THREAD: The reality of two religions co-existing within one Catholic Church.

(1) I’ve noticed that when I observe there are “two religions in one Church”, some people misunderstand what I mean, so I want to make that clear here.

(2) Catholicism is obviously a religion, so how can there be two religions within the one Catholic Church? It’s due to what is meant by “religion” and what is meant by “church”.

(3) A “religion” is defined as any set of beliefs about the meaning and cause of the universe, which includes liturgical/devotional practices and specific moral teachings.

(4) Based on this, any group of people with shared beliefs, practices, and morals can be said to be part of a religion. So Muslims are part of a religion and Buddhists are part of a religion. They are false religions, but they are religions, nonetheless.

(5) A “church,” however, is a sacramental reality, in which people are joined in Eucharistic communion with one another. The classic phrase “the Eucharist makes the Church” suggests this reality. If two people share Eucharistic communion, then they are part of the same church.

(6) (This is why Orthodox churches, btw, are called “churches” and not “communities”. They have valid sacraments and so validly make up real churches.)

(7) We can see, then, that churches are *not* the same thing as religions, but obviously it should be true that people who share Eucharistic communion *should* have shared beliefs, practices, and morals. Communion is supposed to include unity in belief.

(8) Yet that is not true today. Within the Catholic Church, there are two distinct religions existing—meaning two distinct sets of shared beliefs, practices, and morals. They overlap in many cases (both believe in the Trinity, for example), but radically diverge in others.

(9) Historically, Church leaders would not allow this to happen and would excommunicate Church members who did not adhere to the Catholic religion. See, for example, Martin Luther. They understood that unity in belief was a vital component to unity in the Sacraments.

(10) Today, however, Catholics who do not follow the historic Catholic religion are allowed to co-exist within the Church with those who do.

(11) Some Catholics who adhere to the historic Catholic religion want to simply declare that the Catholics who follow a different religion are outside the Church and therefore there is still only one religion within the Church.

(12) And while it is true that someone who definitively rejects the historic Catholic religion puts himself outside communion in some real way, it’s also true that only the bishops can officially declare that.

(13) In many cases, in fact, lots of Catholics who don’t believe the historic Catholic religion don’t even realize they are following a different religion than their forefathers in the faith. This is even true for some priests and bishops.

(14) The whole situation is a mess, and until the proper authorities make clear that members of the Catholic Church must believe the historic Catholic religion, we’ll stay in this tragic situation of “two religions in one church.” /fin