Anti-Catholicism

  • Thread starter Thread starter melaniem75
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

melaniem75

Guest
Hello everyone,

Besides praying and living a christian life, how do I deal with anti-catholic sentiment from others? This sentiment does not make me angry, it mostly makes me feel that I can’t say openly that I’m catholic(so I don’t become a target for the negative sentiment). I’m sensitive to other peoples feelings so when I experience a situation that involves anti-catholic sentiment I try to understand why the person feels the way they do. One such event happened concerning Pope Benedict the XVI where someone at work called him “Pope Adolf”. Very frustrating.😦

God Bless,
Melanie

P.S.: Please no flaming-God Bless
 
In situations like this I go for good natured one-liners.

“Yoiks! What ever gave you THAT idea?”

Where did you hear a thing like that?

I’m *amazed *at what some people think Catholics believe!

In this case, you might have countered – “Why would you say a thing like that?”
 
Hi,

In the situation where the comment “Pope Adolf” was made, I admit that I didn’t do anything. I thought that particular person was trying to lure me into an argument in which case I thought that ignoring the comment was best. I’m a bit of a “woose” when it comes to arguments - I try to avoid them as much as possible.

Melanie
 
This hit’s close to me because I am often labeled “the religious one” in my family. It hurts, especially when it is done by the ones you love the most because you feel like you cannot express yourself to the people closest to you. The best way I can cope with it is to joke about it.

For example…

My mother sarcasticly calls me “Fr. Paul” or says things like “you should’ve been a priest” whenever we talk about religion and we have a disagreement. I then remind her of the amount of money she spent for 12-years of Catholic school and how it was well spent.😉
 
Do not be afraid to speak the truth and defend the Church:
Matthew 10:28:
*And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. *

…and rejoice if they mock you:
Matt 5: 10-12
*Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. *
*Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me. *
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

…for you are following in the footsteps of Christ:
John 15:20
Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
 
And keep a charitable and forgiving attitude. Remember that most people get a lot of assistance in developing their views of the Catholic Church from the secular news media or outspoken anti-Catholics who don’t really understand Church teachings.

Luke 23:34
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

And a little advice from our first pope:

*1 Peter 3:15-16
Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. *

Although you might not reach the person you’re talking to, there may be others listening who will be sympathetic and will admire you for standing up for the truth. Anyone who is being uncharitable to you is likely only defeating himself. You often won’t see the fruits of your good work. That’s the difficult part.
 
You should get some Apologetics books/tapes/materials so that you know more about your faith and can appropriately defend it. Also, get involved in some Catholic movemnts like Cursillo, Light of the World, Catholic Bible studies, etc.

The more you talk about it with loved ones/friends, the more comfortable you’ll be with co-workers/acquantances/strangers!
 
Thanks everyone for the great advice and bible passages!

I’ve been getting Envoy Magazine so I got the ball rolling with my Apologetics study. I also have a couple of the Surprised by Truth books which are great too. I need to learn to articulate in words my faith, wasn’t it Moses who had this problem too, of voicing and articulation?

Melanie:)
 
The best way I know of to deal with it is by living your faith. That way when you engage in discussion with people about the church, they will be able to see that you walk the walk, too.

My best friend just married a woman who very much does not like Catholics. But after only a very short time – and actually getting to know two (me and my wife) – her views are changing. We had a discussion last week about abortion and euthenasia and she was able to see that her views and my views are exactly the same. (I made a point of saying several times in the conversations “And the church teaches…” I wanted her to know she wasn’t just agreeing with me, but with catholic teaching as well.)

Once you establish that you have something – anything, really – in common with someone, it is much easier to find other areas in which you agree.

Now, she and I haven’t had the “but-you-people-worship-statues!!!” discussion or the “but-you-people-worship-Mary!!!” discussion yet, but I look forward to the day that we do.

The two main reasons I can see that someone would say something like “Pope Adolf” is because they are badly misinformed or else they are trying to be mean. If they are badly misinformed, you can fix that by understanding your church and not being afraid to explain what the church is really about. (I don’t mean to imply that you don’t do that now! I don’t have any information on that. 🙂 I just mean it as a general observation.)

If they are trying to be mean, well, you might be able to fix that by meeting intolerance with tolerance, anger with love and rash words with patience. It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a shot. And if it doesn’t do the trick, at least you will know that you did nothing wrong.

I suppose there will always be people in the world who want to hate others for some prejudicial reason. I would rather be hated for being a catholic than for, say, being white. After all, I was born white and I can’t really change that. I could – not that I ever would or would ever seriously consider it – but I could convert to another religion or abandon religion altogether. If someone wants to find fault with me and that person’s heart cannot be changed, at least I want them to find fault with something that is a result of a decsion I made instead of a fact of birth!🙂
 
**"Once you establish that you have something – anything, really – in common with someone, it is much easier to find other areas in which you agree. " from Catholic Poet

I really like this point. This is the kind of approach I use with my parents who are anti-catholic/anti-church/anti-religion. Thank God they believe in God although sometimes to look at my family (immediate only) you’d think they were atheists (I don’t over exaggerate). Without getting into detail, when it comes to my family its been hard in terms of anti-catholic sentiment. My grandfather (God rest his soul, he passed on in Feb. '99), on my father’s side, believed the Pope was the antichrist; Grandpa was from the Pentecostal faith. My dad feels (vehemently) that catholic priests can’t be trusted because of the sex scandal. My mother hates religion, most of the time when I bring up that I’m going to mass it seems to make her annoyed/uneasy/disinterested - she does not encourage me to go to church needless to say.

My conversion story is too long to tell right now but I’m glad to be **home **in the Catholic Church. On a positive note my grandmother on my mothers side was a devout catholic, my inspiration comes from her - (God rest her soul; she passed on in 2001, 4/11). More inspiration comes from my aunt on my father’s side who is a devout Baptist and my other aunt also on my father’s side who was a protestant missionary in her youth. More inspiration: I have an uncle who’s a Presbyterian minister and another uncle who was a Pentecostal minister (he passed away in the early 80’s, God rest his soul) also on my father’s side. No catholic priests or religious on the Catholic side of my family(mother’s side)🙂 .

Melanie

**
 
I had a simliar experience at work. An avowed liberal coworker made the comment loud enough for me to hear in reference to Pope Benedict’s election …“and it’s Hitler’s birthday tommorrow too”, followed up by …“we all know that at least (my name) is happy with new Pope”. I try not to get ruffled, understanding where he is coming from. (the most recent presidential elections ferreted this out).

I agree with the above posters that the solution is to learn the faith more. By calmly offering this coworker an explanation of the whys of what the Church teaches (it’s not a democracy, what infalliable teaching means, why Christ instituted an all male priesthood, …that the popular media presentation of the Crusades largely distorts the abuses that occurred – yes, he was throwing in the kitchen sink at one point as as I continued to offer calm explanation to his erroneous contentions) I find is the most effective way to disarm and confuse 'em with the facts. I was not looking to convert him, simply to diffuse his unfounded attack. Funny how their true motives surface once you do this. He was not interested in dialogue, more just mud slinging. Bye the way, this coworker got quite frustrated and ended the conversation by stating emphatically -“I will continue to worship my goddess”. Where I once shunned such encounters, now I must say that I enjoy such encounters.

Bye the way, great bible citations Milimac.
 
Every company I’ve worked for had policies against such derogatory speech in the workplace. Follow your companies HR guidelines and file a complaint.
 
40.png
felra:
Bye the way, great bible citations Milimac.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I’m not usually able to quote scripture off the top of my head, but I can usually remember enough words in the passage to do a search. Just go to this site and enter certain keywords or a phrase in quotes and you’ll likely find it (may have to click a few links to find the passage you’re looking for): usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm

I’ve been going to daily Mass or at least reading the readings for the day and it’s amazing how many times certain passages come to mind when you’re praying for guidance.

I can’t claim I’m any better at putting such things in practice though. It still doesn’t take too much to get me angry and jam me up.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top