The Book of Christians

BOOK IV, CHAPTER THREE

TRUE FAITH CAN BE FOUND

ONLY IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and the unchaste, and murderers, and servers of idols, and every one who loves and makes a lie. (Apocalypse 22:15)

The Church alone is the depository of the truth. (Pope St. Pius X)

The Catholic Church alone is the source of truth. If any man does not enter it, or if any man departs from it, he is far from the hope of life and salvation. (Lactantius)

Innovators say the Lord gives each of the faithful a clear knowledge of Scripture. Behold, the "private interpretation" of the heretics which has produced such a variety of creeds! Hence, everyone knows that among the Reformers there are as many formulas of faith as there are individuals! This alone is sufficient to show they are in error and do not have the true faith. God arranged that the true faith would be preserved in the Roman Church alone so that, there being but one Church, there would be but one faith and one doctrine for all the faithful. (St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori)

There is only one Christian faith, that is: Catholic. (St. Bridget of Sweden)

Neither the true faith nor eternal salvation is to be found outside the Holy Catholic Church. (Ven. Pope Pius IX)

Those who are seeking the true religion will never find it outside the Catholic Church alone, because in every other religion, if they trace it up to the author, they will find some imposter whose imagination furnished a mass of sophisms and errors. (Alphonsus Maria Liguori)

Heretics think false things about God and call it their "faith." (St. Augustine)

The sense of Scripture can be found incorrupt nowhere outside the Catholic Church. (Pope Leo XIII)

Faith in Christ cannot be maintained pure and unalloyed when it is not protected and supported by faith in the Church. Faith in Christ and in the Church stand together. Whenever a person obstinately separates himself from the infallible teaching of the Church, he gradually loses the certain and true doctrine about Jesus Christ. All heretics wish to dissolve Christ and therefore "are not of God" (I Jn. 4:3). (Pope Pius XI)

The Church is afflicted at present by Indifferentism: that vicious manner of thinking which holds that eternal salvation can be obtained by the profession of any faith, provided a manÆs morals be good and decent. Let them beware who preach that the gates of Heaven are open to every religion! Without a doubt, they will perish in eternity unless they hold to the Catholic faith and observe it whole and inviolate. (Pope Gregory XVI)

"Jesus, going into one of the ships that belonged to Simon, asked him to draw back a little; and, sitting down, He taught the multitudes out of the Shipö (Lk. 5:3). The Church is the Ship outside which it is impossible to understand the Divine Word. (St. Hilary of Poitiers)

Wherefore, all heretics, because they are blind to the truth, are forced to wander willy-nilly, first in one direction, then in another. (St. Irenaeus of Lyons)

Therefore, none of the heretics holds the truth; the Church alone is in possession of the truth. (St. Ambrose)

Hence, because truth must be one, of all the different churches only one can be the true one, and out of that Church there is no salvation. To convince all heretical sects of their error, there is no way more certain than to show that our Catholic Church has been the first one founded by Jesus Christ; for, this being established, it is proven beyond all doubt that ours is the only true Church and that all the others are certainly in error. A single contradiction is enough to show that Calvin and Luther did not have the Spirit of God. (St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori)

Because there is no Holy Spirit outside the Church, it is impossible for there to be any sound faith not only among heretics but even among those who are established in schism. (St. Cyprian)

God will have the Paraclete only in those who worship Him in perfect faith. (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

The true faith of the Catholic Church alone is the true source of salvation, from which all heresies, which have only the name of Christ but not the faith of Christ, have been cut off and separated. (St. Epiphanius)

And, just as the devil is not Christ, though he tricks people by the name, so likewise a man cannot be taken for a Christian unless he abides in the Gospel of Christ and in the true faith. (St. Cyprian)

Oh, God! How does it happen that they do not see that, being separated from the Catholic Church and having lost obedience to her, they have also lost the rule of faith, so that they have no sure rule to ascertain what is of the faith or what is not? Thus, they walk in the dark, changing the articles of their belief from day to day. (St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori)

Heretics are forever making up new creeds, and condemning old ones. They have their annual and monthly faiths, and as many faiths as they have people. They concoct creeds merely to repent of them, and they formulate new ones in order to anathematize those who adhere to their old ones. They all have "Scriptures" in hand, and "Faith" in their mouths, for no purpose but to impose on weak minds. (St. Hilary of Poitiers)

Thus does Satan manufacture heretics; thus does he weaken the faith. Therefore, do not let a heretic ensnare you just because he can quote a few examples from Scripture. The devil also makes use of texts from Scripture, not to teach but to deceive. (St. Ambrose)

Both the devil and his disciples use the testimonies of Holy Scripture, and vehemently indeed. For, they scarcely ever bring forward anything which they do not try to color with the words of Scripture. Read the tracts of such pests, and you will witness a vast heap of Scriptural examples. Hardly a page is not painted with sentences from the Old or New Testaments. But the more secretively they lurk under the shadows of the divine law, the more are they to be avoided; for they are all false apostles, false prophets, and false teachers, and all of them utterly heretics. Thus, what shall Catholic men do to discern truth from falsehood in the Holy Scriptures? Take very great care to interpret the Scriptures according to the traditions of the universal Church. Within this truly Catholic and Apostolic Church, it is necessary to follow universality, antiquity, and agreement. (St. Vincent of Lerins)

Therefore, heretics are not to be admitted to any discussion whatsoever concerning Sacred Scripture. Our faith owes obedience to the Apostle when he forbids us to deal with a heretic "after one warning" (Titus 3:10), not after a disputation with him. Heretics rely on what they have falsely composed from some ambiguity of their own. You will gain nothing but frustration from their blasphemy! The only question to be discussed and the first one to be proposed is: to whom does the true faith belong? For, wherever the true Christian faith can be shown, there will be the true Scriptures, the true interpretations of the Scriptures, and all the true Christian traditions. (Tertullian)

When a dispute has arisen concerning doctrine, and everyone uses the same Scriptures to support their contentions, what does a good life afford? If, after so many efforts, one falls into heresy and is cut off from the Church, what does an austere life avail him? Nothing! (St. John Chrysostom)

What good can there be in a man, what can one think of his ôfear of the Lordö or his "faith," when neither warnings correct him, nor persecutions induce him to reform? (St. Cyprian)

What is the use of fighting for many articles of faith and to perish for the doubting of a few? He believes no one article of the faith who refuses to believe any single one. However many Catholic dogmas he retains, yet if he perniciously plucks out one, that which he holds, he holds not by orthodox faith, without which it is impossible to please God, but by his own reason, his own conviction. (St. Edmund Campion)

It is a denial of the faith not to confess even in the smallest matter. For we ought not, even in the slightest particular, deviate from the way of truth. (St. Epiphanius)

Neither living nor lifeless faith remains in a heretic who disbelieves a single article of faith. All those who deny one article of faith, regardless of their reason, are by that very fact excommunicated. Hence, he who does not adhere to everything Jesus Christ has prescribed for our salvation does not have any more of the doctrine of Jesus Christ than the pagans, Jews, or Mohammedans. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

There can be nothing more dangerous for us than those heretics who admit nearly the entire cycle of Catholic doctrine and yet, by a single word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by Our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition. For, such is the nature of the faith that nothing can be more absurd than to accept some things and to reject others. If, then, it be certain that anything is revealed by God, and this is not believed, then nothing whatever is believed. He who dissents even in one point from divinely-revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith. (Pope Leo XIII)

They even debase the concept of true religion and, little by little, lapse into Naturalism and Atheism. (Pope Pius XI)

There is no middle way between Catholicism and Atheism; hence, Protestants have abandoned themselves to the extreme of Atheism or Materialism, denying every maxim of the faith. If you take away obedience to the Church, there is no error which will not be embraced. (St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori)

You deserters rave, steeped as you are in sacrilege; yes, you rave! What madness could be greater? Why are your ears deaf to the rules of salvation we propose? Look at the punishments we see overtaking men who have denied the faith. Alas! What an evil end they come to! Not even here below can they go unpunished, though the Day of Reckoning is still to come! (St. Cyprian)

REFERENCES

BOOK IV, CHAPTER THREE

1. John Paul II: "To the National Meeting of Italian Catholic Action," LOR, July 21, 1980

2. Pius X: "Address on the Beatification of Joan of Arc," April, 1909, OUR GLORIOUS POPES, Cambridge, MA: Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 1955, p.179

3. Lactantius: "Divine Institutions," Bk.IV, ch.30, no.11-12, PL 6:542; PTC:873

4. Alphonsus Maria: Cf. TRE

5. John XXIII: "Ad Petri Cathedram," cf. ACTA APOSTOLICAE SEDIS, Rome: no.50

6. Bridget: BOR

7. Pius IX: "Singulari Quidem," PTC:222

8. Alphonsus Maria: Cf. TRE

9. Augustine: "Faith and the Creed," PL 40:181

10. Leo III: "Providentissimus Deus," Section V, RSS