What is the biggest misconception non-Catholics have of Catholicism?

[pianistclare]

Men in dresses, eh? Interesting. I’ve never heard that one before either. I must lead a sheltered life.

They mean the Cardinals.

 

[pianistclare]

I’m quite familiar with the op’s posts thank you very much. I stand by my comments.

So what would be a good reason to slam the door on a person wanting to learn about the true faith?
Is this what one would want written on the Book of Life on the last day?
That we ridiculed someone who was seeking?
Bizarre.
Paul preached to Gentiles you know.

Sometimes Catholics can be really hard.
We’re called to be compassionate.

 

[GKC]

They mean the Cardinals.

Or, possibly, anyone wearing a cassock/soutane.

 

[pianistclare]

Or, possibly, anyone wearing a cassock/soutane.

yes.
That’s the biggest thing for the younger generation… They simply don’t know about liturgical practices, and the history of the Church, both practically speaking, and from a Spiritual aspect.
Please pray for all the catechists of the world. We need the help of the many good priests, and we need the strength of the Holy Spirit to guide us.

 

[Memaw]

Or, possibly, anyone wearing a cassock/soutane.

Catholic women don’t wear Cassocks. Did you ever see Jesus in pants!!. God Bless, Memaw

 

[GKC]

Catholic women don’t wear Cassocks. Did you ever see Jesus in pants!!. God Bless, Memaw

Catholic women aren’t in Holy Orders, either.

 

[ffg]

I don’t know about ‘biggest misconception’, but I think the humanity of the flock is a focus that can lead someone to conclude to walk a path away from what they desire to find.

I think it’s possible that people think ‘if there is a true Church, it will stick out like a sore thumb’.

So then they see people in all their humanity and use this lack of difference to their group of friends / family / congregation as reasoning to apply a conclusion which may be categorized as a misconception.

If Catholicism is Jesus’ established Church, it’s not true, good, or holy because of the humans.

 

[GKC]

Yep. all the way.

 

[Tommy999]

Just wanted to touch on this point. No offense taken. In all of my studies so far Mary does seem to be the biggest stumbling block from non-Catholics. Two of your prior responses immediately came to mind. I think one of the reasons why Mary is seen as a stumbling block goes along with your response to FollowChrist34. Some uniformed Catholics have pushed the Marian dogmas further than they were intended.

Another stumbling block is the most common defense against our Blessed Mother I have seen from anti-Catholics. Quite often in dialogues I hear the response “by giving her attention you take away from the attention you should be giving to Jesus”. This thought immediately brought your other post to my mind:

So often when I dialogue with anti-Catholics they take the scriptures of Jesus speaking to his Mother as “woman” and turn him into that unruly immature teenager to prove that he doesn’t listen to your Mother and she is insignificant. As you are getting older and more mature you can see the love and respect that we have and should have always had for our mothers.

Your ability to now see your mother’s love for you and that she was able to keep you on the path to following Christ is the perfect beginning. It won’t be long before you start to see that just like our physical mothers, our Blessed Mother doesn’t distract us from Jesus sacrifice on the cross, She helps to bring us ever closer to our Lord.

Keep studying my brother and keep up the good work.

God Bless.

Thanks for that, MT1926.

 

[Tommy999]

Doesn’t that particular misconception (bolded above by me) go way back to the days of the Roman Empire in the early days of Christianity?

 

[GKC]

That’s a really old one, dating back to Patristics periods. I can’t recall the Father who is associated with the refutation.

Me, I say it’s a mystery and then give the explanation. But, it’s Take, eat", not “Take, understand”, as a good man one wrote.,

 

[GKC]

Doesn’t that particular misconception (bolded above by me) go way back to the days of the Roman Empire in the early days of Christianity?

Yep.

 

[Memaw]

Catholic women aren’t in Holy Orders, either.

I didn’t say they were!!! I was referring to posts 31 and 45. Cassocks are not dresses. God Bless, Memaw

 

[GKC]

I didn’t say they were!!! I was referring to posts 31 and 45. Cassocks are not dresses. God Bless, Memaw

Yes, indeed. Cassocks are not dresses.

 

[exnihilo]

Many other common misconceptions have been mentioned. I’d add what I think is a small but important one. It is a somewhat subtle misconception that I hope I can properly convey.

I think some folks looking in from outside wrongly think that Catholicism is rigidly uniform. They imagine that Catholics are all alike, all believe the same thing, and worship in the same way. They might be aware of the Catholic Church’s unambiguous position on abortion and also the many, sadly, Catholic politicians who support abortion. But they still see Catholicims as being very uniform.

And of course there is truth in this. There are dogmas, there is a set liturgy, and there is a calendar. But there is a surprising amount of diversity within Catholicsm. With the dogmas there is uniformity (or at least there should be), but outside of this there is freedom. For instance there are two major positions on reconciling Free Will and Predestination. You can be a good Catholic and hold to either view. Or you can just not worry about having a position on that matter. While the Mass will in many ways be the same anywhere you go there is plenty of diversity in things like music, incense, use of Latin, or even which prayers are said during Mass.

In some ways you see the freedom most expressed in things like religious orders where people choose to follow a certain spiritually. The various orders have a way of being Catholic. They have a focus. The various orders are all part of the Church and necessary. The Body of Christ is hands and feet and all the other parts, but it is also a unity.

The Catholic Church on the inside is far more free than I’d have imagined on the outside. There are walls, as there has to be, but it is spacious on the inside.

However, in my real world experience, the Catholics I have known growing up and in adulthood – for the most part – are more well-versed in religious ritual and tradition than the Bible. For example, many of the Catholics I have known outside of CAF have more knowledge of which saint to seek out for a certain type of prayer intention or malady than they have knowledge of the most basic Bible stories that many Protestants learn in their childhood and youth…

I don’t doubt your experience. I think many Catholics should be more familiar with the Faith including Holy Scripture. But of course as you point out for many Protestants the Bible is kinda all they have. It therefore gets pressed into service as something it wasn’t meant to be. It isn’t a systematic theology. It doesn’t contain a code telling us when the world will end. It won’t settle the matter of what are the essential tenets of the Faith.

The Faith is in many ways simple. It isn’t hard to know the essence of the Faith. What is hard is living the Faith. And what makes it hard isn’t lack of knowledge but lack of surrender to God. Reading the Bible or knowing what Saint to seek intercession from wont help if you aren’t willing to deny yourself.

Plus, how can they say Catholics hate women when they hold Mary in such high regard?

What I found is that the Church gets criticized from both sides and for opposite reasons. The Blessed Virgin is one. But you see it things like sexual matters. So it is simultaneously claimed the Catholic Church wants to take over the world with large families, hence the no birth control. But it is also criticized for its stance on no sex outside marriage, its stance against IVF, and its celibacy, which obviously will not help in the goal of taking over the world. One thing that drew me to the Church was realizing that the critics were unfair and frankly untruthful. If it was so terrible it shouldn’t be necessary to be so.

Hi Convert1,
I must admit that Mary and the attention that Catholics give to her still is a stumbling block for me. I don’t mean to offend Catholics by that statement. I am just being honest as I share my heart with you. I am trying to work through it.

Part of me believes she is worthy of honor beyond that which most Protestants give her. However, perhaps due to my over 5 decades as a Protestant, I still feel at times that the amount of attention given to her by Catholics is so effusive that it borders on turning her into a goddess akin to Artemis of the Ephesians.

I understand your position. And I won’t disagree with it because I think there is some truth to it. I do think some Catholics can get things a bit out of sorts. But the problem there isn’t Catholicims but individuals. You can be a good Catholic and not be out of sorts yourself. You can hear about a devotion to the BVM and not want to participate in that yourself. That isn’t to say the devotion is wrong but just that you don’t have to join in. Basically if you can agree with the prayers in the Mass you can be a good Catholic and leave it at that.

Another reason I converted was discovering that Protestantism in practice paid almost no attention to Mary. I saw in Holy Scripture all generations shall call me blessed. I didn’t see that at all in Protestantism. Most of the Ave Maria was from Scripture. The rest was a simple prayer for intercession, which I became convinced was not wrong. Once I could say the Ave Maria in good conscience I did. I tried praying the Rosary which was otherwise unobjectionable. The Rosary itself is about mediation on Jesus’ life. After meditating on things like the Annunciation, the Visitiation, the Nativity, the Presentation, the Finding in the Temple, and most of all the Crucifixion, where Mary is there and given to John, and the Church, I slowly started to understand Marian devotion.

 

[Tommy999]

Many other common misconceptions have been mentioned. I’d add what I think is a small but important one. It is a somewhat subtle misconception that I hope I can properly convey.

I think some folks looking in from outside wrongly think that Catholicism is rigidly uniform. They imagine that Catholics are all alike, all believe the same thing, and worship in the same way. They might be aware of the Catholic Church’s unambiguous position on abortion and also the many, sadly, Catholic politicians who support abortion. But they still see Catholicims as being very uniform.

And of course there is truth in this. There are dogmas, there is a set liturgy, and there is a calendar. But there is a surprising amount of diversity within Catholicsm. With the dogmas there is uniformity (or at least there should be), but outside of this there is freedom. For instance there are two major positions on reconciling Free Will and Predestination. You can be a good Catholic and hold to either view. Or you can just not worry about having a position on that matter. While the Mass will in many ways be the same anywhere you go there is plenty of diversity in things like music, incense, use of Latin, or even which prayers are said during Mass.
In some ways you see the freedom most expressed in things like religious orders where people choose to follow a certain spiritually. The various orders have a way of being Catholic. They have a focus. The various orders are all part of the Church and necessary. The Body of Christ is hands and feet and all the other parts, but it is also a unity.

The Catholic Church on the inside is far more free than I’d have imagined on the outside. There are walls, as there has to be, but it is spacious on the inside.

I don’t doubt your experience. I think many Catholics should be more familiar with the Faith including Holy Scripture. But of course as you point out for many Protestants the Bible is kinda all they have. It therefore gets pressed into service as something it wasn’t meant to be. It isn’t a systematic theology. It doesn’t contain a code telling us when the world will end. It won’t settle the matter of what are the essential tenets of the Faith.

The Faith is in many ways simple. It isn’t hard to know the essence of the Faith. What is hard is living the Faith. And what makes it hard isn’t lack of knowledge but lack of surrender to God. Reading the Bible or knowing what Saint to seek intercession from wont help if you aren’t willing to deny yourself.

What I found is that the Church gets criticized from both sides and for opposite reasons. The Blessed Virgin is one. But you see it things like sexual matters. So it is simultaneously claimed the Catholic Church wants to take over the world with large families, hence the no birth control. But it is also criticized for its stance on no sex outside marriage, its stance against IVF, and its celibacy, which obviously will not help in the goal of taking over the world. One thing that drew me to the Church was realizing that the critics were unfair and frankly untruthful. If it was so terrible it shouldn’t be necessary to be so.

I understand your position. And I won’t disagree with it because I think there is some truth to it. I do think some Catholics can get things a bit out of sorts. But the problem there isn’t Catholicims but individuals. You can be a good Catholic and not be out of sorts yourself. You can hear about a devotion to the BVM and not want to participate in that yourself. That isn’t to say the devotion is wrong but just that you don’t have to join in. Basically if you can agree with the prayers in the Mass you can be a good Catholic and leave it at that.

Another reason I converted was discovering that Protestantism in practice paid almost no attention to Mary. I saw in Holy Scripture all generations shall call me blessed. I didn’t see that at all in Protestantism. Most of the Ave Maria was from Scripture. The rest was a simple prayer for intercession, which I became convinced was not wrong. Once I could say the Ave Maria in good conscience I did. I tried praying the Rosary which was otherwise unobjectionable. The Rosary itself is about mediation on Jesus’ life. After meditating on things like the Annunciation, the Visitiation, the Nativity, the Presentation, the Finding in the Temple, and most of all the Crucifixion, where Mary is there and given to John, and the Church, I slowly started to understand Marian devotion.

Thanks, exnihilo. I find your points very refreshing and enlightening, especially the part I bolded.

 

[Della]

Hi Convert1,
On the bolded, I agree that there is plenty of scripture said at Mass. When I listen to a Mass on radio, they give the three readings as you mentioned, and the homily expounds on them. I like that.

Not only the Mass, but the official daily prayer of the Church, the Divine Office is primarily Scripture–Psalms with some other passages and prayers: divineoffice.org.

I must admit that Mary and the attention that Catholics give to her still is a stumbling block for me. I don’t mean to offend Catholics by that statement. I am just being honest as I share my heart with you. I am trying to work through it.

Part of me believes she is worthy of honor beyond that which most Protestants give her. However, perhaps due to my over 5 decades as a Protestant, I still feel at times that the amount of attention given to her by Catholics is so effusive that it borders on turning her into a goddess akin to Artemis of the Ephesians.

That was mine, as well. Looking in from the outside many Protestants, especially Evangelicals/Pentecostals, see devotion to Mary as worshiping her. I believe you have come to understand that’s not what Catholic do. But I can understand how it may seem that way, which is why it needs to be explained to non-Catholics in terms they can grasp.

The thing to remember about Marian theology is that it is based in Christology. Mary is not an entity studied apart from her Son and his mission, but rather as an integral part. What the Church teaches about Mary and devotion to her is all centered in Christ, who he is, what he accomplished in his earthly mission and his promises to us his people. Understood in that context Marian doctrine/dogma/devotion makes sense.

We cannot possibly fill in all anyone needs to know about Marian teachings on CAF. For that inquirers need to read solid Catholic material that deals with the topic. I urge you to do so, for the sake of your understanding if not your acceptance.

Please keep me in your prayers if you don’t mind.

Pleaser remember us, as well–although I suspect you already do.

 

[pianistclare]

I didn’t say they were!!! I was referring to posts 31 and 45. Cassocks are not dresses. God Bless, Memaw

Well that was the point of the remark. People who know nothing of Catholicism say all kinds of silly things to justify their lack of understanding.
Catholics don’t say that. People who want to put down our faith sometimes do though.
Peace.

 

[Michael68]

The biggest misconceptions I run into is that we worship Mary and the Saints

 

[Peter_J]

I don’t know about ‘biggest misconception’, but I think the humanity of the flock is a focus that can lead someone to conclude to walk a path away from what they desire to find.

I think it’s possible that people think ‘if there is a true Church, it will stick out like a sore thumb’.

So then they see people in all their humanity and use this lack of difference to their group of friends / family / congregation as reasoning to apply a conclusion which may be categorized as a misconception.

If Catholicism is Jesus’ established Church, it’s not true, good, or holy because of the humans.