A question for Catholics?

Question

I have never understood the catholics belief. I am a christian through and through, I am just curious about some of the beliefs of catholics. Why is it that you worship marry? Why do you ask a man for forgiveness?

Answer 1

Glad you're curious about the Catholic faith and took the time to ask. Catholics do not worship Mary, we pray for her intersession. Its kind of like asking a friend to pray for you when you don't feel well (http://www.catholic.org/prayers/merton.php).

As for forgiveness, you must first ask God for forgiveness and be truly sorry for what you have done. Confession with the priest I have always seen as a way to seek spiritual guidance. Since they are priests and so close to God, they can offer you many suggestions on how to avoid sin and bring your heart back to the Lord after you have sinned (http://www.catholic.org/prayers/sacrament.php?id=4).

Feel free to shoot me a message if you have anymore questions!

Don S: Catholicism is not a pagan religion. Please understand the religion before you make a judgement.

Answer 2

Catholicism is nothing more that a mass of pagan tradidtions. It was easier to adopt the pagan tradidtions in order to convert the pagans. They have done this since the conversion of Constantine.

The Roman catholic churcch is mentioned several times in scripture, but not by name. It is the little horn of Daniel 7, the first beast of Revelation 13, the woman of Revelation 17 that is sitting on the beast, and "Babylon the Great". The Pope is the man whos number is 666; "Rev 13:18
(18) Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six."

Catholics are idolaters. They worship the images that were forbidden to be worshipped by the second commandment. But they don't know that because they have changed the commandments to meet their needs. The saints that they pray to are still dead and in their grave, but they have shosen to believe the lies that are taught by their priests.

Mary is NOT the mother of God; she would have had to exist before God. She is, however, the mother of Jesus.

The catholic people are very dedicated as a rule, and I do like the individuals that I have met. The leaders have lied to the people and deceived them

Learn the truth for yourself. Study the descriptions that are given in the Bible, and compare it with history.

Answer 3

Who taught you that we worship Mary?

What "tradition" has been ingrained in your beliefs that Catholics worship Mary, or the Saints.

When we Catholics pray to Mary and the other Saints in Heaven we are not bypassing Christ, whom we acknowledge as the sole Mediator between God and man. We are going to Christ through Mary and the other Saints. We are asking Mary and other Saints to intercede for us before the throne of God and Christ in Heaven.

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful." (James 5:16).

How much more beneficial is the unceasing prayer of the sinless Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Answer 4

ok, i was raised a catholic, so i can tell you a few things.

catholics don't worship mary, they pray to her. same with the saints. you pray to them so that they can help you with your daily life. the only ones you worship are god, jesus, and the holy spirit. and those are just one god anyway. the others are seen as being in heaven and "helping out" if you will.

when catholics go to confession, they tell a priest their sins because they believe that they can't really ask god directly for forgiveness, they're too sinful. they need a mediator who is more holy than them to ask god.

catholics can and should worship god, but that can't really "talk" to him the way protestant christians say you can.

its more of a group religion than a personal one like protestantism.

Answer 5

Well Catholics worship marry also cause she gave life to Jesus and she was chosen by god so i think that's enough to worship her. And as to askin a man for forgivenes, what man are u talkin about?? LMAO

as to this:
"He was in shock that people were chewing gum in church! hahahaha!!" by someone before me

Good 1 no respect for god. If you would meet Jesus u would say what's uuuuuuuuuuuuup Jes how u been how's the crossin wanna gum?? LOL

Answer 6

-->the_alliance47

Actually if you get into what is being said Catholics ARE praying to Mary check http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/BVM.html

The main difference is that Catholics and Protestants mean different things when they use the word prayer. There is a tendency in Protestant theology to conflate pray and worship. Catholic theology does not do this and breaks prayer down into different groups of which prayers for intercession is different from prayers of worship.

Like all prayers to saints, the prayers to Mary are typically asking for her to intercede before the throne of God. Protestant theology, due to a host of reasons does not grasp the concept of intercession and how it is possible that God would ask us to intercede on behalf of other people, whether we be alive or dead (missing all those wonderful scriptural verses, the need to constantly interceed for others both in prayer and our Christian lives, and the whole thrust of redemptive suffering that Christ taught us to engage in). Much of Protestant theology does not consider that the Body of Christ connects us to those who are in heaven and that God who calls us to duty on earth would call us to duty in heaven. Also there is a good chuck of Protestant theology that thinks that the soul "sleeps" after death and as such there is no one there to pray to anyway.

Answer 7

gdb2001 answers both of your questions most accurately.

i cannot highlight his points enough, but a common misconception (even among Catholics) is that we pray to Mary. We ask Mary to pray FOR us (like a friend, as I usually describe it and also how gdb2001 has put it). Again, we do NOT pray TO Mary or worship her.

Answer 8

My boyfriend is Catholic and I don't understand it either.
He took me to Sunday Mass once. I was completely lost.
The Priest "preached" for about 5 minutes. The rest of the hour and a half was used to sing ( no clapping ) sit down, stand up, kneel, take communion and pray. Afterward I asked him what he learned from it. He said "nothing". So I asked why he goes and he said "because I'm Catholic". ???!!!
I brought him to my Protestant church once. He was in shock that people were chewing gum in church! hahahaha!!

Answer 9

Catholics don't worship Mary or the saints. We ask them to pray for us as you might ask a friend to pray for you. Sometimes we ask the saints to help us with certain problems. One might ask St. Elizabeth (who was thought to be barren, but conceived by God's grace) for help if one is having trouble becoming pregnant, for instance. Whatever power the saint has, however, is because God grants it to them. In the same way, the apostles could perform miracles, but only because God let them.

As for confession, it's not that Catholics think God will only forgive you if you go to a priest, but rather that it's better to go through a priest. There are two main reasons. First, the Bible (James 5:16) says that we should confess our sins to each other. Why is this important, why not confess them directly (and solely) to God? Confessing your sins to someone else takes a lot of courage, and it's a sign that you truly intend to reform yourself. It also gives you someone to help you stay on the right track. Likewise, fulfilling penance shows that you truly are remorseful and that you're willing to make amends. Sometimes our sins require us to repair the harm we've done, but we're too lenient on ourselves to take that necessary step. If you steal, you might tell God you're sorry and promise never to do it again. A priest will probably tell you that you also need to confess it to the person from whom you stole and return the item or its equivalent value. If you aren't willing to do this when prompted, perhaps you aren't really remorseful enough. Second, Catholics believe that priests actually have the power to forgive people of their sins in God's name. Matthew 16:19 says "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This gives the apostles the right to forgive (or not to forgive) people of their sins. Catholics believe that all priests have been given this same right through something called Apastolic Succession. In the early Church, the Apostles commissioned other disciples to the work of God through the 'laying on of hands' wherein the person was blessed and given the authority to preach and perform the sacraments. Then they, too, could perform the laying on of hands and thus consecrate other ministers to Christ. Through this, Catholics believe that priests have the same authority as the Apostles did to forgive sins.

Answer 10

They are not taught to read and obey the Word of God
The catholic church NEVER published a Bible without a ton of references explaining why it didn't mean what it said
Their doctrine is that tradition has equal weight with the Bible.