I am a Roman Catholic.  That was not always the case.  I grew up Roman Catholic, left and joined a Southern Baptist Church, and then returned to Roman Catholicism.  I also from time to time interact with people who are entering the Catholic Church through our parish RCIA program.  Most of this interaction has taken place when my wife was going through the program, though I have gone back to teach in that context once and will do so three more times in the coming year.

As with any time that a person leaves one particular faith tradition for another, there are oftentimes a lot of objections from well meaning friends and family members.  And this is rightfully so.  In my area these objections usually come from Evangelical Protestant family members.  Some of these objections raise very good and important questions.  Yet there is one objection I consistently hear that is just silly (at least in the way that it is framed), and that is the idea that the Catholic Church has added books to the Bible.

The fact of the matter is that this is impossible.  The books found in Catholic Bibles that are not found in Protestant Bibles were added to the Septuagint before the Catholic Church even existed.  There is of course an underlying issue.  Why does the Catholic Church accept as canonical books that Protestants do not.  But, people really need to learn how to ask this question properly because when asked “How can you be Catholic when your church has added books to the Bible?” (or something to that affect) I immediately know that I am speaking with someone who does not know what they are talking about.

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