Does the Roman Catholic Church seem Pagan sometimes?

Question

All the candles, stigmatas, saints, rituals, etc.

Answer 1

+ Candles +

Candles have been used as a symbol of the spiritual enlightenment of Jesus Christ since the earliest Church days.

Also up until about 100 years ago, there were no electric lights and everyone used candles.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03246a.htm

+ Stigmata +

What could be more Christlike and less Pagan than stigmata?

Stigmata are where a believer bears on hands, feet, side, or brow the marks of the Passion of Christ with corresponding and intense sufferings.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14294b.htm

+ Saints +

I also have no knowledge of a Pagan beleif in the concept of a Communion of Saints.

Catholics share the belief in the Communion of Saints with many other Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopal, and Methodist Churches.

The Communion of Saints is the belief where all saints are intimately related in the Body of Christ, a family. When you die and go to heaven, you do not leave this family.

Everyone in heaven or on their way to heaven are saints, you, me, my deceased grandmother, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.

As part of this family, you may ask your family and friends living here on earth to pray for you. Or, you may also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, or your deceased grandmother living in heaven to pray for you.

Prayer to saints in heaven is simple communication, not worship.

And prayer to the saints is optional not required.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p5.htm#946

+ Rituals +

Rituals are all around us. Humans are ritualistic beings. We make rituals out of everything.

In our everyday lives, kissing your spouse hello and goodbye, shaking hands with friends and strangers, prayers before meals and bed, celebrating holidays the "family" way, even doing your morning toilette.

Rituals also give reassurance to children, adding a sense of confidence through repetition. Family members are brought together and bonds are strengthened.

Society has rituals: graduations, inaugurations, the Independence Day, New Years, Halloween, parades, the Olympics opening ceremonies.

Religion also has rituals, like baptism, marriage, and funerals.

This is the way humans live, celebrate and rejoice. This is also how we pass our values and traditions onto future generations.

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

For the first 280 years of Christian history, Christianity was banned by the Roman empire, and Christians were terribly persecuted. This changed after the “conversion” of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine “legalized” Christianity at the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313. Later, in A.D. 325, Constantine called together the Council of Nicea, in an attempt to unify Christianity. Constantine envisioned Christianity as a religion that could unite the Roman Empire, which at that time was beginning to fragment and divide. While this may have seemed to be a positive development for the Christian church, the results were anything but positive. Just as Constantine refused to fully embrace the Christian faith, but continued many of his pagan beliefs and practices, so the Christian church that Constantine promoted was a mixture of true Christianity and Roman paganism.

Constantine found that with the Roman Empire being so vast, expansive, and diverse – not everyone would agree to forsake their religious beliefs and instead embrace Christianity. So, Constantine allowed, and even promoted, the “Christianization” of pagan beliefs. Completely pagan and utterly unbiblical beliefs were given new “Christian” identities.

Answer 3

Cannot really say since I've never been to a pagan ritual or even seen a pagan ritual that even slightly resembles a Catholic Mass. As for stigmata, if you witnessed a true stigmata, nothing in your experience compares to it. It is inexplicable. I use candles for a fine dinner setting also. Is that pagan? How does the concept of saints, those who reside with God, owe any relationship with paganism. Do you refer to pagan beliefs such as Valhalla?

Answer 4

what is pagan for you? this is from the dictionary.

1. one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks.
2. a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.
3. an irreligious or hedonistic person.

Althought there are rituals that are not endorsed by the catholic church, in some countries people does them. For example eggs and rabbits are common in USA but in latin america there is not such things on eastern. None of the church talks about eggs and bunnies. Same thing of the Xmas Trees. They are not part of our faith.

About the saints and the Virgin Mary, we don't adore them, we ask them for help in order that God answer our prayers.

Answer 5

Not to anyone who knows anything about it. The original Christian Church is still faithful to everything Christ and the Apostles instituted. If the Church Christ founded was in any way pagan, there wouldn't be much hope for the manmade, mutually conflicting, watered-down, semi-Christian denominations of Protestantism, since they all reperesent deviations from original Christianity. A deviation from a pagan church is not likely to be any closer to the truth than the pagan church it deviated from. The value of any Protestant sect is measured by the extent to which it ratains the teachings of the original Christian Church, the Catholic Church. A church which has rejected most of the teachings of the Catholic Church is no longer Christian in any real sense.
.

Answer 6

Of course. The religion was originally based on many Pagan rituals. People must remember there was religion before Mono-theism. They were Pagans, and many of the Holidays, symbols, customs etc. still follow through to this day

Answer 7

The Catholic church was the original Christian church. In the time of Paul, when the church was trying to convert Pagans, etc., there were many pagan tradiations that were assimilated into the chuch. Some of which you mentioned. Easter is another...named after a pagan god of firtility (ISHTAR)...why do you think there are all the eggs and bunnies?
Jesus was also born in the fall (harvest). Why is his birthday (Christmas) in December..to coincide with yet another pagan holiday. All of this was to win converts in the early church.

Answer 8

catholicism adopted old european pagan beliefs.
You know the thing where people tap their forehead and shoulders and say "in the name of the father, son, etc.." That was originally a pagan ritual for protection against evil.

The days of the week are named after european gods and other pagan things:
Monday - Moon's day
Tuesday- Tyr's day
Wednesday- Woden's day
Thursday- Thor's day
Friday- Frey/Freya's day
Saturday- Saturn's day
sunday- the sun's day

the pope's hat and jesus himself are other examples. Jesus was probably based off the extremely popular "Cult of Mithra". Mithra was a persian sun god with some very peaceful views ( like jesus supposedly had) and was extremely popular throughout Rome before christianity came.

Google some paintings of Mithra, they look exactly like jesus.

Answer 9

well.. yes!! it is a quite observation..
it's been said that when some roman emperor (don't remember who and when) wanted to win some allies, he decided to combine some pagan figures, traditions and characters.. with the catholic ones, and made some kind of old testament or bible of those times... so the catholic religion is a mix, not original.

Answer 10

Paganism is the worship of statutes and /or objects/symbols, having said that almost all religions in this world qualify, Christianity- Jesus on the Cross is literally prayed to, problem is over time every religion in this world becomes paganistic, especially when it comes to rituals.so to answer your question, yes it does....all the time