Real Anti-Catholicism

[aurora77]

I’ve heard the usual “Catholics and Christians” nonsense. My two favorite anti-Catholic things I’ve heard: When I was in 9th grade our school did an anti-drug/alcohol class for all of us. I was told that as a Catholic, taking the wine (that’s how they put it) at Communion, I was a social drinker.

My absolute favorite–a guy at work found out I was Catholic. He called me a mackeral eater. The funny thing was I’d never heard that before and had no idea what he was talking about–he had to explain it to me! All I’m thinking is, “I don’t eat fish, what’s he talking about?”

 

[Tinkerbell]

I had a co-worker tell me one day that her Preacher told her not to do what them Catholics do…such as pray like pagans, pray to dead people, worship idols etc. I just let her ramble on and on. Then she asked me what church I attended. I smiled and proudly named my Catholic Chruch. I wished I had a camera that day.
Bless her heart she needs some prays. Her preacher could use some too.

 

[aurora77]

I had a co-worker tell me one day that her Preacher told her not to do what them Catholics do…such as pray like pagans, pray to dead people, worship idols etc. I just let her ramble on and on. Then she asked me what church I attended. I smiled and proudly named my Catholic Chruch. I wished I had a camera that day.
Bless her heart she needs some prays. Her preacher could use some too.

This reminds me–my mom was telling me about an encounter her boss had. Her boss was sitting on a bench, waiting for her daughter. This guy sits down and they start talking. Somehow the conversation got around to the fact that she was going to somewhere in OK for Easter. The guy gets all excited and asks if pastor so and so is still at a church there. She says she doesn’t know, she goes to the Catholic church there. The guy immediately stopped talking to her and left. Freaky huh!

 

[Gamera]

I had a co-worker tell me one day that her Preacher told her not to do what them Catholics do…such as pray like pagans, pray to dead people, worship idols etc. I just let her ramble on and on. Then she asked me what church I attended. I smiled and proudly named my Catholic Chruch. I wished I had a camera that day.
Bless her heart she needs some prays. Her preacher could use some too.

I did the same thing once. A guy rambled on about how bad Catholicism was (he was a fundamentalist). I just let him dig himself deeper and deeper. Sure enough, he eventually got around to asking what religion I was, and I answered “Catholic.” To his credit, he at least tried to be as polite as he could under the circumstances — asking which parish and so on. But it’s interesting how people just assume it’s okay to publicly bad-mouth Catholics. You won’t often meet a stranger who goes on a tirade about the Methodists.

 

[lak611]

In my personal life, actually talking to people every day, I have never experienced anti-Catholicism or hostility from Protestants. I have Lutheran and Methodist family members and friends. I have also worked with Baptists, Episcopalians, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Assemblies of God members. None of them ever said anything anti-Catholic.

On the other hand, I have heard many anti-Catholic rants from people who were baptised into the Catholic Church, raised Catholic (received Holy Communion and Confirmation), but later left the Church. The ex-Catholics are the most hostile. I tend to walk away from their arguments and then just pray for them later.

 

[theAuthor]

So the pastor was their pope?

Sadly so. My wife was like this, and her Dad is an AOG pastor. She could not answer even simple questions like “what do you believe” when I met her, so I told her about the creed. The creed is kind of frowned upon in AOG circles, sadly.

 

[theAuthor]

No evidence given = gratuitous and false accusations = the poster has conceded the discussion.

Ani Ibi, I did not wish to waste every other member’s time by asking you to clarify what you meant (hence the PM, the discussion seemed to have moved on since then).

I seek the unity of all Christian brethren (those who are Trinitarian Baptised in Christ). You said I gave no evidence for what I believe and yet I referred you to the Cathchism paragraph 818 and a few paragraphs either side that. Some Catholics tend to read “One True Chuch” as meaning that all other churches are false, which is not the teaching of the Church. Certainly paragraph 820 and 821 of the CCC are about promoting unity between Christians.

To quote 817 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
“But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissentions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church- for which often enough, men of both sides were to blame.”

To quote **818 **(which I originally referred to):
“However, one cannot charge with the sin of separation those who at present are born into communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the Faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers…All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ…” There’s more too. Just open your Catechism.

So, once again I fail to see your point. There is just as much Catholic bashing of other denominations as the other way around, and I don’t stand for it on either side in my presence. Your post which quoted me is so far back that I cannot even scroll to it. Hence the PM. I have nothing to hide.

My humble opinion is that since there is One True Church, that all are ordered to Her in one way or another, and that even a fervent protestant therefore (and much to his chargrin) is to a degree a member of Her in as far as he believes as she believes, has been Baptised. That is his faith may lack the fullness of truth, but it does not lack all Truth (read CCC para 819): "Furthernore many elements of sanctification and of truth are to be found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church:“the written Word of God, the life of Grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit,…”

There you go, plenty of evidence from the Catechsim.

 

[Love_is_Patient]

When I was 10, I had a boy tell me that Catholics were crazy and worshipped the crucifix.
At age 16, I had a girl tell me politely, “I’m sorry, but I hate all Catholics.”
When I came to college, an evangelical Christian who lived down the hall thought that I might need to be “saved” because I was Catholic, worshipped Mary, blah blah blah.

It might not all be Jack Chick, but Anti-Catholicism is still alive and kicking in the U.S. of A.

 

[Petergee]

Petergee,
Another lovely topic that people love to suddenly bring up upon hearing my religious affiliation is the priest abuse scandal! I mean, these folks ought to get their own talk shows. OF COURSE, I want to talk about A) the validity of the papacy B) Pedophilia scandal C)How you don’t need to confess to a priest D) Why abortion should be legal E) Why do we worship Mary F) Why homosexual marriage is great, and why does the church persecute gays when most priests are in the closet?

People are so tactful and skillful in small talk!

I hear where you’re coming from. I often think “why can’t they just accept who I am and the fact that I belong to the Church without launching into Catholic-bashing.”

But the Good Book tells us to “Always be prepared to give an account of the faith you have” and “bear witness to the Truth”. Maybe I am the only real believing, practising Catholic which these people will ever have a chance to discuss these things with. Who is to say that God doesn’t intend me to be the person who tells them the truth about Christ and His Church. Will I be able to explain to Christ why I avoided the subject?

Of course that doesn’t guarantee they will listen to you even if you try to tell them the truth (and of course you first have to know what is the truth about each topic). I try to get them to stick to one topic at a time but I still become flustered when face-to-face. So I sometimes have given them or referred them to something in writing afterwards.

One time a work colleague made some very ignorant and bigoted remarks about the Crusades and the Church in general. The next day I emailed him a copy of a short factual article about the Crusades by a secular historian. He stormed in to tell me that he had deleted it without opening it and “don’t ever send me that religious garbage again!” But we have to keep telling people when they ask, don’t we?

 

[JLSacred]

That’s SO typical! YOU were the intolerant one, pushing religion on HIM!!! His viewpoints were perfectly reasonable and acceptable (to him) since they were so obviously correct!

I hear where you’re coming from. I often think “why can’t they just accept who I am and the fact that I belong to the Church without launching into Catholic-bashing.”

But the Good Book tells us to “Always be prepared to give an account of the faith you have” and “bear witness to the Truth”. Maybe I am the only real believing, practising Catholic which these people will ever have a chance to discuss these things with. Who is to say that God doesn’t intend me to be the person who tells them the truth about Christ and His Church. Will I be able to explain to Christ why I avoided the subject?

Of course that doesn’t guarantee they will listen to you even if you try to tell them the truth (and of course you first have to know what is the truth about each topic). I try to get them to stick to one topic at a time but I still become flustered when face-to-face. So I sometimes have given them or referred them to something in writing afterwards.

One time a work colleague made some very ignorant and bigoted remarks about the Crusades and the Church in general. The next day I emailed him a copy of a short factual article about the Crusades by a secular historian. He stormed in to tell me that he had deleted it without opening it and “don’t ever send me that religious garbage again!” But we have to keep telling people when they ask, don’t we?

 

[theAuthor]

I hear where you’re coming from. I often think “why can’t they just accept who I am and the fact that I belong to the Church without launching into Catholic-bashing.”

But the Good Book tells us to “Always be prepared to give an account of the faith you have” and “bear witness to the Truth”. Maybe I am the only real believing, practising Catholic which these people will ever have a chance to discuss these things with. Who is to say that God doesn’t intend me to be the person who tells them the truth about Christ and His Church. Will I be able to explain to Christ why I avoided the subject?

Of course that doesn’t guarantee they will listen to you even if you try to tell them the truth (and of course you first have to know what is the truth about each topic). I try to get them to stick to one topic at a time but I still become flustered when face-to-face. So I sometimes have given them or referred them to something in writing afterwards.

One time a work colleague made some very ignorant and bigoted remarks about the Crusades and the Church in general. The next day I emailed him a copy of a short factual article about the Crusades by a secular historian. He stormed in to tell me that he had deleted it without opening it and “don’t ever send me that religious garbage again!” But we have to keep telling people when they ask, don’t we?

You don’t work at the Mater Hospital too, do you? lol

 

[love4mary]

Yep, A Southern Baptist preacher told me that me and my children were going to Hell because we are Catholic, (my children once belonged to his church). He said we “worshiped a wafer” and that God would punish us for that.

 

[Qwikness]

I went to a state school in south Georgia. There was a History of Religions in America class. A project was to bring in some article about cults in America. Some girl brought in something about the Catholic Church as a cult. Her reasoning was about being led around by a central figure (the Pope) she was going to try to say something else but Professor cut her off. I was so sick when I heard that.
Another class was History of Spanish America. I mentioned being Catholic and the teacher calle me Fish Eater the rest of the term. I hated that.
I had a boss who asked me about church. I said I was Catholic, he said, “Y’all worship the Pope, right?” I just smiled and said, “Naw, he’s like our president.”

 

[Qwikness]

How about groups that are trying to be more-Catholic than the Catholic Church. They claim the Pope is not really Catholic and everthing since Vatican 2 is an abomination, Some group sent my Protestant friend this stuff for some reason. He wanted me to see what I thought. It was a DVD. Very Dry and boring. Way to much information. Good sleep agent. I trashed it but I wished I’d kept the name.

 

[cpayne]

One of the biggest accumulators of anti-Catholicism is higher education, where I teach. Bitter, twisted people who are also very highly educated are the bitterest and twistedest of all. All the emphasis on diversity and tolerance evidently has a limit. (Actually, it has two limits–Catholicism on the one hand, and evangelical Christianity on the other. But in my experience, the bigotry shown to evangelical Christians is of the condescending variety, since they’re obviously so inferior, and the bigotry shown to Catholics is of the inflammatory variety, since they should “know better.”)

 

[Ani_Ibi]

davidarlette:

Ani Ibi, I did not wish to waste every other member’s time by asking you to clarify what you meant

Asking for clarification is part of discussion.

hence the PM…You said I gave no evidence for what I believe …

In the pm you asked me what I meant by the term ‘conceded the discussion.’ I told you in general terms. Now you are trying to make those general terms specific.

Shall I post the pm here?
davidarlette:

There’s more too. Just open your Catechism.

This is assuming that I have not opened my Catechism.
davidarlette:

So, once again I fail to see your point.

Yes.

 

[tomarin]

few people that i encounter are rude enough to say things hostile to catholicism to my face (the internet is another matter); the main catholic basher in my life is my father, an ex-catholic who loves conspiracy theories in general and “the davinci code” in particular. it’s based on fact you know (sarcasm implied).

after spending time defending my views on a website hostile to catholics, i found praying the psalms to be a soothing restorative. it will probably take me the rest of my life to come anywhere near plumbing the depths of those beautiful prayers of praise, but one theme that stands out is the believer’s anguished cry for help from the hurtful intentions of the nonbelievers around him. plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

 

[lak611]

How about groups that are trying to be more-Catholic than the Catholic Church. They claim the Pope is not really Catholic and everthing since Vatican 2 is an abomination,

I had a discussion with a man who believes this. He also told me I’m going to hell because I do not go to confession every week like he does in his SSPV chapel.

 

[mgrobertson79]

I had a discussion with a man who believes this. He also told me I’m going to hell because I do not go to confession every week like he does in his SSPV chapel.

The SSPV unlike the SSPX is completely outside the Catholic church, they are likely more protestant than some Baptists. They say the rest of us are not Catholic at all. How arrogant is that? They have no desire to return to full communion and I truly fear for their souls.

Edit:
The only reason I leave the SSPX out of this is the discussion is all over the Traditional forum and is not suited for here. Cardinal Castrillion Hoyos has said in the last month that they are not in full schism so that means they are not completely outside the Church.

 

[Petergee]

You don’t work at the Mater Hospital too, do you? lol

No, but it’s sad that you imply that this kind of Catholic-bashing still goes on in a Catholic hospital. Years ago I worked at a Catholic hospital and had to spend long periods one-on-one with a training supervisor who was an aggressive ex-Catholic. After she found out I was a practising Catholic, she had a knack for steering almost any conversation into an attack on Catholicism and on my stupidity for believing and practising it. Often using the intro “I know YOU think I’m going to Hell for doing/saying this, but…”. The weird thing was that this woman’s best friend was also a practising Catholic. Maybe she was taking out on me what she didn’t dare say to her friend.