Why do non-Catholics think that Catholics pray to saints?

Question

I've seen the question posed in reverse ("Why do Catholics pray to saints?") So I was wondering how they became so misinformed in the first place. I am Catholic and will tell you that I have never prayed to anyone but God. If you are Catholic and have prayed to a saint, then please let me know. I can only think that their misinformed view comes from their church leaders who want to spread anti-Catholic propaganda for some reason.

Nope, don't pray to Mary either. If you are referring to the 'Hail Mary' then you should read the words. It is asking Mary to pray for us. No different than when you tell a friend, "I'm having surgery, please say a prayer for me."

It seems to me that there is a lot of Catholic bad-mouthing going on in protestant churches. Maybe you folks should focus on your own faith instead of trying to point out the flaws in others'. I have never been to a mass where the priest says anything about another religion.

Answer 1

Because everyone including Catholics...don't know EVERYTHING about someone elses religion...and they ASSUME things very easily...instead of taking the time to learn something new

Answer 2

Good for you!

You must be an unusual Catholic and/or don't follow ALL the doctrines of the Church then. Read your Catechism books. It's all in there, including "the remains, possessions and other relics of the Saints" that are to be "adored and prayed to..."

And what about saying the Rosary that contains 53 "Hail Mary" prayers in it?? Wasn't the Marian Rosary invented by some monk only in the 10th or 11th century AD??

This is NOT A PROPAGANDA and I DO NOT REPRESENT ANY ORGANIZED church or church leaders. I should know since I'm an ex-seminarian of the SVD [Order of Societas Verbi Divini] and have long been an ex-Catholic...

My question back to you is: Why are you still a Catholic then??

Peace be with you.

Answer 3

Well, I have never discussed this here, but since you ask the question, - the reason I think that is because I have heard them do that. I have also heard catholics argue for praying to the saints. Many also pray to their dead grandparents, although I am not sure this is a part of their church doctrine. Praying to the saints, on the other hand, is. The Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant movement, claimed that praying to the saints was legitimate because of a quote from the book of Tobith. That was, I think, one of the reasons that the apocryphal books were accepted into the Roman Catholic canon of Scripture.
It is very possible that in your area this is not practised. In fact I have been told by some former evangelicals that in some areas in the USA you can't find much difference between Protestant and Catholic beliefs and practises. I have lived in areas where that was not the case.
I believe if you examine an old Catholic prayer book (I don't know about the more modern ones) you could find examples of prayers to the saints.
Praying to the saints, in the eyes of most Catholics, is not equivalent to worship. However I believe we can legitimately say that the attitude to ward Mary is equivalent to worship.

Answer 4

As an absolutely orthodox Catholic, I know that Catholics do in fact pray to saints. What Catholics do NOT do is worship saints. Unfortunately, most non-Catholics don't appreciate the difference. The "Communion of Saints" is a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, one of the beliefs specifically mentioned in the Apostles' Creed. This infallible doctrine describes the interaction between the saints militant (on earth) and the saints triumphant (in heaven). The saints in heaven pray for the saints on earth, and the saints on earth ask the saints in heaven for their intercession. This is what the Christian Church has believed and taught from the very beginning. "Prayer" simply means communication, or more specifically "asking". We see this countless times in Scripture, where someone says "I pray thee", not talking to God, but just to another human being. I simply means "I ask you". So Catholics do indeed ask the saints for intercession, and the saints respond. And this asking can be called prayer, but it cannot be called worship by any stretch of the imagination.

Some non-Catholics also like to bring up the idea that "Jesus is our only intercessor". That is simply not true. Jesus is our only Mediator, but that is an entirely different concept which I won't go into now. Every Christian is an intercessor. Intercession simply means offering prayers to God on behalf of someone else. If you pray for your family, you are an intercessor. If you don't, you should!

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Answer 5

Because some non-Catholics know for a fact that they do.

Okay, for information purposes only... read on...

If you are Catholic (to be specific if you are a Roman Catholic) then you (should) have prayed the Rosary (Hail Mary, Full of grace...)

Then there are a lot of other differents "prayers" that are specific for certain saints, as there are actually a specific saint for a specific need.

Then there are images (pictures, statues, whatever) of saints (as in Saint Peter, Saint Paul,... even St. Nick) and devotees stand or kneel before these images and pray TO them. (They do more than that but let us not go into that).

"Pray" as in talk to them, beg them, ask them for something, ask for them to intercede, & talk to them so that they can then talk to God on their behalf...

And a lot of different but similar instances.

Are you really Catholic?

Answer 6

I grew up Catholic and I prayed to saints. You pray to St. Christopher when you travel and you pray to St. Jude when you're in a desperate situation. There's a ton of them and they each have their own niche.

Praying to someone isn't the same as worshiping someone. I think most Christians mistakenly believe that Catholics worship the saints and that's not true. Talking to the saints or guardian angels is a harmless way to keep the dialog going with heavenly beings. I've openly prayed to Mary too and I personally liked Cathlocism over all other Christian denominations because of the fact that we have Mary and the saints.

Answer 7

While it is true that Catholics aren't SUPPOSED to worship Mary or the Saints, I received a major shock as I was explaining this to a co-worker. I asked a little Catholic lady in the break room to back me up on this, and she freely admitted that she did indeed worship Mary.

I could have strangled her!

Instead, I told her to talk about that to her parish priest. If the Catholic Church is guilty of anything in this regard, it is in NOT making it clear that worship is NOT to be given to angels, saints, or Mary.

Prayer is NOT worship. It is communication. And communication with the Saints is quite possible. "To be Absent from the Body is to be Present with the Lord." If He can hear you, why can't the people with Him hear you? Catholics simply take advantage of the prayers of the WHOLE BODY of Christ. Not just the saints on Earth.

Everybody is ragging on the Hail Mary. Let's have a look at it:
Hail Mary -- Howdy, Mary
Full of Grace -- Graceful. Uh, yeah, So?
The Lord is with Thee. -- Again, right. As He is with all Christians.
Blessed art thou among women -- Blessed=happy. Hey, she got to raise the Son of God! How cool was THAT?
And Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. -- Uh, YEAH! How is THAT not true???
Holy Mary -- Holy (a) belonging to or devoted to God. Correct.
Mother of God -- Well, Jesus DID say 'I AM'...
Pray for us, sinners -- This is the whole request of this prayer. No different from asking YOU to pray for ME.
Now and at the hour of our death -- Two seperate instances. Where's the problem here?
Amen -- Literally, SO BE IT. So let it be written, so let it be done...Mere formality.

Answer 8

Prayer and worship are not the same. Prayer is conversation. We DO pray to saints, ie, we converse with them. Prayers to saints are typically used in a fashion of asking them to intercede on our behalf, ie, pray for us. The "Hail Mary" is a prayer to Mary, not in the form of worship, but in the form of asking for her intercession.

We are not to speak with the dead. That is necromancy. However, the Saints, by definition, are more alive than we our in our Heavenly home.

God Bless,

MoP

Answer 9

nicely thinking there is the Blessed Virgin Mary and 10,000+ canonized Saints to not point out the beatified Blessed in Heaven and once you attend Liturgy of the Mass your asking all the saints & angels to wish for you. there's an prolonged record of buyer/ess Saints for particular issues. yet what you're doing whilst praying is calling them to wish on your behalf to God. when I pray I oftentimes pray and meditate on the Rosary. I infrequently ever have the could desire to ask particular Saints for his or her suggestions, yet as quickly as in a large collectively as i will pray to a particular Saint.

Answer 10

My entire family --extended family are catholics and always pray to different saints for different things...it is ridiculous. I have shown them scripture on Jesus being the only mediator between God and man....so there are catholics who pray to saints.

Answer 11

I grew up Catholic. You DO pray to Saints. Or rather, you ask the Saints to put in a good word with God so that he'll do what you want him to do. Basically, the same thing.

It's semantics.