I am truly amazed how some of the same, old, tired misconceptions about Catholic teaching continue to circulate here in Yahoo - and in society at large: Salvation by works, worshipping Mary, etc. etc. It gets very tiresome. The information about Catholic teaching is not hidden in the basement of St. Peter's. The Catechism is online for all to read:
http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/
http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/entiretoc1.htm
And basic anwsers to common misconceptions can be found in the left sidebar at:
http://www.catholic.com/
There was a protestant bishop (an Anglican) who became a Catholic Cardinal, John Henry Newman, who once said that there are not a hundred people who hate the Catholic Church, but the are thousands who hate what they mistakenly think the Church teaches. Those words are as true today as ever.
I invite people to look at the links and comment. I hope they are helpful for those who truly seek answers to questions.
God bless
thoughts?
2007-09-07 04:50:00 · 32 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
To "Phoenix Ablaze" : If its not that important to them, then why do they feel its is important enough to talk about the church in the first place?
2007-09-07 04:59:07 · update #1
Wow! You are so right!
If people properly understood the Roman Catholic teaching there wouldn't be a single Roman Catholic left.
Unless of course the Roman Catholic Church is able to gain the power and ascendancy that it had in it's earlier days when it burnt those who held to the faith of Jesus Christ and burnt those who sought to make the Bible available to all.
Not everybody wants to be burnt for not submitting to the Roman Catholic Church.
Unable to use violence now, it uses deceit of which your question is fine evidence.
It's mischievous claim to be the only church from the beginning in a line from Peter, the Apostle to the Jews, (absurd isn't it?) nevertheless unwittingly identifies and connects the modern version with it's murdering and torturing and persecutory Antichristian forbears.
It is therefore the same wild beast.
If you were in any doubt, it's present structure, organisation arrogant claims and corrupt fruit can be easily examined against the Bible. No wonder it banned the Bible and strove mercilessly to prevent the publication and circulation of the Bible in earlier days.
Thank God indeed we now have His truth freely available to us. Thank God for those who gave their lives under cruel torments for the Reformation.
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
Despite the many evils committed in the name of Christ by many, the Roman Catholic Church exceeds by far all others in destroying and keeping men from the true salvation of God.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
You are indeed so right; people do not properly understand the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
Perhaps only those who have been truly convicted of their sin by God and have come to the knowledge of the truth by revelation from God through His Word.
2007-09-07 05:40:45 · answer #1 · answered by Jens Q 3 · 1⤊ 12⤋
Sometimes Yahoo answers can be very interesting. Here you have asked a question about why do so many people mus-understand the catholic faith, and 90% of the 'answers' are filled with these exact mis-understandings.
Especially the people who made long list of specific things they think are catholic teachings. They are all wrong.
Very interesting.
Of course they did not read your links or explore the faith in any way. So, we are left with no answers to your questions.
I will try from my own experiences. I have researched catholic faith on my own as I have tried to grow in my faith and find wonder in the depth of the church teachings. I have noticed that so many of the misconceptions of the faith are so well spread and so opposite to reality, that it is amazing. I think it comes down to oversimplification. People look for short simple things that they can say are catholic teachings, like say, the pope is infallable. Then they will spend a long time arguing the illogic of that. When in reality, the real teaching is more complicated, and says that the Pope has the power to make infallible (really just Italian for gets the final answer when there is dispute in the church) statements. But only a few things have every been done that way. The rest of what the pope says is designed to help people get deeper into the faith and you can disagree. The infallibility is a power that can be used but is rarely used.
So I think that it is over simplification, mixed with a nasty need to bash something beatiful.
2007-09-07 08:15:13 · answer #2 · answered by brando4755 4 · 4⤊ 1⤋
We are at 500 years of Protestant influence, where christianity started 1500 or 1890 or 1953 or whatever they decided to think for themselves and feels good to them. That is how much information people could put in books, lectures, and other forms of media. If there was no catholic church there would be no bible. Who decides what is inspired and what is not? There were tons of books that could have fallen into the bible but on what authority? There are so many other factors, such as many of the people 2000 years ago didn't speak English, so as with other languages there are no direct translations. For my protestant brothers and sisters, how many churches has a person changed from, starting from when you accepted jesus as your lord and savior? There is only one church and that is the catholic church which was built on a rock, which doesn't fall to horrible storms. Please, give catholic teaching a chance, it makes sense when you hear it from the right people.
2007-09-10 09:27:26 · answer #3 · answered by Niceguy23 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Catholicism was Not started with Jesus, it came into being with all trappings of the Religions practiced about at that time, and Continues to hang onto those beliefs. For instance Image Worship was rampant in The First Century and much of that culture entered into the Church. In 2000 years nothing has changed. Rosaries are found in the Hindu as well as Buddhist Religions, and there is No way that those 2 Religions got it from The Catholics..Like I said, they accepted the Cultures at the time to make it more acceptable.
2007-09-08 04:21:37 · answer #4 · answered by conundrum 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
some different denominations may truely believe that theres is the truth. Only God can convert hearts. If they are not seeking a deeper truth, if they are satisfied with what they have and for now maybe thats enough for them. They are fearful of the catholic faith, there are so many anti catholic untruths and they do not realize that. Maybe they are mainly just teens in here and if their parents teach them against the catholic church they are going to believe their parents. but this is no reason not to tell the truth of the catholic faith, and to proclaim that it is the church built upon Peter, that he was indeed the first pope, tho the bible does not say the word pope, they think )naively) so that it is something we made up.
The main reason I became a catholic was because of the sacrament of confession, I didnt know the Eucharist was really and truely Jesus Chirst here on earth with us now only under the form of bread an d wine )concecrated) by the priest, doing what Jesus himself did at the last supper, thats the main reason I will always remain a catholic, to leave it, I would be leaving Jesus, to only find him in some protestant church as a symbol, they have no tabernackles, no light that shines before the tabernackle, no adoration of the sacred bread, here in the tablernackle, or exposed on the altar, I can go to him and receive graces from him, for I know that he is really and truely therel We walk by faith not by sight. Of corse he is not going to be on the altar in his body, but he is there in the concecrated bread, and that is why we pray before the tabernackle, and bow before we receive him, and bend our knee upon entering the pew , Jesus deserves that homage and it is in being humble, that one can do that. That is true faith!! I love being catholic. Maybe someone else will come to believe thru your efforts here, that is up to God, we can only plant the seeds. You cannot force someone to beleive. God bless you for loving your faith, it is a beautiful faith and I cannot live without it.I will NOT live without it. I maria
2007-09-07 07:23:12 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
LOL, from the number of low rated answers, I'd say your question got a lot of attention.
Honestly, I feel there's no excuse for the ignorance. The information is open and free and everywhere, especially in this day and age. However, even if someone reads the Church's beliefs, there's no guarantee they'll accept them or agree. From there, we must pray pray pray for them.
God bless.
2007-09-10 17:02:26 · answer #6 · answered by Danny H 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Uh, the Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheed said "there are not a hundred people who hate the Catholic Church, but the are thousands who hate what they mistakenly think the Church teaches."
No worries.
God Bless
Robin
2007-09-07 06:25:11 · answer #7 · answered by Robin 3 · 4⤊ 1⤋
So many of our brothers and sisters in Christ lack the wisdom and understanding that of which comes from God with love. The beautiful and re-splendid Bride of Christ, the Church. Ignorance runs ramp-id among those who cannot come to terms with the unchangeable truth. The truth is not something we make up as we go along it is a deposit of faith, something received. We do not drag God down to make Him into what we want Him to be but rather we allow Him to raise us up to be who we ought to be. You accept all of the truth or you reject it all. There is no middle ground and sadly many Catholics truly do not understand their own faith in this respect. The truth is a seamless garment it all goes together, tear it here rip it there and soon the whole of it begins to unravel, its like taking a stone out of an arch or putting a hole in the side of a ship, the boat sinks and the whole arch falls. You cannot logically pick and choose what you want the truth to be , it is what it is why? because the truth is one, unchangeable why again? because the truth is God
2007-09-07 05:50:20 · answer #8 · answered by Gods child 6 · 7⤊ 2⤋
I agree. People are just not open minded enough AND/OR are too ignorant in their own mind that they believe commonly "accepted" misconceptions and don't bother to look up that facts. The same is true for ANY religion tho.
Any religion you look up has its "evils" and screw ups. Those of us who are Catholic NOW do not condone nor are we accepting of those persecutions that took place in the past. VERY WRONG I agree. Too many hot headed leaders of the church let greed ans status get to their head and decided they would do "GOD'S WORK", and took on a mentality of " If you're not with us then you are against us." anyway, point being, THAT is not at the heart of the Catholic religion.
As far as someone mentioning that Catholics practice certain things that do not have biblical "back up", those came along later in the church and just got carried on. For example, Priests being celibate. In that time in history the people of the empire did not beleive it was ok for priests to be sexually active. Since sex is very much about LUST and physical pleasures, it did not look good for the person who was supposed be your liason to God to be as carnal and human as the rest of us. Therefore keeping the priests celibate kept them "pure" in the people's eyes and more saint like. You have to remember that back in the day the church and the government went hand in hand.
You can't look at history and go back a few hundred years and go , "SEE! you made a huge mistake here! That's how you are and that's how you always will be and I'm never going to think any different!". Not fair right? That would be like me looking at something you did when you were a kid and thinking you were still in the same malicious mind set. Anyway I'm going off on a tangent....
That's part of my two cents.
2007-09-07 05:02:15 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 5⤋
Great question. I think it's easier to bash something you don't understand than try to learn about it. Protestant faiths always joke about the bingo's and the Pope we have, but they have "pot luck suppers" and clergy who constantly bend the laws in the bible to suit them selves.
Like getting a divorce, it's not right in any religion..yet I personally know of a Methodist minister who is divorced and re-married.
Again they are all worked up about Priest child molesters, blaming celibacy for this. By no means am I saying this is OK, but how about the boyscout leaders, or Rabbi's or Minister's who commit the same acts? They say we worship idols in church, regardless how many times you explain you ARE
NOT worshiping a statue..they still stick to the same old thought rather than try to find the truth themselves, not to judge us before they know the whole story
Catholic bashing has been going on for years and I don't see it stopping any time real soon
2007-09-07 05:09:32 · answer #10 · answered by djc1175 6 · 7⤊ 3⤋
non-Catholics have no choice but to bash the Catholic Church, and cling to their misconceptions, lest they be forced to face the falsehood of their brand of Christianity.
Not to worry, their ancestors persecuted our Holy Founder, Jesus Christ, in the same way.
2007-09-07 06:59:04 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋