Religon dilema? I just decided to be Catholic again but my friend was backing up Atheists?

Question

I became a Catholic again because my mom told me that she had a dream of Virgin Mary saying how I didn't know her anymore and I cried because I knew it was true that I had been ignoring Virgin Mary ever since I became tried trying out other Christian religons and Buddhism. I told God after that that I would always be Catholic...

but one of my most intelligent friends that I know told me to look up the ten commandments and then look at the Catholic church and I would see how corrupt it is.
he told me to notice how many statues they have, and that because everyone is becoming Atheist now the church is sheltering the illegal immigrants for money.
He said their excuse is to shelter them from the law, but in the Bible it says to respect the law, thus one must know that the catholic church has a different agenda.
He said that churches were only built after Jesus died. The modern day churches is not what Jesus would have wanted.

(forgive me for posting your stuff online please) thats not the way of christ, i have studied the bible very throughly and found no need for a church listed in the bible, the teachings of god must pass from believer to believer or be taught to the masses in a surmon of the mount type fashion, the bible shows how having a church can lead to greed and lust for money, do you remember reading about how jesus went to the temple and found people selling things in it? well this is how most churches work and thats not the will of Christ according to the bible, a sermon should be preformed in public on street corners and never in the same town or city, when you have a church you don't have many new people in it, the modern day church is more like a club a church should not be a palace for saints but a hospital for sinners... so go out and preach the word to everyone... some people will never set foot inside a church and never hear the word of god.. thats not what Christ wanted, forget church it

thats not what Christ wanted, forget church it is a tool for man to gain profit... but don't forget fellowship with other christians.. I am no longer christian but I know enough about the bible and the life of christ to know that churches were never a set part of christianity until well after his death... god sent christ as a model for us and we were susposed to try and live and be like him as musch as possible so to preach the word do as he did traveling and talking to people in each city not confined to a chruch.. even hius disciples followed suit in that way...

your beliefs are your choice.. don't let anyone try to conform you to their way of thinking but don't give them a blind ear when you do, search for truth take nothing for granted question everything....

sorry my mom is screaming at me to get off the computer

the point is, Catholics can you back this up? I am confused...

Answer 1

I'd get your friend a copy of Catholicism for Dummies.
It is obvious the only information your friend has even gotten about the Catholic Church is the false propaganda his church feeds him.
Too bad he is not intelligent enough to think for himself.
http://www.catholic.com/library/do_catholics_worship_statues.asp
http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/10_commandments.htm

Answer 2

The religion you follow is a personal choice. No one can tell you which one is right or which one is wrong. Going back to being a Catholic just because your mom had a dream is not a good thing to do. Guilt is not a reason to belong to a church. Your intelligent friends may not be as smart as you think she is. There are many religions out there, many different kinds of faiths, they all are right and they all are wrong. The problem lies in the people who say there way is the only way and then they try to get you to see the light and become as they are.

You sound old enough to be able to determine what is right for you. If you really want to be a Catholic, then be a great Catholic. If you want to be whatever religion or faith you want to do it well. Do not listen to the words of others, listen to your heart. Also, who knows what Jesus wanted for today. The only agenda the Catholic Church has is in helping Catholics maintain their faith. The Catholic Church is the second longest running religion in the world. It has a very good record in history. Yes, there have been times when some of it has been corrupt. There is no legal sancurary in the United States so that argument is false. Do not listen to your friend, your mom, or to me, just do and believe what is right for you.

Answer 3

Do you have pictures of your Mom. Do you worship your Mom or simply honor her?

Jesus built a Church, which is a community of believers.
See Mt 16:18-19, Mt 18:17-18, Mk 16:15-16, 1 Tim 3:15!

He placed Peter in charge
See Jn 10:16, Mt 16:19, Lk 22:32, Acts 2:14, Acts 8:21, Gal 1:18.

He chose Apostles to Spread the Word of Christ. Church built upon the foundation of the Apostles.
See Eph 20:20, Eph 4:11, 1 Cor 12:28-29, 1 Tim 3:1, 8, 5:17

Authoritative Church
See Mt 28:18-20, Jn 20: 23, 1Cor 11:23-24, Lk 10:16, Mt 18:17-18.

Infallible Church
See Acts 15:28, Jn 16:13, Lk 10:16 1 Tim 3:15, 1 Jn 2:27

Apostolic church
See Jn 15:16, Jn 20:21, Lk 22:29-30, Mt 16:18, Jn 10:16, Lk 22:32, Jn 21:17, Eph 4:11, Tit 1:5.

The Catholic Church is the pillar and foundation of Truth. Titus 1:5.

Founded directly by Jesus the Christ and not built on men.

Answer 4

First, I wanted to say God bless you for coming back home. You made God’s heart smile.

I am a former Protestant Christian who is now Catholic. I became Catholic after I researched the faith and learned the truth about Jesus, His Church, and the bible. If anyone was ever looking to find His truth, His faith, they need look no further than the Catholic Church.

I find it odd that your atheist friend is somehow so anti-Catholic. I guess I expected to see just him being anti-God in general, and not caring about any denomination in particular. However, he seems rather specific in his opinions about the Church, and I can’t help but wonder why, given he doesn’t believe in God in the first place. Please know I’m not trying to bash him at all, just trying to find the roots of his beliefs.

I’d suggest that you really dig in and study the Catholic Church. Make sure your sources are Catholic, like the catechism, the bible, Catholic websites, etc. It does no good to take your information from people who are already anti-Catholic. Their information will more than likely be extremely biased, and will not be of any help if you’re trying to get honest answers.

You listed several different issues that would be very hard to address at the same time here, so if you’d like, I’d be happy to help answer them separately. Email me anytime. I will say in brief that Catholics do follow the ten commandments, we do love Jesus and we do love the bible. Churches are not centers for money-making, but places of worship, as Christ wanted. Yes, we are called preach on the street (evangelize), but that preaching is much more than giving public sermons. We are called to LIVE the faith, not just yell it on street corners. Day by day we must do our best to grow deeper in our faith, and deeper in our love of Christ. That is the Christian mission. We are called to show this love to others, as Jesus loves us. People will respond to our actions before they respond to our words. Anyone can stand up and preach a good talk, but how many actually walk to Walk? We must ask ourselves in our daily life, “When people see us, do they see Christ?”

I hope that my words have been helpful. Again, email me if you wish anytime. I’d be glad to hear from you. God bless, and Merry Christmas.

Answer 5

Your friend doesn't know everything. Catholicism is not completely corrupt. True, every established and organized religion does have corruption and setbacks. BUt it should not interfere between you and your relationship with God. And it is not a fact that they are sheltering illegal immigrants. I don't know where he even came up with that. ALso how does he know what Jesus wanted in the church?? Is he Jesus? Jesus asked Peter to go and start the church. A church is a group of followers who believe in Christ. ALthough the Catholic church has made a lot of their agenda about rituals, they are still a church and still believe in God, as the ONE true ever living God, regardless of what you might hear. If rituals and ceremonies get in the way of your relationship with God, then might I suggest a non-denominational service.

Answer 6

In order to practice your religion, you have to have two things: obedience and perseverance.
If you have a devotion to the Blessed Virgin, I suggest to you that you make a novena of the rosary before making any sort of drastic decisions. Another thing that probably must occur is that your receive a heart of flesh. Ask for a tender heart to replace the heart of stone that you have for your religion.

Your relationship with your parents is changing and becoming more mature. Soon it will be time when your parents will no longer be responsible for the decisions you make, good or bad, but if they are kind, loving and gracious parents, they will allow you your space. They will say things like: "The door is always open." These types of parents are the ones who are like diamonds. Precious in the eyes of the Lord.

I wish you well in your endeavors. Nurture a brave and noble heart above all, and do not turn your back on that which loved and fed you. There are many in this world who would attack it.

Answer 7

Did your atheist friend also tell you there is no God? Your friend is wrong. There is the potential for any organization to have problems and there is also potential for problems to be resolved. You can not judge the Church by the actions of individual congregations.
Jesus chose twelve disciples for a reason. The duty of one of them was to care for the financial matters that would arise. That was Judas. You can't give financial aid to those who need it if you don't have the finances. The disciples and their families all gathered together in a room on the day of Pentecost. Wherever they went they formed a local congregation of those who believed and appointed leaders over them.
We do not stress following the Ten Commandments because when you live your life as Christ wants you to you are living within them already.
The fool has said in his heart there is no God. Recognize a fool for what he is and discern his words carefully.

Answer 8

It is not the church that is corrupt, it is some of the people in the church. I would challenege anyone to find me any field of profession or faith that everyone in it is truly doing what is right?

People make mistakes that is why Jesus came to save us all. If people did not sin then there would be no reason for Jesus' sacrafice.

Many athiests that I know just say they are because they do not wanna have to deal with the consequences for doing things wrong. It is easier to think that when you die you will just go into nothingness as opposed to having to answer to someone for all of the decisions we have made in our lives.

Now I am not catholic so i do not believe that we have to go confess everytime we do something wrong or we will not get into heaven. Once saved always saved. I believe that as Christians we will make many mistakes but it is our duty to try to do our best to stay on the right course and when we mess up ask for God's forgiveness directly from the source. And learn from our mistakes.

Answer 9

Look here dear,God loves you whether u are Catholic or not.All he cares about is if u love him too.Wen Jesus died he did not say i am dying for Catholics or Jews only he died for us all.
the church is the body of Christ it is not a building but the people who are in it that make it.There are somethings though that are in Catholicism that i don't quite agree with for example the bible says Jesus intercedes for us so we pray all things in the name of Jesus not in the name of the Virgin Mary.
Mary was Gods mom thats it.

my advice is in a time like this least u sin seek the face of GOD.he is ur heavenly father that is y he is there so pray.

Answer 10

Go to your local parish and speak to a Priest. Asking this kind of question on Y!A is not really going to help you. I think that it may actually misguide you....

I am a Catholic and I will always be a Catholic...I have strayed at times throughout my life but I always found my way back home. The Catholic faith is hard to understand and grasp if you were not raised that way, or if you have been influenced by non-Catholics that think we are actually non-Christian...

Crying over your weak relationship with our Blessed Mother should tell you enough! Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.....As Mary to keep you under Her protection.
God Bless you and I really hope that you remain Faithful to Christ and his Holy Catholic Church. Say this Prayer.....

Mary,
you heard a voice.
You answered, "Yes,"
risking shame and disgrace,
ridicule and rejection.
Still, you said, "Yes."
Yes, to the promise
you received from God.
Yes, to the birth
of a firstborn son.
Let your trust be our inspiration,
your faith
be our guide,
your hope
our course for courage.
This we ask
in the name of the child
you bore,
the Savior of the world,
who came
through God's abiding love
and your spoken word.
Yes.
So be it.
Amen.

Answer 11

There's a difference between religion and faith. You can have faith (or believe) in Jesus, and not be religious (like going to church every Sunday).

You can be religious, but have no faith (going to church, not not honoring the ten commandments, for example).

You are correct - the Catholic church was not founded until well after the death of Jesus. I personally think that Jesus would be more concerned about the message (that the road to happiness is through love and charity) than the structure of the church.