What do Catholic Christians believe?

The argument

The Christian beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church also teaches that it is the one true church and the bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles, and that the pope is the successor to Saint Peter upon whom primacy was conferred by Christ. Catholicism is based on 'seven sacraments'; seven practices which are said to communicate God's grace to believers. These practices being Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. Of the seven sacraments, the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. Its teaching includes Divine Mercy, sanctification through faith and evangelisation of the Gospel. One of the sacraments is confession, where a person can confess their sins to a priest, express contrition and pay a penance. This may be doing a good deed, but commonly involves praying with the rosary. The person is then absolved from their sins. The priest is bound by the seal of the confessional, even if the person has committed a crime and is likely to do so again.

Premises

Counter-arguments

As a summary this is largely accurate, but two qualifications refine it. First, several items listed are not distinctively Catholic: the Nicene Creed is shared by Orthodox, Anglican and most mainstream Protestant churches, and baptism, Eucharist and matrimony are recognised across many traditions — so as an account of what makes Catholic belief Catholic, rather than broadly Christian, the argument mixes the common inheritance with the distinctive claims of papal primacy, the seven sacraments and transubstantiation. Second, a couple of points are stated more starkly than current teaching: the 'one true church' claim is nuanced in modern Catholic doctrine, which since the Second Vatican Council teaches that the Church of Christ 'subsists in' the Catholic Church while recognising elements of truth and sanctification in other Christian communities, and the sketch of confession as showing contrition and 'paying a penance' to be 'absolved' renders a sacrament of repentance somewhat transactionally. The summary conveys the essentials correctly; it just blends shared and distinctive beliefs and simplifies a few doctrines.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The Nicene Creed and several sacraments are shared across Christian traditions, so listing them describes common Christian belief as much as distinctively Catholic belief. [Rejecting P2] Post-Vatican II teaching frames the 'one true church' claim as the Church of Christ 'subsisting in' Catholicism while recognising grace in other communities, so the stark 'one true church' phrasing simplifies current doctrine.