Catholic Patristics

Why are we so zealous to convert the whole world to the Catholic faith? Because this is God's will and we love everyone, and everyone who dies as a non-Catholic or bad Catholic goes to Hell forever, no exceptions—what a cruelty it would be not to prevent this! And how do we know for certain that all those who die as non-Catholics or bad Catholics to go Hell? Because God, Who is the Truth itself and can neither deceive nor be deceived, has revealed the truths of faith to the Catholic Church alone, and the Church infallibly teaches us this truth. It is easy, by accepting God's gift of Catholic faith which He is happy to give to you, to see that Catholicism is the only true religion, and that all non-Catholic religions are false, offensive to God, and deadly to souls. "For if I preach the gospel, it is no glory to me, for a necessity lieth upon me: for woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). "To him therefore who knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). "For the charity of Christ presseth us" (2 Corinthians 5:14).

St. Anthony Mary Claret, Autobiography:

If I saw anyone about to fall into a pit or a fire, would I not run up to him and warn him, and do all in my power to help him from falling in? Why should I not do this much to keep sinners from falling into the pit and fires of Hell? Neither can I understand why other priests who believe the selfsame truths as I do, as we all must do, do not preach or exhort their flock so that they might avoid this unbearable eternity of Hell. It is still a source of wonder to me how the laity – those men and women blessed with the Faith – do not give warning to those who need it. If a house were to catch fire in the middle of the night, and if the inhabitants of the same house and the other townsfolk were asleep and did not see the danger, would not the one who first noticed it shout and run along the streets, exclaiming: “Fire! Fire! In that house over there!” Then why should there not be a warning of eternal fire to waken those who are drifting in the sleep of sin in such a way that when they open their eyes they will find themselves burning in the eternal flames of Hell?

The only certain rule, adapted to all times and places and persons, to discover religious truth, is to believe the written and unwritten word of God (Scripture and Tradition), "as interpreted and explained by [God’s] appointed oracle," the Catholic Church, which was established by Jesus Christ well before Scripture was completed and finally decided upon and put under one cover and published far and wide.

No other rule of faith works. With the gift of faith, we recognize that only the Catholic Church is the true Church established by Jesus Christ because only the Catholic Church has the Four Marks by which the true Church can be known by everyone: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, as the Creed the Church composed in the year 381 says (Nicene or Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed). No non-Catholic religion has any of these marks; do not mistake fool’s gold for real gold. And do not judge the Catholic Church by the lives of bad Catholics who go against what the Church, on behalf of God, commands us to believe and do.

With the gift of faith, we can understand that the question to ask is whether something is true and is the holy will of God, revealed to and infallibly defined by His Catholic Church, about what we must believe and do. We can understand that these are not the questions to ask: whether something is offensive or inoffensive, inconvenient or convenient, hard or easy, intolerant or tolerant, strict or relaxed, unpopular or popular, whether our family and friends approve, whether we like it, whether it feels good, whether we perceive with our senses that it is true, or whether we understand by the natural light of reason how and why something is true. With these foundational principles, we can give good enough answers to all objections, and we must be on fire to do everything we can to make all good Catholics become better Catholics and all non-Catholics and bad Catholics to become good Catholics, because to serve God the way He wishes to be served (to know and do the will of God, to believe and do what God commands us to believe and do) and to go to Heaven and not Hell, every single person must be a good Catholic. Bishop George Hay, Fr. Michael Müller, and Orestes Brownson are the best English writers on this dogma. They point out clearly that no adult having the use of reason who has been invincibly ignorant of the Catholic Church can be saved unless before he dies he at least "sees the truth of the Catholic faith, is truly sorry for his sins, and sincerely explicitly/consciously wishes to die a good Catholic." They likewise point out that no one who dies without having had the use of reason will be saved unless they received water baptism or the crown of martyrdom.

In presenting here the testimonies of Scripture and Tradition as interpreted by the Magisterium (cf. Fr. Denzinger), especially the testimonies refuting the Photians or Eastern "Orthodox," we bear in mind the words of the Servant of God Fra Girolamo Savonarola, O.P., The Triumph of the Cross, Book I, Prologue, 4:

Our Faith cannot be demonstrated by natural principles and causes. Nevertheless, the past and present events of Church history afford arguments in support of our religion so convincing that no logical mind can reject them. At the same time, no one believes that Faith itself depends upon these arguments, seeing that it is “the gift of God; not of works, that no man may glory” (Eph. ii. 8, 9). We make use of these arguments indeed; but we do so in order to confirm the faith of such as waver, to prepare unbelievers for the reception of supernatural light, and to enable the faithful to confute the arguments of irreligious men; and thus, by exposing their folly, to undeceive the simple and unlearned who have been misled by them.

Analysis (glosses on florigelia) and harmony/synthesis/consensus of the teachings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church on the following issues, with a special focus on refuting Eastern Orthodox doctrines that are contrary to those of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Index of posts, which are being greatly improved into second editions:

*Abortion
*Altar Girls
*Angels
*Anointing of the Sick
*Baptism
*Bible Canon
*Biblical Inerrancy
*Caesaropapism
*Communion Under Both Kinds
*Confession
*Confirmation
*Contraception
*Creation
*Demons
*Divorce
*Dormition & Assumption of Mary
*Dyophysitism
*Epiklesis
*Essence-Energies Distinction
*Fasting
*Filioque
*Flood of Noah
*Head Coverings for Women
*Headship of Husband in Family
*Heaven
*Hell
*Heresy
*Homosexuality
*Icons
*Immaculate Conception of Mary
*Indulgences
*Intercession of the Saints
*Judaism
*Kenosis
*Limbo
*Martyrdom
*Mary Mediatrix
*Mary Queen of Heaven
*Mary Spouse of the Holy Spirit
*Mary the Theotókos
*No Salvation Outside the Church
*Original Sin
*Papal Infallibility & Primacy
*Particular Judgment
*Perpetual Virginity of Mary
*Peter is the Rock
*Peter Went to Rome
*Prayer
*Predestination
*Priestly Celibacy
*Purgatory & Prayers for the Dead
*Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
*Relics
*Religious Liberty
*Schism
*Second Coming of Christ
*Sunday Worship
*Theophanies
*Theosis
*Toll-Houses
*Torture
*Transubstantiation
*Unleavened Bread in the Eucharist
*Usury
*Virginity
*Women Priests

"For he that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when He shall come in his majesty, and that of His Father, and of the holy angels" (Luke (9:26).