“Chick Publications” misrepresentation of Catholicism

Chick Publications is a Protestant Fundamentalist Christian organization, and is known for its outlandish conspiracy views on the end of times, and Catholicism in particular. Chick Publications was officially established in 1970 when Chick began producing comic tracts. Jack Chick is well known in Catholic circles for his harsh treatment of Catholicism, and his publication company has created tracts, and comic books to promote his views. Chick Publications misrepresents the teachings of the Catholic Church through the literature that they produce.

        “Answers to my Catholic friends” is a book title that is published by Chick Publications, and authored by Thomas F. Heinze. In the second chapter of the online version found on Chicks’ website Heinze states “She reminded me that Catholic doctrine changes from time to time, and so cannot always agree with the Bible. Since the Bible agrees with the present Catholic doctrine that eating meat on Fridays is not sin, it could not agree earlier that eating meat on Fridays was sin”. (Heinze) Three different things are being misrepresented in this one statement.

 First eating meat on Friday was never a “doctrine.” Abstaining from meat is a discipline, and secondly it was never done away with. Mr. Heinze should have done a quick check on the Vatican’s web site, and there he would have found the Code of Canon Law (Church Laws and regulations.) Canon 1251 states “Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.” (Code) This canon shows that the Catholic Church still requires abstinence from meat on Fridays, and contradicts Chick Publications’ effort to misrepresent church teachings. Catholic teachings and papal writings are very easily accessed; it’s hard to believe that there is no malice behind “Chick Publications” statements. As for the charge of it being a sin to eat meat on Fridays Heinze once again has missed the mark. Disciplines are practices or customs, and they do not involve sin in and of themselves. 

The third misrepresentation is that the Catholic Church has changed her doctrines. In the Church’s 2,000 year history she has never changed a single doctrine. Disciplines or customs change, but doctrines never change. If something was true 2,000 years ago, it is still true today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, as is his Church. Disciplines are practices such as the mass being in Latin, priestly celibacy, or eating meat on Fridays these things can and have changed through out history. Doctrines are beliefs that come from the word of God, and are handed down to us either orally or by the written word; these are the teachings of Holy Mother Church and have never changed. One example that Heinze gives of a doctrinal change is the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession). Heinze declares that “Confession to the priest became official Catholic doctrine in 1225 A.D.” (Heinze) Heinze shows a misunderstanding of the way the Catholic Church works which is surprising since he has written books on the Catholic faith.

The only thing substantially that happened in 1225 that dealt with the Catholic Church was Local council at Bourges. Local councils are binding only to the local area in which they take place. This particular council dealt with the Albigenses, who denied the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. (Weber) A “new” Doctrine was not introduced at Bourges, but an old one was reaffirmed.

Tertullian was a Christian theologian who wrote a piece titled “Repentance” in 203 CE. In “Repentance” Tertullian defends the practice of confessing one’s sins to a priest as if the practice had been around for many years: "[Regarding confession, some] flee from this work as being an exposure of themselves, or they put it off from day to day. I presume they are more mindful of modesty than of salvation, like those who contract a disease in the more shameful parts of the body and shun making themselves known to the physicians; and thus they perish along with their own bashfulness." (Dollen) The Didache was written in seventy CE and is another ancient Christian document that speaks of confessing your sins within a church: "Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience.” (Confession)

The evidence is clear that this practice has been around longer then 1225 CE, but just how far does this practice go back? The Apostles themselves wrote about the practice of confessing your sins to another person around fifty seven CE. James the Apostle in his epistle on moral conduct instructed Christians to “confess your sins to one another” (Revised), thus showing that the practice came down from the apostles themselves. Chick Publication states that the Catholic Church borrowed the practice of confessing sins to another from the pagans, but who did it really come from?
In John’s gospel, the apostle records that Jesus himself gave the power to forgive sins in his name to the elders of his church. On that first Easter morning Jesus appeared to the Apostles and said "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (Revised)  Heinze lacks a good understanding of how the Catholic Church works. The church does not convene a council to promote a “new” teaching but to define existing ones, and only when they come under attack as in the case in 1225 when the Sacrament of confession came under attack by the Albigenses.
    In the Chick Publication tract titled “The attack,” Jack Chick makes the accusation that the Catholic Church added the apocrypha to the bible at the Council of Trent (1545), and placed the bible on the ”list” of forbidden books, therefore keeping the book out of the people’s hands. In the same tract Chick also makes the charge that the Emperor Constantine was the first pope and that it was his idea to “add” to the bible. (Chick)
    The first problem Chick has is his lack of knowledge when it comes to the history of bible translations. The apocrypha is not a part of the Catholic bible. The Catholic bible does indeed contain seven more books then protestant bibles but this is due to the deutrocanicals not the apocrypha. A Protestant bible contains sixty six books in it while a Catholic Bible has seventy three. The New Testament contains the same amount of books; the discrepancy is with the Old Testament. The Protestant Old Testament has thirty nine books compared to the forty six found in Catholic bibles.
    The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). This version dates back to the middle third century BCE. Seventy Jewish scholars were responsible for the translation. Since Greek was the common language at the time and the Aramaic and Hebrew languages were becoming “dead” dialects, the Septuagint became the official version used by the Jewish people for over 200 years. When Christ and the Apostles quoted the Old Testament, it was the Septuagint that they quoted the majority of the time.
    This creates problems for Chick because the Septuagint contained forty six books, the same as the Catholic Old Testament. Chick’s claim that the Catholic Church added the books at the council of Trent is completely false. The version of the bible that Chick is fond of (KJV) makes the claim that “the Septuagint was used by the Christians of the first century.” (King) The Septuagint became the version used by the early Christians because that is the only version they knew. The Christians were using the Jewish Scriptures to convert the Jewish people to Christianity, and by seventy CE the Jewish Rabbis had had enough. At a rabbinical school in seventy CE, Jewish scholars retranslated the scriptures back into Hebrew. After watching large numbers of Jews leave Judaism for Christianity by way of the Greek Septuagint, Jewish Rabbis declared that Hebrew was the official language of scripture. During the translation any scripture that was not originally written in Hebrew was thrown out, and the result was a thirty nine book canon.
    The Catholic Church uses the older Septuagint version that Christ and the Apostles used while protestant bibles use the canon compiled by Jewish teachers thirty seven years after the death of Christ. These same Jewish scholars also rejected Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. Does this prove Chick’s claim to be false? Yes and no. The Catholic Church did “add” to the scriptures, but she added the “new” Testament this was confirmed at the councils of Rome (382), Hippo (383), Cartage (397), Florence (1439), and Trent (1545-1563).
    Mr. Chick makes it sound as if the Bible it self was on the list of forbidden books this is not the case. While certain translations were deemed unworthy, something Chick seems to do himself, the studying of approved translations of the bible has always been recommended by the Church. Jerome, who translated the first complete bible into the language of the people, wrote that “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” What does the Catholic Church actually teach in regard to the laity reading scripture? The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” has this to say “The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful . . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.” Adult converts to the Catholic Faith receive a Bible and are told to cherish it because it is the word of God.
    The claim that Constantine was the first pope is another completely false claim that Chick promotes. Chick does nothing to account for the thirty two popes who reigned before Constantine legalized Christianity, not to mention the fact that Constantine was never Pope. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter the Apostle. Chick is either ignorant of, or ignores, the list of Popes   written by Irenaeus the Bishop of Lyons who wrote around the year 190 CE or Eusebius the Bishop of Caesarea who wrote around 300 CE. The first letter of Clement, the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, was thought to be inspired and was debated on when it came to fixing the canon of Scripture; Clement died in ninety seven CE, almost 200 years before Constantine was even born. This would seem to be a huge oversight on Jack Chick’s part.

Rick Jones is the author of “Understanding Catholicism.”

The book is published by Chick Publications and Chick has an online version on his website. In the book Jones speaks of papal infallibility “Sadly, this doctrine is but another tradition of men that contradicts Scripture. The Bible declares that all people are sinners”. (Jones) What is sad is that Rick Jones has written a book titled “Understanding Catholicism” and has very little understanding of what the Catholic Church actually teaches. The Doctrine of infallibility has nothing to do with a pope being a sinner; in fact the Catholic Church teaches that all popes have been sinners. The doctrine of infallibility teaches that while teaching on matters of faith and morals, the pope is guided by the Holy Spirit and kept from making errors. Jones problem is not infallibility, rather his problem is with the Bishop of Rome having it. Rick Jones believes in papal infallibility he just is not aware of it. The Catholic Church teaches that the Apostle Peter was the first Bishop of Rome and therefore the first Pope. Being a Fundamentalist Christian Rick Jones believes that the Scriptures are the inspired word of God and that the writers were guided by the Holy Spirit and protected from error. Jones himself has to believe in papal infallibility on at least two occasions since his Bible has two letters from the Apostle Peter in it. Mr. Jones also has to believe in infallibility on sixty four other circumstances, seeing how his bible has sixty six books in it and he believes these to have been written without error
Chick Publications would do itself and the Christian community a service if they would research the topics they write about instead of repeating worn out falsehoods that have circulated since the reformation. With the contradictions and misrepresentations that Chick materials have within them one has to wonder, just exactly what is the motivation behind Chicks anti-Catholicism? Chick Publications will continue to publish their materials and Catholics will continue to study their faith in order to defend against it. It is ironic, Catholics are studying their faith more these days and Jack Chick Productions is largely to blame. Jack Chick and his publishing company have accomplished something that popes have tried to do for years, get everyday Catholics to study their bibles and become more involved in their faith.

Chick Jack. “The Attack.” Chick Publications. 1985-2008, 13 July,        2008.

        <http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0031/0031_01.asp>

"Code of Canon Law." The Holy See. 12 July 2008, 13 July 2008.         <http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4O.HTM>.

“Confession.” Catholic Answers. 2008, 13 July, 2008.         <http://www.catholic.com/library/Confession.asp>

Dollen, Charles. The Book of Catholic Wisdom. Huntington Indiana:     Our Sunday Visitor. 1986.

Heinze Thomas F. “Answers to my Catholic friends.” Chick Publications.       1996, 13 July, 2008.        <http://www.chick.com/reading/books/218/218_02.asp>

 Heinze Thomas F. “Answers to my Catholic friends.” Chick        Publications. 1996, 13 July, 2008.         <http://www.chick.com/reading/books/218/218_09.asp>

Jones Rick. “Understanding Catholicism.” Chick Publications. 1995, 13 July, 2008.         <http://www.chick.com/reading/books/160/160_07.asp>

King James Version Bible. Nashville/New York. Thomas Nelson Inc.     1973,

Revised Standard Version CE bible. National council of Churches of     Christ USA, gen. ed. Toronto: Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1966.

Revised Standard Version CE bible. National council of Churches of     Christ USA, gen. ed. Toronto: Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1966

Weber, Nicholas. "Albigenses." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New         York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 13 Jul. 2008.         <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm>