It is often said that the Church was not founded by Jesus Christ or, in any case, he did not want to start this type of Church, but a humbler one, without structures, without power. It is said that in reality the Church was founded by St. Paul, with a Jewish concept more than Christian, or it was founded after the Roman persecutions, as an instrument at the service of the imperial power to control the new religion. The Catholic Church, as we see it now, would not have had anything to do with the Church of Christ and would be instead of a structure at the service of the Gospel, a structure of oppression that would act against those who are in the service of the poor and who want to be free.
Teaching of the Catechism:
“The Lord Jesus began His Church with the announcement of the Good News” (No. 763)
“The Lord Jesus gave to his community of a structure that will remain until the full consummation of the Kingdom. First and foremost is the election of the Twelve, with Peter as its head (cf. Mk 3:14-15); since they represent the twelve tribes of Israel (cf Mt 19:28; Lk 22:30), they are the foundations of the new Jerusalem (cf Ap 21: 12-14). The Twelve (cf. 6:7) and the other disciples (cf Lk 10:1-2) participate in the mission of Christ, in his power, and also in their fate (cf Mt 10:25; Jn 15:)20). With all of these acts, Christ prepares and builds his Church” (765)
“When the son finished the work the Father gave him to do on earth, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost to continuously sanctify the Church. It is then when the Church was publicly displayed before the crowd; it was the start of the spread of the Gospel among peoples through preaching” (No 767)
“To carry out its mission, the Holy Spirit builds and directs the Church with various hierarchic and charismatic gifts” (No 768)
“From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his life (cf Mk 1:16-20; 3:13-19); they revealed the mystery of the Kingdom (cf Mt 13:10-17); He gave them a share in his mission, in his joy (cf Lk 10:17-20) and in his sufferings (cf Lk 22:28-30)” ( 787)
“Our Savior, after His resurrection, gave the only Church of Christ to Peter to shepherd. He entrusted to him and to the other apostles that they would extend and govern it. This Church, constituted and orderly manner in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him” (No 816)
“Jesus was sent by the Father. From the beginning of His ministry, ´He called those he loved and they came to him. And he appointed twelve to be with him and to be sent out to preach”
(Mk 3:13-14). Since then, they will be ´the ones sent’ (which means the Greek word ‘apostoloi’). In them He continues His own mission: ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you’ (Jn 20:21; cf 13: 20, 17, 18). Therefore, this ministry is the continuation of the mission of Christ: ‘He who receives you receives me,’ He says to the twelve (Mt 10, 40; cf. Lk 10, 16)” ( 858)
“In order that the mission entrusted to them might be continued after their death, [the apostles] consigned, by will and testament, as it were, to their immediate collaborators the duty of completing and consolidating the work they had begun, urging them to tend to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit had appointed them to shepherd the Church of God. They accordingly designated such men and then made the ruling that likewise on their death other proven men should take over their ministry.” (Nº 861)
Argument:
No one founds something that not long after his death, it dies with him. Above all, if you have founded a mission that cannot fully develop during the life of the founder. Everyone wants his work to survive and very especially if that work, by its own characteristics, has a goal that goes beyond the historical moment in which the one who has founded it lives.
This is true for so many things, as it is, of course, for the work founded by Christ. There are abundant gospel texts which reflects the will of Jesus not only of founding a church but also of organizing it through a hierarchical system, since without such a structure it would not have been able to work or survive. It may be objected that these texts were subsequently added precisely by those who wanted to justify the existence of the hierarchy of the Church because they formed part of it, but, first, that there is no objection to demonstrate it, and second, it goes against the common sense: If Christ wanted, at his death, the Church continuing to preach his message, He would have to organize a structure that would survive and that structure should have sufficient authority to be able to cope with the inevitable problems that the community of his disciples was going to find. In addition, the texts that make reference to the choice of the disciples and how the Lord wanted them to organize, there are so many and so important that there that they were subsequently added after his death; as proof of the fidelity with which the evangelists transmitted what Christ had said and done. Just one example: do not hesitate to talk about the triple denial of Peter on the night of Holy Thursday, to invent a story that would justify the authority of Peter over the group, would have to be deleted this moment, and would make Peter look very bad.
It is true that Paul gave to the Church important structural and theological concepts, but these concepts were not foreign to the faith of the Apostles, who were already preaching before Paul converted, going precisely to Damascus to “hunt” Christians. In addition, the Church has never concealed that its roots are entrenched in the Jewish religion, because the Old Testament is part of their spiritual and dogmatic heritage; but Christ, and as the first Christians understood Him and St Paul, came to bring to its fullness the message contained in the Old Testament, purifying it at the same time of all the adhesions that had been added and that did not have their origin in God (for example, the excessive, in respect to Saturday, the prohibition of certain foods or the inferior status of women ).
The Church, therefore, is today the same yesterday and always: the work of Christ. Those who say that it is not truth, do so because they are not interested in listening to what the church says. For example, when the followers of liberation theology claim that the Church is a structure of power, oppressive and corrupt, they do so because the Church has not made it possible to justify the use of violence and has refused to join the Catholic faith with Marxism. Others say the same thing against the Church, but for different reasons: because the Church defends life and is against abortion or because it does not accept that man is subjected to the instincts as if it was just an animal. In Spanish we say: “Tell me who you walk with and I will tell you who you are.” That old saying we could be written backwards, to apply it to this case: “Tell me who don’t walk with and I will tell you who you are.” The Church does not go with the violent, with the powerful, with the hedonistic, with the Relativists; It is normal, therefore, that these attack; but the fact that they do, is the best guarantee of being faithful to Jesus Christ, who also died crucified by those who were not happy with His message.