How do you describe Catholic faith to a non-Catholic?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerFrom the way the question is worded, I am assuming that you mean "how do you describe the Catholic faith to a Protestant?" This is easy to do, but practically it can be very difficult. The Catholic faith is the Christian faith established by Our Blessed Lord to bring all people to salvation. To bring them to God, and God to them. It is the glorious working out, thorough the ages, of God revelation to mankind, culminating in His complete manifestation in his Son, Jesus Christ. Who then established the Catholic Church, which is His Mystical Body, AND Bride. Through His Church He communicates His divine life. He forgives sin, through His priests, and enables all to live their life fully in accord with their nature. The Protestants, fifteen centuries after the coming of Our Blessed Lord, and the establishment of His Church, came along and rebelled (as is evidenced by their name - they "protested") and rejected the means by which Our Blessed Lord saves us. In doing so, they rejected some books of The Bible, and the teaching Magisterium of Christ in His Church; and, over the centuries, most of the teachings of Our Blessed Lord. To fully explain all of this, I would ask them to come to an RCIA class at a Catholic Church - which is open to all enquirers, and learn what wonderful things that God has done for them, and the means that He established for their salvation. One of the most difficult things in explaining these things to a "non-Catholic" is the first three things they are taught are:

1) Jesus Christ died to save us

2) Everything you need to know is in the Bible, and you can figure it all out on your own.

3) The Catholic Church is evil, and the great Satan.

# 3 above makes explaining the Christian faith to a Protestant very difficult, they are taught this, without words even, in everything they learn from a very early age. The Church teaches that every baptized Christian, anyone validly baptized in the name of the Trinity, with water flowing on the forehead, is a Christian and is capable of knowing and loving God. This makes it very difficult for a protestant, as from then on, they are cut off from everything that would make this possible. # 2 above, makes it equally difficult as, thought the Bible is inerrant, and the very Word of God, it is hardly capable of containing what St. John says "all the books in the world could not contain", and the Bible itself points out the necessity of the Catholic Church. Please keep in mind that Satan has been very active since the very beginning, as is explained in the book of Genesis, and in luring the "reformers" away from the Christian Church, he has accomplished his greatest work to date resulting in over 30,000 different "denominations" all claiming to be the Christian faith, and all leading people in exactly the opposite direction.

To explain the Catholic faith to someone who is not Catholic, try this analogy: If salvation is the shore and the world is the ocean, and when you are born you are dropped into the ocean and have to swim to shore, do you want someone who can show you how to swim, or someone to tell you "don't worry about all that, just accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior" and close your eyes and think about the shore? To change the analogy: Yes, Jesus made salvation possible for us, by coming here and explaining and showing us how to work out our salvation. He gave us the tools, and He expects us to use them!