As a Catholic can you explain why you believe Catholicism is the one true religion?

Answer 1

The quick answer is that the Catholic Church recognizes itself as the original institution founded by Christ for the transmission of His revelation and the propagation of His grace. Since truth is one, and since all religions contradict each other, there can only be one true religion. Catholics believe that Christ was God and that He could not error or deceive. Thus His Church, according to His instructions and elections while on earth, is the only true deposit of Faith, contains the only legitimate hierarchy of spiritual authority and jurisdiction and is the only valid religion on earth. The Church of then is identified as the Catholic Church as it retains the same sacraments, beliefs, revelation, hierarchy, apostolic succession, powers, charisms, character, traditions and mission.

The way I personally figured it out was by studying other religions while concurrently studying Jesus Christ. The study of metaphysics demonstrates that paganism is erroneous, since God can only be one and all power emanates from Him. This left only lasting monotheistic religions, of which really Judaism is uniquely consistent. Dualist religions, such as Buddhism, also fell to the wayside as their philosophical concept of equality between good and evil was erroneous: good and evil are not equal since evil is a privation of good, thus a good must pre-exist for evil to be a possibility. The study of Judaism brought me to the figure of Christ. Christ emphatically makes Himself equal to God, such as His sermon on the mount demonstrates. He was either God, insane, deluded or a liar. He did not conduct himself in a manner that proved him insane. Nor were his actions, often done with incredible foresight, the indicating markers of one who is delusional. And based on his willingness to die for his cause, it would seem strange for him to be a liar. I have thus chosen to believe that His message and actions were in accordance with the prophecies contained in the Old Covenant and thus that He was in fact God incarnate as He claimed and as He manifested through various public miracles and preaching. I believe therefore in the institution he founded, and in his promise that his Church, the guardian of this covenant, would never fail. The evidence of the early Church has led me to believe that the churches now known as "orthodox" were correct in their indignation, but wrong in their juristictional claims. The Protestants basically revolted from the Church, identifying its unworhty ministers with the divine institution, a fatal flaw. Their revolt is an declaration that the Church failed. Also, it fails to understand that the Bible, which it espoused for its own, was created by the Church and not vice versa, thus the Church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. Many newer religions, such as Islam and Mormonism, etc., are splits from Christianity in some way. Interestingly, all religions that recognize Christ to whatever degree need to discredit the Catholic Church in order to justify their own existence. They would not be able to validate their own beginnings if the Catholic Church had not "failed" or become "corrupted" thus necessitating God or Christ or some prophet to come back and tell the world it got it wrong - but to say so is to doubt the promise of Christ. Unless, of course, you do not believe he made such a promise or established a basic social unit, i.e. the Church, to aid mankind in the fullfillment of its spiritual destiny. This would be to say that all the early church writings and the Bible - here viewed merely as a historical document - are fabrications. Such a declaration seems unreasonable to me.

So while some of the keepers and adherents of the Church have failed in their duties over the centuries, being selfish, greedy, even treacherous, I believe in the divine institution of the Church which has withstood both external and internal attacks for almost 2000 years without once deviating from its body of doctrine, just as Christ predicted and promised. Frankly, such resilence amid such times of war, corruption, social change, etc., would have swept away any human institution long ago.

This is why Catholics believe Catholicism to be the true religion.