The Oath I Swore

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I was received into the Catholic Church on Saturday, July 13, 2019, at an FSSP parish in California. It was the most significant day of my life. Prior to receiving Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I bowed before my Pastor in front of the altar, placed my hand on the Holy Scriptures, and swore an oath to uphold the Catholic Faith in all its purity and grandeur, which began with an admission that I had previously believed in errors.

The full text of that oath is below. I took it before God, before the Church (in the person of my Pastor), and before most of my family, and closest friends. I intend to abide by it, letter and spirit, until the day I die. Afterward, I was Confirmed as “Ignatius,” after St. Ignatius of Antioch, who more than any other began my journey to the Church. With respect to this oath, and the Catholic Faith, I can only say with Mattathias (1 Macc. 2:19-21):

“Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him, and have chosen to do his commandments, departing each one from the religion of his fathers, yet I and my sons and my brothers will live by the covenant of our fathers.  Far be it from us to desert the law and the ordinances.  We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left.”

With that, I present the oath I took on my Confirmation day:

I, Joshua Charles, 31 years of age, born outside the Catholic Church, have held and believed errors contrary to her teaching.

Now, enlightened by divine grace, I kneel before you, Reverend Father, having before my eyes and touching with my hand the holy Gospels.

And with firm faith I believe and profess each and all articles contained in the Apostles’ Creed, that is: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into hell, the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Most firmly I admit and embrace the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions and all the other constitutions and ordinances of the Church.

I admit the Sacred Scriptures in the sense which has been held and is still held by Holy Mother Church, whose duty it is to judge the true sense and interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and I shall never accept or interpret them except according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.

I profess that the sacraments of the New Law are truly and precisely seven in number, instituted for the salvation of mankind, though all are not necessary for each individual: baptism, confirmation, Holy Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy orders, and matrimony. I profess that all confer grace, and that baptism, confirmation, and holy orders cannot be repeated without sacrilege. I also accept and admit the ritual of the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of all the sacraments mentioned above.

I accept and hold in each and every part all that has been defined and declared by the Sacred Council of Trent concerning Original Sin and Justification. I profess that in the Mass is offered to God a true, real, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; that in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the Body and Blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord, Jesus Christ is really, truly, and substantially present, and that there takes place in the Mass what the Church calls transubstantiation, which is the change of all the substance of bread into the Body of Christ and of all substance of wine into His Blood. I confess also that in receiving under either of these species one receives Jesus Christ whole and entire.

I firmly hold that Purgatory exists and that the souls detained therein can be helped by the prayers of the faithful.

Likewise I hold that the saints, who reign with Jesus Christ, should be venerated and invoked, that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be venerated.

I firmly profess that the images of Jesus Christ and of the Mother of God, ever Virgin, as well as of all the saints should be given due honor and veneration. I also affirm that Jesus Christ left to the Church the faculty to grant indulgences, and that their use is most salutary to the Christian people. I recognize the Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as the mother and teacher of all the Churches, and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, successor of St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles and vicar of Jesus Christ.

Moreover, without hesitation I accept and profess all that has been handed down, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and by the general councils, especially by the Sacred Council of Trent and by the Vatican General Council, and in special manner all that concerns the primacy and infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. At the same time I condemn and reprove all that the Church has condemned and reproved. This same Catholic faith, outside of which none can be saved, I now freely profess and to it I truly adhere. With the help of God, this faith I promise and swear to maintain and profess entirely, inviolately, and with firm constancy until the last breath of life. And I shall strive, so far as possible, that this same faith shall be held, taught, and publicly professed by all who depend on me and over whom I shall have charge.

So help me God and these holy Gospels.