Attention Catholics, what misinformation have you heard/read about our religion lately?

Question

Recently I read a post that a difference between Catholicism and Protestantism (ala Martin Luther) is confession.. In fact Luther encouraged confession to Priests.

Please share..

Hi Mark T..

Please research this some more..

The Catholic Mass is close to what Jesus would want - it includes language from the Last Supper every time. Not a free for all. Structured..

The Church has practiced Lectio Divina for ages. The Catholic Church is very much Bible based. Read about the Benedictines http://www.osb.org

The tradition of no marriage comes from St. Paul not being married

Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Pope - not a cult at all. I am not OD

Praying to the Saints and to Mary is no different from asking living Church members to pray for you. Christ gave His Mother to us to be our Mother.

The US is a democratic republic with separation of Church and State - the Church has no say about politics. The Church has nothing to say on the matter at all.

Confession is a good practice. Even Martin Luther believed in confession.

Lots of fellowship within the Catholic Church, many different groups such as the Knights of Columbus, etc

Answer 1

nothing new. apparently, anti-Catholics can't think of something new other than parrot what they heard from their pastors and same old biases against the Catholic Church.

Answer 2

The 'best' of the 'misinformation' I've ever heard or read is that Catholics CAN NOT be 'Christians.' Of course if you are a Catholic, you know that the Catholic was the 'first church' that followed Jesus Christ's teachings, and we are all Christians. What gets me is that some of the people who give this 'misinformation' as fact are CATHOLICS!
Did you know that there are more than one 'Catholic' church? There is the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, and the Episcopalian ... ALL have the 'apostolic procession' in their ordination of priests, and are all 'Catholic' and not 'Protestant' churches. Some Protestant churches also have 'apostolic procession' but they have some 'other belief' that hte Catholic churches do not have. And did you know that while the Pope did 'excommunicate' Martin Luther, he NEVER STOPPED being a 'Catholic' and he went to Mass DAILY, and wrote most of his best 'Catholic dogmatic work' AFTER that excommunication. Excommunication does not mean you are 'thrown out' of the church membership. It actually means that you are supposed to go to Mass at least once a day, EVERY DAY, but you CAN NOT TAKE THE EUCHARIST (Holy Communion) ... which explains what 'ex-communication' means.
'Confession' is very different in meaning if you are a Catholic or a Protestant. In the Catholic church, you may make a 'general confession' with the whole congregation during mass, or you may have a 'private' confession with a priest who will give you 'penances' to do, like saying the Rosary or one 'cycle' of the Rosary several times, or saying other prayers. The Catholics believe that a 'priest' is necessary to get God's forgiveness OFFICIALLY, but they don't always go to a 'private confession' anymore (since 1965, when that was 'discouraged' by the Bishops in Council). Protestants believe that 'confession' should be made in prayer 'directly to God' although that too is something that is rarely done in practice. Some Protestant churches believe that to 'confess' to a sin and be forgiven, one must 'speak out during the church service' and 'be forgiven by the congregation' to get 'God's forgiveness.'
I live in a city where we have people of ALL religions who are MEMBERS of our Catholic Cathedral church. There is a 'line' on the 'membership form' for your religion, and I've seen people put Muslim, down, or Baptist, and even a few agnostics and atheists put that down ... and they are some of the 'best' at going to Masses regularly. The can't 'take the Eucharist' but they can do everything else (except be an Extraordinary minister, since one must be able to take communion in order to 'give it' in the wafer alone outside of church or as the wafer or wine in church with a priest present to do the 'ritual' beforehand.

Answer 3

I was brought up catholic in Peru...did my first communion, marriage, confirmation, and what not. I lived in the US since I was 18. I am now a charismatic Christian. Until I made mind up my life had not been inspired by God, why? He had a plan for me to see the truth:

1) Catholic services are always the same. Sign of a cult.
2) No emphasis on reading the bible, during church, after church, no Sunday school.
3) Priests and Nuns cannot marry. This law is not mentioned in the bible.
4) Opus dei a cult.
5) Praying to saints and virgins, wrong they all died, never resurected. What they acheived was through devine intervention of God.
6) Allowing politicians like Senator John Kerry, have his marriage "annuled" after 17 of marriage, by the former Archbishop of Boston, Bernard Law, who was indicted for child molestation is wrong.
7) The confession system is wrong. I knew many people who lived in sin all week, myself included, and I went to confession, prayed a few hail Mary's, and a few Lords prayers to put a band aid on the booboo, to repeat the deeds the next week.
8) Short services, no real emphasis on fellowship.

Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life nobody gets to heaven without truth in him, period. Catholics don't get anything done by praying to Saints and Virgins. Mary, Jesus's mother did not perform a miracle, God did. Right? Jesus performed miracles through out his life, nobody else did.

Answer 4

Yes, true. Martin Luther also asked to confess to a Catholic priest on his death bed. He also always believed in the Immaculate Conception (that's of Mary) and continued to pray to her and see her as deserving of honor.

I haven't heard anything new. Only the same old stuff...worship of idols and Mary for the most part. Any one who believes that need only read and research the Catholic faith to find out just how off the mark that thinking is.

Answer 5

Perhaps Luther did encourage confession to priests....but none of the Lutherans I know today confess to priests. So maybe they've abandoned Martin Luther's own teachings...but modern Lutherans do not go to confession.

Answer 6

Catholics are not Christians. Simply because the word Catholic is not in the Bible.

The following are some of the things which are not mentioned in the Bible, and yet many Christians believe.
1.The word "Trinity," meaning three persons in one God, each equal to the other. The word "Trinity" is not in the Bible. The word was invented by the Catholic Church to try to explain somewhat the mystery of there being three persons in one God , as is revealed by God in the Bible. The Athanasian Creed, dating from the late 4th century, was written during the time of St. Athanasius (297 - 373), bishop of Alexandria, but probably not by him. It states "The Catholic Faith is this, that we worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." The Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) said that Jesus is of one substance with God the Father. It explained the absolute unity between God and Jesus. The Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381) said the same about the Holy Spirit as Nicea said about Jesus. St. Augustine (345 - 430) wrote De Trinatate (about the Trinity).
2.The word "Rapture"
3.The words "Altar call"
4.A list of inspired books which make up the Canon of Scripture, i.e., a list of the books to be included in "The Bible"
5.The Sabbath Day is Saturday. Exodus 20:8 says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." It is not written down in the New Testament that the Apostles had the authority to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
6.The word "Incarnation," i.e., the Son of God took on flesh
7.That the Bible alone is to be used as the sole rule of faith
8.By faith alone you are saved

Answer 7

Aside from people saying that we worship statues, and the usual cavalcade of nonsense? I overheard a co-worker once insisting that Catholics worship the Pope, and heard a preacher on the radio stating that the Vatican keeps records of every Protestant on Earth and will call up those records someday for the purpose of forcible conversion.

Answer 8

The most interesting misinformation on Yahoo! Answers in the last couple of days is that "Vicar of Christ" means "Anti-Christ" in Greek.

Some people need more lesson in Greek.

With love in Christ.

Answer 9

none that I can think of. Luther also believed in the true pressence of Jesus in the Eucharist, (communion). that once saved ALWAYS saved is not even biblical.

Answer 10

Well, you are misinformed. The Roman Catholic CHURCH is a branch of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION, not a religion unto itself.

You are a denomination like the Lutherans, Greek Orthodox and even the undenominational supersized Protestant churches. They are all CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, including you Roman Catholic CHRISTIANS.