Nuttiest Things Non-Catholics Have Said or Done Around You Because You're Catholic

[Yerusalyim]

Before I give the statement that qualifies as amongst the nuttiest I have ever heard I need to relate that the person who made the statement was an ordained and seminary trained minister of the Reform Church and that he was a Major and a Chaplain in the US Army. He told me in no uncertain terms that all the money collected in Catholic Parishes, beyond what was used for local expenses, was forwarded directly to the Vatican.

The second nuttiest one came from my own father, a devout Catholic and Knight who still thinks every Sunday Sermon is sent from the Bishop to his priests to be read…so priests don’t develop their own homilies…I love my Dad, he’s an intelligent man…which makes this statement all the more bizzare.

 

[wigglytug]

a man once claimed God gave him a vision that under the Catholic cathedrals in Mexico there are satanists who sacrifice dogs and that how could Catholics worship God if there are statues inside churches here his website repentandpreparetheway.org/ if you actually want to enter the lions den go look for the first virtual magazine to the left and turn to page 16 to see the madness…

 

[IanGE]

I have read the whole Bible before but I did not really pay close attention to it. Now, I read a chapter a day and I memorize verses from the chapter, highlight things, make notes, and meditate on it. I usually spend two hours out of the day doing this.

I believe that if you want to know God and have a relationship with Him you must be willing to read the book that He left for us. It is after all God’s book to us.

When I first read the whole Bible I plodded leaden-foot through the Old Testament. As soon as I started on the New Testament it was like someone switched a light on! Then the Lord whispered to me that the Bible is a love letter from Him to us. “Which part, Lord?” “ALL of it, my son!” Which led me to a second, more instructive, reading. I put my total trust in the Bible and began to ask the Lord a question, then open the Bible at random and stick my finger at a verse. Oft times the verse would scare the daylights out of me, until the Lord ordered me to “stop playing Bible roulette”, adding “I will give you the words.” My personal prayer time is “prime time” mornings, when I am commanded to “be still and know I am God”. No prayers, no praises, no singing or reading the Bible. Just sit and bask in His presence. Often the silence gets boring and then I have to work at it, reminding myself that my Father is Almighty God. If He chooses to speak I am inutterably blessed. Wait on the Lord, twit! Very often, too, he puts a Chapter and verse in my conscious and the words float off the page as though the modern print is illuminated text! Nowadays He gives me a whole (looooong) chapter, but reading with the Holy Spirit at my shoulder, reading with me, is wondrous. Sometimes my impatience tempts me to jump the gun and I play roulette - just not the same. Lord, give me patience and do it NOW!

 

[Kristin234]

When I first read the whole Bible I plodded leaden-foot through the Old Testament. As soon as I started on the New Testament it was like someone switched a light on! Then the Lord whispered to me that the Bible is a love letter from Him to us. “Which part, Lord?” “ALL of it, my son!” Which led me to a second, more instructive, reading. I put my total trust in the Bible and began to ask the Lord a question, then open the Bible at random and stick my finger at a verse. Oft times the verse would scare the daylights out of me, until the Lord ordered me to “stop playing Bible roulette”, adding “I will give you the words.” My personal prayer time is “prime time” mornings, when I am commanded to “be still and know I am God”. No prayers, no praises, no singing or reading the Bible. Just sit and bask in His presence. Often the silence gets boring and then I have to work at it, reminding myself that my Father is Almighty God. If He chooses to speak I am inutterably blessed. Wait on the Lord, twit! Very often, too, he puts a Chapter and verse in my conscious and the words float off the page as though the modern print is illuminated text! Nowadays He gives me a whole (looooong) chapter, but reading with the Holy Spirit at my shoulder, reading with me, is wondrous. Sometimes my impatience tempts me to jump the gun and I play roulette - just not the same. Lord, give me patience and do it NOW!

I love this

 

[aicirt]

My mother in law told me the she believes that “SOME Catholics CAN be good people”. We don’t talk much.

I’d like to think you answered back with, “And I’m one of them, right Ma?”

 

[aicirt]

Please talk to you mother-in-law. The GOOD Catholic it is YOU!!!

Yes, she should talk to her. You are right.

 

[aicirt]

A Southern Baptist told me that RARELY can a Christian Catholic find Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church…

Wow. This is where I would extend an invitation to go with me into a Catholic Church and explain where Christ is.

I took a Southern Baptist into a catherdral once. At least I got the opportunity to explain statues to her when she said, “We’re told you worship them.” She wanted to see the inside of a confessional too so we did that. No big conversion but at least she left with some good information.

 

[aicirt]

The following “nutty things” didn’t happen because I’m Catholic, but they are nutty just the same:

1. I once saw a very gaudy and ostentatious rosary around a young man’s neck at Best Buy. He obviously wanted everyone to see it, and thinking this young man must be a proud Catholic, I asked him, “Nice rosary. Do you pray it?” He replied, “No, I’m a Christian, and I don’t believe in it” !!!
2. A co-worker once told me that the Vatican is plotting to buy up the world’s water supply.

Sure, the Vatican is running out of Holy Water!

 

[Conor7]

Why would that be a Catholic no no!!??? That’s silly, we are encouraged to participate in other churches to love and support our family and friends. We are no supossed to receive communion, but I was the Maid of honor at my best friends Episcopal wedding and have participated in many church functions with her dad’s church (hes a priest) and many other churches with the rest of my family.

Sorry you’re right, and I feel like knew better. Chalk it up to a synaptic misfire.

 

[andremiguel]

Some say that the Vatican and the Pope are very rich. They should sell St. Peter Cathedral and give the money to the poor.

Or that the mass vestments are of gold. Again, sell them and give the money to the poor.

On another subject, that the Pope does not allow prostitutes to use condom. This is such a messy argument that it is hard to unfold and analyze it…

When the ignorance is too much, I use to say: “You cannot distinguish the Holy Trinity from a candlestick!”. I suspect some do not understand the joke.

 

[Catya]

A member of our local full-gospel church invited our parish to a talk on community-building. She mentioned how she thought all Chri…believers-in-Jesus ought to come together. Yes, she actually choked on the word. While she couldn’t bring herself to refer to Catholics as Christians, she really was sincere in her invitation, though.

 

[Patavium]

Some say that the Vatican and the Pope are very rich. They should sell St. Peter Cathedral and give the money to the poor.

Or that the mass vestments are of gold. Again, sell them and give the money to the poor.

On another subject, that the Pope does not allow prostitutes to use condom. This is such a messy argument that it is hard to unfold and analyze it…

When the ignorance is too much, I use to say: “You cannot distinguish the Holy Trinity from a candlestick!”. I suspect some do not understand the joke.

I have heard those arguments before, and reminds me of Judas Iscariot. They seem on the surface noble, but in reality they are not.

[BIBLEDRB]John 12:3-8[/BIBLEDRB]

 

[adrift]

This was not something that was said to me but what I read in a book.

The Catholics say that they have the chair of Peter that the Pope speaks from. I wish I could remember the reason they gave that we couldn’t have the chair but they were speaking of a physical chair. They knew we couldn’t possibly have the chair that Peter owned

 

[IanGE]

When I was in the RAF a fellow cadet invited me to spend a leave with him in Northern Ireland. I was heartily welcomed by the family, the old man calling me “big son”. But on sunday all were profoundly shocked when I asked where the Church was as I wanted to go to mass. “Mass, mass!!! you’re a Catholic!!!” Grudgingly the old man told me, but asked that I go “the back way and keep your head down so people won’t know you’ve come from here.”
For you guys Stateside, the great divide in Northern Ireland has a history which goes back centuries. But the blame/plaudit is laid on King Billy ( the Protestant King William of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (?)). I was stationed just outside Londonderry - called Derry by Catholics in the early 1960s, before the present “troubles” erupted. In those days, Catholics and Protestants lived amicably side-by-side. However, on St. Pat’s day, March the 17th, the Prots would hang effigies of the Pope from every lamppost; Catholics, wearing green, would parade, drawing brickbats from Prot bystanders with the inevitable punch-ups. On July 12th (Orange day), effigies of King Billy would sway from every lamppost! and the Orangemen parade would end up in joyous punch-ups. The rest of the year all were good mates..
Scotland seems the home of Orange/Green loyalties but the punch-ups are restricted to The Football Match between the Catholic Celtics and the Protestant Rangers, when fans go crazy. One friend recalls his Catholic father returning from a match when Celtics lost. He stormed into the house, pulled the goldfish from its tank, said “as fer you, you Orange XXXXX…” and bit its head off!
BTW I was born in India and on recent holidays we discovered that Catholic Church attendance is HUGE! My “mother” Cathedral has some twelve masses every sunday: six in different languages staring from 5.30 AM repeated until the evening. Every mass is packed, with the faithful swelling the front, back and side gardens. But no loudspeakers: the orthodox Hindu government has banned them cos they “advertise Christianity”. Yet we are regularly awoken in our hotel by travelling temples, mounted on bullock-carts together with 200 decibel loudspeakers blasting out quavery Hindu hymns.

 

[maltmom]

For you guys Stateside, the great divide in Northern Ireland has a history which goes back centuries.  But the blame/plaudit is laid on King Billy ( the Protestant King William of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (?)).  I was stationed just outside Londonderry - called Derry by Catholics in the early 1960s, before the present "troubles" erupted.  In those days, Catholics and Protestants lived amicably side-by-side.  However, on St. Pat's day, March the 17th, the Prots would hang effigies of the Pope from every lamppost; Catholics, wearing green, would parade, drawing brickbats from Prot bystanders with the inevitable punch-ups. On July 12th (Orange day), effigies of King Billy would sway from every lamppost!:D  and the Orangemen parade would end up in joyous punch-ups.  The rest of the year all were good mates.:confused:.  
 Scotland seems the home of Orange/Green loyalties but the punch-ups are restricted to The Football Match between the Catholic Celtics and the Protestant Rangers, when fans go crazy.  One friend recalls his Catholic father returning from a match when Celtics lost.  He stormed into the house, pulled the goldfish from its tank, said "as fer you, you Orange XXXXX....." and bit its head off!:D(

Thank you for the Green vs Orange history lesson. I am 1/4 Scot/Irish. When I was 16 I had a teacher who was Irish Protestant. On St Patrick’s Day she wore orange. Someone asked her why she wasn’t wearing green. She explained that only Catholics wear green on St Patrick’s Day. Irish Protestants wear orange. So as a Protestant of Irish decent I’ve worn orange for the past 36 years. Like her, I’ve had to explain it every year. Now that I’m Catholic…next year I get to wear green.

 

[JustaServant]

Thank you for the Green vs Orange history lesson. I am 1/4 Scot/Irish. When I was 16 I had a teacher who was Irish Protestant. On St Patrick’s Day she wore orange. Someone asked her why she wasn’t wearing green. She explained that only Catholics wear green on St Patrick’s Day. Irish Protestants wear orange. So as a Protestant of Irish decent I’ve worn orange for the past 36 years. Like her, I’ve had to explain it every year. Now that I’m Catholic…next year I get to wear green.

It goes even much deeper than that.
Any allegence to “Protestant England” to an Irishman was (and in some cases still is) is considered a traitorous act by Irish Catholics. It goes much further than religion and becomes political and even cultural.
In researching my ancestry I was amazed at how many of my Irish ancestors claimed their birthplace to be Ireland, even if they were born in England. Many of the Irish fled to Scotland and England during the Potato famine and were physically born in England. But don’t ever call them “english”.
At the turn of the 20th century, a good way of loosing a tooth was to call an Irishman “English”.
apologies to the English on CAF, just relating history

 

[maltmom]

It goes even much deeper than that.
Any allegence to “Protestant England” to an Irishman was (and in some cases still is) is considered a traitorous act by Irish Catholics. It goes much further than religion and becomes political and even cultural.
In researching my ancestry I was amazed at how many of my Irish ancestors claimed their birthplace to be Ireland, even if they were born in England. Many of the Irish fled to Scotland and England during the Potato famine and were physically born in England. But don’t ever call them “english”.
At the turn of the 20th century, a good way of loosing a tooth was to call an Irishman “English”.
apologies to the English on CAF, just relating history

This makes me wonder where mine were originally born.

 

[coachkfan1]

We (three of us) were roaming the city during a trip when we decided to go inside a church to pray. As we were sitting ourselves and about to bask in the holy atmosphere with our tired legs after the long walk, a burly priest came.

“Who are you?” he said. We introduced ourselves and said that we are Catholics.

“This is Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Get out!” he told us in a booming voice, not very kindly either.

“But we just want to pray. Can we pray?” I answered, quite shaken and shocked.

“No! Get out!” He shouted with a voice like he really meant it.

We went out. He closed the door behind us.

This is very sad. Unfortunately there has been somewhat of a historical “rivalry” between the Catholic Church and both the Ukranian and Russian Orthodox Churches. The Orthodox apparently were very resentful as the Catholic Church moved into those areas and began to establish parrishes. I don’t know all of the history in detail but I have read that such a history does indeed exist.

 

[FabiusMaximus]

This is very sad. Unfortunately there has been somewhat of a historical “rivalry” between the Catholic Church and both the Ukranian and Russian Orthodox Churches. The Orthodox apparently were very resentful as the Catholic Church moved into those areas and began to establish parrishes. I don’t know all of the history in detail but I have read that such a history does indeed exist.

Interestingly enough the Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t really mind the fact that there are Orthodox parishes springing up in Western Europe and in the United States. That’s apparently not sheep-stealing.

 

[JustaServant]

This makes me wonder where mine were originally born.

It’s a fascinating bit of research.
In the 19th century to be an Irish Catholic was pretty much synonymous with being poor (the lower classes). To be Irish Protestant was synonymous with the upper classes. Whether this stereotype was true was immaterial. It was believed by many Irish immigrants.
My own ancestors settled in the south side of Pittsburgh (called Pittsburg at the time) and lived in boarding houses that are still standing today. Many of the children died before age forty and living conditions were terrible. More than a few died of typhiod. But there was work and it was still better than the workhouses in England at the time.
I found the Naturalization papers of my great-grandfather. My daughter was interested in that it stipulated a renouncement of the Queen of England. If told her for an Irishman, he would have relished that.