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Why Be Catholic? Aren't All Churches Equally Good?

The Short Answer

Christ founded one Church, not many, and prayed that His followers “may all be one.” Catholics believe that one Church still exists as a visible community: the Catholic Church, united around the successors of the apostles and of Peter. Other Christians share much of Christ’s gift and are truly brothers and sisters in Christ. But the Catholic Church holds that the fullness of what Christ gave, His whole teaching and all the sacraments He instituted, is found in her.

Many people today, including many sincere Christians, see things differently. On this view, denominations are like different branches of one family, each with its own style, and what matters is faith in Jesus, not which church you attend. That view comes from a good instinct: a desire for unity and a dislike of religious quarrels. Here is why Catholics believe Christ asks for more than that.

What the Church Does and Does Not Claim

The Church does not claim:

The Church does claim that Christ’s one Church “subsists in the Catholic Church” (Lumen Gentium 8), and that “it is only through Christ’s Catholic Church” that the fullness of the means of salvation can be had (Unitatis Redintegratio 3).

Why Catholics Believe It

1. Christ founded one Church

Jesus did not say “on this rock I will build my churches.” He said, “on this rock I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18). St Paul describes the Church as one body: “There is one body and one Spirit … one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” (Ephesians 4:4–6).

On the night before He died, Jesus prayed for all who would believe in Him, “that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). The unity He prayed for was meant to be visible: something the world could see.

The Second Vatican Council put it plainly: “Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only.” Division among Christians “openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world,” and harms the preaching of the Gospel (Unitatis Redintegratio 1). Division is not a harmless variety of styles. It is a wound.

2. That Church was visible, with apostles and their successors

The Church Christ founded was not an invisible fellowship of like-minded believers. It had leaders He appointed, the apostles, with Peter at their head. It baptised, celebrated the Eucharist, and settled disputes by the authority of the apostles (Acts 2:42; 15:28).

The apostles in turn appointed others to continue their ministry. St Clement of Rome, writing around 96, explained that “our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ,” that “there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate,” and so they appointed ministers “and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry” (First Letter to the Corinthians 44). This is apostolic succession: an unbroken line from the apostles to today’s bishops.

3. The early Church knew itself as “the Catholic Church”

The name “Catholic” (meaning “universal” or “according to the whole”) was in use by around 110. St Ignatius of Antioch wrote: “Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8).

St Augustine noted that the name itself was telling: “though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, … when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house” (Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 4).

4. Truth matters

If two churches teach contradictory things, they cannot both be right. Either Christ is truly present in the Eucharist or He is not. Either baptism regenerates or it does not. Either salvation can be lost or it cannot. Saying that all churches are equally good sounds generous, but it quietly treats these questions as unimportant, as if what Christ taught did not much matter.

Catholics believe Christ cared what His followers believed. He promised to send the Spirit to guide the apostles “into all the truth” (John 16:13), and He gave His Church a way to recognise that truth and hand it on intact. That is why the question “which Church?” is worth asking honestly.

5. The fullness of what Christ gave

The Catholic claim is not that other Christians have nothing, but that they have part of a whole that is found complete in the Catholic Church. Many Protestant communities have Scripture, baptism and a deep love of Christ. The Orthodox Churches have, in addition, apostolic succession and all seven sacraments. What the Catholic Church adds is the whole: every sacrament Christ gave, the full deposit of His teaching, and visible communion with the successor of Peter, the sign and servant of the Church’s unity.

Common Objections

”It doesn’t matter which church you go to, as long as you love Jesus.”

Loving Jesus is what matters most, and the Church says so. But loving someone includes caring about what they asked of you. Jesus asked that His followers be one, and He founded a Church, not a set of options. To say that it does not matter which church we belong to is to say that His prayer for unity does not matter much either.

”The true Church is invisible: all real believers, wherever they worship.”

There is a real truth here: the Church is a mystery of grace, and God alone sees every heart. But the New Testament Church was also visible. You could be baptised into it, excommunicated from it (1 Corinthians 5:1–5), and take a dispute to it (Matthew 18:17). St Paul calls it “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). A purely invisible Church could do none of these things.

”The Catholic Church is full of sinners and scandals. How can it be the true Church?”

The Catholic Church has never claimed that her members are sinless; she teaches the opposite. Jesus Himself compared His kingdom to a field where wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest (Matthew 13:24–30), and one of the twelve apostles betrayed Him. The scandals are real and grievous. But the holiness of the Church comes from Christ, His teaching and His sacraments, not from the virtue of her members. (See How Do Catholics Respond to the Abuse Scandals?)

”The Orthodox also have apostolic succession. Why not them?”

This is a fair point, and the Catholic Church agrees that the Orthodox have true bishops and true sacraments, and are very close to her. What separates them is communion with the bishop of Rome, Peter’s successor, whom Catholics believe Christ gave as the visible centre of the Church’s unity. (See What Is the Difference Between Catholics and Orthodox? and Where Is the Papacy in the Bible?)

”Isn’t it arrogant to claim to be the one true Church?”

It would be arrogant if Catholics claimed to have made the Church, or to be better than others. The claim is about what Christ did, not what Catholics have achieved. It is like a person who has been given a priceless gift: to say “this is the real thing” is not boasting, but gratitude. The same Church that makes this claim also teaches Catholics to respect other Christians, to pray and work for unity, and to examine their own failings first.

In Summary

Christ founded one Church, prayed that His followers would be visibly one, and built that Church on the apostles with Peter at their head. The early Christians called it the Catholic Church, and Catholics believe it continues today, united around the successors of the apostles and of Peter. Other Christians are truly brothers and sisters, sharing much of Christ’s gift. The invitation of the Catholic Church is to come home to the whole of it.

See also Where Is the Papacy in the Bible?, Isn’t the Bible Alone Enough? and Aren’t All Religions Basically the Same?

This article follows the method St Robert Bellarmine used in his Controversies*: state the question fairly, clear away misunderstandings, make the case, then answer each objection. Bellarmine’s own treatment of this question is in his* Controversies on the Church, including De Notis Ecclesiae (On the Marks of the Church). See How We Answer Objections.

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