Has Catholicism became a One Race Religion?

[jc-servant]

I’m Catholic, I’d say because I was brought up under a Italian roof, and we went to church etc, But if I was brought up in Iraq I’d be Muslim.

Not for certain you wouldn’t. Didn’t you know that the vast majority of “Christians” in Iraq are in fact Chaldean Catholics. They are fully part of the church, just not Latin rite. My mother grew up going to Catholic school with large numbers of these folks whose families had immigrated to Michigan in the 1st 1/2 of the 20th century.

You could have been born in India and been Catholic although from one of the two rites that I believe were supposed to have been started by St. Thomas. (We have a parish of each of these Indian Catholic rites in the Dallas area.) You could have been born in southern Nigeria and been Catholic as the Muslims are concentrated further north in that country. My parish has a visiting parochial vicar from Nigeria right now and the one prior to him came from there also. You could have been born to a family of Catholics even in communist China were the church that is in full communion with the Vatican is underground and persecuted. You could have been born into a Catholic family in any one of many countries in Central America or South America and been of one of the various races and ethnicities represented there also.

Our one race as Catholics is definitely the “human race” as we are probably the most diverse church on the planet for race and ethnicity. I see it in my parish every week where we have people from every inhabited continent and every “race.”

 

[brotherhrolf]

well i do live in yankeesland.

my understanding was that those cartoons you mention expressed attitudes that were common to the u.s. (or at least parts of it) and great britain.

Indeed. Common to the northeastern US states and Great Britain. The Irish dug the canals which drained New Orleans in the mid 19th century because slaves were too valuable. However, they were never considered to be sub-human like they were up north.

DL82 - my great grandmother was a Scot Catholic from Glasgow Her father was captain of a whaling ship and he left her in the hands of his sister who promptly put her into St. Elizabeth’s orphanage in New Orleans (aside: Google Anne Rice and St. Elizabeth’s). She married my great grandfather who was Irish. I am so blessed to have had Catholic Celtic traditions from either side of the Irish Sea passed on to me and have done my very best to keep those traditions alive with my sons.

We Celts were never treated as sub-humans here nor were our Jewish brethren. We’re not perfect down here (as history has shown) but by golly a Christian salvaged the Torah from the Jewish synagogue which got flooded and it was the rabbi from our Jewish synagogue here in Baton Rouge who rushed to aid my parish in it’s efforts after Katrina.

One race? No.

 

[tomarin]

DL82 - my great grandmother was a Scot Catholic from Glasgow Her father was captain of a whaling ship and he left her in the hands of his sister who promptly put her into St. Elizabeth’s orphanage in New Orleans (aside: Google Anne Rice and St. Elizabeth’s). She married my great grandfather who was Irish. I am so blessed to have had Catholic Celtic traditions from either side of the Irish Sea passed on to me and have done my very best to keep those traditions alive with my sons.

i also am scottish on one side and irish on the other. so natch i was surprised to learn at one time my ancestors weren’t considered good enough to be in the club of whiteness.

on the issue of catholicism and race, the idea the OP presents is preposterous. catholicism is the most universal non-racially specific faith i know of (well that and islam).

 

[DL82]

I think this thread says more about the ethnic understanding of Americans than of the Catholic Church.

I am Scottish as in I was born in Scotland, as were my parents. Beyond that I don’t know, though I understand my name is of Norse extraction.

Most of the other posters are talking about distant ancestry, Irish, Scottish, Italian immigrants to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.

Why not just say, “I was born in America, as were my parents, I’m an American”?

Likewise, I was born again into the Catholic Church through baptism and confirmation. I’m a Catholic.

 

[rwoehmke]

Don’t you think that if Catholics were to become just as aggressive as JWs in proselytization, that they would then turn off people to Catholicism, just as JWs turn people off to their beliefs?

In the short time I’ve been on this forum, I’ve been prosleytized numerous times, not always in a friendly way either. It has made me see Catholicism in a different light, even though half my family is Catholic and I know many Catholics offline who have never proselytized me (and I respect them for it.)

People don’t like to have religion shoved on them, esp. repeatedly; I know I don’t, esp. when I am fully committed to my own religion.

This is exactly right! Hardly anyone likes someone else’s religion shoved at them. Evangelization or proselytization is best done by being able to share one’s faith in a non-threatening fashion. You should… You must… Are you saved… turns people away.

 

[puzzleannie]

IDo you think depending on what race you are it almost certainly chooses your religion?

Italians, Spaniards, Mexicans, Brazilians, Portuguese, etc.

you equate national origin or ethnicity with race? why?

 

[tomarin]

I think this thread says more about the ethnic understanding of Americans than of the Catholic Church.

if you’re talking about me, I have the same view as the catholic church: that it’s universal and open to people of every race.

Why not just say, “I was born in America, as were my parents, I’m an American”?

that would be way too boring. nobody in america wants to be plain vanilla “american”. we all take pride in coming from somewhere else (though i can see how that could and often does appear ridiculous to europeans).

 

[brotherhrolf]

I think this thread says more about the ethnic understanding of Americans than of the Catholic Church.

I am Scottish as in I was born in Scotland, as were my parents. Beyond that I don’t know, though I understand my name is of Norse extraction.

Most of the other posters are talking about distant ancestry, Irish, Scottish, Italian immigrants to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.

Why not just say, “I was born in America, as were my parents, I’m an American”?

Likewise, I was born again into the Catholic Church through baptism and confirmation. I’m a Catholic.

Because what you see as distant is nowhere distant to us. Is this only an American phenomena? Of course, I was born in America as were my parents. I will first and foremost proclaim that I am a proud American. But my ancestors got thrown out of Acadie by the British. I’m Irish too and my ancestors got dumped on the levees of New Orleans in high summer by the British. I’m Scot and my great grandmother got abandoned to an orphanage in New Orleans.

On another thread, I opined about folks from other parts of the world judging we North Americans (and I am including my Canadian friends in this because the patterns follow) by the main stream media. My whole purpose was to show those of you back in the mother countries that we respect and honor our ethnic heritage. You sit there and wrap yourself in your harsh Europeaness and you forget that which has come before. You forget that your ancestors as well as mine came to North America (be it Canada or the US) in Black 47.

Guess what, y’all? We, your descendants, have not forgotten. I am proud to be an American. Got the ancestors who fought in the Revolution. Got the ancestors who fought on the plains of Chalmette. Got the ancestors who supported the South. I am a veteran and an American. But we have never forgotten from whence we came and our podnahs over in the Middle East would be well served not to forget this.

 

[patrick457]

I’m Catholic, I’d say because I was brought up under a Italian roof, and we went to church etc, But if I was brought up in Iraq I’d be Muslim…

Do you think depending on what race you are it almost certainly chooses your religion?

Italians, Spaniards, Mexicans, Brazilians, Portuguese, etc.

Not really. While there is a chance that your birth religion would be the one most widespread in your area, race does not determine one’s religion as one person or group could switch rites or religions or revert to a particular one as time passes.

 

[bpbasilphx]

I’m Catholic, I’d say because I was brought up under a Italian roof, and we went to church etc, But if I was brought up in Iraq I’d be Muslim…

Not necessarily. There are Iraqi Christians–much older than anything in Europe.

 

[elts1956]

Yes, everyone is born into their religion. Your religion might depend on the culture you were born, but that does not mean everyone has to die in their religion. I am a Catholic not just because I was born a Catholic, but because I know it is the one true religion.

The biggest problem in getting people to convert, is that no looks for the truth anymore. Once upon a time there was real debate and discussion about truth and which religion was true. Now people just go through life in their religion without questioning it. We have all this relativism in the world.

Anyone can transcend their culture and grasp the truth about religion. If there was fairness, freedom, and missionaries, an Islamic man born in Iran coud grasp the truth of Christianity, but Islamic culture is hostile to other religions.

Do you really know if all people of the Islamic faith are hostile to other religions? I have tried to get a bit of info. as to why Muhammud started the Islamic religion, but still remain confused because of so many different opinions. Many Muslims maintain they are a peaceful religion. From what I have gleaned from history, Islam began in blood and terror, but then someone else said that was only in certain areas of the Middle East because land had been illegally given to some other race?

 

[elts1956]

Yes, everyone is born into their religion. Your religion might depend on the culture you were born, but that does not mean everyone has to die in their religion. I am a Catholic not just because I was born a Catholic, but because I know it is the one true religion.

The biggest problem in getting people to convert, is that no looks for the truth anymore. Once upon a time there was real debate and discussion about truth and which religion was true. Now people just go through life in their religion without questioning it. We have all this relativism in the world.

Anyone can transcend their culture and grasp the truth about religion. If there was fairness, freedom, and missionaries, an Islamic man born in Iran coud grasp the truth of Christianity, but Islamic culture is hostile to other religions.

Ah folks…nationality or ethnicity are not considered race. Germans, Poles, French, Irish,English etc. are white or caucasian, some Africans are black and some are not, being Muslim or Jew is not a race. Muslim, Jew, Catholic, etc. are religions. American Indian, Negro or Black, White or Caucasian, Oriental are races. Race does not determine religion. Country of origin might.

I always get this confused. To which race do the Jews belong, semitic?

 

[jmcrae]

I always get this confused. To which race do the Jews belong, semitic?

To be Jewish is to follow the Jewish religion. I think there are Jews of every race.

Semitic people are represented in every religion in the world.

The stereotype of a Jew is that he is also Semitic, but this doesn’t hold true in every case. There are lots of Semitic people who are Muslim, as well, and also a lot of them are Christian, with their ancestry in the Christian faith going way back to the time of St. Paul.