Can you believe someone said, "But I have doubts about Catholics, because they don't pray directly to God" ?

Question

If this statement isn't the epitome of Catholic-bashers not knowing what they're talking about, I don't know what is.

I would love evidence that says Catholics don't pray to God. I must have missed that page in my Catholic Rule Book. Oh wait. That would be The Bible, wouldn't it? And I can't recall it saying not to pray to God.

If you want to hate us, go right ahead. But at least know the reasons you hate us. Don't just make it up as you go along, and try to pass it off as fact.

NOTE: I emailed the person who made this statement. She sent me a link to a webpage that included a lot of Catholic prayers, as her defense. Had she actually taken time to READ the prayers, she would have noticed that many of them are directed right to God the Father!

SOL, just because we ask saints to intercede for us SOMETIMES, doesn't mean that we don't pray to God. We do pray to Him all the time.

Answer 1

This is like asking your mother to talk to your father about something you need as a child. I think that's the best way to answer that question and debunk that myth perpetrated by some non-Catholics. Your mother is closer to your father in a way you can't be and might be able to interceded for you.

I have been married for over 25 years to a man who was raised in the Church of Christ. His grandfather and father were pastors. He grew up hating Catholics and was told we were evil and not Christians. He was told about saints and worship and all the other mistruths that those people love to preach about confession. They were taught in their church that we would be better off dead. He and I married and he has since converted to my religion, and is a devout Catholic. I gave him unrefutable proof that the Catholic church was founded by Jesus Christ Himself. His father and mother have since also converted.Once you know the truth, you have to take action.

Answer 2

Most Catholic -Bashers know little about the Faith and only want to know the slanders and not the facts.
Most Protestants I know are not antiCatholic but many FundaProts are and yet they would be very upset if anyone accused then of "not going to Christ" when they" ask the prayers of the Body'(excluding those in Heaven,of course) to pray with them for their needs and petions.

Answer 3

AMEN TO THAT BROTHER!

I was raised in a Catholic family, went to Mass every Sunday, Holy Days of Obligation, etc. Our prayers have been mainly the "Our Father". The prayer that Jesus taught us to say to His Father (our Father, our Creator=God). Even with the rosary we say the Our Father and Glory Be. We worship ONLY God and we know and believe that ONLY God answers our prayers. We are allowed by Jesus to pray to souls in Heaven (Mary, His mother and saints), asking them only for intercession, not for answers. A saint, when they were on earth and now when they are in Heaven, cannot perform a miracle on their own. They can only go such wonderous work by the power of God. God performs miracles on His own and through their hands and souls, by their having great faith. That's why these people have been declared saints.

The Bible says that Satan is the father of all lies. So we know that these statements about Catholics worshiping Mary and statues have been started by Satan himself. As long as Catholic don't defend their faith and stand up for God and the Church, Satan will continue to gain believers in these lies. I am very strong in Catholics to fully know and understand the Church, it's history, traditions, Traditions, doctrine, dogma. We have to defend the Church and our faith. We have to know the Apologetics inside and out and stop Satan and all the lies, myths, doubts. And answers others' questions.

To people that think that Catholics worship Mary, eat Christ at Mass, pray to statues, etc., you are ALL wrong and aren't fully educated on what the Catholic Church teaches and why it teaches what it does. Instead of making things up or believing lies, learn for yourself and ask true Catholics for the answers.

Peace!

Answer 4

I admit to thinking this way...more so as a child than now.

I think it came from hearing my Grandmother say the Rosary. She would always start "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee". I always interpreted that to mean that she was praying to Mary and asking her to intercede on her behalf with God!

...and then I would see her go in to confession to confess her sins to God through the priest. She always insisted that he had to go to confession or she wouldn't be forgiven. One time I asked her why she had to go to confession to confess her sins...why couldn't she just kneel by her bed and talk directly to God...she told me that God would send her to purgatory if she didn't (I didn't know what that meant but it sounded bad).

I now understand that the "hail Mary" in the rosary is simply an acknowledgement of her role and that the rest of the prayer is directed toward God...and I understand that there is some value in confessing your sins to another person instead of just to God. However, I no longer doubt the salvation of Catholics automatically because they are Catholic...when you dig down to the essence of their beliefs, they are the same as mine. I just practice my beliefs differently...and it seems pretty clear that God accepted minor (unimportant) differences given the differences in the messages sent to the various churches that now appear in the Bible (e.g., what he said to the Hebrews is different in some ways to what was said to the Romans)...the core beliefs are the same but the practices differ according to the needs of the individual people in each area (and it is a good explanation for why we have so many denominations...the core values are the same but the others reflect the needs and secondary beliefs of the members...to each his own!).

Answer 5

I'm not surprised. A lot of these Protestants think that we don't believe the bible is the inspired Word of God and that it isn't part of our religion. They think that we pray to statues or that praying to saints is treating them like gods and not asking them to pray for us to God.

I mean considering that we were the first--and only--Christian religion for 1500 and something years until Luther's reforms were not accepted within the Church and he was forced, reluctantly, to go outside the Church to accomplish them, it's amazing to me that so many Christians don't think we are Christians. This particularly refers to the Evangelicals and Fundamentalists who didn't exist as such until maybe 25 years ago. How arrogant is it to condemn Catholics for not being "Christian enough" when they haven't even been around for a quarter of the time?! Not very Christian of them and not what Jesus would do. There are going to be a lot of big surprises someday.

Answer 6

Bishop Fulton Sheen once said, "Only a Handful of people hate the Catholic church, but millions hate what they think the Catholic church is".

Basically, they don't know anything about us.

They think we worship Mary and the Saints (wrong). Worship and adoration are reserved for God and God alone.

Answer 7

Not only do Catholics pray directly to God, they encourage others to do the same. Sometimes they pray directly to God for others and ask others to do the same for them. I wouldn't have thought this was too unusual.

Cheers :-)

Answer 8

Kait,

If the saints cannot hear our prayers, how is it that they are able to present our prayers before the throne of God? You need to use the whole Bible instead of using eisegesis to attack Christ's Church.

The truth is that there is clearly evidence in Scriptures that the Saints hear our prayers and indeed assist us in perseverance in our faith. To say that there is no Biblical basis for asking saints to pray for us is absolute nonsense.

Heb 12:1
Mar 12:26-27
Mat 17:3
Rev 5:8

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 9

It is a horribly untrue statement that prejudice people will believe, rather than learning what we, as Catholics really do believe in.....and yes, I do pray directly to God!

Peace be with you.

Answer 10

i can believe that people can say anything under the sun. many times without thinking about it too much.