If you are a Christian, what is the real reason for you not being a Catholic? - 2

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Actually, it never was an entity. The correct name is “Catholic.” The “Roman” is an adjective coined around the 1600s by some folks who also wanted to use the word “catholic”, but didn’t want to be associated with the Church headquartered in Rome. It was actually a “slur” along the lines of “papist”. The Catholics of the time simply embraced the word, rendering it powerless.
Depending upon what source you use, I suppose you can get different versions of the origins of the “Roman” Church. My source does not reflect what you presented. To me its kind of irrelevant and not germane to this thread, so I won’t argue about it.
 
Yes, God is there in your midst. I don’t deny this. And I still think of other Christians as brothers. But you have rejected the most important thing to the Catholic for 1500 years prior to the Reformation (sic), the Mass. It is sad.
What is sad is the utter disdain many fellow Christians have for each other, all because we tend to worship Christ a little differently from each other. What should be the key here is that we do worship him.
 
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Sorry, but that’s wrong 😃
It’s called ROMAN, because it’s led o conducted by the Pope. The centre of Catholicism is Rome, where formerly the centre of the enemies of Catholicism was. Therefore, we listen to the ROMAN Catholic Church. And we do that with joy.
I have not the least problem with friends who are not convinced about our church. Might they stay whatever or even nonchristians, Jews, Moslems or Hindus or even atheists. I tell them in love what I believe and why, and that’s it.
This :banghead: wouldn’t bring anyone even one inch nearer to God.
If one wants to listen and find his way, is his problem alone. We will be asked by God “DID YOU TELL HIM IN A LOVING WAY” and our friend will be asked “DID YOU REALLY TRY TO HEAR AND UNDERSTAND MY WORD”
I don’t think God will ask “WHICH CHURCH DID YOU BELONG TO" (mine or one of the secessional sensplinter churches) if a human being lived in a loving way
Sorry – last bit is a little provocating 😃
(plus bearing spelling mistakes as usual:blush: )
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I tend to disagree again and if you read any official Church papers, titles etc, you will never see it listed as the “Roman” Catholic Church. It is the Catholic Church, never ever uses the word Roman in the title of the Catholic Church. Yes the Vatican is in Rome because thats where Peter was, and died, and the Pope has resided there (for the most part) ever since, but the Church is not Roman. Actually, the Vatican State is a country itself within Italy.

If the early missionaries had felt that way, I doubt very much that the Catholic Faith would have spread throughout the world. They risked their lives and many died to bring the true faith to others.
With a wishy washy attitude like that, we will never be the evangelizers that Pope Benedict asks us to be. We need zeal and the courage to defend our Faith and pray. But first we have to know it well enough to be able to do that.
 
I tend to disagree again and if you read any official Church papers, titles etc, you will never see it listed as the “Roman” Catholic Church. It is the Catholic Church, never ever uses the word Roman in the title of the Catholic Church.
Officially you may be correct. However, below is a quote from the Vatican news magazine.

“Inside the Vatican is the world’s most well-informed, comprehensive monthly Catholic news magazine on what is going on inside the Vatican, at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church.”

insidethevatican.com/
 
I think you need to lighten up and be more accepting of your Christian non-Catholic brethren. Many of them feel we are heretics as well. What silliness between you both. All I can do is shake my head at such behavior. :tsktsk: I’m not sure even the Pope has such narrow minded views.

You can’t seem to get it through your head that we are all Christians and all sincerely follow Christ, and your judging and calling Protestants heretics does nothing but further divide.
I can assure you that the pope can and does consider the Reformation heresy. However, Memaw did not call our separated brethren heretics, cut the theology that produced them heretical. In order to qualify as a heretic, one must have known and understood the truth, then willfully choose to depart from it. This is what the Reformers did. However, our modern day separated brethren, for the most part, have never been taught the truth, either about their own faith, or the Catholic faith. Therefore, they cannot qualify for the term “heretic”. 😉
What is sad is the utter disdain many fellow Christians have for each other, all because we tend to worship Christ a little differently from each other. What should be the key here is that we do worship him.
I think you are misunderstanding, Mike. A disdain for heresy is not the same as disdaining the people who, through no fault of their own, have been brought up in it.

Jesus wills that we worship God in Spirit and in Truth. There is only one Truth. Our worship will be inhibited until we are one in Spirit, and one in Truth. This requires a unity that will not emanate from false teachings.
 
I can assure you that the pope can and does consider the Reformation heresy. However, Memaw did not call our separated brethren heretics, cut the theology that produced them heretical. In order to qualify as a heretic, one must have known and understood the truth, then willfully choose to depart from it. This is what the Reformers did. However, our modern day separated brethren, for the most part, have never been taught the truth, either about their own faith, or the Catholic faith. Therefore, they cannot qualify for the term “heretic”. 😉

I think you are misunderstanding, Mike. A disdain for heresy is not the same as disdaining the people who, through no fault of their own, have been brought up in it.

Jesus wills that we worship God in Spirit and in Truth. There is only one Truth. Our worship will be inhibited until we are one in Spirit, and one in Truth. This requires a unity that will not emanate from false teachings.
Perhaps I was a bit hasty with my answer after re-reading her post. However, her attitude towards her fellow Christians just infuriates me, so I jumped to a conclusion. She may not mean it to sound that way, but it sure comes across in the negative.

Protestants feel the Catholic Church is just as involved in heresy as the Catholic Church feels about them.

Where does this end? It just seems we all get too involved in the details and fail to see the bigger picture. Both sincere Catholics and Protestants are followers of Christ. I think that’s all that really matters to him.
 
Officially you may be correct. However, below is a quote from the Vatican news magazine.

“Inside the Vatican is the world’s most well-informed, comprehensive monthly Catholic news magazine on what is going on inside the Vatican, at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church.”

insidethevatican.com/
Indeed the heart of the Roman Rite is at the Vatican, but the Catholic Church is not “Roman”. This is the most common Rite in Europe and the West, but not in the East, South, or North. To characterize Catholicism as “Roman” is disregarding of the other 22 Rites who are in union with the bishop of Rome. 🤷
 
What is sad is the utter disdain many fellow Christians have for each other, all because we tend to worship Christ a little differently from each other. What should be the key here is that we do worship him.
Let me ask you something, mike. Are you familiar with the separation of Israel and the two temples of worship that were set up. The way I see it, the king who set up the two temples was a heretic. The people that gravitated to it simply didn’t understand that it wasn’t worshiping God in the fullness of faith as those who worshiped in the Jerusalem Temple. They all worshiped the same God, but do you feel that it was “all good”?

Sadly, this scenario has been duplicated some 2400 years later.
 
Perhaps I was a bit hasty with my answer after re-reading her post. However, her attitude towards her fellow Christians just infuriates me, so I jumped to a conclusion. She may not mean it to sound that way, but it sure comes across in the negative.

Protestants feel the Catholic Church is just as involved in heresy as the Catholic Church feels about them.

Where does this end? It just seems we all get too involved in the details and fail to see the bigger picture. Both sincere Catholics and Protestants are followers of Christ. I think that’s all that really matters to him.
She was not talking about individual persons’, though, she was talking about beliefs. I suppose our understandings of others missing the mark will be resolved when we all yield to the one spirit of unity. I agree, what matters to Christ is that we sincerely follow HIm. He left His Apostles in charge to teach all that He had commanded. When followers of Christ depart from those teachings, unity is lost.

I think part of the answer can be found in you reaction. If each of us could transform our infuriation into love and tolerance, then we could overcome our differences. As long as we are stuck in being inferiated, we are not manifesting His love for one another.
 
Indeed the heart of the Roman Rite is at the Vatican, but the Catholic Church is not “Roman”. This is the most common Rite in Europe and the West, but not in the East, South, or North. To characterize Catholicism as “Roman” is disregarding of the other 22 Rites who are in union with the bishop of Rome. 🤷
if you check there are 7 rites of the Catholic Church with the oldest being the latin rite circa 46AD
 
Let me ask you something, mike. Are you familiar with the separation of Israel and the two temples of worship that were set up. The way I see it, the king who set up the two temples was a heretic. The people that gravitated to it simply didn’t understand that it wasn’t worshiping God in the fullness of faith as those who worshiped in the Jerusalem Temple. They all worshiped the same God, but do you feel that it was “all good”?

Sadly, this scenario has been duplicated some 2400 years later.
No, I’m not familiar with that story, but I stand by what I said earlier.
 
I think part of the answer can be found in you reaction. If each of us could transform our infuriation into love and tolerance, then we could overcome our differences. As long as we are stuck in being inferiated, we are not manifesting His love for one another.
No argument there. I can be just as guilty of intolerance as the next person. It’s not right and it’s something I always need to work on.
 
The real reason why I am not a Catholic is because Catholicism is works/salvation religion and that is contrary to what the Bible teaches as how to be saved. John 3:15-18; 36; Jn 5:24; Jn 6:47; Eph 2:8-9; Romans 5:1; 11:6.and many many more.
Our (Catholic) faith causes us to do good works because of our love of God which increases our faith which increases us (Catholics) to want to do more good deeds. It’s like when you’re friends with someone, you want to do something nice for them, not because you want something back in return, but because you truly care about that person. It makes you happy to see them happy, which is a greater reward then anything they could give you in return. The same thing with faith/good works. I feel closer to God and my relationship growing with Him the more good things I do (praying, going to Mass, helping others in need). By the way, doesn’t the Bible say that whenever you did something to the least you did it to Christ? Wouldn’t that be a good reason to do good works?
Also, just because someone is doing a lot of good works, it won’t get that person to Heaven if that is the only reason they are doing something. That person would need faith as well to help them get to Heaven.👍
 
No, I’m not familiar with that story, but I stand by what I said earlier.
Read 1st Chronicles, start immediately after Solomon’s death. When you get to 1 Chronicles 12, you’ll set what I’m talking about:
27 If now this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me." 28 After taking counsel, the king made two calves of gold and said to the people: “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan. 30 This led to sin, because the people frequented these calves in Bethel and in Dan. 31 He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the people who were not Levites.
Jeroboam changed the entire worship system of Israel.

It’s also interesting that while Judah was a kingdom (400 years?), only one family ruled all the way until her exile. But while Israel was a kingdom (200 years?), there were nine different families that served as king.

It just strikes me as deja vu’, although I don’t want to even imply that Protestants have fallen into idolatry (or else they’d be Catholic, eh? ;)), but I’m focusing more on the fact that Jeroboam completely changed the Jewish worship system, just as most Protestant faiths have changed their worship service away from the now-2000 year old Catholic Mass.
 
No argument there. I can be just as guilty of intolerance as the next person. It’s not right and it’s something I always need to work on.
To be honest with you, I think you’ve been more fair-minded than most people in this thread, at least pleading for equality among all Christians. I don’t think you have anything to apologize on that front, my brother!
 
Officially you may be correct. However, below is a quote from the Vatican news magazine.

“Inside the Vatican is the world’s most well-informed, comprehensive monthly Catholic news magazine on what is going on inside the Vatican, at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church.”

insidethevatican.com/
Like I said it may be called that by many but not by the Church itself. I read that magazine myself.
 
Like I said it may be called that by many but not by the Church itself. I read that magazine myself.
But to reinforce Mike’s point, I drive by many Catholic Churches that say they are “Roman Catholic”. To the average Protestant, it’s not a perjorative, just a moniker. Now when they start calling us “Romanist” or “Papists”, then it implies that we follow the Pope rather than Christ!!! :eek: I don’t see any way you could follow the Pope without following Christ! That would be like saying “I’m Catholic but I’m not Christian” - that dog just doesn’t hunt!
 
Perhaps I was a bit hasty with my answer after re-reading her post. However, her attitude towards her fellow Christians just infuriates me, so I jumped to a conclusion. She may not mean it to sound that way, but it sure comes across in the negative.

Protestants feel the Catholic Church is just as involved in heresy as the Catholic Church feels about them.

Where does this end? It just seems we all get too involved in the details and fail to see the bigger picture. Both sincere Catholics and Protestants are followers of Christ. I think that’s all that really matters to him.
The truth is what really matters and most of the non-catholics on these threads are here to put the Catholic Faith down and it really bothers me to see Catholics playing into their hands by trying to water down our faith. I am sorry if I infuriate a fellow Catholic but that isn’t my intention, I am just defending the Faith and we should both be doing that.

While I have sympathy for those who have been separated from the true Faith by the protestant reformation, and I would never dare to judge them, or question their sincerity in their faith, I still recognize the fact that they are settling for so much less than what Our Lord has to offer in the Catholic Faith. They have no chance to receive Sacramental Grace except in Baptism and Marriage, and sometimes that is even questionable. I pray for sooo much more for them. I have many very good friends that are protestant and I also have some friends that have become Catholic over the years. I have one lifelong friend that would become a Catholic if there was a Catholic Church in her small town but there isn’t. If I lived closer I would take her to Church with me. My mother-in-law would have become Catholic if I lived closer, she went to Mass with us whenever she visited and love it. Both my husbands were converts and died with the Sacraments of our Faith. I have even taught adult classes, so you see I have had much experience with non Catholics. Even the ones that always want to criticize our faith. I talk with J. W’s and Mormons often too. I don’t criticize their faith, I just explain how ours has so much more to offer. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do. To many times I find myself defending the Catholic Faith to Catholics. I am sure the protestants enjoy that. God Bless, Memaw.
 
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