what is the main difference between catholics and protestants?

Question

was once taught it had something to do with the blood of christ or something like that

Answer 1

Yes.

Catholics: Jesus is really present in the Eucharist (Holy Communion)

Many Protestants: It's just a "memorial meal"

Answer 2

Catholics believe in things protestants do not. they have more sacraments, when most other churches have just Baptism and Communion. They also believe Mary was taken up into heaven body and soul and believe she was sinless; therefore, she was blessed by God. They do NOT worship Mary like some ignorant people believe.

They also believe that when taking the Lord's Supper the bread becomes the actually body of christ and the wine becomes the actual blood.

They also follow the full Christian calendar that includes advent, lent, holy week, easter, ascension day, pentecost, and a few others that I left out. Other liturgical churches are Lutheran, Pres-USA, Episcopal, United Methodist, and United Church of Christ. They follow the same full year.

Also,they follow a lectionary meaning that each sunday of the year has a set scripture. The liturgical churches also follow that same passages.

Catholic churches have a very specific order of worship called the Mass. They cannot go outside of that order. Other liturgical churches like those I listed also have an order, but they can adapt it if it's needed.

Need anything else? Email me.

Amanda
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Answer 3

In relation to the point you mention the RC Church holds onto the belief that the bread and wine are converted - in a metaphysical sense - into the body and blood of Christ once the Priest has consecrated them at Mass.
I am an alcoholic and trauma victim who took a pledge off all drink for life (I joined the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association). I am also a Minister of the Eucharist in my local Church. Each week I partake of the Chalice yet I could not otherwise let as much as a wine gum pass my lips. I believe the wine is altered and assumes a significance beyond that of symbolism when blessed. Each time I partake of it I walk across a sea of faith and am held up by the Lord.
Protestants take the words of Christ at the last supper to indicate that he is merely calling them to remember him.. But we need more than this we need him to be with us still, despite time and history. The world needs a living not a remembered Christ; so us Catholics celebrate the ongoing renewal and regrowth that our weekly, and for some daily, encounter with Christ gives us....
But apart from theological issues there are organisational ones, a product of human history, and to some extent cultural and ethos based issues...You know in some years from now these division will be healed but one can never discount the weight of the Catholic Church from a tradition and scholarly perspective...Our religious orders go back over a thousand years....and are the oldest human organisations in the world: take the Benedictines; we're talking 1500 years of history or the Dominicans and there almost global reach - bringing the light of Christ to the four corners of the globe. The British Empire severed the connection with the Orders during the reformation and so as their empire spread they failed to evangelise the territories they occupied unlike the Spanish who brought Christianity to South America and the Philippines. India and the far East - Japan espeically - remained unconverted due to British pride....
The RC tradition is one of surrender of self and its a vital concept imitating Christ's surrender on the cross. Without this surrender we remain off the world rather than witnesses to Christ.
May God bless you choice

Answer 4

Catholics belong to a religion that is much older then Protestant religions.
Protestants belong to one of a group of religions that used to be a part of the Roman Catholic church but left that church hundreds of years ago (around 1500 - 1700). There were lots of different political reasons why they left but the spiritual reason was that the Protestants believed the Catholic institution was trying to replacing the moral authority of the Holy Bible with its self. Also many traditions had entered the Catholic church by that time that were not part of Bible teaching. Such as praying to the saints, Relic worship, and Clergy celibacy, to name a few. That is where you will find the most difference between the Catholics and the Protestants.

Answer 5

Catholics follow the Pope. Protestants don't.

There are some fairly basic differences in doctrine too, some of which most Christians find incredibly offensive in Catholicism.

Catholics believe in confessing to priests and praying to saints. Protestants believe that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that nobody should come between you - indeed this element of Catholicism appears to just be a power trip for the church.

The bit about the blood of Christ is called "transubstantiation", the Catholic belief that the bread and wine literally turns into Christ's body and blood during Holy Communion, which is frankly bizarre and cannibalistic.

Catholics also continue to carry some wonderful vestiges of Middle Ages Catholicism, such as the ability to literally buy the forgiveness of sins.

Answer 6

There are several main differences, which, by seperate answerers, have pretty much been raised except one - the Catholics believe in the Pope as their spiritual head and that said person is "infallible" when it comes to Church teachings. No protestant religion believes this. So, here are the main differences:
1. - the Catholic belief in the transsubstantiation of the bread and wine at Mass into the essence of the body and blood of Christ
2. - the veneration of Mary as virgin throughout her life (therefore having no other childen)
3. - the belief in the Pope and his proclomations regarding the core beliefs of the RCC as being 'infallible' (the word of God through the Pope)
4. - the belief that salvation comes from both faith in Jesus AND good works (the catholic belief)
Believe that covers the main ones.

Answer 7

It is basically the fact that Catholics believe that the bread and wine consecrated at Mass become the actual body and blood of Christ. When we receive Holy Communion, we are in fact receiving Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity while our protestant brethren believe it is just a commeration of the Lord's supper and is not truly Jesus. This was the basis of the split from the Catholic church by those who did not accept this doctrine. Hence, protestant..those in protest of this doctrine.

Answer 8

You are talking about transubstantiation. Most Protestants do not believe that the wine and bread actually become the body and blood of Christ most catholics do. the differences go a lot deeper than that. It is just a peripheral issue.

Answer 9

The main difference has been the same since Martin Luther in the middle 1500's when protestantism began. Protestants believe salvation come by faith in Jesus Christ without works of any kind, the Catholics believe salvtion comes through the church as a result of doing works, sacrements, and traditions of the Catholic church. All other differences are superficial.

Answer 10

What can I add to all of this? Well I can correct what sasi wrote.

The idea of "grace alone" is actually from Catholic origin because the first thing taught in Catholicism is without God's grace we can have no faith, no ability to do good works, and no salvation.

sasi sets up a false dichotomy in explaining the difference as God made v. man made. Jean Calvin took what was already Catholic doctrine and twisted them to his liking, into his man made doctrine. I said sasi needs to try again

The main difference between the two is Catholicism is the authentic Church of Christianity physically and spiritually, Protestantism is a loose association of differing groups which have come to explain unity as some distant idea with the allow-ability of denominationalism. Basically Protestantism lacks the founding principle of Oneness, Holiness, Apostolic succession and Catholicity.

Answer 11

Yhe main differences in theological terms are:

1.Catholics believe in transubstantiation - i.e. that the priest can turn bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus.

Protestants believe that communion is a symbolic act.

2. Catholics believe that the church has the final say in what they believe and how they relate to god.

Protestants believe that each person needs to create a personal relationship with god.

3. Catholics believe the church is right on all moral and ethical issues (well, they don't really, but they're supposed to).

Protestants rely on their individual consciences on such matters (or that's the theory, anyway).