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souldiver
Guest
Some Protestants in the internet say or imply that the Catholics worship the Pope. Are there verses in the Bible that depends honoring the Pope or something?
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thistle
Guest
Its complete nonsense and doesn’t have to be proven. We only worship God.
By the way if anyone makes such a claim to you the burden is on them to back up their claims with documentation which we can then discuss. It is not up to us to refute baseless assertions.
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DoGodsBidding
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seagal
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LaughingBoy1503
Well-known member
All kinds of vile things are said about us Catholic by certain protestant denominations. That we worship the pope is actually quite a zinger but I have heard worse lol. Someone who would honestly thinks that we worship the pope (I wonder what evidence they would claim to have to support this claim) I suspect any answer as to why we don’t worship the pope would not be good enough. I doubt showing them the part in The Catechism that says we are to worship God alone would be good enough lol. All I would do is assure them that if I worshiped the pope, I would admit it because if I was worshiping him, I have to assume I would think that means I would find him so great that I would consider it a sin to hide the fact that I think he is worthy of worship. Does that make sense? I think it would be easier for me to believe that someone was worshiping money or the pursuit of sexual gratification than the pope.
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JRKH
Guest
Amen.
To answer the OP’s question about Scripture, no there is nothing that we can point to directly that would dispel the accusers charge. Mainly because such people will simply choose to interpret a given passage differently.
If you would like to answer their charges on this matter my suggestion is that you do so with documented Catholic teaching, i.e. the Catechism.
To get you started, HERE is a search result for “Pope” in the catechism.
Note that the word “pope” is mentioned only 18 times in the Catechism and NONE of these references either states or implies that we are to worship the pope.
Therefore the Catholic Church neither teaches or endorsed such a thing.
However - there is a second layer to this assertion which is perhaps good to address.
When one says “Catholics do” this or that thing…well…there are a billion Catholics in the world…so probably someone somewhere DOES do this or that thing…
…whether that thing be right or wrong.So you cannot really answer for what “Catholics do”…All you can really do is to share what the Catholic church Teaches.
Peace
James
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rfournier103
Guest
I explain the pope’s role as being similar to that of any other pastor; except that he’s the pastor of a MUCH larger Church, and his Church was founded 2,000 years ago by Jesus Christ.
The pope isn’t like the Dali Lama. He’s not a ‘god’. The pope is a shepherd that works for Christ; and he’s a servant of Christ and the liturgy - not their master. He is bound by Scripture and Sacred Tradition; and his job is interpretation and teaching. It is the “OFFICE” that garners respect.
To say that we ‘worship’ him is just not a correct statement.
The pope isn’t like the Dali Lama. He’s not a ‘god’. The pope is a shepherd that works for Christ; and he’s a servant of Christ and the liturgy - not their master. He is bound by Scripture and Sacred Tradition; and his job is interpretation and teaching. It is the “OFFICE” that garners respect.
To say that we ‘worship’ him is just not a correct statement.
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captainrick
Guest
Why would we need to prove it?
Especially to some nut job hater on the internet?
Especially to some nut job hater on the internet?
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Peebo
Guest
All you have to do is Google ‘Vicar of Christ’ and you will come up with many Protestant websites ( mainly by self appointed fundamentalists) who claim it means ‘in place of Christ’ whereby the Catholic Church is proclaiming the Pope to be equal to Christ where as they say it is the Holy Spirit who was given power and authority to govern the church…this is partly why many fundamentalists see the Catholic Church as the Whore of Babylon and the Pope as the Anti Christ.
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Tarpeian_Rock
Guest
Googling that will also bring up crazy sites where those same people have fabricated false Latin variations of “Vicar of Christ” wherein they attempt to “prove” that the title equates to the whole 666 / “Mark of the Beast” falsehoods. Don’t get fooled by such hateful claims.
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YoungTradCath
Guest
How to prove that Protestants don’t worship tater tots?
That’s how nauseatingly annoying it sounds when a Catholic hears, “ZOMG Catholics worship the Pope!!! n Mary toooo!!!”
That’s how nauseatingly annoying it sounds when a Catholic hears, “ZOMG Catholics worship the Pope!!! n Mary toooo!!!”
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Theophorus
Guest
The burden of proof for this claim lies with those who suggest that Catholics worship the Pope. They need to substantiate their claim with proof, have they done so?
The answer is of course no, because we don’t worship the Pope any more than we worship fried chicken or coffee.
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TimothyH
Guest
I don’t understand why we have to prove anything.
People are like, “You worship the Pope” and I’m like, “Yeah, whatever. What’s for lunch?”
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OraLabora
Guest
Exactly.
At my age I’ve learned to pick my battles, and this would be one where I’m guaranteed to lose. The opening statement of the other person is not mean to open dialogue, it is meant to provoke an argument for which they are armed with chapter and verse and for which I of course would be unprepared. Not unlike arguing with a conspiracy theorist really.
On the other hand saying “yeah, whatever. What’s for lunch?” is disarming. No point in launching your surface-to-air missiles when the target turns out to be a turnip that just fell off the truck.
And discussing (and having) lunch can in fact be “dialogue” on a very human level, simply chatting about this and that and life in general. It’s more fertile ground for meeting people where they are.
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ProVobis
Guest
Some Protestants but (implied ALL) Catholics?
Also it depends on what you mean by “worship.” The word for Mary is “colere;” some translate that to be “worship” as well.
I don’t think Catholics are required to believe anything more than the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth. If that’s what they call worship, so be it.
That said, there is such a thing as papolotry, which is an interesting topic, but outside of what we’re discussing.
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CarmelJerome
Guest
Ask them to prove that they worship the whole of the Trinity and not just Jesus or, if Pentecotal, just the Holy Spirit.
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otjm
Guest
Proving a negative such as this is near impossible. However, rather than approaching it from the point of our having to prove it doesn’t happen, it would be better to require them to prove that it does happen.
Likely one of the problems in the conversation is defining terms, such as the term “worship”. One needs to understand what they mean by that, before engaging.
Likely one of the problems in the conversation is defining terms, such as the term “worship”. One needs to understand what they mean by that, before engaging.
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Ignatius
Guest
How can Protestants prove they don’t worship their chief pastor? If you’ve taken any courses in formal logic or rational discourse, you know that The negative cannot be definitively proven so the question incurs a logical fallacy.
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sallybutler
Guest
Have them read some of the comments about the Pope in the Catholic News of this website
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roadsend
Guest
I would ask them to first prove that Democrats do not worship the President.
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