The One True Faith

Bill Lambert

When the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons knock at our door to proselytize, I tell them I belong to the ‘Old Faith.’

“What’s that?”

“The Catholic Church; the one that goes back 2000 years to the time of Christ. Yes, the true Christian church founded by St Peter, the first Bishop of Rome and the first Pope. His tomb is below St Peter’s, right under the high altar.”

St Peter's

“…Yes, I know you’ll tell me the Catholic Church has gone astray. And it has on occasions over the centuries… But it always regains its balance and continues on. Nor even the extremes of the Inquisition or the evil of the Borgias could wreck it. It survived the Reformation by reforming itself.  In more recent times Pope John 23rd reformed it yet again and changed its orientation from personal piety back to love of neighbour. And today, Pope Francis is yet again curtailing the clericalism of the Roman Curia.

“Any other human organization would have crumbled centuries ago but the Catholic Church is protected by the words of Christ that “the gates of hell will never prevail against it.”

“And anyway, the Catholic Church is not the Curia. It is the faith of the billion Catholics worldwide, who overwhelmingly exceed the numbers of any Protestant sect. It is the original Christian faith still very much alive in an increasingly materialistic world.”