Bellarmine Again: Rome the One True Church

Someone should give 'All Religions Are Willed By God' Francis a copy of St Robert to read!

From Theological Flint

By Dr Christopher J. Malloy

Bellarmine’s ecclesiology has fallen on hard times. This is unfortunate. Indeed, it is one-sided. The reason it has fallen on hard times is that other riches regarding the mystery of the Church have been newly appreciated. This new appreciation is good. But we can also be quite edified by Bellarmine. Indeed, we are impoverished without him.

One keen thesis of his is that the Catholic Church of Rome is the One True Church. This claim is in fact a constant teaching of the Church. Sadly, this thesis has been forgotten of late. Bellarmine mounts sundry arguments for this claim. One nifty argument is Apostolic Succession, which for him is the fifth mark of the Church. (Bellarmine’s marks reduce to the 4 properties of the Church noted in the Creed, which properties can be considered as marks used apologetically, in addition to their more profound consideration as mysteries). He notes that every legitimate bishop is ordained by another legitimately ordained bishop, going back to the Apostles. The practice of three bishops ordaining, in fact, he traces to the earliest times. Thus, the witness is manifest.

Then, in examining the Lutheran communities, he asks, “Let Luther say by which bishops he was ordained that he should be made the bishop of Wittenberg.” There you have it. By that one little question, Bellarmine indicates that the Lutheran movement is entirely void of legitimate foundation. This is a barb to ponder. And neither Bellarmine nor I make a judgment of persons here; it is a simple fact to be pointed out. God became incarnate. He became visible. His Church remains visible. (Or was the hand of Providence too weak to make it visible for a thousand plus years?) And the Lutheran movement is not this Church.

I recall going to a certain Lutheran seminary to give a lecture. I actually received a very warm welcome. They called me “A true son of Rome.” They were glad not to get a modernist Roman, which is to say, a non-Roman Roman. I opened my lecture with this remark, “I have more in common with you all than with many a Catholic theologian. Because I believe that hell exists, and that there are people there, and I know you do too.” They loved those remarks.

But at the reception, one thing struck me. The bishop wore clerics. Some of the ministers did too. What struck me was this thought, “These guys are play-acting religion. This is nothing but acting. This is a charade. Not the true Church.” That thought has never left me.

Are there no truths believed by this group? Are there no saving actions? No to both questions, which means: Yes, there are truths there and yes there are saving actions. There is baptism, and baptism is valid there, and baptism saves. There are truths: They believe in sin and in forgiveness, in God the Creator, in the Holy Trinity, in the Incarnation. They get justification quite wrong, to be sure. And they have no Eucharist; their doctrine of sin is off base; etc. But when we list out these things in serial fashion we are not looking at the religion as a whole, as an appointed community of belief and worship. When we examine the religion from this holistic point of view, as a community either legitimately deputed by God or not, then we have to say: This Lutheran community is a false church.