Does this help you understand Catholicism?

Question

I have read, with great sadness, many misconceptions about Catholicism on this site. I worry that many people, who call themselves Christain, have been mislead about the Catholic faith and what it teaches. I am very tolerant of other beliefs and I seek to understand them. To let you know, I am an avid reader and studier of the Bible, including its ancient languages. I have studied Christian history extensively from only the most authoritative of sources. I have put together a list of misconceptions about the Catholic Church. Please let me know if this is helpfull to you.

The top 10 most common misconceptions of the Catholic Church are:

1. Catholics worship Mary. No, we pray to Mary for her intercession, just as you would ask a friend or family member to pray for you. The traditional “Hail Mary” prayer recited by Catholics is a mirror of the words spoken by the Angel Gabriel in the first chapter of Luke.

2. Catholics think works get them to heaven. No, we believe, as it says in the Book of James, that faith without works is empty. We further believe that we are saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus and that He paid the debt for our sins. Our good works show that our faith has merit.

3. Catholics worship the Pope. No, we believe that the Pope is a human being, capable of sin, just like all the rest of us. We do believe that he is the successor of St Peter on earth as it says in the Gospel of Matthew and that when he speaks from the Chair of Peter, on a matter of faith or morals, he speaks without error. As a matter of point, Pope Benedict has never done this.

4. Catholics pay to get their loved ones out of purgatory. No, we ask that masses be said for our dead loved ones just as St Paul reminds us to pray for the living and the dead. A small donation ($5) might be made to pay for the card that we then send to the family to let them know that a mass was said in honor of the deceased.

5. Catholics do not read the Bible. Yes, we do. John Paul II declared the year 2000, the Year of the Bible, and Catholics around the world read the entire Bible during that year. Virtually all Catholic Church’s have a bible study program. At every Sunday Mass, there are three readings from the Bible. Catholics are required to attend Sunday and thereby hear the Word of the God.

6. Catholics think the Sacraments get them to heaven. No, we believe that only the death and resurrection of Jesus get us to heaven. We believe the Sacraments, such as the Eucharist Jesus instituted at the Last Supper, give us grace to help us follow God's will for us.

7. Catholics belong to a cult. No, our church has been around for 2000 years, much longer than any other Christian church. The first Protestants didn't show up until 1450. At more than one billion members, the Catholic Church is the single largest Christian denomination. Many people join and some (sadly) leave the Catholic Church every day of their own free will.

8. Catholics don't baptize. Yes, we do and our Church started baptism. Whether a person is immersed or sprinkled is a man-made technicality. It cannot be believed that Jesus would condemn someone to hell for all eternity because of the rite of Baptism they received. There are countless historical Christian texts, of reliable authorship, that speak of sprinkling in the very early Christian Church.

9. Catholics are not Christians. Yes, we are and we profess with our lips and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, the Son of God come down from heaven to save men from their sins. We pray the Apostles Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus name is mentioned in some form more than 50 times at every Sunday mass. We strive to follow the two great commandments of Jesus to love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves.

10. Catholics have a different Bible. No, we have the Bible approved by the Universal Christian Church since the year 380. Protestants took several books out of the Bible during the reformation in the late 1400s. Martin Luther even took the Book of James and Revelation out of the Bible as well, before they were restored. The Catholic Bible has been the most consistent of all translations for more than 1600 years.

Answer 1

I agree with you on every point except for one small detail. The Catholic Church is not "a denomination". A denomination, by definition, is a body that has rejected its former identity. The word "denomination" comes from the Latin phrase "de nomina" which mean "out of the name" or "away from the name". In other words, a denomination has rejected its former name and identity, and taken on a new name and identity. Since the Holy Catholic Church was founded directly by Jesus Christ, and did not break away from any pre-existing body, it is not a denomination. There were no denominations on earth before the 16th century, and Jesus never intended that there would be any.

Answer 2

Good try but I don't think that it will help much. The people you are talking to need someone to be better than. Catholics fit this need nicely.

I liked your 10 points but I disagree about the baptism thing. It predates the catholic faith by quite a bit.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 3

I do wish you had emphasized point 2 a bit more. My greatest disappointment in Athletic Christianity is its near total abandonment of caring for their fellow humans in meaningful ways.

Answer 4

Yes it does help. Thank you.

Answer 5

Good for you.

Answer 6

catholicism..?...
whats that?.......a toilet paper brand..???

Answer 7

dartheric...,
I tell you what. It's jacuzzi time, and I will return to respond to your question. I will be fair, but I will also be truthful.

EDIT: I have returned to reply to your statements.
I am very tolerant of other beliefs and I seek to understand them.
I too am tolerant of other peoples beliefs. But I try not to do it to a fault. Christianity is from God. His love for us, we have by definition responded to it. His message is Grace through faith, and we are to trust Him to be the God that lives up to His promises. He does not lie. We can count on Him to fulfill His promises, every one that He uttered.

"1. Catholics worship Mary. No, we pray to Mary for her intercession, just as you would ask a friend or family member to pray for you. The traditional “Hail Mary” prayer recited by Catholics is a mirror of the words spoken by the Angel Gabriel in the first chapter of Luke."
Matthew 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Luke 11:2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

In these statements, all said by Jesus the Christ, He wanted us to have faith in God to fulfill it. These words are truth. He didn't want us to doubt God, as if He were hard of hearing, or was too busy to come to our aid, or that He couldn't do something.

Matthew 6 has ways to worship God, that is, to worship Him in truth.
They are:

giving to God (Matthew 6:1), and there would be reward from the Father (Matthew 6:4)
both through offerings (G1343 dikaiosune), and giving to the poor (G1654 eleemosune)

Prayer to the FATHER (Matthew 6:5), which He ALREADY knows what you need before you even ask (Matthew 6:8)

and Fasting (Matthew 6:16)
Our trust is to be in Him, not any other, for God is more than capable of fulfilling His promises, and does not need anything, another intercessor included, as I have shown here.

"2. Catholics think works get them to heaven. No, we believe, as it says in the Book of James, that faith without works is empty. We further believe that we are saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus and that He paid the debt for our sins. Our good works show that our faith has merit."
You have to know that it depends on the Roman Catholic that you talk to. There have been many that I have talked to taht are convinced that they must be good in order to get to heaven. Nothing that I could say to them would bring them to know the truth. Probably not your fault, but then again, your rituals have their attention, instead of the word of God.

"3. Catholics worship the Pope. No, we believe that the Pope is a human being, capable of sin, just like all the rest of us. We do believe that he is the successor of St Peter on earth as it says in the Gospel of Matthew and that when he speaks from the Chair of Peter, on a matter of faith or morals, he speaks without error. As a matter of point, Pope Benedict has never done this."
I have never heard anyone say that the Roman Catholics worship the Pope. I have seen the connotation, especially the first time Pope John Paul II came to the USA. But not the accusation.
You do what you want with Peter and the succession, as if you needed any permission from the likes of me. lol

"4. Catholics pay to get their loved ones out of purgatory. No, we ask that masses be said for our dead loved ones just as St Paul reminds us to pray for the living and the dead. A small donation ($5) might be made to pay for the card that we then send to the family to let them know that a mass was said in honor of the deceased."
Is that 1 Corinthians 3:14? That is far fetched as well, isn't it?
1 Corinthians 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

He's talking about what people build their faith on. And the fire we will all be tested with, for the works that we ourselves do of our own accord are burned away, and those that God inspired us to do are eternal. It has nothing to do with purgatory.

I know that a part of one of the Esdras books was omitted by your church, the one that denied that there was a purgatory. Why delete it, if the doctrine was so strong? That's the point, isn't it? That the doctrine was not strong. That speculation is so much a part of the desire to hold it, because of the traditions from before Christianity? hmmm.
According to this site, there is a lot of speculation:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04653a.htm

"5. Catholics do not read the Bible. Yes, we do. John Paul II declared the year 2000, the Year of the Bible, and Catholics around the world read the entire Bible during that year. Virtually all Catholic Church’s have a bible study program. At every Sunday Mass, there are three readings from the Bible. Catholics are required to attend Sunday and thereby hear the Word of the God."
We get Atheist quoting the Bible here. And they don't understand what it says. They do not have the Spirit of God to guide them. As you can see, I am busy writing refutations to you. Perhaps the Belief in Christ that Roman Catholic's have does not include the Spirit of God? That ritual and tradition have taken the place of the God manifestation of understanding? I ask because I want to be kind!

"6. Catholics think the Sacraments get them to heaven. No, we believe that only the death and resurrection of Jesus get us to heaven. We believe the Sacraments, such as the Eucharist Jesus instituted at the Last Supper, give us grace to help us follow God's will for us."
I would correct you sir. Out of respect for you. I think that you may have slipped on your wording. By faith Jesus was Resurrected, and by faith we are Resurrected. Grace comes from God because of faith. Pistis, Pisteuo, Pisteo, these words represent our connection to God's promises. And without it all of God's grace is denied us.

"7. Catholics belong to a cult. No, our church has been around for 2000 years, much longer than any other Christian church. The first Protestants didn't show up until 1450. At more than one billion members, the Catholic Church is the single largest Christian denomination. Many people join and some (sadly) leave the Catholic Church every day of their own free will."
Protestants came around due to the opposition of the Roman Catholics Iquisition. Actually I could have misstated that. It came around because people that did NOT want to worship Mary, as in the aforementioned prayer, and had their Bibles to show them the error of the State Churche's ways. The Persecutions started long before this, in the Waldenses.
*************************************************************
By the year of Christ 1140, the number of the reformed was very great, and the probability of its increasing alarmed the pope, who wrote to several princes to banish them from their dominions, and employed many learned men to write against their doctrines.

In A.D. 1147, because of Henry of Toulouse, deemed their most eminent preacher, they were called Henericians; and as they would not admit of any proofs relative to religion, but what could be deduced from the Scriptures themselves, the popish party gave them the name of apostolics. At length, Peter Waldo, or Valdo, a native of Lyons, eminent for his piety and learning, became a strenuous opposer of popery; and from him the reformed, at that time, received the appellation of Waldenses or Waldoys.

Pope Alexander III being informed by the bishop of Lyons of these transactions, excommunicated Waldo and his adherents, and commanded the bishop to exterminate them, if possible, from the face of the earth; hence began the papal persecutions against the Waldenses.
- John Fox's Book of Martyrs
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So there were many names sir, by which those that were in Christ, but not of the Roman Catholic Church were merely eliminated from the face of the Earth by the 'STATE CHURCH.'
The name Protestant was fortunate enough to have survived the torturous death supplied to their predecessors. I do prefer 'Reformed', now that I think of it. For it is the Reformed church more akin to that church Paul had formed after Christ.

"8. Catholics don't baptize. Yes, we do and our Church started baptism. Whether a person is immersed or sprinkled is a man-made technicality. It cannot be believed that Jesus would condemn someone to hell for all eternity because of the rite of Baptism they received. There are countless historical Christian texts, of reliable authorship, that speak of sprinkling in the very early Christian Church."
I would agree. But I do prefer the good ol' dunking!

"9. Catholics are not Christians. Yes, we are and we profess with our lips and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, the Son of God come down from heaven to save men from their sins. We pray the Apostles Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus name is mentioned in some form more than 50 times at every Sunday mass. We strive to follow the two great commandments of Jesus to love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves."
By the standards of Jesus the Christ, if you trust God, you are saved. I have NO DOUBT that there are some saved Roman Catholics. No doubt whatsoever.
Sir, I do have to report to you, in case you didn't know; that many come out of Mass thinking they did right just by showing up that day. They do not have the joy of Jesus in their hearts. They act as if going to church proved their righteousness. I have to believe that it would NOT break with the all important traditions to stike them with a message of works that kill the soul. The ones that decieve people into thinking that they have to go to church to be saved, but rather, they must love God, not the pictures of Him, not the crucifix, but Him!

"10. Catholics have a different Bible. No, we have the Bible approved by the Universal Christian Church since the year 380. Protestants took several books out of the Bible during the reformation in the late 1400s. Martin Luther even took the Book of James and Revelation out of the Bible as well, before they were restored. The Catholic Bible has been the most consistent of all translations for more than 1600 years."
As I have stated before, the Protestants, mainly the infamous Puritans, had the Apocrypha taken out of the scriptures, and I think that God used that circumstance anyway, but the RCC also took out a part of the Apocrypha that didn't go along with the Doctrine of Purgatory. It doesn't make either one right. Martin Luther has little to do with most Protestant churches that I have been to. I like the man for what he did, and I like some of the things that he said, but he kept some of the RCC doctrine that I detest the most. In effect, alienating me by his religious observances, in some cases.


I am done with this. i couldn't just pass this off, because there are some problems between scriptures and the RCC. Some RC's even come on here trying to forward the notion that the RCC hasn't changed in all these years. I have to remind them of the long, long ways of the Popes of the Inquisitions, that were extremely murderous.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity.