Belief Series: Catholicism

St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Sidney’s most interesting architectural sights, with its rough oversized stone and impressive glass windows has Father Arthur ‘Art’ Faesser, a 36 year veteran in the priesthood at the helm.

Father Art said the call came to him at a fairly young age drawing inspiration from the church retreats and rallies he attended, as well as the younger priests in Ogallala whom he grew up listening to, even in his teen years.

“When I was a senior in high school they had a career day,” he said, “and I spent my day with the Priests, went about the day with them and the work they were doing. It was at that point I think I made the commitment to seminary.”

During his years in seminary he said, “I really did a discernment process of: is this God’s call? is this God’s will for me? I recall during those marvelous years at the seminary, really more about formation being formed as minister of the Gospel and priest.”

By the end of seminary Father Art said he knew becoming a Catholic priest was a decision that not only felt right to him but was right for him.

Though being raised a Catholic, it surely was not unreasonable for Father Art to remain Catholic and he attributes his strong roots in this canon to his upbringing.

“They really provided a very solid foundation for myself and two brothers,” he said. “At the time of growing up I never thought we were exceptional in holiness or an outstanding religious family, but we certainly went with the rhythm of life of the church, in that of daily mass, the celebrating of the sacraments, and those things were just not questioned. It was who we were and it is what we did as Catholic people.”

This belief is engrained so deeply within Father Art that “living my life as a Catholic Christian makes a lot of sense to me; the richness of Catholicism for me is just a good fit,” he said.

One of the things that attract and inspires many people to the Catholic faith, Father Art included, is the strong connection to the many people who have come before, paving the way for the church’s doctrine.

And in today’s world, Father Art said, “It’s our turn to assimilate that faith and pass on to future generations, so that the Lord is proclaimed. He makes a promise that ‘I am with you always until the end of the world’ and so we see 2,000 years after the death and resurrection of Christ that faith continues to be law and work within the world.”

With this understanding what is it really to be a part of the Catholic Church?

To answer this Father Art began by describing a class, the church offers its adult members and anyone else who may be interested in who and what it is to be a practicing Catholic, called Right of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).

“What we do is lay out the teachings and the understandings of the church, which are rooted in Christ and in the scriptures. It covers a vast array of topics.

“What it to be Catholic is to understand the teachings and to say that my heart is aligned with what the church holds to be true and is what resonates within my own heart, that it makes sense to me, it is life giving for me and that sinks my roots of faith deeper in the Lord.

“So to be Catholic is to grow in our awareness in this body of teaching and understanding in the Lord’s revelation to us, the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the life of Jesus, in the life of the church.”

Central to this dogma is the belief of the holy sacraments; Eucharist or communion, anointing of the sick or last rites, baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination into priesthood and reconciliation.

According to Father Art, these sacraments are either “implicit or explicit in the scripture and we see in them opportunities to really be united with the Lord on a deeper level and that there is a grace of God that comes to us in the sacrament of life in the church that we just don’t find elsewhere.”

Within these sacraments and their meanings spurns many misconceptions as to what exactly Catholics believe.

One aspect of these misconceptions is the importance of the apostle Peter, which falls under the sacrament of ordination and just who is directly connected to Peter, of which the answer is the Pope.

“If you read the gospel he (Jesus) gave the position of leadership to Saint Peter, he said, ‘You are the rock upon which I build my church,’ so there is this unbroken line of succession from the time of Peter to the present where we see the successor of Peter as the vicar of Christ on earth and a sign of the unity of the church.”

According to Father Art the Catholic Church looks to Saint Peter as being the “chief shepherd and chief pastor, in the structure we call the church, he draws us to Christ, it is his role to draw us to Christ.”

Father Art said within the Catholic Church he (Saint Peter) is a sign of oneness and unity.

Another aspect of Catholicism that it is rarely understood yet directly tied to Saint Peter is “papal infallible pronouncements,” of which only the successor of Peter has sole ability to make.

It is these “pronouncements” many non-Catholics have a problem understanding, both in how they come about and why.

According to Father Art, “The Pope doesn’t just wake up one day and say, I think I will make this an infallible statement, but it really is over hundreds of years of belief by the people.”

For an example Father Art discussed the many years it took for the pronouncement of the Feast of Immaculate Conception, a celebration that recognizes Mary, mother of Jesus, as being “preserved from original sin from the beginning of her life in her mother’s womb,” by God.

He said this was one of the many teachings a Catholic can’t deny if they are to be truly Catholic.

Which leads to another misconception - Father Art readily admitted was there if one is not Catholic - the concept of Mary, mother of Jesus, and her importance within this religions denomination.

More over the misbelief Catholics pray to Mary, instead of understanding they are asking for her help during prayer.

Shedding light on this confusing canon, using the example of the Hail Mary, Father Art said, “You are quoting words directly from St. Luke’s gospel. The first part of the Hail Mary, it’s the announcement to Mary, that comes from the angel that says God choses you to be mother of his son, do you accept that?”

He said the second part of the Hail Mary is equivalent to asking Mary to pray for us and therefore no different than asking a friend to pray for you.

“If God, in his divine providences, chose Mary for such a significant role as to bring his son into the world then why ought we not to turn to her and ask her to pray for us?”

Father added, “The church has never worshiped Mary, we honor her, but we don’t worship anyone but God. We see in Mary and we see in the Saints people we can relate with because we share a humanity with them, we can be inspired by them, and we can ask for their prayer (for us) and fittingly we do that.”

Father Art agreed it is very much like honoring the dead and recognizing the “ties that bind us together on Earth don’t just unravel and fall apart.”

A highly regarded sacrament of the Catholic Church that has its own fair share of misconceptions is the practice of reconciliation or confession and what it really stands for.

Father Art said the sacrament has not gone by the word ‘confession’ for a while, but rather reconciliation, because the confession portion of the sacrament is but a small portion of the practice and the more important portion of the sacrament is the reconciliation by God.

“The sacrament of reconciliation has foundations in scripture and so it isn’t something that was dreamed up by the church. Again we see all seven sacraments as gifts from God, which God’s grace is poured out in our hearts and lives.

“So when Jesus said to Peter, ‘whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven, whose sins you shall retain they are retained,’ the catholic understanding is that Jesus is institution the sacrament of reconciliation.

“So yes, I can go directly to God, and I do that often, it’s a great way to end the day. So the sacrament of reconciliation really celebrates the forgiveness of God that is extended to us, so the emphasis is not on look at how bad I am the emphasis is look at how good and forgiving and loving God is. The priest is the agent of Christ in that sacrament; it is not the priest that forgives it is God who forgives. It is not a matter of self-punishment to go to reconciliation but it is to hear the words of absolution.”

Father Art said in the infinite wisdom that only God knows, he knew hearing words of forgiveness would resonate within the human being deeper than not.

He also added that it was a sacrament that very few Catholics celebrate these days,

“It is a sacrament that has fallen into disuse, but it is a great gift. And for those who celebrate the sacrament they know the great gift that it is and they know it becomes kind of a compass for their lives.”

He said it was a way for people to verbally recognize the direction their lives have gone in and openly acknowledge they would like to change.

The misunderstanding reconciliation is often mistakenly tied to another of the sacraments, communion, and the (in)ability to receive this grace unless one has confessed of all his or her sins beforehand.

“The church does ask or mandate in her commandments that we go to reconciliation minimally once a year,” Father explained. “The church and her law does say if we are in a state of mortal sin then reconciliation has to precede communion. Mortal sin is deadly sin. We speak of sin in different categories, we speak of menial sin the lesser things we do, we speak of serious sin and we speak of mortal sin. Hitting someone is different from shooting them with a gun, there are degrees of sinfulness. A mortal sin is turning our backs on God.”

In other words if a person is not in a state of mortal sin then they are welcome to the communion table any time communion is offered.

As with many other Christian religions baptism is an initiation and seen in combination with confirmation as a means to dedicate one’s life to God.

It is also considered the first sacrament of the Catholic Church.

Because whole families were baptized from the beginning of baptism, according to the Catholic dogma, infant baptism is utilized.

“The parents and God parents of the child accepts God and renounces Satan for the child. It is a way to put the child under the protection of God. It’s a way of saying ‘We claim you for Christ from the get go we desire that you become through adoption son or daughter of God.’”

It is standard practice for a child to make their own commitment to the faith through the completion of catholicism once the child is of the age to consent to this dedication.

As many other churches have done, Father Art said, St, Patrick’s Church also uses an easier understood Bible, so many of its parishioners (young and old) will be able to fully understand the meaning behind the message the Father is teaching.

“I think we need to be in touch with the more scholarly translations of scriptures when we are about serious prayer and what Jesus says, not to water it down for the sake of it being simple to understand.”