Grudem, Wayne Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI 1994

Hellwig, Monika The Meaning of the Sacraments Pflaum Press, Dayton, OH 1972