Why are roman catholics always described as 'devout'? And why is all criticism of their faith 'bigotry'?

Question

Can they not accept any intellectual questioning of practices such as lighting candles, indulgences, genuflection, holy water, purgatory, let alone the mass (wafer worship), the papacy, Mary worship etc. all of which are superstitious and unscriptural.

Answer 1

Alan good thing the Pastor is here to correct you. by the way are you really looking for answers or just want to make a speech? Regardless, Catholics are called devout simply because their doctrine hasn't been watereddown. In fact all of Protestantism is basically watered-down Catholicism. To be a devout follower of Christ you have to believe all he taught this is what Catholics do. They accepted the authority of Christ's apostles .

Now to correct you a bit more
1. can you direct me to where I can find a reference on worshipping Mary as God? quickly no you can't because it doesn't exist. Catholics do not give Mary godly worship, praying to Mary is not godly worship simply because the words pray,prayer or praying do not mean only worship. Get a good dictionary or study old english and earlier english documents, pray means simply 'to ask' and you'll find all sorts of people praying (asking) others all sorts of things.

2. holy water and holy oil are very ancient sacramentals read the OT a bit more you'll discover the Jews used these. Also read the last chapter of James you'll discover the sacrament of the annointing of the sick where it is instructed Christians should call for the elders so they can pray over the sick and "annoint them with oil" now what kind of oil do you think that is? why of course blessed oil. Holy water is simply blessed water, now you got a problem with that? you proably also have a problem with blessed babies .

3. Purgatory also a very ancient belief, the Jews believe in a similar purification of the dead see the kaddish prayer. The Eastern Orthodox believe in it althought they do not name it. Basically all first Christians believe in purgatory why not you? And of course it is in the bible all thru the New Testament just not in your tradition of interpretation.

4. unscriptural? interesting word this. what it really means is - your believes are not part of my tradition of biblical interpretation. You know how many different non-catholic groups all claim to be "of the bible" and yet they all disagree with each other. So much for being guided by the Holy Spirit. The truth about being unscriptual is this, if you ain't following the Catholic interpretation of scripture you ain't fully scriptual. What does scripture say is the pillar of truth? why the Church of course read Paul's letters to Timothy.

4. Christian Mass: is the highest form of godly worship. Try reading Revelations sometime you'll read of the Mass in heaven where we are allivated to be with the saints as they pray to God and offer ...........incense (good God a Catholic thing) and we see the sacarifial lamb Jesus (good God the Christian Mass again).
You better be a bit more bible-believing if you want to be Christian.

final note: I truly believe all this anomosity towards Catholicism is simply because Catholicism will never die. Jesus promised he will be with his Church forever and therefore the reformers who left it got it all wrong helping to create the level of heresy today with all the many divisions of Protestantism. With the new evangelisation within the Catholic Church, people are awaking it is become harder and harder for simple minded non-catholic missionaries to confuse and mislead better educated Catholics into leaving what is the fullness of Christian belief. Of course members will continue to leave and enter the Church simply because of free-will but I have great hope that as we move forward in this new millenium those leaving will have more to do with personal sin and less to do with poor catechesis.

Fact is Alan the majority of the questioning of Catholicism as you put, it isn't intellually based at all. The reason it is classified as bigotry is simply because it involves anti-catholic hatred propaganda.

Answer 2

Well there's a difference between criticism and dialogue. There is also a difference between questioning and conversation. The best way to have people of different faiths discuss things is to stay away from loaded words such as superstitious and unscriptural. Put yourself in the other person's shoes. Would you be open to talking with someone who just told you that your religion is superstitious? Keep the conversation a learning experience instead of a "my religion is better than yours" contest and you will have much more success.

And the reason why people use the word devout is because one of the drawbacks of the Catholic faith is it is very easy to become a "twice a year Catholic"... to only show up to church on Christmas and Easter. So when someone says they're devout they mean that they attend church and commune with God regularly.

As for not handling criticism of the faith, please remember that is not just a problem for Catholics. Try answering an honest question in Y!A about why all Christians celebrate Jesus' birthday in December and you'll get beat down for it. Trust me, I tried. People don't want to hear that celebrating His birthday in December was actually one of the ways that Christians got the masses to convert.

Please just let go of the frustration and love everybody. This is a time of year to focus on God's gift to the world.

God Bless.

Answer 3

Not all Catholics are described as devout.

Not all criticism is decribed as bigotry.

We accept intellectual questioning but intellectual questioning does not use the words "all of which are superstitious and unscriptural."

We also admit that some of our doctines is not explicitly in the Bible but that does not make them superstitions or unscriptural.

Slavery is scriptural but Catholics have come to believe over hundreds of years of Apostolic tradition guided by the Holy Spirit that it is absolutely immoral and against the will of God.

+ Sources of Doctrine +

The Catholic Church does not use Holy Scripture as the only basis of doctrine. It could not. The early Catholic church existed before and during the time that the New Testament was written (by Catholics).

There were hundreds of Christian writings during the first and second centuries. Which New Testament writings would become official was not fully decided until about 400 AD.

Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church (and is guiding the church today) to make the correct choices about things like:
+ The Holy Trinity (which is also only hinted at in the Bible)
+ Going to church on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is actually directly against one of the Ten Commandments)
+ The Communion of Saints
+ Which writings include in the New Testament?

Things that are even more modern like
+ Slavery is bad. Slavery is never declared evil in the Bible. This was one of the justifications for slavery in the Confederate States.
+ Democracy is good. The Bible states that either God should be the leader of the nation like Israel before the kings or kings should be the leader, "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's." This was talked about a lot during the American Revolution.

This second source of doctrine is called Apostolic Tradition.

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

Like you, Andrew I was raised in a Protestant denomination, though unlike your fundamentalist denomination, we were NEVER taught that we were the only ones who had it right and everyone else was wrong. I don't know if my family's particular denomination taught OSAS or not since its Sunday School programs of the 1960s and early '70s were nothing more than time killers. Also like you, I'm glad I heeded God's call and came home to His Holy Catholic Church! Sylvia, you have some nerve posting such a vile, hate-filled answer while still calling yourself a Christian. Are you aware Catholics consider you a sister in the faith despite our doctrinal differences? Would that you and your ilk extended us the same basic courtesy.

Answer 5

We're not. I know many Catholics whom I would never describe as "devout."

I consider criticism of my faith to be...well, criticism. And I welcome ANY intellectual questioning of my faith...I rather enjoy it.

Finally, all faith hinges on supernatural events throughout history...God IS supernatural. Non-believers may consider those who believe in some things supernatural to be "superstitious." That's their view, and I can accept it.

Many, many things dealing with Christianity are "unscriptural." Oral history and tradition are as much a part of Christianity as are the writings of the Bible.

For example, what did Jesus do between the age of about 12 through 30?

Answer 6

1. Intellectual questioning is not the right tool for getting to grips with spiritual beliefs.
You do not put Hawking in the ring with Tyson, you do not put Tyson in a debate on hard core maths against Hawking.
2. The practise of ritual is a long established method of spiritual programming.
Being 'devout' is the correct mental attitude if you are going to get anything out of your spiritual exercises.
3. Being called a bigot is something that happens when you think you are trying to help people but really you are telling them that your preference: chocolate is actually better than theirs: vanilla, while often secretly craving vanilla.

Answer 7

Some Roman Catholics in Scotland feel badly treated and unwanted, this is evident in the way they insist on dropping the Roman in the name of their faith, and also insisting on separate schools.
It would be better if they realised that not every Protestant wants to "punch a pape" as claimed by one of their clergy recently.
All christians belong to the "holy catholic church", therefore protestants should never be referred to as non-catholics.
I suggest that we all "live and let live".

Answer 8

I've tried many different denominations. I was originally brought up a Roman Catholic. But later tried Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal, and non-denominational. In the end I went back to Roman Catholic. It suits me best.

Now I'm not saying Roman Catholic is better than any other form of Christianity. It's just better for me.

Answer 9

I think the description " Devout" just goes with the territory. It is in the same league as "A lapsed Catholic" You never hear of a lapsed Methodist! Blame the press for the phrases. As for all the bells and whistles that come with Catholicism, It's just religious window dressing. Catholicism is more something you just 'Do' in a repetitive way because that's what your parents and community did, rather than something you accept as an independent adult. Be nice to them They can't help it!

Answer 10

Jeez... Just because they're different from you. Different people find that different things make them think of God... Why do people criticise Catholics so much?? A lot of them actually have more sensible beliefs than devout protestants...

And if you criticise Catholics, you're critiscising a LOT of Europeans. Just leave off it. You're not doing any better service to God by slagging them off.