Dear Mary,

Thanks for the question.  

Books of the Bible have not been removed by the Catholic Church, yet Protestants have removed seven books from their Canon, using a Jewish metric: one of several. For Jews were in no agreement on the canon.

• Consider the Pharisees who included all of the Old Testament Prophets, and
• the Sadducees, who only held the first five books of the Torah as divinely inspired.

That was not in accord with the Apostolic Canon, which aligned with Christ’s own use of the Septuagint version (which He quoted often).

Furthermore, Martin Luther wanted to remove the epistle of James because it did not accord with his notion of justification by faith alone.  Luther, however, had no authority over the Canon of Scripture, as only the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, (heirs to the Apostles), were charged with the sacred deposit of faith, so he could not alter the New Testament in such a dubious manner without incurring a harsh rebuke from all Christians and losing his vie for credibility.

Thus, Protestants have not successfully altered the New Testament.  So, Catholics follow Jesus in the Old Testament, and the New Testament was sorted by way of the Spirit, who guided the Church with her charism of infallibility. (See John 17)

The book of Enoch, like other ancient documents, and albeit important texts, were not incorporated into the canon at the outset because they did not pass discernment with the Church when the Canon was being defined, and as stated above, Jews were never in agreement on many such writings.  Likewise, there were many epistles and other writings that were held in popular acclaim, and even canonical, by certain faithful Christians, i.e., the Shepherd of Hermas, but nonetheless were not incorporated into the Canon.  

• Did the Church get it right?
• Did they miss anything?

We can only know for certain that Christ promised His Church the Holy Spirit and entrusted them with the responsibility and charism of teaching the revelation of the Gospel.  To that end she has separated the wheat from the chaff and given us a Canon that can be trusted as the Word of God.

That is not to say that other writings are not valuable and may have truth in them.  The danger is that many “apocryphal" texts have material that is of human origin which is not in accord with divine revelation and cannot be given the mark of infallibility.  

Protestants accuse Catholics of this very thing when it comes to the seven books that they removed, however, their argument does not stand due to the charism given to the Church to safeguard the Gospel and revelation. The fact is that Christ Himself taught from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament thereby, His Apostles clearly knew His position.

Peace,

Bob Kirby
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