Who (or What) is a Catholic (or a catholic)? - Part 7

There is a common saying among Catholics, "Once a Catholic always a Catholic."  This means, under Canon Law (the Catholic Church's bylaws), once you have been baptized in a Roman Catholic Church, or have been received into it, you are recognized as a Catholic for life.

This recognition is never removed, whether or not you regularly attend Mass, whether or not you follow Catholic practices.  You may cease attending Mass altogether, but you are still recognized as a Catholic - though perhaps a lapsed Catholic.  You may even leave the Catholic Church and begin attending other churches.  Still, you are

Pew Forum survey - Faith in Flux - 2009

recognized as a Catholic by other Catholics.  You may even begin identifying yourself as a Lutheran, a Methodist, or even a Baptist.  Still, you are recognized by other Catholics as a Catholic.

Another way to look at this is once you have been raised as a Catholic, the values imprinted in you largely stay for life (or at least, according to some, the guilt they impose).  This may help explain why the Beatles, who were mostly raised Catholic or Anglican (close), reflected many Catholic values in their many of their songs, even while they, at times, refuted their religious backgrounds.

Some find this view (once a Catholic always a Catholic) offensive.  They say it violates your freedom, and tags you with a label that you may not want.  I suppose it can be used that way, and undoubtedly some Catholics have misused it that way.  That is not the purpose.

Others are surprised to find that though they have attended and identified with another church for most of their lives, Catholics still recognize them as Catholic.  They are not so much offended as simply amazed that Catholics still regard them as Catholic.

Under this view, even if you are excommunicated, you are still recognized as a Catholic.  You might be considered a bad Catholic, but you are still a Catholic.  (Does this mean Martin Luther was still considered a Catholic after he was excommunicated?)

Many Catholics do not like this saying.  They resent Catholics who disagree with the teachings of the Catholic Church and yet say they are still Catholic - by citing this saying.  They also do not like it when Catholics who do not regularly practice their faith claim to be Catholic.  I will have more to say about this in a future post.

Some say if you publicly defected from the Catholic Church, you would no longer be considered Catholic.  They base this on a provision of the Canon Law.  However, that provision had to do with marrying outside of the Catholic Church.  In any event, that provision was removed from the Canon Law in 2010, and so no longer applies.

One positive way to look at this view of Once A Catholic Always A Catholic.  Once you are baptized in the Catholic Church (or received into it), you are part of the Catholic family.  You can never lose that as long as you live, just as you can never lose your family as long as you live.  You are always welcome back (sometimes called being welcomed home).

A good friend, who is also a Catholic theologian, suggested that after Vatican II, with its emphasis of the Church as the People of God, and following the 1983 revision to the Canon Law, especially as to Baptism, that it may be more appropriate to update this old saying to - "Once a Christian, Always a Christian."

I think the old saying is true enough, so that once you have been baptized or recognized as a Catholic, other Catholics will always recognize you as a Catholic, and welcome you back, no matter how far you drift away, or where you wander.  However, and especially in light of Vatican II, that saying should not be used in a manner to divide Catholics from other Christians or to otherwise not recognize all who are validly baptized in Christ as part of the People of God.

Back to Part 6
Back to Intro
Over to Who (or What) is an Evangelical - Part 1