Just 4 years after the Immaculate Conception was declared dogma by the Catholic Church, the Virgin Mary appeared to a French peasant girl named Bernadette over the course of several weeks. She wanted to know the lady’s name, for she did not know who it was, and at long last the lady told her with the stunning words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Bernadette was a poor, unlearned, 14 year-old girl who had no clue what “Immaculate Conception” meant, yet she memorized the words and relayed them faithfully to her parish priest.
Either St. Bernadette told the truth or she did not (i.e. she lied, was crazy, or diabolically deceived).
If she told the truth, then you should become Catholic.
What evidence is there that she told the truth?
- The countless miraculous healings that have occurred at Lourdes by people bathing in the spring water there
- St. Bernadette’s body, which remained incorrupt even decades after her death and on which uncorrupted flesh still remains
- St. Bernadette lived a life of heroic virtue, demonstrating that she was neither crazy nor a liar nor diabolically deceived
Why should you become Catholic if she told the truth? Because it confirms the Catholic Faith, as follows:
- The Virgin Mary could only appear to someone if God willed it, so God willed she appear to Bernadette
- The Virgin Mary named herself “the Immaculate Conception,” a doctrine that the Catholic Church declared dogma just a few years prior
- The Virgin Mary requested that a (Catholic) chapel be built at the location
Awesome explanation. Thanks for sharing.
You’re underestimating the potential of diabolical deception, I think. If Catholicism leads to damnation, and if there exists a powerful supernatural entity who is primarily motivated by damnation, then all these points fall apart. Miraculous healings and bodily preservation would be no challenge for such an entity.
As for the life of heroic virtue, in this case that is neither here nor there. If Catholicism leads to damnation, then our hypothetical entity would be perfectly happy if everyone in the world became a virtuous Catholic.
But most protestants are not willing to go with the idea that Catholicism leads to damnation. Even saying Mother Teresa and John Paul II are in hell because they were not Catholics is fairly rare. Going all the way back and giving the devil full credit for St Francis of Assisi, St Thomas Aquinas, St Augustine, St Boniface, St Patrick, etc. It is saying satan has produced many more lives of heroic virtue than Jesus has. I know anti-Catholics on the internet who take this position are pretty common. But real world protestants don’t make anti-Catholicism the centerpiece of their faith. They don’t go there.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the rejoinder–I was hoping someone would challenge me! I will add on to Randy’s rebuttal:
Even Luther regarded many saints and Fathers as being faithful and full of love of Christ (St. Bernard and St. Augustine come immediately to mind). If a person is heroically virtuous, it means they loved God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, for the Devil can neither give nor inspire true virtue, for it is opposed to him: Recall Christ responding to the Pharisees that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” when they accused him of driving out demons (something good) by the power of Satan (something evil). The same applies here.
Another rebuttal: If Catholicism leads to damnation, then how horrible of God to allow all the people (including the Christians) for over 1,000 years to only know a twisted “faith” that leads to damnation (using the time period for the allegedly “corrupt” Catholic Church as running from 400 AD to 1500 AD before the Reformers “rediscovered the gospel). Why would God give all of his children over into Satan’s power for most of Christianity?
I have to say, this takes the term “devil’s advocate” to a whole new level.
I guess my main point here is that once we accept the possibility of superintelligent supernatural beings mucking around with things, it becomes very difficult for a proof like this to stand. Already you and Randy have had to introduce new implicit premises to the original argument. In other words, the argument only has strength when presented to Christians who are reasonably friendly with Catholicism. If the Bad Guy in question were, say, Loki, then this whole thing falls apart. He’s equally happy with any religion that doesn’t lead souls to Valhalla.
But of course, one doesn’t even have to go that far. One might say that Catholicism does not necessarily lead to damnation, but may, if the Catholic goes too far with certain dangerous doctrines. If that were the case, satanic intervention in this case is still a possibility.
I’m also a little uncomfortable with the idea that a life of heroic virtue is incompatible with telling a single (admittedly big) lie at age fourteen… but that’s beside my main point, so I’ll leave it at that.
Your second rebuttal is really an entirely separate argument, which I think I’ll bow out of for the time being.
The devil can find himself another advocate for that one.
This message is for more rambly than I would like, but I don’t have time to edit. I guess I’ll throw it out there in hopes that it’ll spark useful conversation. Sorry for any outright incoherence that I haven’t caught.
Hi Dave,
What you are saying makes sense. I agree that Satanic intervention is a possibility without it being the case that Catholicism as a whole leads to damnation.
I think that even well-meaning, faithful Christians can be tricked by demons into, say, coming to think that some false teaching is really true. I would list as possible examples someone who falls into a heretical belief (the demon might nudge their pride along in an evil way to come to think that they are right and the Church is wrong for example).
So, while of course I believe that St. Bernadette told the truth and that the being she saw really was the Virgin Mary, I agree with you that it is not a slam-dunk case. (And I ought to mention that Catholics are not bound to believe in this Marian apparition with the same level of faith they assent to, say, the Nicene Creed.)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I guess you can always put things down to satanic intervention. Could the bible be a product of satan? Depends what you believe about satan. Does he have the power to act in such holy ways? He does disguise himself as an angel of light but I don’t think he is quite that good at it. But you are right. It is a logical possibility.