Introduction

“I’ll quote one of my mentors, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.   
He said, “the Catholic Church has all the gifts that Christ wants His people to have.”

Christ wants to share all of His gifts with His people:
Scripture, the liturgy, sacraments, the Eucharist, Mary the Mother of God, bishops – the successors of the apostles – apostolic authority, the supreme apostolic authority of the pope.
 
All of these are gifts that Christ wanted His church to have.
 
And that’s why Cardinal George would say he’s a Catholic. 
Now, he added this, which I think is important. 

It doesn’t mean for a second that other Christian churches don’t exercise some of those gifts better than we do.  I’ll say it, humbly and gratefully, the marvelous scriptural insights I’ve gotten from Protestant writers over the years. 
N.T. Wright has had a massive impact on my thinking over the years, about the Bible.  Theologically, someone like Stanley Hauerwas had a big impact on my thinking.  Now go back further, Carl Barth is a theological hero of mine.  Paul Tillich, I did my doctoral work on him.  Go back to the great reformers…Calvin reminds me in many ways of Aquinas.  Look at the great Protestant preachers of the 20th century, many of whom I’ve directly heard.  Are they better preachers in many ways than Catholics?  Yes.  So are some of the Protestant churches using the gifts of scripture and teaching better than we are?  Yes, in some cases. 

But the Catholic Church has all the gifts Christ wants His people to have.” 

Bishop Robert Barron