Why do most Christians seem to be Anti-Catholic?

Question

Well all my life I have been a proud Catholic who questions things. First off I gotta say I don't blindly believe everything the pope says or the bible just because its written. I question stuff and find answers and so far the answers I have found with Catholicism really please me. This way you guys know Im not what you call a "brainwashed Catholic".
First off, I have lost some friends because their parents find out I am Catholic or they find out I am Catholic. Most people will try to get me to change my religion or call me a heretic. I dont know how many times I've been called a pagan by other Christians because 1. I believe that we get the body and blood of Christ. 2. They claim I worship Mary and the Saints when in fact Catholics hold these people in very high respect because they are prime examples of how to live as a human being. and 3. Because Catholics pray for the dead in purgatory. I have actually found places in the bible that mention purgatory and why not pray for souls?

A little more to add to my rant. I also gotta say I hate how most people seem to call us Catholics ultra conservatives when in fact Catholicism is one of the most diverse religions. There are MANY MANY different types of Catholics but we are still all united as one Church. I also think it says a lot that Catholics have been around for 2000 years and yes we were the original Christians and if it wasnt for people's issues with our Religon many others wouldnt exist.
Yes I do acknowledge the fact that Catholics have had a rough history. The crusades, the spanish inquisition, and controlling governments. The thing is all religions are ran by people and we make mistakes, at least Pope John Paul II tried to get forgiveness for the Catholic Chruch. Also I find Catholicism to be really accepting because hey, the Pope said its ok to beleive in evolution. We all know we cant deny the fact that there were dinosaurs and evolution is very possible just as long as we believe it was God's plan.

One thing I'd like to add about Mary and the prayers for the dead.
Shouldnt we hold the person who took care of Jesus and was chosen by God to conceive Jesus in high respect? We should, and someone with that much respect from God most certainly can talk with Jesus and help us out if we need it.
Also what harm is there in praying for the souls of our fellow human beings who die? Shouldnt we pary and hope that they can reach the kingdom of heaven in a safe manner?
I dont see how these are considered pagan since we are not worshiping things but merely trying to give more respect to people and Mary in order to help the departed people.

Catholics hating Christians? From what I see that is really not the case. All Catholics I know are very accepting of other Christians and we try to do many things with them. And plus that would be hating ourselves since we are Christians. And no the pope does not supercede Jesus, to think so would be a huge misunderstanding of Catholicism. Nowadays the pope really is more a representative of the Catholic Church to the rest of political people to basically show what the average Catholic is expected to believe. In fact in my case most Catholics encourage questioning things because it strengthens faith and makes it genuine. The modern Vatican II Catholic does not go oh your not catholic you burn, instead we try to understand other beliefes and see different views.

Alright so onto catholics and the bible. First off the Catholic Bible has a bunch of extra books that many other religions left out. Originally it was Catholics who wrote the bible, so to think the Pope goes beyond something we wrote is just stupid and a misunderstanding. I have noticed so far that many people seem to think the Pope is super powerful when in fact he is not. Most Catholics I know view him as a very respectable and humble man not this crazy super person like many think so. Plus I have read the bible and I notice every priest tells the stuff in the bible VERY DIFFERENTLY. No two priests I have known have said the same thing about the bible, so how can people say Catholics blindly believe in certain things about the bible? Also think about it, the apostles that founded Christianity were indeed starting Catholicism, so think twice before bashing it.

Also one more issue to add. Those of you who think we must go to a priest to get our sins forgiven are misinterpreting Catholicsim. That is only for sins you feel are so severe that there is no way you can reconnect with God without the help of another person. Also in ways its to get help from the priest if you are having too much trouble. Catholics DO BELIEVE that you can talk with God right away and be forgiven for your sins.

Answer 1

I also am a devout Catholic, and I agree with you that our Christian Catholic Faith is under attack. I looked at the first answer of this question and it is indicitive of the bias against us, even in Yahoo answers. But hey, Jesus Himself was misunderstood, calumniated, and persecuted by His own people as we are by fellow Christians. So, why should we want more than our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ?

So many people are wrongly predjudiced against Catholics.
We are the First Christian religioun which began with the Early Christians, established by Jesus Himself. Jesus appointed Peter to be the first head of His Holy Church on earth; and since Peter, there have been an unbroken succession of popes on his throne all the way to the present. Non of the Other Christian religions came onto the scene until almost 1600 years later. Some protestant sects are less than a century old. Catholisim is over 2000 years old. Jesus told Peter that not even the gates of hell will prevail against His Church, and we know that the devil has tried his best to destroy it many times throughout history. But, although it took a beating and discouraged many believers in the process, it did not die. Hell has not prevailed and we are stronger than ever in spite of our troubles just as Jesus promised. If the Catholic Church did not have the solemn guarantee of Jesus Christ, Himself that it would always be here until the end of time, it may not have survived the devil's assauts. (And you know that the devil only relentlessly attacks that which belongs to God.)

It was the Catholic Church that gave the first Bible to the world in the 3rd century. It was divinely inspired by God and taken from thousands of scriptures written in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek. Many Holy men, over a period of 400 years. through prayer and discernrment in the Holy Spirit, and who were knowledgable in the cultures and languages and history of the times in which the original texts were written, put the Book together. Only the scripture texts that most clearly described the essence of God's intentions, divine plans and prophesies for his people were included. Many more scriptures did not make it because they were heretical or gnostic or faulty in the ways of God's teachings. Even in the Bible it says that if everything that Jesus did or said were written, a whole room would not hold those writings.

The anti Catholics usually refute the existence of "Purgatory" because the actual English word "Purgatory" is not in the Bible, First of all the Bible was not translated into English until 1200 years after it was presented in the original text. It was translated first to the King James version, and the words into which certain texts could be translated into English were very limited. Some words such as the word "brother" could mislead those who read it, because in the ancient languages there were many meanings to that word which really only had one meaning in English. The original meaning for the word "brother" in the Aramaic and Hebrew was "cousin, tribesman, kin, family. friends, etc. as well as blood brother of the same parents. However, because in English, that word immediately brings to mind only blood brother of the same parents, many protestants have misinterpreted the Bible texts containing the word "brother". For instance, when they came to Jesus and said,"Your mother and brothers are wating for you.", and Jesus replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers but those who hear the word of God and act upon it.", many have erroneously said that it means that Jesus had real brothers born of Mary. They use this also to back up their own contention that Mary was not a virgin and had other children with Joseph. The true facts are that Mary was always a virgin and had no other children but Jesus. The error is in the language misinterpretation, and has mislead many into ignorance about the validity of true Catholic teaching.
Getting back to the word "Purgatory", meaning place of attonement. That word in English, does not appear in the Bible, persay, but many references to it do appear there. The Bible says that we should "pray for the dead". How can we pray for those in hell, because there is no hope of their return from that place void of mercy. And why would we ever need to pray for those in Heaven, if they are already in the best place they could be? So, if we are admonished by God to pray for the dead, then there must be another place besides heaven or hell after death. This other place is a area or demention where our souls atone for our unrepented sins until they can be released into Heaven. What a wonderful and Merciful Lord we have who has paid the price for our sins by His own Sacrificial death on a cross so that those unrepented sins will not put us in hell when we die, but rather, it holds us in a safe place to await the atonement, and then, our release to heaven to be with God. It is a fallicy to say that you can enter heaven with sins on your soul because God and sin cannot coincide. But it is a tribute to the great Mercy of God that He should make a place for us to stay until He can bring us to heaven when our souls are cleansed, and in so doing, keep His promise to us of salvation by his death and resurrection, and save us from the fires of hell to which our sins would bring us if it were not for God's Love for us. The actual word "Purgatory" is an English word given to that place of Mercy that has only been refered to in the original languages for lack of a translatable word.

We as Catholics believe that Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist in His full Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "This is my body, which will be given up for you. Do this in memory of me." and He said "This is my blood, which shall be shed for many. Do this in memory of me." If ever the Catholics take the Bible literally in the absolute, it is in this scripture. We believe in "Transubstansiation" which is an act of the Holy Spirit through the priest celebrating the Consecration of the Mass, when the bread and wine are turned into the true Body and Precious Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. When Jesus said those words, "Do this in memory of me", He was instructing His Apostles, as His bishops and priests mandated to spread His Church throughout the world after His death, to invoke the Holy Spirit and bring Jesus Himself to the Faithful every time they go to Mass. It is His gift to us until the end of time. When we recieve Communion we can not only know that Jesus is there for us spiritually as He always is anyway, but that He is there for us physically as well. What a wonderful gift!! Jesus said, "Whoever will eat my flesh and drink my blood will have life eternal", He was refering to the Holy Eucharist that would be available always to the faithful through the Miracle of Transubstansiation. That is our most powerful Communion wit God while we are on earth awaiting our entrace into Heaven. Therefore that explains why Catholics "genuflect" toward the altar in our churches. Not only is the altar itself representative of the unbloody sacrifice of Jesus during our Masses to remind us of His great Love for us, but the Holy Eucharist, or the Consecrated Host which has been turned into the Body and Blood of Jesus, has traditionally been kept just in back of, or near the altar in a tabernacle. So, with that in mind, we go down on our knees as we pass the altar because it is Our Lord Jesus we are bowing to and adoring in faith.

Another thing that some people believe in their ignorance of the Catholic Church is that we worship Mary. We do not worship her, we revere her and love her as the Holy Mother of Jesus. We ask her to pray with us and for us to her Son Jesus. She was always a virgin and concieved Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit because she gave her "Fiat" or her "yes" to God when He sent the Angel Gabriel to tell her that she had found favor with God and asked her if she would be willing to be the Mother of the Messiah. Mary's "Yes", when she said "Let it be done unto me according to God's Will. Mary could have said "no" and it would have been humanly understandable. In those days the punishment if a woman were found pregnant without a husband was to be stoned to death. She could have been afraid that noone would believe her that an angel had appeared to her, let alone to try to say that she was pregnant with the promised Messiah. It turned out that even Joseph, her betrothed, did not believe her; and after he decided to quietly send her away to save her life, was informed by an angel in a dream that Mary was pregnant wit God's Son. Mary said "yes" to God because she trusted Him implicitly. Her faith was strong, and she had the grace to respond to the grace she alone was given. Mary's humility was unsurpassed. Even though she herself was carrying the Son of God in her womb, she still ran straight to her cousin Elizabeth who also was with child to waite on her hand and foot until the birth of John the Baptist. Remember that Jesus said that He had come to serve, not to be served. Even in the womb through His mother he was serving others. Mary was born without sin so that she could be the unblemmished vessel through which the Unblemished Lamb would come into this world. She has always brought Jesus to His people and as our mother in heaven, has always lead the people to Jesus. Whenever she has appeared to different people throughout the centuries, she has never asked for any attention for herself, but rather, has always let us know how sad Jesus is that mankind insists on continuing in their sinful ways. She always asks us to pray, repent and trust in God's Mercy, and warns us that we must ready our souls for the day that our Lord will return for us, a day that no one knows but the Father in Heaven. The fact that this continues even today to be her message to us, her children, means that we must begin immediately to ammend our ways so that we might not be caught of guard. When we pray to Mary we are not puting her in the place of God, but we are asking her to pray for us and with us. She will then turn to her son and intercede for us. If Jesus loves and respects his mother and gives her a special place in Heaven with Him, and the power to prophesy and intercede , then so should we love and respect her, too. All of the reasons why Catholics love Mary with such reverence are found in and confirmed by Holy Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. There are too many instances to give them all in this answer, but if you read Luke and Isaiah you will find several references, and maybe, if I see the right question next time, I will try to point a lot of them out in detail. Mary was Jesus' first deciple. She has shown us by her exemplary life of humility and love how we can all be perfect deciples of Christ, too.

There is so much to Catholisism that is misunderstood and therefore causing a fear of and an ignorance of Truth. We as Catholics feel so privelaged to have the True Faith given to us by Jesus, the only Son of God for the sake of our Salvation. We do not judge the other Christian denominations as they have judged us because we believe that all that is necessary to achieve Salvation is to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and our Savior, and repent of our sins with a firm purpose of ammendment. Many other Christian sects believe the same, so we believe that they also will share in the same plan of Salvation for God's people.
It is too sad that so many feel that they can say that Catholics, Jews and even Muslims will burn in Hell or are not "saved". Who are anyone that they can judge us like that, because Jesus said "Judge not that ye be not judged by the same measure." Also only God knows our hearts. There may be a person who goes to church and does all of the rigjht things just like the pharasees did, but theit hearts are far from God. And there could be a great sinner who at some point gets down on his knees and says, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner" Only God could know this so no mere human, not even a Christian, has a right to judge, because they do not see the heart as only God does. Besides, there have been many saints throughout history who were terrible sinners and then repented and changed their lives around to become saints. God has called us all to be saints, not just Catholics have been given this grace. All Christians have been given the same grace. What we all must do now is respond to it. They will know we are Christians by our love.

Answer 2

I have seen some Catholic Bashing and I think it has to do with the same as any other "Bashing" and that is Lack of Knowledge. There are litterally thousands of Catholic priests yet a small percentage of them badly hurt some children and suddenly "all catholic priests are pedophiles" well that is just BS the percentage of Catholic Priests who abuse children is less than the National Average of ALL MEN who abuse children. This last year we have seen a lot of stories about Female Teachers abusing thier male students does that mean that now ALL Female teachers are Sex Offenders... Of course not. Some other Catholic Traditions are Missunderstood. There are some Catholic Traditions that Bear looking at and perhaps doing away with and some of the touchier ones involve the Worship of Mary by many groups within catholicism. You may not worship Mary but many others in the Catholic Realm DO. (including some past popes) The fact that Many catholic parishes RARELY encourage bible reading within the community and many parishes are steeped more in "tradition" than the "word of God" has caused a lot of the Anti-Catholic rhetoric also. I am not a Catholic but I know many saved Catholics I respect the Catholic Church were it follows the bible and I question it were it doesn't I try not to let my questions come up as "bashing" although some have been questioned so often that they start seeing ANY challenge to them as negative. I am truly sorry for that.

Answer 3

First off I gotta say I don't blindly believe everything the pope says or the bible just because its written.

By this very statement, I can tell you that you are neither a Christian or a Catholic.

Christians believe EVERY BIT of the bible, even if we dont like it, we know that it is true.

Catholics believe by your very own "misslettes" that the Pope is to be obeyed above and beyond the bible.

This is the true divide of the two different styles of worship and you fall in neither catagory.

The bible states to believe no man, believe the bible as GODs word and GODs word alone.

Keep searching your bible, you will find that there are many more differences than similarities between your own bible and the teachings of the Catholic church.

I married a Catholic man, and only after he started reading his bible on his own did he seek the truth. Please keep reading all of it, not just the parts that you are told are ok.

Answer 4

Catholic people get a bad rap for the beliefs of their church. Catholics call themselves Christians, but this offends other Christians because the very definition of Christian is one who follows Christ. Catholics do not follow Christ, they follow the pope. The Catholic church has stated that the pope supercedes Jesus Christ. To Christians, this is wrong.

The Catholic church also changed the Bible (for example the Ten Commandments). Then they stated that the Bible is a dead book. Christians feel like this is wrong.

The Catholic church defines a heretic as anyone who does not believe as they do. Then they state that all heretics should be killed. (This is just recently too, so don't give me the "that was in the past" excuse ya'll). Christian "heretics" take offense at this.

There are many reasons for this. I can provide anyone who is interested with documents from the Catholic church stating these things and many more amazing things. Just contact me.

The problem is that people are taking their anger at the church out on you because you believe in this. It doesn't matter that you say you don't believe everything the pope says because you are still a Catholic. I know and love some very sweet, loving, precious Catholic people. But I cannot stand the evil of the Catholic church.

I would like to be your friend, Catholic or not. This is just to help you understand why Christians don't like Catholics.

Answer 5

Please, tell me, where in the Bible is purgatory mentioned? Anyways, most Christians (Protestants, anyway) seem to be anti-Catholic as they reject:
1) A man (the Pope) shouldn't have the power over the church on earth
2) Catholics rely heavily on tradition, while Protestants believe Scripture is the only thing that should be used as a reference for dogmas and doctrines
3) They believe it was Catholics that was the cause of the Crusades (the greatest blemish on Christianity). This is partially true. They fail to realize Catholics were the Christians in that time, and they likely descend from Catholics somewhere in the family tree
4) They don't believe it is correct to portray Christ on a cross because of the prohibition in the Old Testament on making images of things that are in heaven and on earth
5) They don't believe Mary (no matter how Blessed she may be) or saints can intercede prayers on the behalf of men
6) Some Christians are just hateful of those who don't believe what they do

Answer 6

I am a Christian and I believe there are many good Christians who follow the Catholic faith. However, some of the dogma of the Catholic church is not in agreement with my own beliefs. The focus on the Saints and the Virgin Mary take away from the focus on Jesus Christ, but my biggest problem is with the intermediary between you and God. You don't need a priest to confess to, you just confess directly to God and ask for his forgiveness and guidance. Take out the middle man.

I agree that the Saints were good people who are worthy of respect, but good deeds are not what get you into heaven. Accepting Jesus' sacrifice and having a personal relationship with him will get your name written in the book of life. Just like Mormons focus on all these Prophets and their lives, it just takes away from the focus. A christian life is very simple, adding all these other people just complicates things.

As for praying for the dead. I just don't see anything wrong with it. It doesn't make you a bad person to pray for your Grandfather who has passed away. I don't know, maybe it would help. Prayer is the most useful tool that God gave us, and sadly underutilized.

I grew up Catholic in Italy until I moved to the states. It is a bit different there since everyone has their own patron saint and all. It is kind of disconcerting to see candles lit at the bones of different saints and people going into confession. I have to say that as a child I felt that there was something wrong with that. It is my personal experience that has led me to this conclusion, but I also know a lot of great Christians who practice the Catholic religion. My great aunt is a retired nun and there is nobody else in my life who I have seen more filled with The Spirit than her.

I think we would be much better off just letting go of our differences and accepting each other in the body of Christ. The most successful campain of the enemy was the separation of the church. We can reclaim that bond if we see beyond our dogmatic differences and accept each other in the name of Jesus.

Answer 7

There are really only a few problems, but we view them as big.

1: Transsubstantiation. If jesus wanted them to literally eat his flesh, he would have said 'eat me'. As it was it is a representation of what would happen on the cross.

2: Papal infallibility: There is no basis that any elected official is infallible. The papal infallibility has been disproven on multiple occaisions.

3: Sinless Mary: No one is sinless. Ever since Adam, all have sinned. You are made righteous through faith not through lack of sin. Mary had an admirable faith in god, but she was a sinner as all others are.

4: Saint's and Canonization: Based on the biblical description, saints are all the believers, by saying that those who are canonized are saints is just plain insulting to the other followers.

5: Praying for the Dead: It's too late for them to accept Jesus. It is more useful to pray for the families of the dead.

6: Extra-biblical Literature: Apocrapha etc... There are reason's why these are not included in the prodestant version bible. They either do not agree with the rest of God's word, or their source is suspect, or it just plain isn't the word of God.

I am sure that there are more points that Roman Catholicism and Prodestants disagree on, but these are the biggest issues. Read up on Matin Luther, he made a like and posed them on the door of a church a couple hundred years ago.

It is not that we don't see you as christian, you all believe in Jesus, but we feel that the traditions of the catholic church and false teachings that have been generally accepted have perverted it. No denomination is perfect though.

Answer 8

I was raised Catholic myself, went to Catholic school, made first communion and confirmation but I ended up choosing to come off of Catholicism after I read the Bible myself. Solely on the fact that there are a lot of Catholic teachings that are not Biblical and some that even contradict the Bible.

Now, I dont hate Catholics, my whole family is still Catholic but Catholics hate Christians who are not Catholic because they choose not to listen to men but base their beliefs on the Bible alone, AS the Bible instructs. Ive seen Catholics hating the Protestants about 10 times just today here.

Answer 9

I am a proud Catholic also. :) No religion is perfect but I like mine the best. I am not afraid to question my faith, because whenever I do it helps me even have a stronger faith. There are somethings I don't agree with, like why women can't be priests or the Pope for that matter, but that isn't enough to turn me away, because I love my religion. I also learned to ignore the stupid ignorant people who insult other peoples religions or beliefs like mine. The people that say all priests molest. The people that say we worship statues. Because the truth is they don't understand, just like we don't understand them, and if they sincerely wanted to learn about this beautiful religion they would politely ask and I would answer. But the jerks that don't know what the heck they are talking about I roll of my shoulder because I figure why give them the time of day? I am Catholic because I choose to be. I love it very much and wouldn't have it any other way. If someone doesn't respect that that is their problem, not mine. I have tried to be respectful and tolerant of all beliefs or nonbeliefs, and I like it when people do the same towards me.
Thanks for posting this, and God bless you, and I hope everyone learns to ignore insults about their beliefs, whatever religion or nonreligion they are, because anyone who insults you is simply not worth your time.

Answer 10

I agree. I've been told I worship saints, practice cannibalism ( The whole body and blood of Christ thing), and promote child abuse. I'm proud to be a Catholic, I actually research before I decide I believe in something, and find evolution highly probably. I don't criticize others about their beliefs, and I have to admit that 2000 year track record is impressive. I think people should research Catholicism before they insult it. However I have met many non Catholic Christians who were accepting of my beliefs. I don't think it's fair to say most are intolerant.

Answer 11

I'm sorry but you do indeed come across as a typical gullible Catholic. However different you may think you are to other Catholics, you certainly have been brainwashed. The very fact you believe in a God is example enough. And however 'open' you claim to be, you are unable to perceive a life without your God – even if all the proof in the world was laid in front of you that there is no such thing.

That, I'm afraid is blind faith.