"Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, "In truth, I have finally come to see that God has no favourites. Rather, in every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him." (Acts 10: 34-35)

Why the Catholic Faith?

First of all, why should someone become a Christian?

Perhaps the main reason for that is that Christians believe that the infinite Eternal "God came to earth as a man and showed us how to be truly human!" (Fr Gervaeus Corcoran) We try to be Gods but God came on earth to show us how to be human! And by showing us how to be human He was really showing us how to be Gods! That is our true destiny, God wants us to be Eternal Children of God. But in order for Him to accomplish that plan for us He had to come down to earth to suffer and die for us and this He did when He became Jesus the Christ or the Messiah whom He had promised the Jews He would send. Christians believe that there is only One God but that He is 3 persons! The Church uses the word "Trinity" to describe this nature of God. God is three persons but each of those persons is the One God Being! The light from the Sun is white light but in reality it is actually 3 colours! (All white light is made up of equal amounts of Red, Green and Blue light known as the Primary colours of light) But in this poor example Red light is not White light but in the Trinity the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God! Each of them are the One God and not one third of God! So perhaps by that example in nature God is showing us that He is the Trinity. There are some other examples of the number 3 in nature which you can find on the internet. Christians believe in God the Trinity.

Why should someone become a Catholic?

Because the Catholic Faith has treasure! And that treasure is Jesus present in the Eucharist. But also we have the intercession of Mary the Mother of Jesus. The Catholic Church has the guarantee that her teaching will always be true. We believe that Jesus started the true Church and there can be only one fully true Church and we believe the Catholic Church is fully true. But that does not mean that all the other Churches do not have truth in them, they do but to varying degrees. It does not mean that Catholics are better than anybody else or that only Catholics are saved. Anyone who repents sincerely of their sins will be instantly forgiven by God. Repentance is the Key to heaven for all mankind. God has given every single person on this planet the same chance of salvation and repentance is the key to salvation. Many religions in the world think that they are the only ones who can be saved! That would mean that God is creating millions of men, women and children who would have little or no hope of salvation because they unfortunately live in the wrong countries or cultures! And surprisingly Bible Christians believe this too! Bible Christians believe that if you are not a Christian then you cannot be saved! So that would mean that millions of Men, women and children would be lost for eternity simply because they are born in the wrong place at the wrong time. And what kind of God would continue creating all more of these people everyday if they have no hope of salvation? Not the true God of Christianity because our God is not a tyrant! It is a horrendous world view. Saint Peter in the Acts of the Apostles said: "In truth, I have finally come to see that God has no favourites. Rather, in every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him." (Acts 10: 34-35) This is the Catholic position on other religions and it was confirmed in the Second Vatican Council. Anybody of any Religion searching for God and repenting of their sins will be saved. But how can someone be saved if Christ is the only saviour of all people? When for example a non-Christian repents sincerely of their sins God can then enter their heart and that means that Jesus is in their heart even if they do not know it and if Jesus is in your heart then you are in Jesus and you are saved. If you are in Jesus then you are to some degree a member of His Mystical Body the Church.

Peter the Rock

After doing some research we learned that in Matthew 16:13-19 we have Simon's confession of faith that Jesus is the "Son of the Living God" and then Jesus tells Simon that he is now going to be called Peter because he will be the Rock on which Jesus will build His Church.

This passage of Scripture is the most clear evidence that Jesus appointed Peter to be the Shepherd of His flock and that He was giving him authority to act in His name and to bind and loose. Jesus tells Peter that He is giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven and keys symbolise authority. In reality Jesus said in Aramaic "You are Rock (Cephas) and on this Rock (Cephas) I will build My Church". The earliest manuscripts of the passage are in Koine Greek and the translation is "You are Petros (Masculine form necessary because Simon is a man) and on this Petra (The Koine Greek word for Rock is feminine) I will build My Church". Bible Christians unfortunately incorrectly argue that the Greek word Petros means "stone" and not Rock and only Petra means Rock. But that is only true in a different Greek dialect known as Attic Greek and some greek poetry centuries before Christ. If Jesus had wanted to call Peter a stone the Greek word lithos would have been used instead of Petros in this passage. Many Protestant Experts agree that in Koine Greek which was the Greek of 1st century Palestine and the dialect used for the New Testament books of the bible the words Petros and Petra are the same word except gender for Rock. In order to argue their point Bible Christians have to say that Jesus meant "You are a stone and on this Rock (Bible Christians argue that Rock here refers to either Jesus Himself or to Peter's confession of Faith in Jesus and not to Peter!) I will build My Church". That makes the passage very complicated. Many other times in the New Testament the Aramaic word Cephas which means Rock is used as Peter's name as that was the actual word that Jesus called him because Aramaic was the language that Jesus spoke. There are several occasions when the Bible gives us the exact Aramaic words that Jesus spoke for example when Jesus was dying on the Cross He said "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" or when he cured the deaf man He said "Ephata" "Be opened". The controversy about this passage only occurs because of how it is translated into Greek but if we could all read it in Aramaic the way Jesus spoke it we would read the same word "Cephas" for Peter and Rock in the passage.

The Eucharist

The Eucharist is the greatest treasure of Christianity because it is Jesus Christ Himself. The Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches posess Jesus really present in the Eucharist. Most of the other Christian Churches do not have or believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. First of all we should believe the Words of Jesus when He said at the Last Supper the night before He died: (See Mark 14: 22-24)
And whilst they were eating, Jesus took bread; and blessing, broke, and gave to them, and said: Take ye, This is my body. And having taken the chalice, giving thanks, he gave it to them. And they all drank of it. And he said to them, This is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many.
Jesus said "This is My Body", "This is My Blood" so it is His Body and it is His Blood.
In Chapter 6 of St John's Gospel soon after Jesus had performed the Miracle of multiplying the loaves of bread to feed the 5000 the Jews asked Him to give them a sign to help them believe in Him. Please read the chapter which will open on a separate window on this link. Jesus tries to tell the Jews that He is the Bread of Life and that He has come down from Heaven. The Jews did not fully understand what He meant when He told them that He was the Bread from Heaven and that He wanted them to receive Him but many of them left Him because they thought He was teaching cannibalism. If they were misunderstanding Him completely He would not have allowed them to leave Him or He would not have used confusing words. They grumble saying: 53 "The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" How? Because He is God. Jesus replies in line 63 trying to convince them that He is a Divine Person and that is why He can give them His flesh and blood to eat and drink: "If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?". In that whole discussion with the Jews Jesus tried in several ways to convince them that He had come down from Heaven and that He is God. He goes on to say in line 64 : "It is the spirit that quickeneth (Gives life): the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life." So Jesus was not talking about canibalism in the sense that if someone cut off and ate Jesus' little finger it would do them no good unless Jesus was present in that little finger! Catholics believe that Jesus is present risen from the dead in the consecrated Bread during the Mass. Jesus was talking about us receiving His Living Flesh and Blood because He is present in it.
Saint Paul also believed in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist which is seen in this paragraph in his first letter to the Corinthians: (11 Cor 23- 29)

So, let it be repeated until the logic penetrates: There can be but one true Church; which must not contradict itself, which must possess the whole truth; and which must be able to tell the difference between what is true and what is false.
Handbook Chapter 37 Suggestions as to works Section 8; The Book-Barrow