First time at a Catholic Sunday Mass & Protestants

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Hi there, Graham here again with the trials of Pagan to Catholic conversion! 🙂

I made it! I actually managed to get my self to a Sunday Mass this morning although I had to walk a few miles to overcome the fear.
The Church was full of people but I sat myself down at the back. I looked up and notice a 5’ statue of St Therese of Lisieux only a few feet away from me and automatically felt comfortable. Strange thing though when people were still entering the Church half way though the mass looking for seats though!

I found it quite contemporary with acoustic guitar played while all were singing, I did not know the lyrics though and was unable to join in. Plus I have a background of singing in rock bands and have quite a loud voice!!

But I did it, with a big thinks for all your support and inspiration from this forum! Cheers!

HELP!

On another note I’ve been having a difficult time, I’ll explain.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to my wife again about my intentions of perhaps becoming Catholic (it’s easier to say perhaps!) and this open up quite a aggressive debate from her.
She told me that Catholics were racists, hated gays and were very closed minded about allsorts of things. She said it would not suit me as I was a free thinker.
Infact it all took my breath away as I’m not a good debater, infact I try to avoid confrontations like that!
She said I should try the Anglican Church and she would come if I went there and that they had a statue of Mary in the Church her mother used to go and where she went to Sunday school. Well, we were on a short holiday at the time and the last thing I wanted was to make things more difficult!

Since that I have kept things quiet but have decided to learn about the Differences between Catholic and Protestant Churches, but to be honest I’m not too sure where to get a bias opinion.
Do you have any ideas on this? Where I can see direct differences and similarities as I need to arm myself to a certain degree!

With much love, Graham
 
Wonder where she would get such ideas?

Show her authentic Catholic teaching - from the Catechism here are teachings on discrimination (you can search by topic here scborromeo.org/ccc.htm):

**1935 **The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:

Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.

**2433 **Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust discrimination: men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants. For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find work and employment.

**2358 **The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
 
I agree with Kage; get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Not only will it give you specific information regarding every accusation you will hear on your journey to Catholicism, but it’ll help answer any questions you may have. The CCC, and the United States CCC have helped me immensely.

I’d also look at Catholicism for Dummies.

I’m not sure you’re going to get unbiased opinions in too many other places. You could try this link too. It provides a summary of differences.

Good luck Graham!
 
Wow, glad you made it to Mass, that is awesome!!
I love St Therese also, I believe she is praying for you, as well as St. Pio, they both, if I remembre correctly, wanted to remain in purgatory until all souls were in heaven. (That may not make too much sense to you right now, but, eventually it will.)
You’ve been given great advise so far, don’t worry about refuting everything you hear, you’ll learn, call the Church you went to and ask to speak to the Priest about you learning more about our great Church. Welcome and God bless you. (I’ll try to remember to pray daily for you and your wife so perhaps she will become more open and perhaps go with you to learn.) Read that link about the Cathechism, its a lot but after about a year of reading it you will know about as much as the rest of us.
The Catholicism for Dummies would help too.
This site that we are on has a great search engine, just go to the home page and type in what ever and it’ll bring it up if its on here.
 
Graham,

I am glad that you finally got to go to Mass. I converted from a non-Catholic denomination, and still had great difficulty… I can’t imagine some of the struggles you are having with a Pagan background, but I do know that it is a struggle.

The Catechism is a great resource to start learing about Catholicism… And this website. At first, I too wanted to learn about Catholicism from “non-Catholic” sources, but then I realized that I probably wouldn’t be getting an accurate picture of what Catholicism was from non-Catholic sources (very much like learning about rock and roll from a classical musician). catholic.com has a great series of faith tracts, which is a great start. Also, I recommend reading Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth. Here is an online version of the Catechism on the Vatican’s website.

I will continue to keep you in my prayers… also, if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask them here. There is no such thing as a stupid question except for the unasked one.

God bless you!
Ericka
 
Also, just another note about learning about Protestant denominations… depending on which source you might consult, there are a few thousand to over 33,000 different denominations (the exact number doesn’t really matter, except just to say that there are thousands)… It is much easier to learn about Catholicism and compare that against any other denomination than it is to just learn about the separate denominations.
 
Welcome Home (almost)!

I was an atheist for 25 years. Thanks to Scott Hahn (Rome, Sweet Rome) and other converts, I ended up skipping the Prot. world completely.

One of the places that I have enjoyed going to Mass has been NYC (I travel a lot for work). When there, you realize that Catholicism is truly a worldwide religion. All types of people show up to the Daily Mass. The Church isn’t racist - we are everywhere. I feel a connection with all types of people based on Catholicism.

Best of luck to you.
 
Hi Graham, I too am a convert from paganism. I was a Druid for ten years prior to finding Christianity and the Catholic Church. I was received into the Church last Easter Vigil. Bless you in your new journey!

As for your wife’s claims, the simple answer is that the Catholic Church stands for what it has always stood for, while Protestants blow with the wind. The complex answer is that the Catholic Church teaches no hate. Actions and attitudes by individual members may occasionally vary: but the Church is a hospital for sinners. No one in the world was without sin but Jesus and His mother. 🙂

I must say I am a little stumped at the “racist” charge because the Church is everywhere, all over the world.
 
Congratulations on stepping through the doors and praying the Mass.

I have never heard anyone say those things about any church. Curious as to where she came up with it. You know how sometimes we hear something and just repeat it? I would pick her mind for more info on that. It might be important later you never know.

As far as comparing…

religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm

religionfacts.com/christianity/charts/catholic_protestant.htm

God Bless you on your journey and may He guide to the Truth.
 
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