Can someone please explain the Catholic religion to me and what Catholics believe?

Question

I really dont understand it.

Answer 1

The richness of the Catholic religion cannot be explained in a few paragraphs. I suggest you talk to a knowledgeable Catholic friend.

A summary of Catholic beliefs is contained in the Nicene Creed (from the year 325) as shown by some of the other answers.

For a complete description of what Catholics believe, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.nccbuscc.org/catechism/text/

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Well I studied it off and on for 20 years before I joined, I don't think that there is any possible way to explain everything in a paragraph or two, but here goes.

We believe in:

1. The Divinity of Jesus.
2. The Succession of the Pope from Peter to today.
3. The 7 Sacraments are the tools Jesus gave us to stay in the Grace of God.
4. That we can pray for each other, and that Purgatory is not hell but a time for our soul to be cleansed so we can enter Heaven.
5. The true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is not just a symbol.

Those are VERY basic, now to dispel some mis-conceptions:

1. We do NOT worship Mary,
2. We do NOT hold the Pope above Jesus.
3. All Priests are not pedophiles,
4 We do not pay money to be forgiven from sin
5. We do Not ask the Priest for forgiveness, we are asking Jesus for forgiveness through the Priest.


There is a TON more, you might do some study at www.Catholic.com or www.Catholic.org.

May God Bless your search!

Peace!

Answer 3

To the person asking the question please go to any of the websites below and begin your search on honest examination of Roman Catholicism.
The simpliest and shortest way of understanding Catholicism is study of the Christian creeds such as the following:

We believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead;He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.

"The Apostles' Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome. Its great authority arises from this fact: it is 'the Creed of the Roman Church, the See of Peter, the first of the apostles, to which he brought the common faith."

- from the Catechism of the Catholic Church; 194.

"This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart's meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul."

- Saint Ambrose.

Answer 4

Catholics are Christians. Our main differences from most other Christian denominations are:

1)We pray to Mary and the saints for intercession. That means, we ask for special help for something. Basically, it would be like asking a bunch of your friends to pray with you for a family member in the hospital. They are dedicated to us and are just more help when we need it.

2)We have a more complex church hierarchy. I'm not sure why we have the hierarchy like it is, but we do not worship the pope or any other members of the hierarchy or pray for intercession. They are there, I'm not sure why, but we in no way worship them.

3)We have more ritualized masses. I'm not sure why we do this either, but it dosn't hurt. I see it as you are really showing your dedication to God to learn everything and take part in the masses.

4)We go to confession. Confession is when we tell our priest everything and ask his advice. He will generally give good, sound advice(but not always, he is human, after all) and give you something to do to help expiate your sins. When you do this, the burden of your sins that you confessed is lifted from your shoulders and you spend a little less time in purgatory.

5)We believe in purgatory. Purgatory is basically a place where all those who did not quite mesure up to heaven's standards at the time of death go. It is a second chance. If you go to purgatory and spend your time there diligently, you go to heaven. Purgatory is pretty much a dreary, work filled place. Not hell, but not heaven either. I personally don't believe in hell, but most Catholics do believe that there are people who go to hell.

6)We believe that when the bread and the wine are concecrated during the service, they become the actual body and blood of Christ. There is no physical or chemical difference, but what had been plain, unlevened bread and watered wine is now the bread and body of Christ. There is a name for this, but I don't remember it.

These are the main differences between Catholics and other Christians. If you want more information, I suggest that you go and talk to a local Catholic minister. He would probablly be happy to explain it to you, even if all you want is just to understand it and not convert from whatever you are now. Another really good place to find the differences is the website www.religioustolerance.org . I hope this helps!

Answer 5

Here for the last time;
We believe in one God the Father almighty,the Creator of Heaven and Earth , and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit,He was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered under Pontius Pilate, He was crucified,died and was buried.
He descended into Hell and on the third day He rose again from the dead,He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God,from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life,Who proceeds from the Father and the Son,with the Father and the Son He is adored and glorified,He has spoken through the Prophets, We believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic church,We profess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life to come,Amen

Answer 6

Simply look at Christianity before the Protestant Rebellion of the 16th century. That's what Catholics believe, for every Christian from that time back to the Apostles was Catholic, and believed exactly what Catholics believe today. Truth never changes, and Christ told the early leaders of the Catholic Church that the Holy Spirit would guide them to all truth, and that whatsoever they bound upon earth would be bound in heaven. Much of the teaching of the early Catholic Church was included in the Bible when the Catholic Church compiled the Canon of Scripture at the end of the 4th century, so the Bible is also a good record of what Catholics believed then, still believe now, and will believe until the end of time. The Catholic Church is the only Church that accepts the Bible fully. Every other church has to ignore or reject sections of the Bible in order to hang onto their manmade traditions, or reinterpret the Bible in ways that will fit in with their new beliefs. Jesus described His true followers in this way - "that they may be ONE, even as you Father and I are ONE. Such unity still exists today in just one place - the Church Jesus founded fort all mankind, the Holy Catholic Church. How different this is from the manmade tradition which has developed from that sad 16th Century Revolt, where thousands of unauthorized manmade churches try to define the truth in the absence of the biblical foundation of truth, and instead find dissention, continuous fragmentation and doctrinal chaos.
.

Answer 7

Catholics believe that the pope is the absolute authority, not the Bible, even though the Bible is the basis of the Christian faith. This is evident by the fact that almost everything they believe is contradicted by the Bible, and yet they still believe it because it's what their church tells them.

Catholics also believe that one must pray to Mary as the mediator between them and Jesus, which cannot be found in the Bible.

Catholics believe in purgatory, an idea which is also non-existent in the Bible.

1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" Where does that leave room for the confessionals, popes, and Mary? The Bible also says that God provides all our needs and heals all of our diseases. Where does that leave room for praying to saints?

I'm sorry to all of my Catholic friends on Yahoo! Answers. Many of you are good, sincere people without a doubt. I mean no offense to you, I just think you've been terribly misled by your church. Read the King James Bible, it's eye-opening.

If you're looking for spiritual answers and enlightenment, you're not going to find it in the Catholic church, you're going to find it in the Bible.

Answer 8

Whoa... that's a loaded question. Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity, so there are a lot of common core beliefs there.

We recite this creed at mass almost every Sunday. I think it does a good job of hitting the bare bones main points of what Catholics all believe:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfilment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed

Something to note - "catholic" here is with a small c and means "universal."

A few more things Catholics do and don't believe:

* Mary is NOT God, nor is she anywhere near God's level. She is revered as the mother of Jesus and a model of how to live a life of obedience to God.

* While we do say that we pray "to" saints, that's a linguistic fallacy. We only pray to the Trinity. We do ask the saints (who are really nothing more than holy men and women who have lived exemplary and perhaps blessed lives) to pray WITH us to God, but there is only one God.

* Forgiveness comes from God alone. Yes we have the sacrament of Reconciliation, but the priest is only a "stand in" for God... kinda like a sounding board.

* We draw our beliefs and practices from both Scipture and tradition.

* The Pope is the figurehead of the Church, but he isn't some superhuman leader. And he is NOT infallible. The papal doctrine of infallibilty has only been invoked twice in the last two centuries, both times in regards to teachings about Mary that served to stregthen theology.

Answer 9

properly, first of all, the Catholics and protestants I knew even as i replaced into remodeling into up Mormon did not imagine we were Christians - even although we believe in Christ. (i'm now not Mormon, yet i comprehend how you experience) this is because they experience that in elementary words religions that believe interior the trinity are Christians - Mormons believe in 3 seperate entities - God the daddy, Christ the son, and the Holy Ghost. not a blend of all 3 that artwork mutually like the trinity. in my opinion the trinity by no skill made a lot experience to me. besides, first of all, you want to confer including her on my own - only tell her that even with she believes is her accurate to believe yet you probably did not like the way she singled you out in college, and made a objective out of you for the different toddlers. you're sorry you lost your cool, yet you truly ought to like it if she ought to easily save her critiques established and by no skill objective you specifically. with techniques from the way, is she preparation a faith type or a history/english type? If she isn't preparation faith, your mom and father favor to have a verbal change with the college directors too - she is overstepping her bounds. besides, my very last little bit of advice is this: do not attempt to cajole her of a few thing. she gained't replace, she has been this way for years and could stay this way. Your beliefs are your beliefs, not someone elses, and also you do not favor to rigidity what others imagine of them. Having faith means that typically you go with the help of trials for believing what you do. this is component to being a member of any faith. only carry your head extreme, and do not provide into the temptation to argue about it. If someone asks you about your beliefs, only tell them what you think, yet do not enable human beings bait you into arguments or fights. each and anybody believes diverse issues. this is what makes us all unique. settle for it and bypass on. do not enable some overzealous instructor make you disillusioned. Have the calm and composure to not care what she says.

Answer 10

This is the Nicene Creed, the statement of faith for all Roman Catholics.

We believe (I believe) in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages. (God of God) light of light, true God of true God. Begotten not made, one in being with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be no end. And (I believe) in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and the Son), who together with the Father and the Son is to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets. And one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We confess (I confess) one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for (I look for) the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen