Why is Catholicism Right and Protestantism Wrong?
The key is where the authority to declare doctrine at all comes from. Jesus told the apostle Peter that that he would build His Church upon Peter, the first Pope, thus depositing His authority and the gospel itself into what would become the “magesterium”. That is, the body of divinely ordained men, consisting of the Pope and the College of Bishops, operating under the authority and unction of God the Holy Spirit Himself.
These men, the direct unbroken successors to the first century apostles, are alone authorized to declare final arbitration on what is and what is not accepted dogma. There was no bible and hence no canonized scriptural standard until the fourth century and actually the final canon wasn’t authorized until around five hundred so any appeal to the bible is automatically an appeal to The Church who was entrusted by Christ to canonize it, in other words, the Catholic Church.
Christ left us A Church and a gospel out of which came the sacred scriptures and not the other way around. Either the Catholic Church is the bride and original apostolic Church of Christ or there isn’t one and Christianity is a lie. What The Church fathers who lived RIGHT after Jesus and the apostles believed is variously either exactly what the Catholic church believes today or laid the groundwork directly for it so yes, once again the Catholic faith IS the original apostolic faith held by those directly in contact with the first century Church and hence uniquely qualified to report what was held by the seminal apostolic Church.
Sacred scripture (the bible), having been complied and canonized by this Church, is also authoritatively interpreted ONLY by this Church, commissioned by Christ Himself. Therefore any dispute about scripture is moot because there is no such thing as a private interpretation. That is, ANY interpretation not authorized by Christ through His true apostolic Church.
Being that this Church alone holds this God ordained authority it also alone has authority to more fully reveal the divine mind through sacred tradition which is THE only way the gospel was propagated before the aforementioned canonization of sacred scripture. Hence the Church, far from adding to scripture per se, simply stewards the whole of divine revelation including scripture and tradition which together represent the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
This being undeniably established by the plain record of history, the discussion of any particular doctrine is meaningless because the debate is already over. If it ISN’T established then WHERE WAS THE CHURCH for 1500 years? SO, the Eucharist. The very body and blood of the risen Christ and hence Christ Himself is available only in that Church wherein the power of consecration and transubstantiation of the host elements has been savingly decreed.
This central and essential doctrine along with Mariology, purgatory, papacy, mass, relics, icons, ECCLESIOLOGY, _____________________, the whole of that glorious body of Christian faith, are accepted or rejected as that whole along with THE CHURCH. But rejecting THE CHURCH is rejecting that there is any church… or gospel at all because the Holy Christ of God promised his chosen apostle that the "gates of hell would not prevail against HIS CHURCH.
If the Roman Catholic Church is NOT the body and bride of God the Son, Jesus Christ? AND,as has been made undeniably manifest, that Church is rooted in the apostles themselves? Then Jesus of Nazareth is NOT God the Son and Christianity is, as has been charged, the moral philosophy of a mere man. GOD FORBID!!!
As for protestants or any other non Catholic? Those who are born live and die in a state of ignorance of the gospel invincible enough to induce the salvific mercy of God the Father CAN be (but not necessarily) saved by the grace of Christ and incorporated into His body without their knowledge of having been so redeemed. And that once again only because that grace is in the earth through THE CHURCH.
No Father would eternally punish his own child not having given him so much as a single syllable of godly instruction to save him. It is monstrous to ascribe such injustice to a loving God that we would not ourselves inflict upon our own Children. So once again and in the end. Either Catholicism is true or Christianity is false, because Catholicism IS the ancient faith and any objective study of the early Church will plainly reveal all the seminal elements of the Kingdom of God on earth presently ruled by the Bishop of Rome from the Holy See of Vatican City.
If you sense the Lord is tugging at your heart as a result of having read this brief presentation of the truth and authority of His Holy Apostolic Church, please use this Parishes Online | Live Your Faith, Wherever Life Takes You page to contact a parish in your area where knowledgeable and helpful men and women of God will rejoice in the opportunity to help you come into communion with His body as a fellow Catholic believer. Thank you and God bless you.