Very confused, can you help?

[sunkiss]

Good morning,

I have always been C of E, however, lately I have been learning about Catholicism and to my parents disapproval seem to be swaying more to its teachings. I know the difference between Church of England and Catholicism aren’t massive but the more I learn the more I am sure that it makes so much more sense over C of E.

I was hoping that some kind person on here could point out the MAIN differences between the Chruch of England and Catholicism? to be honest, I don’t care if my parents don’t approve of my switching, if it makes more sense to me I need to do what I feel is right. I am quite involved with the church, and always have been.

There are two things that stand out to me, the first being that Catholicism is so much older than C of E, and secondly that the Mother Mary is seen equally ‘as’ important as Jesus Christ. These two points seem to sway me more towards its teachings, amongst other things.

Thankyou guys. [BIBLEDRB][/BIBLEDRB]

 

[FightingFat]

Good morning,

I have always been C of E, however, lately I have been learning about Catholicism and to my parents disapproval seem to be swaying more to its teachings. I know the difference between Church of England and Catholicism aren’t massive but the more I learn the more I am sure that it makes so much more sense over C of E.

I was hoping that some kind person on here could point out the MAIN differences between the Chruch of England and Catholicism? to be honest, I don’t care if my parents don’t approve of my switching, if it makes more sense to me I need to do what I feel is right. I am quite involved with the church, and always have been.

There are two things that stand out to me, the first being that Catholicism is so much older than C of E, and secondly that the Mother Mary is seen equally ‘as’ important as Jesus Christ. These two points seem to sway me more towards its teachings, amongst other things.

Thankyou guys. [BIBLEDRB][/BIBLEDRB]

Good morning Sunkiss!

The main differences are a result of the way the church derives its authority. This has resulted in lots of recent changes to the structure of the C of E and caused lots of pain.

The C of E came about as the result of a dispute between King Henry VIII & the Pope (Clement VII). England was Catholic until Henry became infatuated with Anne Boleyn. He wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne, but this was not allowed. He sued the pope for a divorce, but the pope refused. Henry never formally repudiated the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, but he declared himself supreme head of the church in England in 1534.

The Catholic Church derives its origins from Jesus;

[BIBLEDRB]Matthew 16:18[/BIBLEDRB]

…the C of E derives its origins from Henry VIII, when he separated England from Rome between 1533 and 1540.

The head of the Catholic Church is Jesus, we are led by His Pastor on earth, the Pope. The C of E’s head is the Queen.

The Catholic Church derives it’s authoritative teaching from the Apostles and the succession of authority which was bestowed on the Apostles by Jesus Christ Himself:

[BIBLEDRB]Matthew 16:19[/BIBLEDRB]

All this means that the C of E does not have valid sacraments as the line of Apostolic succession has been broken.

I wouldn’t say we see Mary as equal with Christ, we do see her as the perfection of human nature, the prototype of the redeemed, and lots of other lovely things like that, but Jesus is God and Mary is a human being.

Does this answer some of your questions?

 

[sunkiss]

Thank you FightingFat, yes it does help.

Divorce is a ‘non sense’ to start and base a religion on, I find it quite scary that this was the reason that a whole new religion was founded.

Not enough praise is given to Mary within C of E, this is more than clear.

I have been having feelings of guilt for many years now, mainly because I know in my heart that I want to class myself as a Catholic, not C of E, at first I felt like a traitor, but I have found the courage now to say aloud (to whoever) the way I feel.

 

[FightingFat]

Thank you FightingFat, yes it does help.

Divorce is a ‘non sense’ to start and base a religion on, I find it quite scary that this was the reason that a whole new religion was founded.

Not enough praise is given to Mary within C of E, this is more than clear.

I have been having feelings of guilt for many years now, mainly because I know in my heart that I want to class myself as a Catholic, not C of E, at first I felt like a traitor, but I have found the courage now to say aloud (to whoever) the way I feel.

OK, but be gentle with your parents and remember that the C of E claims to be Catholic too! How old are you?

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Thank you FightingFat, yes it does help.

Divorce is a ‘non sense’ to start and base a religion on, I find it quite scary that this was the reason that a whole new religion was founded.

Not enough praise is given to Mary within C of E, this is more than clear.

I have been having feelings of guilt for many years now, mainly because I know in my heart that I want to class myself as a Catholic, not C of E, at first I felt like a traitor, but I have found the courage now to say aloud (to whoever) the way I feel.

Hi Sunkiss! welcome to this great forum! So happy that you are exploring becoming a Catholic.

Yes, Henry 8th also destroyed just about every monastery and church in England which is why there are so many ruins instead of Catholic churches. His anger over the Church not allowing him a divorce caused the schism between the true Church and his own version of it, complete with the ability to divorce (at least his own). It’s like a child who doesn’t like the rules of a game so he picks up his ball and goes to make up his own game.

C of E isn’t really a whole new religion, it’s like a shadow version of the Catholic Church, and in fact, since the Anglican church didn’t go through Vatican II, your rite is more like old-school Catholic Masses. Apart from the radical strain that endorses homosexuality, thus invalidating Scripture, the rituals and sacraments are the same since all Henry 8th did was make his own divorce valid - he kept everything else since it was all he knew.

But you can read about the history anywhere. Just wanted to say welcome to you and wish you all the best as you transition to being where your heart has always called you!

 

[PiousTemplar]

Good morning,

I have always been C of E, however, lately I have been learning about Catholicism and to my parents disapproval seem to be swaying more to its teachings. I know the difference between Church of England and Catholicism aren’t massive but the more I learn the more I am sure that it makes so much more sense over C of E.

I was hoping that some kind person on here could point out the MAIN differences between the Chruch of England and Catholicism? to be honest, I don’t care if my parents don’t approve of my switching, if it makes more sense to me I need to do what I feel is right. I am quite involved with the church, and always have been.

There are two things that stand out to me, the first being that Catholicism is so much older than C of E, and secondly that the Mother Mary is seen equally ‘as’ important as Jesus Christ. These two points seem to sway me more towards its teachings, amongst other things.

Thankyou guys. [BIBLEDRB][/BIBLEDRB]

Mary is not seen as important as Jesus Christ. Jesus is God Incarnate, Mary is the Mother of God. We praise Jesus, and we honour mary. If it looks like Catholics rank them the same then there is probably something very wrong.

 

[FightingFat]

C of E isn’t really a whole new religion, it’s like a shadow version of the Catholic Church, and in fact, since the Anglican church didn’t go through Vatican II, your rite is more like old-school Catholic Masses. Apart from the radical strain that endorses homosexuality, thus invalidating Scripture, the rituals and sacraments are the same since all Henry 8th did was make his own divorce valid - he kept everything else since it was all he knew.

This is a good point, the C of E is a bit schizophrenic in this respect, it has a very broad base, it has attempted to appeal to everybody and in order to do this, it has necessarily had to water down its core doctrines, relativisng Christian belief, making it what is true for “you”.

C of E churches can be anything from very low church, like the free evangelical churches, to very high church, where you would think you were in Rome!

But you can read about the history anywhere. Just wanted to say welcome to you and wish you all the best as you transition to being where your heart has always called you!

Yes, perhaps some information from a more objective source than us Catholics! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_England

 

[testamentum]

Others here have given sound information regarding the role of King Henry VIII in dividing the church for his own selfish reasons so I need not add to this.
Moral issues such as Abortion,Divorce,Contraception which were always held as social evils have been allowed free rein in the C.O.E ever since the Lambeth Conference of 1932something which proves a lack of proper authority.
To obey Christ, we must obey the teachings of His Church, Christ intended to leave us a unified, hierarchical and authoritative Church whom He guides into all truth, it is not "Jesus, the Bible, and me, this is why there are 33,000 different Protestant denominations. Christ loves us so much, He left us a Church to teach us the entirety of His truth, and protect us from error. God is in fact bound by His justice to provide us a mechanism that keeps us from error, that mechanism is not the Bible, which is subject to many different interpretations,that mechanism is the Church, the Bride! this is proven by 2,000 years of consistent teaching on faith and morals, and further underscored by the continued splintering of non-Catholic Christian churches who all claim to go by the Bible alone.
God bless

 

[Skeptic92]

Good morning,

I have always been C of E, however, lately I have been learning about Catholicism and to my parents disapproval seem to be swaying more to its teachings. I know the difference between Church of England and Catholicism aren’t massive but the more I learn the more I am sure that it makes so much more sense over C of E.

I was hoping that some kind person on here could point out the MAIN differences between the Chruch of England and Catholicism? to be honest, I don’t care if my parents don’t approve of my switching, if it makes more sense to me I need to do what I feel is right. I am quite involved with the church, and always have been.

There are two things that stand out to me, the first being that Catholicism is so much older than C of E, and secondly that the Mother Mary is seen equally ‘as’ important as Jesus Christ. These two points seem to sway me more towards its teachings, amongst other things.

Thankyou guys.

The main difference is that the CoE isn’t 100% sure what it teaches, nothing is dogmatic and infallible, anything can be changed, apart from the core tenets of faith (the Trinity baptism etc), where is in the Catholic Church, there are firm teachings and things that can not be changed (dogmatic beliefs), these are the basic differences between High Church CoE and Catholicism, there are some more things to be more precise, but i thought I’ld give you a general difference

 

[Robert_Burns]

Good morning,

I have always been C of E, however, lately I have been learning about Catholicism and to my parents disapproval seem to be swaying more to its teachings. I know the difference between Church of England and Catholicism aren’t massive but the more I learn the more I am sure that it makes so much more sense over C of E.

I was hoping that some kind person on here could point out the MAIN differences between the Chruch of England and Catholicism? to be honest, I don’t care if my parents don’t approve of my switching, if it makes more sense to me I need to do what I feel is right. I am quite involved with the church, and always have been.

There are two things that stand out to me, the first being that Catholicism is so much older than C of E, and secondly that the Mother Mary is seen equally ‘as’ important as Jesus Christ. These two points seem to sway me more towards its teachings, amongst other things.

Thankyou guys. [BIBLEDRB][/BIBLEDRB]

A common misconception is the Catholic View of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All True Reverence in the Catholic Church is Centered on the Holy Trinity - the Father the son and the Holy Spirit. So where does our Love for the Blessed Virgin come in to the equasion? As Catholics - we Love The Blessed Virgin Mary because of GOD’s Love for Her and because of her love for GOD.

Think about it - GOD the Father created her to Bear the Son of GOD and created her free from even Original Sin - thaus was the love of GOD the Father. The Holy Ghost concieved the Son of GOD in the Blessed Virgin Mary - such is the Love of the Holy Spirit for Mary - his spouse ! Anjd of Course the Son of GOD - Our lord Jesus Christ - his MOTHER - the love of a Son for his mother and a Mother for her only Son. Likewise do we know that Mary fully consigns her will entirely to the Will of GOD so that as a Catholic if the blessed Virgin Mary demonstrates that we should do or not do something we are assured that it is likewise GOD’S Will because her will is a slave in all ways to GOD’S Will. Her humility will not allow her to do that which would displease GOD. Mary , therefore , helps us to grow closer to GOD - both through her intercession and example and through her numerous apparitions in history. She is the Greatest of All saints - because she most pleases GOD of all his creatures. It is because of this - the Catholic can have confidence that having devotion for Mary is doing the will of Almighty GOD himself because that is all she does.

Pax.