How do you deal with the seemingly murky bits of Catholicism

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It’s good you’re asking questions, and RCIA is a good place for those questions (assuming you’ve got well-catechized instructors). The majority of the issues you raise reflect the Scriptural and theological truth that man is not perfect. I once heard the only perfect church is an empty one. We’ve had our share of disreputable Catholics, often in high places. But it neither affirms or denies the Truths the Church is built on. We know Judas followed Christ, and yet he ultimately betrayed Him. St. Peter isn’t the most steadfast example of discipleship, either. And let’s not forget Saul’s murderous persecution of those early Christians. Men in the Church have done, are doing, and will continue to do terrible things. But that’s the reality of humanity, and even more so of a global organization. Furthermore, if the Catholic Church is truly the one true Church we ought to expect more temptations and grievances than others, as the Devil will be working overtime to plant seeds of doubt anywhere he can.

Aside from the somewhat flat response that “all men sin”, you’ll find things like the Inquisition, Crusades, and the Glileo Affair (to name a few) to be often misunderstood and even intentionally skewed to paint Catholicism in a poor light. Do some digging into history and see what you find. I also highly recommend Thomas Woods “How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization”. The CC is not the boogie-man our detractors would make it out to be.
 
Lyllie said:
there are some Catholic practices that can come across as a little creepy. How do you wrap your head around those when you’re first getting to know the Catholic faith?
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I would recommend you just ignore them. They are not doctrines of the faith, and are just a distraction. Focus on what is in the Catechism.
 
Frankly, I just ignore everything I find “murky” and just focus on my relationship with God, my community and ministry. Everything else is unescessary noise.

When I have the chance to correct non-Catholics who have all these crazy ideas, I do but very so nicely.

I try very hard as well to respect people who practice other religions, even if they like to criticize Catholicism. It’s my way of showing them that not all Catholics are self-flagellating, hardcore, close-minded folks. At the end of the day though, you can’t please everybody.
 
Blessings,
It would be Saint Catherine of Sienna’s Head.
I know what you mean. Why am I still Catholic after the priests scandals?
Any organization is a society unto itself. It has a govt format. NON-DENOMINATIONAL is a denomination.
Nothing in your life is to be a god. Even a Religion. We should be Catholics b/c we believe and love God( the Trinity) His Mother Mary. We read our Bibles. We believe and receive the sacraments. We follow Christ and the church He established in Catholicism.
The church existed 50 yrs on word of mouth. Hebrew scrolls and Paul’s letters. Traditions were created and passed down at this time. Our priestly robes are as the robes worn by Jewish Rabbis. The Jews would build altars of 12 Stones.( for the 12 tribes of Israel.) The Apostles were evangelizing the world while under persecution.
It dawned on me this year, to analyze the church as a con job.
If Jesus wasn’t the Messiah, why get tortured and crucified. That’s a bit to go through for a farce. If He married Mary Magdeline, there is no reason not to write of it?! The12 Apostles, did they get rich? Nope! Did they get castles=Nope. They left home and family. The first three centuries , we were persecuted in horrible ways and killed. Why! The Jews saw the miracles and followed the story. The Greeks were philosophical. They preached a Risen Christ and a life after death. Now, they knew if they died, their spirit would continue in heaven w the FATHER and JESUS. That’s why they could go in the arenas, etc. The first church was built on the blood of the martyrs
 
Continued
Now, it was rough for three centuries. If this were bogus, it would have died. There were different ideas of faith. Heretical ideas. The church fought them.
Saints=we are Saints under construction. If you have a problem, you’d ask someone for prayers. The Mystical Body of Christ is us(the church) alive and dead. The church lives on the other side of the veil. We can ask our deceased relatives to continue our prayer in heaven. We always pray to God. In praising Him, thanking Him, petitioning Him.thanking Him for answering and saying good-bye. By the Grace of God,The Father. In the Name of Jesus, His son and our Brother. And by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We have statues to let us see what the Saint looks like. They are a focus for our prayer to God. Certain Saints have helped get miracles from God for certain conditions. You can google.
The Blessed Mother us not worshipped. She is revered and loved. She is a prayer warrior for us in heaven. She takes our prayers to her Son.
Google uncorrupted bodies of Catholic Saints. Google St. Bernadette. Some are stunningly beautiful w/o rotting. One monk who wanted to be propped up sitting could be buried, I think. St. Catherine of Sienna was a Doctor of the Church. She had apparitions. When she died, they cut her up in pieces to distribute relics over Europe. GROSS! Her head is kept in a glass case. She didn’t rot for a long time but some things don’t look so fresh now. Poor dear.
One must be incorruptible in body and have a few miracles assigned to you before you can become s Saint. I guess on her first day they have a parade w her head.
My church is so old, it has lasted through some evil things. Like Pope Borgia. Another Pope had his dead predecessor dug up and tried his dead body for something. It was thrown somewhere.
Some of the imperfect Popes built the grandest Cathedrals. We believe our worship style comes from the first church. We are established w the Bible and some traditions. I strongly believe that communion is the body snd blood of Jesus when scripture is recited over the elements. We can go to mass every day. One can feel the Spirit of God during mass. As you said, you feel the pull of the Holy Spirit. RCIA can help you w other strange things in some areas practice. Phillapines crucify someone. Church does not approve. I hope this is less than 3200 Words(3925) have to cut and continue
In Christ’s Love
Tweedlealice
 
shipmate; you gotta tighten up your posts

i’d’ve needed an eye exam & and another couple surgeries to’ve read these posts
 
I appreciate your trying to read them. I hate going over 3200 words. But if I did, I felt it was needed. Glad your surgeries were successful.
InChrists Love
Tweedlealice
 
In addition, incorruptibility can be a natural occurrence, it is not considered when determining Sainthood.
 
Thank you for your story. By that, I mean giving us a glimpse of who you are internally and a chance for me to reflect on the why behind what I believe.
 
Bishop Barron also has a lot of great YouTube videos. Here’s one about relics:

 
adgloriam said:
The worst case was in Spain. The state and the the church were in no way separated and many times the church (the inquisition priests) were forced to serve secular interests&powers to acquiring land and power over the population.
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Actually, they were separate, as much as anywhere else at the time, although they worked together.

The Spanish Inquisition was only secondarily, if that, a religious/church matter; it was fundamentally an operation of state security.

Spain had just been wrested back from islamic conquerors/oppressors. From the state side, it was important to root out non-catholics not as a religious issue, but because they were at least a perceived threat to the state, having taken it over and controlled it until recently.

The church was certainly complicit, but it was a state operation.

Whether the church could have restrained it more, or whether it would have been worse if the church held back, I’ll leave for historians to argue about.

hawk
 
Lyllie said:
As in the decision wasn’t always in the hands of the church, they were somewhat at the mercy of the government?
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My understanding is that it was the government that tortured/killed, but that a priest present had the ability to put a stop to it (e.g., if confessed and renounced heresy. Kind of rough if you wren’t a heretic and wouldn’t perjure yourself with a false confession . . .).

Ignatius of Loyala was seized, questioned, and released three times, iirc.

hawk
 
TheLittleLady said:
In addition, incorruptibility can be a natural occurrence, it is not considered when determining Sainthood.
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It has long been considered strong evidence among the Orthodox, to the point that some monasteries check graves a year (?) later.

Note that the centralization of saintly examination in Rome is very recent, even in the western church. The Eastern Catholic churches can certainly still do it on their own, and perhaps RC (I really don’ know), but cases get sent to Rome from the East about the prestige of Roman canonization, not lack of local authority.

hawk
 
Lyllie said:
so some of the things include: Killing other Christians in the Roman Inquisition. Burning witches.
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Servetus fleeing France going to Naples went through Geneva, using another name, he was recognized in Geneva. Calvin had him arrested. Servetus was found guilty of heresy for holding Unitarianism and rejecting infant baptism and burned at the stake.

Bucer preached from the pulpit, Servetus had deserved to be disemboweled and torn to pieces. Melanchthon wrote Calvin, calling the burning of Servetus an example to all posterity and giving thanks to the Son of God. Bullinger agreed blasphemy should be punished with death. [Pg484]

After Servetus’ burning Calvin wrote in defense of death for heretics. Saying heretics are worse than murderers. Murders can only kill the body but heresy eternally dams the soul to hell. listing several scriptures in support. Dt13:5-15, 17:2-5, Ex22:20, Lv24:16. In effect teaching what the Church teaches. [484-485]

Calvin later wrote a letter explaining: “When papists are so harsh and violent in defense of their superstitions that they rage cruelly to shed innocent blood, are not Christian magistrates shamed to show themselves less ardent in defense of the sure truth?” [pgs482-484]

Beza, who seceded Calvin, when professor of Greek at Lausanne University wrote a book on the Civil Authorities’ duty to punish heretics. Pointing out toleration of religions wasn’t possible for those who accepted the bible as inspired and there could only be one religion others being false or incomplete. [pg487]

David Joris living in the Protestant city of Basel Switzerland, using another name, wrote a criticism of Calvin’s burning of Severtus. After Joris died it was discovered he wrote the criticism. His body was dug up and publicly burned at the stake as a heretic. [Source, Britannica link above and the book “The Story Of Civilization, The Reformation”. pg484 by Will Durant]

In 1547 Jacques Gruet was tortured twice a day for 30 days till he confessed to posting a letter on Calvin’s pulpit. He was tied to a stake with his feet nailed to the stake and decapitated. [Pg478-479. Source for all the above. “The Story of Civilization, The Reformation”, by Will Durant.]
 
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