I stumbled across this website while doing an
internet search on whether or not the Catholic church is indeed a
Christian church. I was raised Catholic, attended a catholic school,
and took several years of catechism classes. Through all this I
never understood who Jesus was and the fact that He paid the price
for my sins (in full).
Here is what I learned as a young Catholic...
• Worshipping Mary was more important than Jesus, or the scriptures.
• Praying has an "act of contrition" or punishment (how sad).
• If I die wearing a scapular, then I go straight to heaven.
• We all go to purgatory. There are some sins God just can't
forgive.
• The Catholic church can grant indulgences to sin.
• You can't be a Catholic if you are divorced, except for an
annulment
and the accompanying fee.
• The priest is the one to forgive our sins.
And this is my short list. The bible supports none of this. In fact,
much of the Catholic doctrine is a slap in the face of Jesus and his
sacrifice at Calvary.
The true catholic history is one filled with violence, muder, lust,
greed, and the pursuit of power. The Catholic church today feeds off
of the poor and elderly in this country and abroad. It claims to be
the true church that Christ started. Did Christ start a church to be
filled with sexual perversions, and twisted theology?
Wake up Catholics! Read your bibles!!
What is more important, God's word, or your doctrine? Search the
history and traditions of your church. So much of what is called
"tradition' and Catholic doctrine is based on pagan religions that
were absorbed into the Catholic church.
The Good News is this; God love us all. And though we are all
sinners, He
paid the price for our sins so that we can enjoy eternal life with
Him. There is no purgatory, no interceding for the dead, no lighting
of candles, no confessional that can change this. Open your eyes and
hearts, read your bibles, ask God for wisdom and move as He directs
you. I know many Catholics that have hearts of gold and a passion
for their religion.
Change this into a passion for God and His will, and you will indeed
see a mighty change in this persons life.
I count it a mighty blessing that God placed in a Christian church
that opened my eyes to who Jesus was and what He did. I learned more
in one bible study than I did in 10 years of Catholic schooling.
Religion is for naught, lest we rightfully serve the Risen Lord,
Jesus Christ, and live with
His love and power in our hearts.
Joe
Joe:
I'm sorry you got such terrible catechesis. I'm sure you will be
relieved to learn that the Church in fact condemns the worship of
Mary and always has. She is a creature, not the Creator. She is, it
is true, given the highest honor due a creature, but it is still
only the honor due a creature, not the honor due the Creator. And
since we all honor creatures, that's no big deal (unless of course
you spit on the command to honor your mother and father as weird way
of "loving God"). So you don't have to worry about the Catholic
Church teaching we should "worship Mary". It doesn't.
As to the rest, what is wrong with a prayer of contrition (which
means "sorrow for sins" not "punishment)? Psalm 51 is a prayer of
contrition.
The devotion to the brown scapular is not meant to imply that the
scapular is magic. If, as you claim in your opening paragraph, you
want to know whether the Catholic Church is Christian, you can find
out more
here.
(By the way, is it really true that you learned this growing up? How
old are you? One is hard pressed to find Catholic parishes where the
devotions you mention are even known of, much less encouraged at a
popular level anytime since the 60s. Are you *sure* you haven't just
read up on such devotions after you decided to leave the Catholic
Church? Just a question.)
Concerning "We all go to Purgatory". This is simply not the teaching
of
the Church. If you die in mortal sin(ie. in obstinate refusal of the
grace of God), you will go to hell, not Purgatory. If you die in
perfect conformity to the image of Christ, you will enter the
Beatific vision. It is only if you die in the friendship of Christ,
yet not fully conformed to his image that you will go to Purgatory.
For a discussion of how Purgatory is perfectly biblical, go
here.
There is only one sin God cannot forgive: refusal to receive his
grace(also known as "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit"). The Church
teaches this because Jesus did. What other sins did you think the
Church said could not be forgiven?
The Church cannot and does not grant "indulgences to sin". If you
are
going to reject Catholic teaching you should at least take the
trouble to find
out what it is. Otherwise, when you tell people you are "doing an
internet search on whether or not the Catholic church is indeed a
Christian church" it looks rather like you are really looking for
excuses to tell lies about the Catholic Church in order to make
yourself feel better for leaving it. For the real story on what
indulgences are, go
here.
(And, by the way, as with scapulars, one is hard pressed to find
Catholics who are even aware that there are indulgences anymore, so
I hope you will forgive my skepticism that your youth was filled
with people running around racking up indulgences. This, like most
of the stuff you list, sounds like
items on a checklist from some pamphlet on "Why the Roman Church is
a Cult", not like an authentic account of a real Catholic youth in
the US anytime since Vatican II or, really, before it.
You can be Catholic if you are divorced. You can't receive communion
if you divorced and remarried, because Jesus (remember him?) said
that this was adultery. An annulment is not a divorce but a
determination that there was never a valid marriage in the first
place.
God forgives sins. However, Jesus empowered his apostles to forgive
sins in his name. It's right there in John 20:22-23 — if you are
*really* interested in being charitable to Catholics and not just
firing off accusations from the "Thank God I'm not a Catholic
Anymore Fundamentalist Pamphlet of Tired Accusations".
So, the Bible *does* support Catholic teaching. It doesn't support
things like "Mary worship" and "indulgences to sin". But then those
things aren't Catholic teaching. The Church does indeed rely on
Sacred Tradition as well
as Sacred Scripture. That's because Paul told us to do so in 2
Thessalonians 2:15. Happily, you rely on Sacred Tradition too, or
you wouldn't be an orthodox Protestant. The difference between us is
simply that we rely on Sacred Tradition and know we do, while you
rely on Sacred Tradition and don't know you do. Don't believe it?
Read this (if you
dare) from my book By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers
Sacred Tradition
The sexual scandals in the Church are proof — that the Church has
sinners in it. They are not proof of anything else (unless you wish
to argue that the presence of Judas Iscariot in the early Church
means Jesus founded a cult). Similarly, the fact that Catholic
history is filled with violence and murder is an excellent argument
— for rejecting the inspired Scriptures of King David and the
validity of the Davidic monarchy and the Messiah that sprang from
his line. Or, if you don't think that human sin destroys God's
sovereign purposes with the Davidic monarchy, then you have to face
the fact that the sinfulness of Catholics does not negate the
Church's teaching or the presence of the Holy Spirit anymore than
David's sins did.
Now, a question for you: Are you going to cling to the falsehoods
about what the Church teaches that I have taken the time to educate
you on? Or are you going to refuse to educate yourself so that you
can go on cherishing bitterness against the Church? If the former,
then you do right. If the latter, then you are choosing to bear
false witness and deliberately embracing the choice to reject
charity. That is not the act of a real disciple of Christ. I'm glad
you've had an experience of mercy and grace from Christ. Now extend
mercy and grace to brother and sister Christians in the Catholic
Church by not bearing false witness against them anymore.
Find out what the Church actually teaches.
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
