What Catholics believe: the Nicene Creed
credit: turnbacktogod
When Kathy Nance and other new Civil Religon bloggers gathered at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the other morning, we got to talking about who we were and what religion we represented. When Kathy used the word “pagan” to describe herself, I asked her to define the word. She was good enough to do just that in her first post, A Pagan’s Primer.
Well, what about Catholicism? Who are we and what do we believe? Every Sunday at Mass we answer that question when we stand to recite a summary of our faith, the Nicene Creed. This affirmation of faith occurs after we have heard the first reading, joined in the responsorial psalm, heard the second reading, heard the Gospel and the homily.
We stand to say the Nicene Creed.
The creed I’m introducing below is the new translation which will come into use in 2011 or 2012. This translation is from the original Latin and more accurate than the version that was hastily translated following Vatican II, the version we Catholics have used since the late 1960s:
I believe in one God
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth
of all things visible and invisible.And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only-begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
He came down from heaven.(at the following words, up to and including “and became man”, all bow)
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate
of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
He suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will have no end.And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets;
And in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church §195 says
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325 and 381). It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.
Women for Faith & Family has an informative article on the Nicene Creed which emphasizes that
Above all it was a response to Arian and other heresies and defended the doctrine of the Trinity and Christ’s true humanity and divinity. [...]
Catholics are not the only Christians who profess the Nicene Creed.
The Eastern Orthodox do, as do Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians. All this according to Reverend Wil Weedon, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel, Illinois, who was interviewed October 5 on the Lutheran program, Issues, ETC., on just this subject.
To my surprise, Reverend Weedon acknowledged that various Lutheran congregations do not always recite the creed on Sundays. He fears that younger Lutherans no longer even know the creed. And he gave an interesting reason to reinstate the practice of always reciting the Nicene Creed: it keeps the pastor honest.
By the congregation saying the creed, he argued, the people can keep check on what the pastor is saying, on whether his homily is “congruent with the faith.”
Sherry Tyree, 66, a graduate of John Burroughs School and Washington University, is a founding member (1984) and Vice President of Women for Faith & Family, a national Catholic women's organization that supports and defends traditional church teachings. Sherry is married to Dr. Donald A. Tyree, professor emeritus, School of Business, St. Louis University. 
Thank you, Sherry. One question, a small point: When you say it in church, do you indeed say “I believe” or “We believe”? In the Episcopal Church, we say “we” as a public confession of our mutual understanding. Obviously not a big deal; just curious.
At the moment, Kurt, we say “We believe” and in a few years we will say “I believe”.
Here’s the Latin: Credo in unum Deum,
Patrem omnipoténtem, factórem caeli et terrae, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium…..
“Credo” literally means “I believe”.
Thanks Sherry. I didn’t know there was a new translation coming. Interesting you mention the Presbyterians. More properly speaking, the Presbyterians hold the Nicene Creed as one of 8 major historical confessions of Faith. Not being certain, but it is not used a whole lot, with significant preference given to the older Apostles Creed.
For an historical tidbit, note that the Great Schism between the Roman and Orthodox churches occurred because of the debate over whether the Holy Spirit emanates from the the Father only, or from both the Father and Son. Talk about dancing on the head of a pin.
This could lead to an interesting conversation about the basics of WHAT people believe….rather than the more or less endless debate of why.
Sherry,
Thank you for sharing this. I am not familiar with the particulars of each branch of Christianity, and have attended only one Catholic Mass. I enjoy hearing what others find important to them regarding their religious beliefs.
On the topic of the best translation from the “original Latin,” it should be pointed out that the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 AD (which we commonly call the “Nicene Creed”) was written in Greek and translated into Latin.
The latest text from the English Language Liturgical Consultation (englishtexts.org) uses “We believe” for the Nicene and “I believe” for the Apostles’.
My church tradition accepts the Nicene & Apostle’s creeds but rarely uses them in corporate worship. We occasionally recite the Apostle’s Creed. I love the creeds for the sense they give me of communion with Christians around the world and throughout history. But is the Nicene creed alone an adequate explanation of what you believe as a Roman Catholic? What about the Magesterium (sp?)? Isn’t that a critical distinction between your belief as a Roman Catholic and Protestantism? I guess, reading your post, I find myself thinking - if this is what Catholicism is, I’m a Catholic. And yet…
Sharon,
Maybe you are a Catholic!
You are right, of course, that we Catholics believe more than the Nicene Creed. (The word magisterium, by the way, simply means the teaching authority of the Catholic Faith.)
If you have specific questions about what Catholicism teaches you can go online and find the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you could go to Karl Keating’s Catholic Answers website. There you can ask specific questions online.
Sharon, “Catholic” after all, means universal, and so literally, all Christians are Catholic in that sense. However, the ROMAN Catholic Church is an entity, based in Rome and is not, literally, Universal.
Consider that John Calvin (who’s 500th birthday is being honored this year in Reform churches around the world) did not want to form a NEW church, they wanted to Reform the Roman one. The same can be said about Luther.
THAT might be a subject for a future blog: ‘what was it the reformers of the 16th century were trying to do?’
Sherry,
Thanks for the response. I’m definitely catholic, just not Catholic. I did A lot of reading on Catholicism several years back, esp. because so many of my heroes are Catholic (i.e. Day, O’Connor, Chesterton). There’s much too appreciate in your tradition.
Sherry,
I have a question.
Since the Word has become flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Word is more than a book and more than a creed. Human endeavors are part of the Word as well. Therefore, the Nicene creed can be more or less than a statement of belief. It can also be a statement of what one aspires to believe and the aspirations can be inclusive or exclusive.
In the Methodist tradition - from an old 1939 hymnal - the Apostle’s Creed is more concise. It goes like this:
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son or Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; the third day He rose 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 quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
My question is this: For Roman Catholics, is the “Church” in the Nicene Creed to be interpreted exclusively as the Roman Catholic organized religion or is it to be interpreted more inclusively - as the Methodists see it - as the community of all those who follow Jesus?