Is Truth really one-size-fits-all?

So I've had several discussions with friends and coworkers lately on a topic that came up a few weeks ago in my theology class, one that I had to write on in the reflection paper for the last course.

It comes down to how we should view people of other denominations and other religions.

Bottom line is, no one has a monopoly on truth. I guess you could look at it as even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then, but that's making light of a serious thing.

Thoughtful and prayerful study of history and sacred Scripture teaches that, for all the problems men have brought forth, the Catholic Church most closely approaches the faith of the earliest Christians. But there are sinful men in every faith - if it weren't for the actions of sinful men, there would not be nearly as many denominations of Christianity as there are now. Indeed, if it weren't for the actions of sinful men, there would still be unity. For over 1000 years, there was virtually complete unity. Not without disagreements, but there was unity. For the next 500 years after that, there was theological unity but not organizational unity. In the 500 years since then, Christianity has fractured both organizationally and theologically, and the rule of the day for a sizeable fraction of Christianity is that organizational unity is impossible and even theological unity is not even a goal worth pursuing - if you don't like what the church you're in teaches, just leave it and find another church...as if we can dictate to God what is and is not Truth.

But I digress...the subject of the discussion was how we should view others who aren't Catholic. The short version is that theologically, it is inconsistent for a loving and merciful God not to desire salvation for all people. Therefore, it doesn't really make sense for God to limit salvation by criteria that are not available to all. In short, it is possible for anyone to obtain salvation who lives their life open to God and open to experience and respond to God's grace. This means non-Catholics and even non-Christians. The theologians of the Vatican II Council (one of whom has now become Pope Benedict XVI) expressed this concept as "anonymous Christianity" - the open response to salvific Grace through Christ, even if the recipient of that Grace does not know Christ by name.

Some people have incorrectly viewed this as meaning that our faith tradition selection is merely a personal choice, and one is just as good as another, since all can lead to salvation. Yes, it is true that all can lead to salvation, but only Christianity contains the truth that salvation occurs through Christ, and only Catholic Christianity preserves the Christian faith in its most original and fullest form. This is not to say that other Christian denominations are wrong, merely incomplete.

But then I get to me, and a conversation I had with another former Protestant Catholic. Her position was that we focus too much on the things that divide us rather than the things that we believe in common. And I agree with that. But I can't take it to the point of believing that any is as good as another. Because it is true that Catholic Christianity alone preserves the history, traditions, and beliefs of the earliest Christians, the beliefs that Christ and the Apostles passed on to their earliest followers, I believe that all Christians deserve the blessings of full unity in that truth rather than some variant of that truth that has been amended by men.

And there's one thing more in my case. My family hasn't exactly welcomed my decision to become Catholic, even though I was unchurched (or worse) for years before that decision. It seemed to that the extended family's thinking is that a lapsed Baptist living the Devil's life is better than an active Catholic living a life in Christ. Some folks even expressed condolences to my parents, saying they knew how disappointed they must be. Although my immediate family was more supportive, it still hasn't been possible to really share my faith with them - the things that divide us, at least between the Catholic faith and the Southern Baptist faith, are just too far apart to avoid, and so we can't really even discuss things without coming across differences.

And so I'm left with a conundrum...if there truly is no real difference between the denominations and one is just as good as any other, then I have made a choice that it appears will distance me from my family forever, for no real gain. If that's the case, then I'd have been better off Episcopalian, because in the words of another family member "at least that's still Protestant." But as a historian, and now as a theologian, I am a seeker of truth, and I know the truth. I can't live a lie, and so I can't be anything but Catholic and be true to myself and true to the truth of Christ.

And if that's the case, then it simply must be true that there is something better about Catholicism, to justify my separation from those that I love. Not that there is anything wrong with choosing to be Christian but not Catholic, just that making that choice is to choose to live a reflected or refracted image of the original faith that Christ and the Apostles taught.