The Catholic Church Condemns the Protestant Faith

Anyone who believes in justification by faith alone

The doctrine of justification by faith alone (i.e., that a sinner is declared righteous in the sight of God based upon faith alone and not by works) lies at the very heart of the Protestant faith.

If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.

Session 6, Canon 9

If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ's sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.

Session 6, Canon 12

If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that, without them, or without the desire thereof, men obtain of God, through faith alone, the grace of justification; though all (the sacraments) are not indeed necessary for every individual; let him be anathema.

Session 7, Canon 4

If any one saith, that by the said sacraments of the New Law grace is not conferred through the act performed, but that faith alone in the divine promise suffices for the obtaining of grace; let him be anathema.

Session 7, Canon 8

Anyone who believes that good works are the result and not the cause of justification

The following canon, with careful precision, is intentionally targeting exactly what Protestants believe concerning the relation between one's good works and justification before God.

If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema.

Session 6, Canon 24

Anyone who rejects the Apocrypha

Protestants recognize only a total of 66 books (39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament) as sacred and canonical, constituting the infallible Word of God. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes an additional group of books, called the Apocrypha, as equally sacred and canonical.

But if any one receive not, as sacred and canonical, the said books entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church, and as they are contained in the old Latin vulgate edition; and knowingly and deliberately contemn the traditions aforesaid; let him be anathema.

Session 4, Decree 1

Anyone who rejects any of the 7 Roman Catholic sacraments

Protestants recognize only two sacraments—Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord; or, that they are more, or less, than seven, to wit, Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament; let him be anathema.

Session 7, Canon 1

Anyone who rejects the suffering for temporal sins in Purgatory

The doctrine of Purgatory is antithetical to the Protestant faith, which maintains that "Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Father's justice in their behalf" (WCF 11:3). Protestants believe that because Christ fully discharged their debt, upon death believers immediately enter into the presence of God in heaven. Roman Catholicism, on the contrary, declares that some debt remains for believers and that, after death, they themselves must fully discharge it in a place called Purgatory, wherein they "undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030).

If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.

Session 6, Canon 30

Anyone who believes that good works are gifts of God and not the good merits of the one performing them

If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified, by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life—if so be, however, that he depart in grace—and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema.

Session 6, Canon 32

Anyone who rejects the use of indulgences

Whereas the power of conferring Indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church; and she has, even in the most ancient times, used the said power, delivered unto her of God; the sacred holy Synod teaches, and enjoins, that the use of Indulgences, for the Christian people most salutary, and approved of by the authority of sacred Councils, is to be retained in the Church; and It condemns with anathema those who either assert, that they are useless; or who deny that there is in the Church the power of granting them.

Session 25, Decree 3