The hypocrisy of Catholics is a very strong argument for the infallibility of the Church - Peter Kreeft

This was the conclusion of a Calvinist thinker who turned Catholic after a wide search for one mistake that would prove the Catholic Church false. Peter Kreeft knew about G.K. Chesterton's witty reply when asked about the strongest argument against Christianity: Christians.

A Jew who visited the corrupt Vatican

So when Kreeft's Calvinist friends found out that he was reading about Catholics, they recommended that he read the books of anti-clericals. The book he read contained a story that led him to the Catholic faith. There was a Jewish businessman who was thinking of becoming Catholic, but had to go to Rome to do business with the Vatican during the time of some of the most corrupt Popes in history, the Borgias. The bishop that the Jew was talking with tried to dissuade him to go, for fear he would change his mind. But the businessman, a practical Jew, said that for him business was first, and the pleasure of converting was second.

Six months later, the Jew returns asking for baptism into the Church, even after seeing the hypocrisy of the Pope and the cardinals. "I am a practical Jewish businessman. One thing I know for sure: no earthly business that stupid and corrupt could possibly survive 14 weeks. Yours has lasted 14 centuries. It is a miracle.”

Kreeft explains: "The hypocrisy of Catholics is a very strong argument for the infallibility of the Church. When Popes were assassinating each other, they never added a doctrine that said now you can assassinate the Pope. When they had 13 mistresses they never said that it is okay for Popes to have mistresses. The doctrine remained absolutely pure even though the practice was never very good and sometimes was horrible. That was very impressive."  

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told the same story and he quotes the Jewish businessman as saying: "It is because of all these that I have become a Catholic. For if the Church continues to exist in spite of it all, then truly there must be someone upholding her."

Napoleon wanted to destroy the Church

Ratzinger continues: "And there is another story, to the effect that Napoleon once declared that he would destroy the Church. Immediately, one of the cardinals replied, 'Not even we have managed that!'

"I believe that we see something important in these paradoxical tales. There have in fact always been plenty of human monstrosities in the Catholic Church. That she still holds together, even if she groans and creaks, that she is still in existence, that she produces great martyrs and great believers, people who put their whole lives at her service, as missionaries, as nurses, as teachers, that really does show that there is someone there upholding her."

Napoleon died in prison, while the Pope he persecuted and imprisoned, returned to Rome and took care of Napoleon's family. While Napoleon was in prison, this same Pope requested the jailers of the exiled emperor to be kind to him.  

Despite many attempts of powerful rulers and influential theological rebels to destroy it, the Catholic Church is presently acknowledged even by secular scholars as the largest non-governmental provider of education and medical care in the world. And leading secular historians have discovered that Catholic priests and laity have been at the foundation of humanly beneficial things such as modern science, university education, economics, hospitals, international law, human rights and Western art. These works reflect, in the eyes of theologians, the identity of the one true God: Reason, Truth, Love, Justice, and Beauty.

Misplacing the blame

When people say they don't believe the Church because of the hypocrisy of pedophile priests and bad Popes, they are "misplacing the blame," says Catholic Answers. "If a preacher, religious, or layman fails to live up to the standards he is preaching, the blame lies with him and not with the message he preaches. His actions say much about himself but not about the teachings of Christ. ... By way of analogy, if it were proven tomorrow that Albert Einstein was a child molester, that would not disprove the theory of relativity." In fact, the Catholic Church does not have more child abuse cases than other institution, such as the family, Boy Scouts, Protestant groups, public school teachers. And the Church has done more than any other institution to address this problem of today's society.

Despite the sins of its children, the Church is called holy because Jesus has decided to forever unite himself to it as his body, giving it his powers of sanctifying. Jesus gave his Church the power to forgive sins in Confession (Jn 20:23) and to celebrate his saving sacrifice (Mk 14; 1 Cor 5). "The Church is holy, because she herself has no other life than the life of grace. If they live her life, her members are sanctified," (CCC 827)  as shown in the lives of thousands of Catholic saints. 

It is individual Christians who back away from Christ's sanctifying power and cause scandal that make it difficult for people to see Christ in the Church. But Christ is there, because when he was on earth he loved to be with sinners, and he continues to be with us precisely because we need him.

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A must read: Ten Reasons the Catholic Church is the One True Church of Jesus or A Most Intelligent Choice:  Brief but strong arguments for the truth of God, Christ and the Catholic Church.

Important for change of life and tranquility of mind: Confession: Simple Reasons, Simple Steps

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The Pope: his role, responsibility, mission and the best attitudes towards him

This one-page leaflet can be downloaded here.

 

1. What do we believe about the Pope?
We call the Pope “Father”, just as Catholics call their priest “Father”, because the Pope represents God as our Father, who loves us, who made us, and who sent his Son to die on the cross for us. The Pope represents God our Father in a special way, because like a good parent he guards the truth of the revelation which Jesus Christ handed on to his apostles (followers), the chief of whom was Simon whom Jesus called in his own language Cephas, meaning “Rock”. We believe that the present Pope is the successor of Peter, the Fisherman.
During his lifetime, Jesus made Peter the leader of his church on earth, to take over when Jesus died, rose again from the dead, and went to be with his Father in heaven. He said to Peter, after Simon had named Jesus as “the Son of the Living God”:

“I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  [Matthew 16:17-19] (CATEW FAQ)
2. What is the Pope’s responsibility?
As successor of St. Peter and head of the college of bishops, the Pope is the source and guarantor of the Church’s unity. He has the supreme pastoral authority and the final authority in doctrinal and disciplinary decisions.  
Jesus gave Peter a unique position of preeminence among the apostles. This made him the supreme authority in the early Church. Rome - the local Church that Peter led and the place of his martyrdom - became after his death the internal reference point of the young Church. Every Christian community had to agree with Rome; that was the standard for the true, complete, and unadulterated apostolic faith. …
Only in this capacity is the Pope "Christ's Vicar on earth." As the highest pastoral and doctrinal authority, he watches over the transmission of the true faith…Unity in matters of faith and morals, which is guaranteed by the Church's Magisterium, or teaching authority, with the Pope at the head, is one reason for the remarkable resilience and influence of the Catholic Church. (YOUCAT 141)
3. What is the biblical basis for calling the Pope “Vicar of Christ”?
The "keys of the kingdom” received by Peter from Jesus refers to the power of a prime minister of the King and chief teacher (Is 22:22) Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, told Peter “Feed my sheep, feed my lambs.” (Jn 21:15-17)  It was upon Simon Peter alone that Jesus after his Resurrection bestowed the jurisdiction of chief pastor and ruler over all his fold. (Pastor aeternus)
4. What is the mission of the Catholic Church led by the Pope?
The mission of the Church is to proclaim and establish the Kingdom of God begun by Jesus Christ among all peoples. (Compendium 150) 
The Church's first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God. Because men's communion with one another is rooted in that union with God, the Church is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race. (CCC 775; italics in the original)
5. What are the best attitudes towards the Pope?
a. See Christ in the Pope. Love for the Roman Pontiff must be in us a delightful passion, for in him we see Christ.
b. Love, obedience, affection. Your deepest love, your greatest esteem, your most heartfelt veneration, your most complete obedience and your warmest affection have also to be shown towards the Vicar of Christ on earth, towards the Pope. We Catholics should consider that after God and the most Holy Virgin, our Mother, the Holy Father comes next in the hierarchy of love and authority.
c. Know his thought and live it. Faithfulness to the Pope includes a clear and definite duty: that of knowing his thought, which he tells us in Encyclicals or other documents. We have to do our part to help all Catholics pay attention to the teaching of the Holy Father, and bring their everyday behavior into line with it.
d. Pass on his words. Welcome the Pope’s words with a religious, humble, internal and effective acceptance. And pass them on.  (Replies a-d, from St. Josemaria)
By Dr. Raul Nidoy. Doctor of Theology. Permission to copy is granted. Please generously share with others. 

This one-page leaflet can be downloaded here.  

Please check out the other leaflets in this blog:

•  Why go to Mass?    
  
  
• Ten Reasons the Catholic Church is the One True Church of Jesus

• Science Facts on Contraceptives

• Benefits of All-boys and All-girls Schools:  Q&A on what the best research says

 

A MOST INTELLIGENT CHOICE: Rational Foundations of the Truth of Catholic Christian Belief

This article is contained in a free one-page leaflet. The leaflet can be downloaded here.

1.       God is real.

• Nothing can cause its own existence. In the chain of causes and effects we see, if there is no First Uncaused Cause, then the second causes and their effects could not exist. The big bang implies a Big Banger.

• Humans, the world and their evolution have such a beautiful, intricate, finely-tuned design which can only be caused by an Intelligent Designer, and not by mindless matter nor by chance. 

• We know of objective moral facts of right and wrong (e.g. do not steal my things) which obliges humans in all cultures. Its power to oblige can’t come from men obliged by the moral law. It comes from a Lawgiver.

• Our minds are in contact with eternal, objective and absolute truth superior to our minds (e.g. 2 + 2 = 4 ) and the eternal is divine, not human.

• If miracles exist, a supernatural miracle-worker exists.

• If there is no God, life is ultimately meaningless. Only God satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart for eternity. The deep joy of the saints can only come from the divine.

• To bet on God is your only chance of winning eternal happiness, and to bet against him is your only chance of losing. (Note:  Most points build on Peter Kreeft’s Extremely Brief Arguments for the Existence of God. 

2.      Jesus is the real God made man.

• Many reliable eyewitness accounts, eminent contemporary Roman historians and archaeological findings attest that the man Jesus really existed in history and was worshipped as God.

• Jesus did things only God can do, and no other human has done. He stopped a storm in one instant, raised 3 dead persons back to life, multiplied 5 loaves of bread to feed 5000 and turned 500 liters of water into top quality wine.

• Jesus fulfilled more than 300 prophecies, the first of which was written around 1400 years before his birth. The odds that one person fulfills only 8 of the prophecies is 1 out of 1017 (1 followed by 17 zeros): a virtually mathematically impossible event.

• Jesus claimed he was God. He said, I and the Father are one. He forgave sins and claimed eternity, omnipresence, and all authority in heaven and on earth. Since he was not a lunatic or a liar, he should be telling the truth: Lord.

• Jesus was confirmed dead by the best killers of ancient history, the Roman soldiers, and was seen to have resurrected by more than 500 persons.

• People around Jesus experienced him as divine and called him God. When St. Thomas saw him risen, he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God”. St. John said that Jesus is the Word and “the Word was God.”  Later, St. Paul taught about “Christ who is God over all.” St. Ignatius, a student of St. John, referred to “Jesus Christ our God,”and as “God incarnate”. 

• Thousands of people in the early years of Christianity, including former skeptics and enemies, gave their lives to testify to the truth that Jesus resurrected and is God. Hundreds of thousands continue to do so throughout history. One estimate says that in the 20th century alone, there were 45.5 million martyrs! (Barrett, Johnson)

 3. Jesus built one Church, the Catholic Church.

• The Bible and the early Christians testify that Jesus built his Church on Simon, whom he renamed Rock (Petros), and gave him the keys of the kingdom (Mt 16:18-19).  Jesus told him alone to “feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-17).  The Church has documentary proof  that the Popes succeeded Peter and its bishops are the successors of the other apostles.

• Jesus and the Church are one.  It is not true the Catholic Church left the true Faith, since the Church is the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27), and he is inseparable from his body. He promised that “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20), evil “shall not prevail” against his Church (Mt 16:18), and his Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:13).

• The Bible is a Catholic book.  It was the Catholic Synods of the 4th century, one led by Pope Damasus’ Council of Rome in 382 AD, which drew up the official list of the books of the Bible. All Christians trust the Catholic Church when they read the Bible.

• The Bible refutes the “Bible alone" principle. St. Paul says hold to traditions taught by us by word of mouth (2 Thes 2:15).  The Bible also tells of a Council’s authority where St. Peter declared what we believe (Acts 15) and that the Church –not the Bible—is the pillar and the bulwark of the truth (1 Tim 3:15).

• The true Church is universal, evangelizing in all parts of the world with more than 1.4 billion members in 2025. Compare this with the 2nd biggest Christian group, the Orthodox Churches with only 230M (1/5 of its size).

• The Church continues to perform divine miracles:  Eucharistic bread turning into blood; appearances of Mary; heroic saints; cures and sacred images that are scientifically unexplained; saints with stigmata, powers of healing, bilocation and prophecy, etc.

• Since God is Truth, Reason and Love, his Church is the greatest educational and charitable institution in the world. Modern secular research shows that the Church in Catholic Europe gave birth to modern science, university education, economics, the hospital system, support for human rights, and Western Art.

 

These statements are either true (they agree with reality) or false (they don’t). They can’t be both true and false at the same time and in the same aspect. To say “this is your truth while my truth is opposite” is to fall into relativism, the greatest problem of our time.

Relativism (no objective truth; only subjective “truths”) is (1) self-contradictory, like a square-circle, because if relativism is true then there is objective truth, and so it is false; (2) self-amputation of our mind, limiting our capacity to know reality. This goes against the universally known capability of the scientific mind to know the truth of nature, (3) self-deification: we who were not alive 100 years ago and will not be 100 years hence make ourselves God, the ultimate arbiters of truth, (4) contradictory to the obvious: there are truths that are always true everywhere,  like “mass murder of innocents is evil”.

Given the good evidence in favor of the objective truth of Catholic belief, wouldn’t it take more faith to be a non-believer? Isn’t it logical to try to learn more about this reality, and if convinced, to choose to live by this truth? And also learn more about Jesus’ loving invitation to enjoy God’s life of supreme joy—now and in heaven?

Since Jesus told his Church “He who hears you hears me,” he invites you to read the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, found online, for a modern synthesis of Jesus’ wisdom for us today, and learn to experience the peace and joy of living according to God's intelligent design for human beings. 

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RELATED ARTICLE:  THE HYPOCRISY OF CATHOLICS IS A VERY STRONG ARGUMENT FOR THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CHURCH -- PETER KREEFT. This article went viral globally, reaching 122 K hits after 48 hours. 

See the film The Case for Christ, based on a best-selling book of an atheist who investigated the claims of Jesus as Messiah and Son of God: here.