Nothing so epitomized Pope Benedict XVI's visit to America than the stirring hymn that concluded his White House appearance. It was Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," recalling our nation's tragic Civil War.The pope smiled at the verse: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," then beamed when he heard the words of the chorus:"Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! ... His truth is marching on."Little wonder: If the Catholic Church is sure of anything, it is that it marches with the truth of Christ.In an attempt to reconcile peoples of different religious faiths, it has become fashionable in polite company to disregard the perennial Catholic claim to be the one true church. Over the centuries, Rome has expressed that claim in formulas that appear arrogant and high-handed. For example:"Outside the church there is no salvation." "In matters of religion error has no rights." And, quoting Jesus, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).Before he was raised to the chair of St. Peter, Benedict himself publicly pronounced the faith of other Christian denominations to be "defective." His church has always been militant in detecting and condemning heresies.Occasionally popes have backtracked. Pope John Paul II himself confessed that the Protestant principle of "justification by faith, not works" was condemned as heretical because its meaning was misunderstood by Catholics at the time of the Reformation.Still, despite its involvement in the worldwide ecumenical quest for Christian unity, the Catholic Church persists in its claim to be the one true church.In their remarks during the White House ceremony, Benedict and President Bush independently decried relativism. Later that day, the pontiff told American bishops, "Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted," because it rests on revealed truth that binds the human family as the people of God.He condemned not only flavor-of-the-month faiths, but religion that is sentimental, tentative or speculative. Predictably, his Catholic claim to the whole truth will be dismissed by many as naive and arrogant, but that truth could not be more hopeful.Our nation's Founding Fathers actually claimed some truths to be self-evident -- that we are all endowed with inalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By contrast, the pope does not claim any truths to be self-evident, but only that they are revealed to all of us by the same God.(David Yount's "Growing in Faith: A Guide for the Reluctant Christian" (Seabury) is in a new edition. He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195 and dyount(at)erols.com.)
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