The Church Museum or Hospital?

Protestants are fond of the saying: "The Church is not a Museum for Saints but a Hospital for Sinners. "

However they analogy misses the point and in fact is a reflection of misunderstanding, which is of course what Protestantism is.


The Catholic Church is neither museum nor hospital.  It is the Kingdom of God on earth. It is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It is it's own entity, thus there is no analogy. Saints heal and a statue or painting of their image helps us to remember and reflect on them. Indeed it also helps us to honor them. It is the kingdom of God on earth saying "well done good and faithful servant."  As the kingdom of God on earth "You are Peter and upon this rock I shall build my church I give to you the keys to the Kingdom, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven to thus honor those who have transcended from God's earth bound kingdom to His heavenly Kingdom is perfectly appropriate and necessary. Thus the Kingdom of God/heaven on earth was founded by Jesus Himself and represents a junction a mystical union between the two Kingdoms -- the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of God/heaven in Heaven. This is how Our Lord fashioned it. To call the Church a museum or a hospital is to render it strictly earthly which is to miss the meaning of the word Church and what Jesus did -- what in fact his mission was that is to found his Kingdom on earth -- the Church. There are museums and there are hospitals and there is The Catholic Church there is no appropriate analogy.

Recently I was asked the following question by a high school student.
Why are Christians so spiteful to Catholics?

Yesterday in class we discussed religion. Everybody seemed open to people who were Jewish, Muslim Atheist etc... But when I mentioned I was Roman Catholic I was horrified when somebody told me Christians follow Jesus Catholics follow the Pope, which to me is insulting. They also told me I would never go to heaven and I will never get a relationship with Jesus. I have a great relationship with God and Jesus.

• They are ignorant of the truth, and must hold onto these lies to justify their heresies. remember that the United States, was settled by fringe, radical, evangelical, fundie protestants. They were virtually run out of England do to their harshness and inability to accept the church of England. Their steadfastness in opposing the Anglican church is laudable, but what they replaced it with was not. The pilgrims/puritans had no bases for their religion. It is certainly not Christianity. Their religious beliefs were formed by their strict socio-cultural beliefs and practices. On the surface there may seem to be nothing wrong with this, except that they used the Bible and religion to support their socio-cultural points of view. In that sense they have much in common with today's fundamentalist Christians and Muslims. Fundamentalism is fundamentalism, and its basic characteristic is to start out with a socio-cultural point of view and then seek to impose it on others through the use of incontrovertible evidence, i.e., a holy book written by god.
  So it is the residual of our puritan roots that you are experiencing. They broke away from the church of England, who had already broken away from the original vine, the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth the Catholic Church. This is not to say that the church or individuals within the Catholic church have not committed excesses of our own, but in time we always own up to them and pay the consequences.
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  Prejudice against Catholics is not new in the US, it started with our puritanical roots and obviously, as you are experiencing continues today.
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  The difference between the puritans or fundies of their day and we Catholics is that while they start off with a socio-cultural point of view and bend scripture to support it, we by virtue of our history, apostolic succession, having actually written the gospels, start off with Christ our founder as our basis and then form a cultural from these truths. We do not bend scripture to suit our view, nor do we ask ourselves what it means to us -- this is where the protestants get into trouble. Of course we don't have to we there when the events we taking place and we wrote the gospels -- the story of our personal experience with Jews Christ.  Thus while there are many protestant bible commentaries, wherein each author plays his own magisterium and pope, we have only one commentary.
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  If you have received the sacrament of confirmation, then you are better suited to teach the gospel than the pastors of those who are persecuting you. You have joined the line of apostolic succession, which means you have had hands laid on you in the manner in which Jesus demonstrated and commanded his first bishops, the apostles to continue to do likewise, by someone who had hands laid on him, by someone who had had hands laid on him etc. all the way back in an unbroken and documented chain to one of the original 11 who were there in the attic at Pentecost. It is often interesting, but of course time consuming to go to the Vatican and research just which one of the 11 and thus Jesus you are actually linked to, but it can be done. None of you persecutors can say this.
  Whenever I am asked the question do I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ I do not hesitate in saying yes every time I take the Eucharist. There can be nothing more personal than this, which is why he gave it us, this sacrament and command from the gospel according to St. John chapter 6 verse 60 unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood there is no life in you, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Many shook their heads saying this is a hard teaching who can accept it and followed him no more, so there were protestants even during the messianic time or era or epoch (we are now in the end times that epoch after the resurrection and prior to the second coming, exactly when that will be only the father knows, but that is the era in which we live, all has been revealed.
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  So rejoice and be exceedingly glad whenever you hear such things, I know it can be difficult for someone who is school aged.  The pressures to conform and be accepted must be enormous, they were that way for us all. Pray for their conversion, and always be ready with an answer from you faith, you relationship with the church that Jesus personally founded, ask them who founded their church, Luther, Henry the VIII, Chuck Smith; we know who founded ours, and we have direct linkage by the laying on of hands to our founder, this makes us family -- the body of Christ.

• Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Yes there can be no more personal relationship than eating his flesh and drinking his blood as he commanded.  This is impossible to understand, and it is why we call it a mystery and we do it, and we have been doing it since the last supper, read the Mass of the Early Christians, it explains how the Mass has been kept intact since the first century.  It explains the underground church both figuratively and in the case of St. Peter's church literally beneath Rome in the catacombs, where there are still catholic images and icons on the walls.
• You are a child of light, sealed by the Holy sprit in the sacrament of confirmation and related directly to the original apostles and Jesus, you are a member of the kingdom of god/heaven on earth, the establishment of it for the salvation of souls was Jesus’ mission.  Jesus did not come to write, he never wrote a word, he came here to found the kingdom of god/heaven on earth the catholic church.  Whenever you see those words in the bible remember when Jesus says, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven He is speaking of the Catholic church = The Christian church universal (which is what catholic means).
• So fear not, the Holy Spirit will give you the words to pray for these people and the words to say to them.  I tend to be a little sterner and straight forward with them, your manner may be a lighter touch according to the gift God has given you, but remember YOU have the truth, they must deny the truth and hang on to the lies of Luther or Henry VIII or Calvin or whomever it was that ultimately founded their church.  We know who founded ours and we can point to the verse that lays that foundation, because we witnessed it and we documented.  St. Peter was ordained first prior to Our Lord’s death, with the words I give you the keys to the kingdom.  What kingdom ? The kingdom of god in heaven? No the father has those.   Jesus gave St. Peter the keys to the kingdom of God/heaven on earth -- the Catholic church.  He did this at this time singling St. Peter out because he knew he was going to be crucified so he made St. Peter the first Pope with those words and the ones that followed, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven -- thus we have the basis for papal infallibility when speaking en-cathedral or from the chair.   We did not make this up, we were there and we wrote his words down.  Did Jesus do this and say these words or not?
• Knowing the truth you can see their lies and the reason they must hold on to them so tightly by persecuting you, because without their lies their whole foundation and structure falls like a house of cards.  Protestant sects they are not churches there is only one church they are sects or bible studying fellowships or more precisely bible misunderstanding fellowships they come and they go, the Church that Jesus founded the kingdom of God on earth, the kingdom of Heaven on earth shall endure, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us.
• John Carroll the only Catholic signer of the declaration of independence suffered great persecution in his state, his brother was the first catholic bishop in the e US.  John Carroll after signing the declaration of independence had to go home and use much of his influence and fortune to fight persecutions, which included laws restricting Catholics from holding public office.  He succeeded.  So, persecution of Catholics is nothing new in the US, and we have in fact come a long way.  Just remember you have the truth and they must rely on a lie, and we all know who the father of lies is.  Don't we?

• Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus, yes there can be no more personal relationship than eating his flesh and drinking his blood as he commanded.  This is impossible to understand, and it is why we call it a mystery and we do it, and we have been doing it since the last supper, read the Mass of the Early Christians, it explains how the Mass has been kept intact since the first century.  It explains the underground church both figuratively and in the case of St. Peter's church literally beneath Rome in the catacombs, where there are still catholic images and icons on the walls.
• You are a child of light, sealed by the Holy Sprit in the sacrament of confirmation and related directly to the original apostles and Jesus, you are a member of the kingdom of god/heaven on earth, the establishment of it for the salvation of souls was Jesus’ mission.  Jesus did not come to write, he never wrote a word, he came here to found the kingdom of god/heaven on earth the catholic church.  Whenever you see those words in the bible remember when Jesus says, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven He is speaking of the Catholic church = The Christian church universal (which is what catholic means).

• Protestant sects they are not churches there is only one church they are sects or bible studying fellowships or more precisely bible misunderstanding fellowships they come and they go, the church that Jesus founded shall endue, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us.

What do we say to Protestants about the Bible?

So many of us these days are friends with protestants, even some of us feel close to the so called evangelical or fundamentalist Christian movement – the fundies. It is true the fundies are with us on the evil of abortion, and it is also true that we are related to them through the sacrament of baptism. They were baptised into the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth -- the Catholic Church aka the Christian Church universal.

I have thought about the evangelical or fundamentalist movement a great deal, and I do have some things to say about it. I also have had first hand experience, having been part of the Calvary Chapel sect of the fundamentalist movement. I'll tell you right now you know what it means to be persecuted if you sit around listening to them bash Catholics before and after their prayer breakfasts, Wednesday night prayer meetings, and Sunday "services." Make no mistake about it, John Paull II's encyclical on ecumenism not withstanding, we must remember that THEY are out to convert or "save" us. And they love luring folks away from the church that Jesus founded. So, we need to take the lead in our encounters, friendships etc. We can be kind but firm in our knowledge of the Truth. I have been accused of being a little too firm, but to me they are in a house that is on fire, and it would no be loving to try and coax them out. In fact I yell "fire" get out.

Today I would just like to share with you an allegory or “parable” if you will, that I hope illustrates one of the heresies of Protestantism and fundamentalism in particular. That is their doctrine of sola scriptura , i.e., The bible first last and always. They say if it is not in the bible according to their strict arbitrary literal understanding, then it is not Christian and is thus valueless. They are of course hard pressed, when ask for the chapter and verse of things they value like say the “the sinners prayer”.

It is important to remember that inherent in our ecumenism is evangelization, and that we Catholics are the leaders, by virtue of our knowledge of the truth. They are joined to us by baptism but in evangelizing it is important that we make known to them, and it is incumbent upon us to make them aware, of just what that means, and what it does not mean. Ecumenism does not excuse the heresy. It excuses many from blame for the original heresy of their particular sect or root.

Nor does ecumenism excuse us from our duty to tell the truth. And the truth is that after baptism, if one does not receive absolution in the manner prescribed by Jesus, and documented by us in the Gospels (which by the way are Catholic documents) then one is no longer a member of the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth. That is we lose our salvation.

It is our obligation to evangelize them from a kind yet firm position, grounded in our knowledge of the truth.

And I'm tired of hearing that Catholics don't know the bible -- it's our book -- we are they only ones who do know it. Every week or every day at mass if one is fortunate enough to be so situated as to attend daily mass, we have the scripture read to us and explained to us by one trained with expert first hand knowledge of it's meaning and dedicated to us for that purpose. There are no fundie pastors that I have met or heard that know the bible better than a Catholic priest.

So here's my little allegory. I call it sola scriptura?

Sola Scriptura ?

Go get a copy of the marine corp. manual, take it home study it. Don't forget to rip out the five chapters that contradict what you are doing. Get other people together to study it, implement it in your life, get the people who you study it with to implement it in there lives. Oh, don’t forget to get your official marine corps manual concordance, so you can look up words and phrases like “simper fi”, “Iwo Jima”, “Helmet”, “Grenade”, and “Honor”, etc. Now does this make you guys marines? I think not.You are missing pretty much everything that it means to be a marine. You haven't had the training that they have done for years you don't have the history -- the understanding of what it means to BE a marine as passed on from the founder of the marine corp to his first lieutenants and on down through the ranks through the years – the direct link to the founder of the marine corp. and writers of the manual, nor do you have the word of mouth testimony (those unwritten instructions that the founder himself – who by the way did not write the manual -- passed on to his first lieutenants, things the marines have been doing for years), nor do you have the true meaning of what the manual says. Because, of course, outside of the marine corp., the manual is MEANINGLESS.People who belong to bible studying fellowships who believe in the doctrine of solely scripture, scripture first, scripture only -- sola scriptura are no more Christians than are the people who got together to study the marine manual are marines. Now that you and your friends have studied the marine corp manual. Go out in front of a marine corp. recruiting station and as people walk in hand them a tract from the manual and get them to come join you. Go to a marine corp. camp and do the same thing see if they will join you marine corp. manual studying fellowship. But don't call yourselves that. Call yourselves, "marines". Go to the veterans day parade and hand out tracts from the manual there, and tell them to come to your marine barracks. Let people know that you have the way that all they have to do is study the manual with you and they too can be marines.Oh yes and erect marine corp. manual studying colleges and graduate what?Experts in misunderstanding the marine corp. manual.And OHHHH yes don't forget to call yourselves not just marines but "heroes(saints)", because after all everyone who is part of your marine corp., manual studying fellowship is a "hero(saint)", after all the manual says that doesn't it? Forget about honoring real marine “Heroes(Saints)” like Colonel Louis C. Plain and Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone; or Gunnery Sergeant Donald A. Levesque (RET); or Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham ... etc.; for after all the manual tells us not to do that, right?Then, go up to a real marine (if you dare) tell them what you are doing, and ask them what is wrong with it?

Copyright Fred Celio 2009