The Church and the Word of God

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A member’s recent thread was discussing leaving the Church because the member did not find his hunger for Scripture satisfied in the Catholic Church. I was reminded of a Pew Study discussed in a blog I frequent, which dealt with this very issue. (The CA thread was closed, so I can’t get this discussion into the mix except to start a new thread, so here I go.). I agree completely with the author of the article, and he says it well here, so I quote him. I’m thinking that some here might want to respond to the perceived need for more of the Word of God.

The Study found that about 2/3 of Cradle Catholics remain in the Church, but about 1/3 have left her, and about 1/2 of the 1/3 who left, left to become Protestant! Here the blog begins:
Here is a number from the Pew Study that I think ought to get our attention. Of those who left the Church and became Protestant, 71% gave as a reason that their spiritual needs were not being met. This was the most commonly given reason for this group. How is it that spiritual needs are not being met, in the Catholic Church formed and sent by Jesus Himself, entrusted with the fullness of divinely revealed truth? How can former Catholics find more to fill their spiritual needs, in denominations that have less of the spiritual food that God has given? Something seriously wrong is happening. Or maybe something seriously right and needed is not happening in the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church believes and teaches that the Sacred Liturgy is the “source and summit of the Christian life”! We have just noted that of the 1/3 of Catholics who were raised under this Church belief and left the Church for Protestantism, 71% left because their spiritual needs were not being met! The overwhelming majority of those spiritually hungry former Catholics (78%) found their home in evangelical Protestantism, where Scripture reigns and “sola scriptura” is the dominant doctrine. We Catholics ought – ought – to learn something from this.

One observation that I think we need to take seriously is the hunger for the Word of God among Catholics. This hunger is a beautiful gift from God – it is a hunger that the Church is obliged as Mother to respond to, in her children. Catholics ought not have to leave the Church, to find the beauty and power and presence of Christ in His holy Word.
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There is more analysis in the blog article, if any want to read more, but this is a lot in itself.
 
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One way that has worked in my life is a thing called …Liturgy Prep…people meet together in a group no bigger than 10 or less (if you have more you start another group) You meet in a person’s home or at the church and read quietly (each person) the reading for Sunday. Friday night is a good time to meet or Sat morning. Then you pray or think about what you read (for around 8 or 10 minutes) Then the leader invites anyone who might like to share something that struck them. They do not have to share if they don’t want to. It is good to invite a priest/deacon to join the group. You also keep the sharing brief, then you end with a prayer and have some cookies (whatever) social and head home. You don’t make it one of those long meetings but one that is practical for our busy lives. This way you have prepared for Sunday’s liturgy of the Word. If you have a priest there you ask for his blessing to close the lit. Prep.
 
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They left because they do not believe Scripture, that they must eat the Body & Blood of Christ. They left because their priest reads his homily rather than preaching it with passion. They left because the choir and music are not firing them up.

Mass is 100% Scripture, not just in hearing but in action! They left because they did not understand this.
 
It’s hard for me to understand that people leave the Church because there isn’t enough Scripture. Scripture is everywhere in the Church, there are dozens of prayer groups and Bible study groups in parishes. There is also nothing stopping you from just reading the Bible on your own.

More likely they left because they doubted the Sacraments, didn’t like Mother Mary, thought that Scripture should be interpreted the way they personally like it and not the way the Church interprets it, or they just got more attention or “excitement” over at the Protestant church.
 
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I think you’re (in a sense) speaking for many Catholics - many in my experience explain as you have here, a person’s abandonment of the Church - the exodus of Catholics to protestantism in personal hunger for the Word of God - in these ways. I think however that there is more to it than the reasons you and these others have offered.

There is a spiritual presence of Christ in Scripture that is real, that is powerful, that is life-changing to a human person who once encounters Him in this way. Once He is encountered this way - or even, once he is called by grace to personally encounter Him in this way - a “hunger” for the Word is placed in the heart - a hunger that is undeniable, I would even say irresistible. We see recognition of this kind of spiritual presence and power in Scripture itself:
If a man does not remain in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. (Jn 15:6 - 8)

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring [the] good news!” … Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. (Rom 10:13-17)

When I found your words, I devoured them; your words were my joy, the happiness of my heart, because I bear your name, LORD, God of hosts. (Jer 15:16)

Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. "(Isa 66:1-2)

How can the young keep his way without fault? Only by observing your words.
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I find joy in the way of your testimonies more than in all riches.
I will ponder your precepts and consider your paths.
In your statutes I take delight; I will never forget your word. (Psa 119:9 - 16)

How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psa 119:103)

You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. (1Pet 1:23)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb 4:12)
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When a human person hears God - the Word - in His words, Holy Scripture - he has found a treasure that will remain with him, until that Last Day comes to consummation.
 
I don’t disagree, but there was someone just recently on these threads seeking to put the Word somehow above the Eucharist, when the Eucharist is Jesus the Word made Flesh, and also the source and summit of our lives.

So to me, the Word is best received, read, and studied in the Catholic Church as we get the fullness of it there. People who complain that the Eucharist is too much emphasized in Catholicism at the expense of Scripture are thinking very wrongly.

It is interesting that in the latest Marian apparition to be Vatican-approved (Kibeho), Mary presented herself as “The Mother of the Word”.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
It’s hard for me to understand that people leave the Church because there isn’t enough Scripture. Scripture is everywhere in the Church, there are dozens of prayer groups and Bible study groups in parishes. There is also nothing stopping you from just reading the Bible on your own.
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You may be in a good area. I’m not aware of any Bible studies locally. My parish did the letters and Mark some years ago but that has been all.

Reading the Bible myself is good but I know I’ll miss connections.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
the Word is best received, read, and studied in the Catholic Church as we get the fullness of it there
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Yes! Absolutely! And you have pointed to the tragedy of abandonment of the Church is search of “more Scripture”: in non-Catholic Scripture studies, sooner or later, there will be either incompleteness, or worse, error. And that is a tragic, tragic consequence.

The Eucharist is not emphasized too much - there is no “too much” of Truth, presented in all the holy reverence it deserves. But I agree with others who cry out “not enough!” of Holy Scripture. Many Catholics have never learned how to pray Scripture - that is, to meditate upon the Holy Word as it deserves, pondering it as Mary did, holding in her heart as Mary did, waiting with it as Mary did, until the Holy Truth of it shines through and illuminates God’s Hand in the matter, in the mystery of the moment. Most of us have not been catechized adequately in the matter of prayer, period! There is much that ought to be done, in the matter of adult formation.
 
It’s tough to judge, as each person is different. As tisbearself said, there’s so much Scripture in Catholicism it’s hard to even avoid it. So–to extend the analogy–is a person leaving because they just don’t like the healthy, but not-as-pleasurable food and want candy and Happy Meals instead? Or are they not actually receiving nutritious food? Even then, this is part of the individual’s fault though–we live in the information age and most people can read–even if the wait-staff is subpar, the Church is like a never-ending all-you can eat buffet of the Word of God you can walk up and fill your plate and stomach yourself.

It should also be pointed out that Mass is not primarily about what we get–it is first and foremost an act of adoration of God, by which we offer Him sacrifice (particularly, the sacrifice He Himself provided for us to offer). This is contrast to many Protestant groups, where there is no sacrifice and the sermon is the primary piece of their “liturgy,” which is solely for the benefit of those in the pews.
 
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But there is more to consider here. When I say, ““not enough!” of Holy Scripture” I am not calling merely for more quantity of passages or of time on task or of numbers of studies available. Scripture is a door, an invitation, signs to supernatural mysteries; it is written by men yes, but the primary Author is the Holy Spirit. And as the Catechism affirms, Scripture can be rightly understood only in the Spirit.
Catechism 111 - But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. “Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.”
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My point is, a “Scripture Study” offering can be - instead of a life-giving encounter with the holy Word of God - more like an autopsy of “dead letters” on a historic page. A person can attain a academic degree in Scripture, and remain an atheist or a heretic. And as a teacher, as Jesus said of the false teachers of His day,
Mt 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
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May God bless us with holy teachers of His Holy Word! Such teachers are worthy, because He has made them so. They do not merely pass out fish, but teach us how to be fishermen (- please forgive my bending a saying to try to fit this subject).
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
It’s hard for me to understand that people leave the Church because there isn’t enough Scripture. Scripture is everywhere in the Church, there are dozens of prayer groups and Bible study groups in parishes. There is also nothing stopping you from just reading the Bible on your own.

More likely they left because they doubted the Sacraments, didn’t like Mother Mary, thought that Scripture should be interpreted the way they personally like it and not the way the Church interprets it, or they just got more attention or “excitement” over at the Protestant church.
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I think it is dangerous for your to make the assumption that people left the Church because they doubt the sacraments, or because of excitement at another Church. This seems a bit dismissive to me considering most Protestant denominations do celebrate the Eucharist and maintain a focus on the Liturgy of the Word as well as Bible Study. Do your parishes have a team that contacts former members to ask why they left? If not, you might try doing so in order to gain greater clarity why people are leaving. The answers might surprise you.
 
Parishes don’t track people who leave. There are many reasons for this, one being that unless someone writes or calls the priest and says they’re leaving, the Parish has no idea if they left, moved, or just got lazy about Mass without bothering to join another church. Frankly, I always liked that no one at most Catholic churches “keeps tabs”. YMMV.
 
Why would we want to read anything by a person who left the Church?

To me, that just shows somebody who walks out on their important commitments. Who leaves when things get tough.

Someone I don’t admire and don’t want to read about.

The bottom line is that the Church is unlikely to change to try to keep people in it. The Church is not a department store that listens to a lot of customer feedback and then changes its product line. The Church is also not always easy to stay in. It’s easier to just go do what you want, and people do. It is sad. And if the Church did try to accommodate them, they’d find some other reason to leave usually, because they want to go.
 
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So you can discover WHY he left! It’s not as simple as many Catholics have been led to believe. Losing Chris Castaldo to Evangelical Protestantism is a tremendous loss for the Catholic Church. Personally, if I were his former Bishop I would study his reasoning very carefully. He was a devout Catholic! 🤔
 
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CCC 846 … Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

May God have mercy on ex-Catholics.
 
Why should a person remain in a religion in which they no longer have faith or believe?
 
Losing ANYONE out of the Church is a tremendous loss. Chris Castaldo is not more of a loss than any other soul. God values all equally.

However, they are the ones who choose to leave, unless it’s a case of an unjust excommunication or some extreme prejudice by a cleric, which is rare. There have also been cases of people who suffered unjust excommunication, unjust barring from the sacraments, and/ or extreme prejudice, yet chose to stay, to the extent they could.

The Catholic Church is not responsible for the decision of people to leave. That doesn’t mean the Church should never look how it might serve people’s needs better, whether it’s the needs of those going or the needs of those staying who have unmet needs…but a choice to leave is a sin, an individual sin that the sinner is responsible for. Chris Castaldo has committed a major sin. Again, I don’t read and follow the writings of major sinners. I will pray that it is not mortal and that he finds his way back to the Church he abandoned, even if he doesn’t return until death.
 
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