Questions on teaching and practices

[Tis_Bearself]

I guess the main point is that it seems catholic teaching contains so many things that are controversial or could be interpreted as heresy. Also, it certainly doesn’t help that Protestant friends and family have plenty to choose from when they’re trying to “prove” Catholicism wrong.

The reason why it looks that way to you is because you’re hanging around with Protestant friends and family trying to “prove Catholicism wrong” so they can justify themselves in being Protestant. Obviously these people have a large amount of influence over you if you feel you have to somehow disprove everything they say.

The fact that it took 1500 years for Protestantism to even get started is good evidence right there that it’s not Catholicism that has the problem.

As for why people keep finding “controversies”, it’s simple. The Devil hates the Church and keeps sowing doubts in people’s minds so those people in turn reject the Church or throw bricks at it.

If this sort of thing is making you “hesitant” to become a Catholic, then it sadly sounds like the Devil is winning. I’ll pray for you.

By the way, Jesus is the mediator between us and God the Father.
Mary is the mediatrix between us and Jesus, as shown at the Wedding at Cana; God has tasked her with this.
The Pope is not our “mediator”. He is the leader of the Church on earth and he likely prays for his flock like any good bishop would, just like I said, “I’ll pray for you.”
The saints are not our “mediators”. They are intercessors, same as when I said "I’ll pray for you, " I’m a intercessor. That’s what the saints do, they pray for us.
If you’re going to criticize the Church, at least learn the correct teaching first, and don’t just make up false misinformed things as you go along.

 

[Retroactivereality18]

Well with all due respect I’m certainly not making things up as I go along. I’m not one of those people who says Catholics worship Mary or the Pope or statues. I also don’t believe Constantine created the church in the 300s as a blend of Judaism and Paganism neither. I know the Church canonized the Bible and that Peter was the first Pope. In fact I find myself defending the church quite a bit, even getting weird looks from my family when they see my crucifix in the hallway because you know “Jesus is no longer on the cross”. Ive also spent many hours studying doctrines of the faith either online or by book.

The main point of this post was me simply just pointing out the fact that the Catholic Church, and to a lesser extent The Orthodox church, does a lot of things that often need to be explained to others or defended. I’m not here to bash the Church or be disrespectful to it. In fact for me it’ll either be Catholicism or Orthodoxy because Protestantism and it’s thousands of offshoots clearly don’t have the answers either.

It’s just annoying when you constantly get bible verses thrown at you about multiple things. At some point you have to think “do they have a point?”. I guess I’m just here looking for the ultimate answer to not only defend my interest in the faith but to possibly get them interested as well.

Also I know know that Catholicism isn’t a Bible only religion and it also relies on Sacred Tradition

 

[Guest1]

I guess I’m just here looking for the ultimate answer to not only defend my interest in the faith but to possibly get them interested as well.

Try asking them questions and throwing them verses.

“Yes. That verse ‘call no man father’ is in the Catholic bible too. Has been for many years. Do you know how Catholics interpret it?”

“Do you know how early Christians viewed communion/Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ?”

“Have you heard of the early church fathers?”

“Why doesn’t your Church have bishops and deacons like the New Testament Church in the bible?”

Ect etc.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The main point of this post was me simply just pointing out the fact that the Catholic Church, and to a lesser extent The Orthodox church, does a lot of things that often need to be explained to others or defended.

i’m with you on the “explained” but not so much the “defended”.

The tone of your post sounds like, “The Catholic Church sure does a lot of weird and questionable things that I have to constantly explain to Protestants who are right to be skeptical because of all these questionable things I have found…”

And then you list a lot of “questionable” things, most or all of which you have incorrect.

As I noted, you need to fully understand the Church teaching before you either criticize it or defend it. Your posts suggest to me that you don’t yet understand the teachings you mentioned, so you’re not really in a good position to be calling them questionable when you have the basic information wrong.

Setting that aside, when a Protestant questions a Church practice, the Church/ Catholics don’t automatically have to fly into defensive mode and prove to them that they are wrong. We know we’re right. We don’t have to prove that our beliefs are okay. However, if you are trying to actually evangelize your Protestant friends, then it is best to respond with Scripture to them. BUT again, evangelization requires you to actually understand Church teaching.

Based on your initial post, you have an incomplete or incorrect understanding of

• Statues and images (there is an entire long Church history on this that you don’t seem to be familiar with) and why we use them (It’s not because Catholics “claim it’s ‘different’ when we do it”)
• Repetitive prayer and why the Rosary is not repetitive prayer
• Jesus as mediator, Mary as mediatrix, and saints as intercessors

You stated that you yourself keep questioning these things, so it’s not a matter of you just wanting to respond to Protestants. Rather, you yourself seem to be having doubts based on your incomplete study/ understanding of Church teaching.

Please work a little harder on learning and understanding before you worry about convincing or converting others.
God bless.

 

[Maximian]

Jesus did not instruct against repetition in prayer.

Indeed, he urged us to pray insistently.

 

[Retroactivereality18]

I’m not going to go over all of that but will say this. Am I not trying to gain a greater understanding of the faith by coming here to the forum and asking questions? I mean that seems pretty obvious. Also who said I was going try and convert folks before I have a solid understanding. It’s not like I’m going around to non Catholics spreading false doctrine as if I’m 100 percent certain. I came to a site run by Catholics in order to learn because there are so few where I live. On a final note this site is called Catholic Answers, clearly the church or whoever runs this site realized there are a lot of people with a lot of questions and criticisms about Catholicism. There’s not nearly a market for Protestant apologetics as there is for Catholic so obviously the practices are weird and different to a lot of people. I’m sure it’s a result of smearing campaigns for 500 years but it’s worked so that’s why I’m here