"Catholism ain't Christian" . . . Oh, Really?

[Friend_Of_Rome]

A question I have often come across is the whole issue of Protestants, especially Baptists, saying that Catholics aren’t Christian. I guess having a Christ-centered religion isn’t enough? Perhaps they purposely blind themselves to the Faith because it might upset their self-assured righteousness? Perhaps they treat some Catholics poorly because, well, I don’t know why. Why do people speak with ignorance, and yet claim to speak with the Spirit? For me, this only proves that they don’t.

And another little thing I noticed in my correspondences . . .they call Catholicism “Catholism.” I don’t know why. Maybe they are simply not good typers?

 

[Jaypeeto3]

It seems the bigger ignoramuses they are, the more antiCatholic they are. Type the word, CATHOLISM, into Google and look at the anti Catholic screeds that come up.
They don’t even know it’s Catholicism or how to spell it.

They also love to call the Church, “Romanism.”
Type THAT into Google, too, and you’ll get enough dirt on the Catholic Church to last a lifetime.

My evangelical friends feel it is perfectly okay to pull Catholics out of the Catholic church. One of my friends (not very close to him anymore) even told me that the Catholic Church
is just an Apostate church and pleaded with me not to join it.

Jaypeeto3 (aka Jaypeeto4)

 

[Verita]

Since converting, I have had problems with Anti-Catholicism in my family. I was guilty of it at one point too. I ended up breaking up with a boyfriend in college because he was Catholic. He took me to a Mass and I was so disturbed by I couldn’t continue.

Currently, the biggest source of Anti-Catholicism in my life is from my uncle who is an evangelical minister. He wrote up a charming paper called “Vile immortality of the Popes” that he gives out to people (including my mother after I decided to convert) and which uses such wonderful language as “whoring after worldly wealth and power” “Romish” etc.

Other than my uncle, most of my family expresses anti-Catholic sentiments through ignorance. My cousin differentiated Catholics and Christians in one conversation, but not maliciously. My mother worries when I express belief in purgatory that I have been influenced by the “Deceiver”. My sister argues that Martin Luther wouldn’t have broken away from the Church unless there was a good reason.

But these people speak from ignorance. They are Sola Scripture people who don’t even know who the Church Fathers are. (Neither did I at one time.) My uncle throws accusations against the Church and the Popes in particular from “30 years of reading” (as he told me) but a simple look at a reliable reference source would have shown him how false most of his accusations are. My mother refutes my historical instruction about how it was Luther who removed books from the Bible not the Church that added them by saying “Well, you know who wrote those history books. The Catholics!” It is sad.

 

[lak611]

I cannot answer that poll because all of my Protestant family members and friends are very charitable. I do not know any Protestants who have said anything anti-Catholic to me personally. The only anti-Catholic people I have encountered have been on internet fora or TV/radio preachers, but never anyone I actually spoke to face-to-face. I work at an ecumenical mission meal for the poor, so I encounter lots of Protestants; and they all have been charitable.

On the other hand, the people I encounter in my daily life (in person, not on internet fora) that are anti-Catholic are not Protestants, they are “ex-Catholics”. People who have left the Catholic Church are more anti-Catholic than those who were never part of it.

 

[Eileen_T]

I upset a lady recently when I told her if I wasn’t a Catholic I wouldn’t be a Christian at all. She asked why I couldn’t be a Baptist. So I told her that the Catholic Church is either totally right in it’s teachings, which means I couldn’t belong to a different denomination, or it was soooooooo wrong it wasn’t Cristian at all because we would then be worshipping a wafer of bread rather than the Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity of Christ.

The problem with anti-Catholics is that they believe just that!

I worked for a man who used to be anti-Catholic, now he is at least looking at the Church although his wife is still ‘anti’. I was able to answer his questions and give scriptural arguments for what the Church teaches.

Once I had established that our doctrines weren’t conjured up out of thin air, he was willing to look at the evidence of the ECF. That is usually the way I approach discussions.

But I never get into arguments with people who are adamantly anti-Catholic as Jesus cautioned us not to cast pearls before swine in case they get trampled on. I just say that one of us is right and one is wrong and that it is too important to be led astray by biases and untruths. We owe it to ourselves and God to be totally sure.

 

[Church_Militant]

Having been out of the faith for over 34 years I have to say that I don’t know how to vote in your poll because, based on your intro post it over simplifies and generalizes the problem and I don’t think we can honestly and legitimately do that.

There are metric load of reason that n-Cs give for their problems with our most holy faith. It is not n-Cs in general who are the problem and one needs to be careful not to paint all of them with the same anti-Catholic brush because it’s just wrong.

Most of the n-Cs that I know well enough to dialog with are not anti-Catholic though I find that a great many of them, depending on what church they are in have been exposed to some of the a-C propaganda. Many have expressed gratitude when they bring up these things and I offer straightforward Biblical and historical information to refute it.

There are some pretty bizarre things out there on the net and in some people’s heads. But what else is new?

 

[homewardbound]

I’ve been dating my Catholic boyfriend for almost a year now and since then my mom is terrified I’m going to end up like my sister and her Episcopilian husband. They don’t even GO TO CHURCH because they refuse to agree on where to go, Baptist church or his. So their child is being raised in no church at all. I keep telling my mom I’m converting, but anymore she seems to be deaf to it.

My whole family is very anti Catholic. The Catholics they know aren’t very good representations of the faith and they believe all the lies they’re fed by the Baptist preachers. Right now my family are members at a church whose pastor is extremely anti Catholic. He spreads his ignorance from the pulpit constantly. I refuse to go there anymore and my mom asks me why I don’t go to church anymore.(Even though she knows I go to mass every week) I’m going to be confirmed this year and I have no idea how to tell my family. They won’t go to my confirmation, and I’ll be surprised if anyone but my parents go to my wedding when it happens. Me and my boyfriend plan to have a mass said at the ceremony, and my family would be upset. They’ll be upset anyway. Since I’ll be raising my children so wrong.

Sorry, I vented a bit.

 

[GratefulSoul]

I’m ashamed to say that there was a time when I would have asserted just that! In my young adult years I was strongly influenced by several well-known and boisterous anti-Catholic preachers/authors. It took me years of honest, humble open-minded inquiry to discover how distorted my acquired view truly was. Though I am not a card-carrying member as yet, I consider myself to be predominately Catholic in my beliefs. This has been a sensitive area with my wife! She grew up Nazarene and has very limited knowledge of anything beyond the American brand of evangelical Christianity.

 

[El_Paulo]

While I grew up meeting one or two Christians who saw it as their vocation to tell Catholics that they should leave the faith, in recent years it seems to have improved a lot in this country. There are few ‘crusades’ against Catholicism, and those “cath-bashing” leaflets I do read tend to have the USA as their place of origin. I know that things can get quite lively over there!!

There are many denominations who work together in my city and I am involved in a number of shared initiatives such as social action projects and Lent groups run by different churches.

Those who do seem to have a vendetta against the “Romish”(?!) are rarely militant about it and some honest discussion usually gets all that misunderstanding out the way - though many people can never get their heads round Mary! - oh well!

 

[Friend_Of_Rome]

So far, I think one word really sums it up-IGNORANCE.

Now the question is, How do we educate in a christ-like manner, and yet not offend them?

 

[Friend_Of_Rome]

Oh-Another idea as to where i want this thread to travel next.

Have any of you ever seen “Der Neunte Tag?” It’s about Nazi anti-Catholicism during the war. Literally, the ninth day, it shows a priestr who has nine days of freedom from a work camp, and he must become a nazi informer.

How can we conteract the anti-Catholic regimes of the world? Those who use violence are killed, and those who use words are murdered.

However, this brings to mind a prayer I once heard-If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations. if there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities. if there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace in the neighborhood. If there is to be peace in the neighborhood, there must be peace in the home. If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the family. If there is to be peace in the family, let it start with me.

 

[Revelation13_16]

Currently, the biggest source of Anti-Catholicism in my life is from my uncle who is an evangelical minister. He wrote up a charming paper called “Vile immortality of the Popes” that he gives out to people (including my mother after I decided to convert) and which uses such wonderful language as “whoring after worldly wealth and power” “Romish” etc.

Does your uncle have a website?

If not, can he PM me this ‘charming paper’?

Thanks.

God Bless,
Rev

 

[reneeville]

God bless you in you in your upcoming Confirmation! Invite your family to attend your special day… the worst they can do is say no, but if you don’t invite them, they don’t even have that option. Who knows! They may attend and have a conversion experience too!!
In Christ’s love,
Renee

I’ve been dating my Catholic boyfriend for almost a year now and since then my mom is terrified I’m going to end up like my sister and her Episcopilian husband. They don’t even GO TO CHURCH because they refuse to agree on where to go, Baptist church or his. So their child is being raised in no church at all. I keep telling my mom I’m converting, but anymore she seems to be deaf to it.

My whole family is very anti Catholic. The Catholics they know aren’t very good representations of the faith and they believe all the lies they’re fed by the Baptist preachers. Right now my family are members at a church whose pastor is extremely anti Catholic. He spreads his ignorance from the pulpit constantly. I refuse to go there anymore and my mom asks me why I don’t go to church anymore.(Even though she knows I go to mass every week) I’m going to be confirmed this year and I have no idea how to tell my family. They won’t go to my confirmation, and I’ll be surprised if anyone but my parents go to my wedding when it happens. Me and my boyfriend plan to have a mass said at the ceremony, and my family would be upset. They’ll be upset anyway. Since I’ll be raising my children so wrong.

Sorry, I vented a bit.

 

[Church_Militant]

Oh-Another idea as to where i want this thread to travel next.

Have any of you ever seen “Der Neunte Tag?” It’s about Nazi anti-Catholicism during the war. Literally, the ninth day, it shows a priestr who has nine days of freedom from a work camp, and he must become a nazi informer.

How can we conteract the anti-Catholic regimes of the world? Those who use violence are killed, and those who use words are murdered.

However, this brings to mind a prayer I once heard-If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations. if there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities. if there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace in the neighborhood. If there is to be peace in the neighborhood, there must be peace in the home. If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the family. If there is to be peace in the family, let it start with me.

I think I’d rather see that right behind a good movie on St. Maximillian Kolbe.

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

But I never get into arguments with people who are adamantly anti-Catholic as Jesus cautioned us not to cast pearls before swine in case they get trampled on. I just say that one of us is right and one is wrong and that it is too important to be led astray by biases and untruths. We owe it to ourselves and God to be totally sure.

Which is why I quit debating the history of Christianity with my Seventh-day Adventist friend.

 

[DaisyD]

A question I have often come across is the whole issue of Protestants, especially Baptists, saying that Catholics aren’t Christian. I guess having a Christ-centered religion isn’t enough? Perhaps they purposely blind themselves to the Faith because it might upset their self-assured righteousness? Perhaps they treat some Catholics poorly because, well, I don’t know why. Why do people speak with ignorance, and yet claim to speak with the Spirit? For me, this only proves that they don’t.

And another little thing I noticed in my correspondences . . .they call Catholicism “Catholism.” I don’t know why. Maybe they are simply not good typers?

Catholics are Christians.
The question protestants ask is :Are they saved?

 

[Keikiolu]

A question I have often come across is the whole issue of Protestants, especially Baptists, saying that Catholics aren’t Christian. I guess having a Christ-centered religion isn’t enough? Perhaps they purposely blind themselves to the Faith because it might upset their self-assured righteousness? Perhaps they treat some Catholics poorly because, well, I don’t know why. Why do people speak with ignorance, and yet claim to speak with the Spirit? For me, this only proves that they don’t.

And another little thing I noticed in my correspondences . . .they call Catholicism “Catholism.” I don’t know why. Maybe they are simply not good typers?

They are afraid of what the Catholic Church is, which is THE Church of Christ, and if they admitted in any way that we were Christians they’d lose their excuse to fear us and would be obliged to listen to us.

Deep down, they know to listen to us is to hear the truth,. which would utterly upset their apple cart.

And the “Catholism” thing…

The last two syllables are too difficult for them to say, in more ways than one: “…cism” sounds too much like “schism”.

E pili mau na pomaikai ia oe.

 

[marko_pasa]

I do 100% agree with any Protestant who would say that we catholics are not Christians at all…

Let me ask a question first; Do we all, who would dare to call themselves christians, believe in the one and the same christ? Docetists called themselves christians and they believed that Christ only seemed to have a human body but not a real one at all. Now, is this the same human and incarnated Jesus we know ? Is their Jesus same with our’s ?

Yet there were other christians who believed that Jesus was not The God, but was “adopted by God and was divinized” after once he was baptized. Now, is this the same and one Jesus who was born as The Divine baby whose mother we call The Mother of God ?

With the exception of Lutherans, with all due respect to them for this, almost all Protestans believe that Jesus didn’t really mean while He was saying “This is my body, this my blood”… He was just symbolizing something else… Now, is this the same and One Jesus that we beleive who means what he says, and who says what he really means ?

And again, only with the exception of Lutherans, almost all Protestants believe that Mary was not The Mother of God, and she was only the mother of Human Jesus… Now is this The Same and One Jesus whose humanity and divinity was and is perfectly united without mixing one another ?

I believe these differences are huge and irreconcilable. Of course we love Protestans, as we love anybody else. But let us be honest Catholics. And let us be true to our faith we received through Apostolic Tradition.

Who do you believe He is ?

The one who said these symbolize my body and blood ?
Or The One Who said "This IS My body, and This IS My blood ?

Answers to these questions would also determine if you are really Catholic or not…

I believe these are two different people… One and the same person can not say or mean two contradictory things at a time unless he is kind of a schizophrenic or unsincere…

So I do agree with the overwhelming majority of Protestants that we Catholics and Protestants can not be “Christians” at a time, unless we are ignorant of our faiths or even worst dishonest about ourselves…

---

Serve and honour and worship The Eucharistic Lord.

The Eucharistic Lord feeds me in my body.
But She fed Him nine months in Her body.

All creation have to call Him “My Lord and My God”
But only She has the privilege of calling Him “My Baby”

 

[DaisyD]

I do 100% agree with any Protestant who would say that we catholics are not Christians at all…

Let me ask a question first; Do we all, who would dare to call themselves christians, believe in the one and the same christ? Docetists called themselves christians and they believed that Christ only seemed to have a human body but not a real one at all. Now, is this the same human and incarnated Jesus we know ? Is their Jesus same with our’s ?

Yet there were other christians who believed that Jesus was not The God, but was “adopted by God and was divinized” after once he was baptized. Now, is this the same and one Jesus who was born as The Divine baby whose mother we call The Mother of God ?

With the exception of Lutherans, with all due respect to them for this, almost all Protestans believe that Jesus didn’t really mean while He was saying “This is my body, this my blood”… He was just symbolizing something else… Now, is this the same and One Jesus that we beleive who means what he says, and who says what he really means ?

And again, only with the exception of Lutherans, almost all Protestants believe that Mary was not The Mother of God, and she was only the mother of Human Jesus… Now is this The Same and One Jesus whose humanity and divinity was and is perfectly united without mixing one another ?

I believe these differences are huge and irreconcilable. Of course we love Protestans, as we love anybody else. But let us be honest Catholics. And let us be true to our faith we received through Apostolic Tradition.

Who do you believe He is ?

The one who said these symbolize my body and blood ?
Or The One Who said "This IS My body, and This IS My blood ?

Answers to these questions would also determine if you are really Catholic or not…

I believe these are two different people… One and the same person can not say or mean two contradictory things at a time unless he is kind of a schizophrenic or unsincere…

So I do agree with the overwhelming majority of Protestants that we Catholics and Protestants can not be “Christians” at a time, unless we are ignorant of our faiths or even worst dishonest about ourselves…

---

Serve and honour and worship The Eucharistic Lord.

The Eucharistic Lord feeds me in my body.
But She fed Him nine months in Her body.

All creation have to call Him “My Lord and My God”
But only She has the privilege of calling Him “My Baby”

So you are admitting as a catholic, you are not a Christian?
I bet many of the members here might be offended by that statement.

 

[Eileen_T]

Catholics are Christians.
The question protestants ask is :Are they saved?

Catholic Answers gives us the correct response to this question:

The Catholic should reply: “As the Bible says, I am already saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5–8), but I’m also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and I have the hope that I will be saved (Rom. 5:9–10, 1 Cor. 3:12–15). Like the apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:11–13).”

catholic.com/library/Assurance_of_Salvation.asp