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Can You Be Catholic and Deny the Faith?

By Robyn Broyles, August 20, 2009 11:36



Misspelled Church Sign: Christian Vitamin is B1Over at Catholic Answers Forums, there is a threat entitled, "Can You Be Christian and Deny the Trinity?" Mannyfit75, who started the thread, wrote, "IMO, I do not think a Christian who denies the Trinity is a Christian." Other comments have included the following:

"You aren't Christian if you deny the Trinity." —tobinatorstark

"[S]ince pretty much every single heresy in the early Church revolved around the question of Who God Is, and namely around the Trinity, no, one cannot be a Christian and deny the Trinity." —Gregory Watson

"Since the Trinity IS God, if you deny the Trinity you are denying Christ (who is Second Person of the Trinity) by definition. . .and if you deny Christ, how can you claim to follow Him?" —Tantum ergo

I think there are really two questions here: is an individual who denies the Trinity really a Christian, and is a church (congregation, denomination, community of believers) whose doctrines deny the Trinity really Christian? The original question, however, appears to apply to an individual. And in that case, I profoundly disagree with the commenters I quoted.

To be a Christian, there is only one requirement: to have been validly baptized.

In L'Osservatore Romano, Fr. Luis Ladaria, S.J., notes that "doctrinal errors usually do not invalidate baptism," a Church position dating at least to the third century A.D.—before even the first Council of Nicea.1 The Catholic Church considers any baptism done with the proper words and intention to be valid, which is why converts from Protestant denominations are not re-baptized.2

If, at the time of baptism or at any time afterward, a person denies the Trinity or any other essential Christian doctrine, he still never ceases to be Christian. If a baptized person individual begins to worship Germanic pagan gods, or commits fully to the faith of atheism, she nevertheless remains a member of the Body of Christ.

For Catholic Christians, this applies even more specifically: Once you are baptized as a Catholic, or (after non-Catholic baptism) make a profession of faith and enter the Catholic Church, you are always a Catholic. You can be ordained a Protestant minister, commit to serving Allah through Islam, or even become the Dalai Lama. But you are still a Catholic.

There is no way out. The Catholic Church is like the Mafia that way.

Notes

1. "The Question of the Validity of Baptism Conferred in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," published August 1, 2003. Accessed online from the EWTN website.

2. My parish's adult formation director would insist on a technical clarification here: those leaving a non-Catholic Christian Church to enter full communion with the Catholic Church are not properly called converts—that term is reserved for non-Christians entering the Church. But it's a convenient term to use.

Image information: "Christain" by Jon. (CC) Some rights reserved.

What do you think? Can you be a Catholic if you deny any doctrine of the Faith? Can a Christian deny the Trinity?

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Tags: sacraments, baptism, heretics

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