Does the Catholic Church actually still exist?
I asked myself this question when I was studying the catechism – and not only the so-called “World Catechism,” or Catechism of The Catholic Church, of John Paul II but also the earlier catechisms, from the Roman Catechism (1566) to the Catechism of Pope Pius X (1912).
Certainly, all catechisms represent a continuum of faith and endeavor to present the faith in an unabridged form; John Paul II, therefore, calls his catechism a “safe norm.”
However, norms have become obsolete in our time. This also applies to the norms of faith, and even the statements of Holy Scripture – after all, the “norma normans non normata” – are now open to disregard or arbitrary interpretation by those who, according to the Catechism, are appointed as pastors and teachers of the Church, namely the Pope and his bishops.
Thus, Pius X writes in his catechism: “The Pope and the bishops united to him form the teaching Church. It is so called because it has the mission from Jesus Christ to teach the divine truths and laws to all men. Only from her do men receive their full and certain knowledge, which is necessary to live a Christian life” (No. 114).
If we apply these lines as a “safe norm” to the pontificate of Pope Francis, it appears to us at best as a caricature of what was once Catholic. Under him and his followers, the “teaching church” no longer serves the spread of “divine truths and laws” but error, confusion, and even apostasy.
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