The most common negative you hear about Catholicism and your response to it

[adelore]

I just smile when I hear someone telling me that as a Catholic I’m going to Hell, because in case I didn’t know it All Catholics are going to Hell. True to form…it’s because we worship Mary, (even if you explain to them that Catholics don’t) they still tell you that you do…go figure…

I don’t let it worry or bother me…I just pray for them and call it good.

It’s like this…they can’t hear, if they aren’t listening…

 

[shuzo1189]

I live in a mainly protestant southern town, and I get lots of misconceptions or just plain prejudice about our faith. The most common ones I get are worshiping Mary and that all priests are homosexual child molesters.

When I come across a someone that is really interested in understanding, I will take the time and explain to them. However, when I come across arrogance and prejudice, I simply say that no matter what you want to say about my Church, at the end of the day I am a member of the only Church founded by Jesus Christ, passed down by apostalic succession, guarded by the protection of the Holy Spirit. It is either the Church started by Jesus or one of the Martin Luther off shoots. Who do you follow?

I will say, being where I am has made me alot more sensitive to other people’s faith. I will never bad mouth a religion that I don’t know about- I may not agree with it or believe in it- but I will not be derogatory to someone else’s faith.

Actually St.Padre Pio and JPII Encouraged Weekly Confession as a way to strengthen our resolve and overcome sin.

The most common complaint i hear is usually the fact that “I am not Saved”, i usually respond with “Im still working out my salvation in fear and trembling”. It typically either ends the discussion or im told im interpreting the scripture wrong.

Also the Veneration of Saints, I usually respond with “So you don’t ask friends or family to pray for you?”

 

[Angelstar]

I just want to mention what I’ve been noticing lately.

Lately, I’ve been studying and researching my Catholic faith. Along with that, I’ve been trying to show my protestant fiancé fair-mindedness on my part by attempting to gather information about what Protestants believe. I do this mostly by internet research, as I can’t quite afford even a small library’s worth of books (not with as many interests as I have, at least). I’ve been getting so angry about it because anytime I put in a search of “Protestant Beliefs” “the Protestant reformation” “what do protestants believe” or other such searches most everything I’ve come across always has some form of Catholic bashing. It’s like they can’t explain what they believe without putting it in the context of “Catholicism teaches this, so we believe that”. And anything they have to say about Catholic beliefs is all steeped in lies.

I would think they wouldn’t want to damage their credibility with so much lying. Also, whatever happened to their Authority of the Bible? Or is bearing false witness a Law which they are exempt from?

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” Proverbs 18:2

 

[EvelynEVF]

I think there are at least two issues at play here. One is that protestants are indeed protesting, and so sometimes they believe things only because they are the opposite of Catholic. The other is that there is a big culture/language divide between the two faiths. I was recently given a tract telling me the 62 Major Errors of the Catholic Church. The author actually uses the catechism to say what we believe, but he contrasts it to the Bible, instead of realizing that the CCC explains the Bible. He also doesn’t understand what some terms mean, as an outsider looking in.

Most folks seem to just be passing on the bad info without malice aforethought. They don’t know how to check it for accuracy.