Why is the church so confusing?

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Nelka, sometimes, we just need to be.

As Lee mentioned, just go to mass. Just be there. Don’t try to think about all of the unnecessary concerns, preferences, or constraints on yourself and the mass that some people on CAF do.

You are not obligated to read the Catechism. If there is something you have a question about, ask your priest. Sometimes on CAF people are talking about things that are way over my head. I am not going to lose sleep over it.

Bloom where you are planted.
 
@Nelka I agree things can get confusing for those of us who aren’t post-graduate theology students. I look at it this way: thereis more mystery in the world than certainty. All we can do is embrace it and try our best to do what Jesus asked us to do.

It’s not just people like us who get confused by the Church or the world in general though. I’ll give you two somewhat relevant quotes to (hopefully) make you feel better:

“We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library, whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different languages. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend but only dimly suspects.” -Albert Einstein

“All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.” -St. Thomas Aquinas
 
Nelka said:
It should be simple but it’s not. I feel I should have a masters degree to be catholic these days. Nothing seems to make sense anymore, or maybe it never made sense and I believed it did.
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Being on CAF probably isn’t helping at all.

My advice: Relax. Do your best to be a good person. Go to church on Sunday and try to pay attention. Don’t overthink, don’t over analyze.
 
Lots of good advice upthread.
You’ve been going through a rough time.
I’m remembering you in my prayers.
:pray:t2:
 
Nelka said:
For me the catechism is a complete nightmare, I never understand a thing the popes have written. I feel Heaven is just for the intellectually elite.
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While the laity are perfectly welcome to read the Catechism on its own, it is meant to be a reference source for priests and religious education directors. Such persons have special training to best educate the general laity in the faith, and the Catechism is supposed to be a one stop resource to help them.

The Catechism is a summary of two millennia of theology. Laity without special training or self education are not expected to just pick it up and learn from it - professionals are expected to use it to develop better religious education materials with it!

The 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church is different than say the “Baltimore Catechism”, which was meant to be read and understood by the general laity as a primary source of faith formation. The Catechism would be a resource for local priests to write an updated Baltimore Catechism, for example.
 
Just love God and take care of each other. The rest will fall into place.
 
Nelka said:
we Catholics commit mortal sins just be thinking not pleasant things but non Catholics can still get to Heaven without breaking a sweat it seems.
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Sweat does not help anyone get into heaven. Heaven is a free gift from God. Have faith and appreciate the gifts God gives you.

Don’t wander away from God by sinning, which can take work sometimes. Just stand with God and breaking a sweat will seem like nothing next to the abundant flory.
 
@Nelka, Jesus gave us two commandments: love God and love each other. Strive to do those the best you can. It’s that simple.
 
One of the things that drew me to Catholicism was the (some branches of) Protestant belief that if someone is born, lives their life, and dies in a far remote village where they never hear of Christ that they will go to hell. I simply could not accept a God who was so punitive to damn someone who never knew there was any other option.

God’s mercy is beyond our imagination. We can trust that only those who use their free will to reject him will be damned. In this life, it is my duty to stay in God’s friendship and to help to tell others about the wideness in God’s mercy!

 
Nelka said:
I feel I should have a masters degree to be catholic these days.
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@Nelka, you’re totally right. The trouble with Roman Catholicism is that it is “hyper-rational”. It didn’t start off that way, but over the past 4 or 5 centuries or so, it has become that. What I mean is that the RC religion has moved away from being intuitive, to being a religion of extremely elaborate theories and explanations. This is making the Faith less attractive for those who sense intuitively (and correctly) that religion should be fairly simple. It is, after all, a matter of the heart, and God does not favor PhD’s over those who are less intellectually inclined. (In fact, I suspect God slightly favors those who are of simple mind.)

But there is good news too: as a layperson you are really only required to know and believe a small number of things, most of which are summarized in the Creed. And as for practice, you should attend Mass but there is no requirement that you understand everything that is said in the homily. Don’t feel bad if you don’t get it or don’t agree with it. The important part of Mass is Communion of course, which is easy to understand by virtue of being always the same.

Anyway, if the complexity of Catholicism overwhelms you, I recommend that you stay away from all the texts, books, theories, explanations, etc. Go back to basics: your own intimate prayer, Communion, confession, that’s it. It might also be a good idea to stay away from this forum, if I may say so. Opinions here are so diverse, it only adds to the headache if you try to make sense of them all.
Nelka said:
Oh and we Catholics commit mortal sins just be thinking not pleasant things but non Catholics can still get to Heaven without breaking a sweat it seems.
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No, that is not true. A mortal sin is a mortal sin regardless of whether you’re Catholic or not. Certain other religions may fail to acknowledge certain sins as such, and think that they can thus get away scot-free. It isn’t so.
 
One of the beauties of Catholicism is that you can go as deep as you wish, in any number of interests. But we are always called back to remember the essentials.

It is almost Advent again, so it is a perfect time to get calm. Go outside, or to somewhere with a pretty outdoor shrine. You will feel better.
 
The Catechism can be confusing, but it was originally intended to be used by priests as a teaching tool. There are many other faith books that are easier to understand, such as the “Compendium for the Catechism of the Catholic Church” or the “U.S. Adult Catholic Catechism”. And I’ve also recommended to adults just learning about Catholicism, “The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth”. You might even find that one quite interesting. Fr Oscar Lukefahr, C.M. has some very easy to read/understand books out about the Faith that cross reference the Catechism.
 
We do know. You’re re-casting the text in the Catechism as if it means “Hey maybe they do maybe they don’t (go to heaven)”. But that’s not fair. When it says they may go to heaven, it’s like saying “you may enter my house”. The “may” in the Catechism’s phrase doesn’t indicate ambiguity; it indicates that it is definitely possible.
Are there any canonized saints (the only people we can know are in Heaven) who were a religion other than Catholic? To my knowledge, there aren’t.
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There are thousands and thousands of non-Catholic saints, Agatha. But every religion canonizes only saints of its own faith, so if you look at saints canonized by the RCC then indeed you’ll only find Catholic saints. As an example, the muslims call their saints “walee” (or you could spell it wali). There are very many of them, and muslims visit their tombs and shrines just the way Catholics visit tombs and shrines dedicated to Catholic saints.
 
The Ugandan martyrs (Charles Lwanga and companions) included Anglicans.
 
Profess the Creed, obey the commandments (repent if you fail), receive the Sacraments. The same commandments and obligation of faith apply to all. It’s not that difficult. Not everyone needs to get into all the nuances and whatnot. As St. Irenaeus said: “For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.”
 
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