Why is there so much anti-Catholic websites?

[Huguenot]

Al Masetti:

There are numerous guides published about what Catholics refer to as an “examination of conscience”… which is a ritual we are supposed to go through immediately prior to entering the confessional or seeing a priest for the sacrament of reconciliation. I don’t happen to have one of them in front of me, this second. But anyone (Catholic or not) can refer to one of these “examination of conscience” guides… to see how they are “coming along” in re-forming their lives.

Having said that, there is a really NIFTY little book called “My Daily Bread”. published by “Confraternity of the Precious Blood”, 5300 Ft. Hamilton Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11219. I think it’s around $7.50. Fabulous. It has a large number of brief essays that really focus one’s attention to typical faults and failings. Totally fabulous. Go on line and look it up; print out the order form and mail it with a check. Unbelieveable little book. Get a copy.

We also have guides to “examine our consciences”, we also take some texts of the Bible that are very “demanding” in this matter, when you read the Sermon on the Mount for example, and other texts…
We don’t have “the sacrament of reconciliation” or confessionals but it doesn’t mean that we don’t examine ourselves ; we do so more or less all the time …
When the day is finished, sometimes we ask ourselves “have I really honoured God to day in everything I have done, said, thought ?”
Maybe some Catholics think we are “superficial” because we don’t confess to a priest or a minister, well it depends on how serious you are in your Christian life, I suppose it’s the same for Catholics …

 

[Al_Masetti]

Huguenot:

We also have guides to “examine our consciences”, we also take some texts of the Bible that are very “demanding” in this matter, when you read the Sermon on the Mount for example, and other texts…
We don’t have “the sacrament of reconciliation” or confessionals but it doesn’t mean that we don’t examine ourselves ; we do so more or less all the time …
When the day is finished, sometimes we ask ourselves “have I really honoured God to day in everything I have done, said, thought ?”
Maybe some Catholics think we are “superficial” because we don’t confess to a priest or a minister, well it depends on how serious you are in your Christian life, I suppose it’s the same for Catholics …

I simply offered the use of some publicly available resources. You asked a question; I provided an answer.

 

[Huguenot]

Al Masetti:

I simply offered the use of some publicly available resources. You asked a question; I provided an answer.

No problem, that’s exactly how I understood your post, if mine sounds “hostile” or something it is involuntary ( English is not my native language ) ; I just wanted to tell you ( and others ) that Protestants who take their Christian lives seriously are close to you in this respect ( examining our consciences )…
Why should we emphasize only our differences ??
Have a nice week-end !

 

[VociMike]

In my opinion, it is a case of the rebelling child needing to bring the father down in order to claim his authority. If Catholicism is right, then Protestantism is wrong. Thus the child (Protestantism) must prove that the father was wrong, and it was right and just to rebel. And the fact that the darned old Catholic Church hasn’t collapsed like it should have (being so wrong, you know) is just continued salt in the wound. They feel that the mere existence of the Catholic Church is an accusing finger pointed at them. It’s even worse that the Catholic Church doesn’t much bother with them. Rebelling against your father and having your father ignore you and go on with his business is the greatest insult of all.

Add to that the fact that the original settlers in the United States were English Protestants, and that they felt threatened by the arrival of later “foreigners” who were often Catholic, such as the Irish, Italians, Poles, and all those Catholics from south of the border. So there was a prejudice there regarding the dirty riff-raff who were changing the country for the worse. That just strengthened the anti-Catholicism of the “natives”.

 

[TobyLue]

This is how I view anti-Catholic websites. There is this old story I heard sometime back.

There was this beautiful Catholic Church in this small town, full of the Spirit and busting at the seams. Across the street from the Church were several bars where there was all sort of debauchery all day and all night. However, the devil was always in front of the Church continuously and without ceasing antagonizing the members and trying to convince them to go to the bars instead of Church; painting a beautiful picture of how great those bars were and using all forms of deception. This went on constantly, simply harassing the priest and the entire congregation. Finally one person asked the devil why he was there harassing them and to leave them alone. Why wasn’t he spending all his time at the bars across the street. His reply was. “Heck, those people I already have in my back pocket. It’s these people that I want and will do anything I can to get them to leave this church and come over to my side”.

Satan will surely attack the True Church through lies and deception, and vile language. Remember what Jesus told St. Paul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me.” That is one reason, in my opinion, there are so many anti-Catholic websites, and I’m sure there will be more and more in the days to come and even more vicious than what we currently find.

I can understand the zeal that some may have for their own church, but when they make these websites, and if you look at them, I don’t see how they can consider them as Christian in any manner because of the caricatures and lies they use. That’s why we should always pray for them. I saw one that for the life of me I can’t remember the name, but it looked very Catholic as it had a picture of Our Blessed Mother (who by the way is everybody’s mother), but as I started reading it slowly the anti-Catholicism started coming to light and started trashing the Mother of God. Again using deception. Catholics don’t like it but we understand that it is something the Church will experience till the end of time. As one poster mentioned that many of these sites do not have forums, but some anti-catholic forums will immediately ban Catholics who go there to defend the truths about the Church. Posters can use all sorts of vulgar names for the CC, but if a Catholic says the slightest cross word against another, they are banned. I think there was somebody here that also mentioned some forum that will not allow for debate, but will allow only posts that trash the CC. The Catholic sites will explain the CC position and defend, but I have yet to see a Catholic site (if anybody knows of one please let me know) that comes out spewing anti-protestant hatred and calling protestants all sorts of names. Whore of Babylon, anti-Christ, 666, the beast, are just some of the names used to describe the Catholic Church.

Matt 5:11 “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsley] because of me.” NAB

 

[joshua_b]

TobyLue just stated (much more eloquently I might add) the point I decided to make about halfway through my reading of this thread. Being Christian we believe in Jesus, but it seems all too often we overlook the existence of the “other side of the coin”…there is also Satan, who would love nothing more than to destroy what God has created and loves.

Let me state, in charity to and respect for our Protestant bretheren here, that this is nothing more than a personal opinion and not meant in any way to diminish from whatever tradition you belong to. I am speaking as a Catholic, from a Catholic perspective, and as a result I expect my post to be understood in its entirety only by fellow Catholics. Please do not take exception to anything I am about to say. That being said…

Why do you think the Jews have been the most persecuted group of people in history ? If you put it in the context of spiritual warfare, the answer is easy. The Jewish people are the people through whom God chose to reaveal himself to the world, and Satan would love nothing more than to wipe them from existence.

The same applies to the Catholic Church. We are the Church Jesus founded while here on earth, equipped with the fullness of Truth, the fullness of Revelation, and the full means to Salvation. If Satan truly wants to operate in the world today, it would only stand to reason that the thing he would attack most aggressively would be the means Jesus gave us to Salvation and eternal life, the Church that he himself founded…the Catholic Church.

 

[Huguenot]

TobyLue:

This is how I view anti-Catholic websites. There is this old story I heard sometime back.

There was this beautiful Catholic Church in this small town, full of the Spirit and busting at the seams. Across the street from the Church were several bars where there was all sort of debauchery all day and all night. However, the devil was always in front of the Church continuously and without ceasing antagonizing the members and trying to convince them to go to the bars instead of Church; painting a beautiful picture of how great those bars were and using all forms of deception. This went on constantly, simply harassing the priest and the entire congregation. Finally one person asked the devil why he was there harassing them and to leave them alone. Why wasn’t he spending all his time at the bars across the street. His reply was. “Heck, those people I already have in my back pocket. It’s these people that I want and will do anything I can to get them to leave this church and come over to my side”.

Satan will surely attack the True Church through lies and deception, and vile language. Remember what Jesus told St. Paul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me.” That is one reason, in my opinion, there are so many anti-Catholic websites, and I’m sure there will be more and more in the days to come and even more vicious than what we currently find.

I can understand the zeal that some may have for their own church, but when they make these websites, and if you look at them, I don’t see how they can consider them as Christian in any manner because of the caricatures and lies they use. That’s why we should always pray for them. I saw one that for the life of me I can’t remember the name, but it looked very Catholic as it had a picture of Our Blessed Mother (who by the way is everybody’s mother), but as I started reading it slowly the anti-Catholicism started coming to light and started trashing the Mother of God. Again using deception. Catholics don’t like it but we understand that it is something the Church will experience till the end of time. As one poster mentioned that many of these sites do not have forums, but some anti-catholic forums will immediately ban Catholics who go there to defend the truths about the Church. Posters can use all sorts of vulgar names for the CC, but if a Catholic says the slightest cross word against another, they are banned. I think there was somebody here that also mentioned some forum that will not allow for debate, but will allow only posts that trash the CC. The Catholic sites will explain the CC position and defend, but I have yet to see a Catholic site (if anybody knows of one please let me know) that comes out spewing anti-protestant hatred and calling protestants all sorts of names. Whore of Babylon, anti-Christ, 666, the beast, are just some of the names used to describe the Catholic Church.

Matt 5:11 “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsley] because of me.” NAB

Maybe you are alluding to me when you say that a “poster” said these anti-Catholic websites do not have forums, because I have mentioned that by clicking here and there I landed on one of those sites ; I said I was so shocked ( even if I am a Protestant ) that I e-mailed them to tell them I shocked, precising I am a Protestant ; they tried to convince me that Catholics are so and so, which doesn’t work with me since I live in a country ( France ) where Catholics represent at least 80 % of the population, so if you were all little scarlet beasts or cannibals or I don’t know what I would have noticed …
So I e-mailed them a second time, and their second answer to me was extremely aggressive, I’ve summed it up on this thread, something like “you are a hypocrite posing as a Protestant, the lukewarm people like you Christ will spit out of His mouth. It is our last mail since we are commanded not to throw pearls before swine”…
If they speak like that to a Protestant ( probably they don’t accept the fact that I don’t think the Pope is the Antichrist, because I told them that not only I, but French Protestants in general–well, maybe there are a few mad ones who do-- don’t think the Pope is the Antichrist even if we don’t recognize his authority on us ), I can imagine what they would have told me if I were a Catholic …

 

[Al_Masetti]

Huguenot:

No problem, that’s exactly how I understood your post, if mine sounds “hostile” or something it is involuntary ( English is not my native language ) ; I just wanted to tell you ( and others ) that Protestants who take their Christian lives seriously are close to you in this respect ( examining our consciences )…
Why should we emphasize only our differences ??
Have a nice week-end !

I wanted to respond right now, this minute, because I just finished watching Father Benedict Groeschel, LIVE, on EWTN… 7pm Sunday night Eastern time. The program this evening was on “Conversion”.

And it was EXCELLENT. Totally superb. He is always great, but he really outdid himself this time.

So, I STRONGLY urge you to check the ETWN schedule for where you live. The program will be rebroadcast at least two more times and you could probably set your VCR to record it so you could view it at some convenient time. You may also want to review it a couple of times or to write down some of the references that he mentioned. Really excellent. It is program #67 if you call the EWTN catalog to buy the tape, CD or DVD.

Since your post kind of gets into the issue of getting closer to God, reforming of lives, etc, I thought of your question and wanted to recommend watching Fr. Groeschel’s program on Conversion to you.

 

[Huguenot]

Al Masetti:

I wanted to respond right now, this minute, because I just finished watching Father Benedict Groeschel, LIVE, on EWTN… 7pm Sunday night Eastern time. The program this evening was on “Conversion”.

And it was EXCELLENT. Totally superb. He is always great, but he really outdid himself this time.

So, I STRONGLY urge you to check the ETWN schedule for where you live. The program will be rebroadcast at least two more times and you could probably set your VCR to record it so you could view it at some convenient time. You may also want to review it a couple of times or to write down some of the references that he mentioned. Really excellent. It is program #67 if you call the EWTN catalog to buy the tape, CD or DVD.

Since your post kind of gets into the issue of getting closer to God, reforming of lives, etc, I thought of your question and wanted to recommend watching Fr. Groeschel’s program on Conversion to you.

Sorry, I haven’t got a VCR : I’m still in the Stone Age …
And I don’t think it will be broadcast in France …

And does your post mean that to get closer to God I must necessarily convert to Catholicism ? I don’t see the need of doing so, since there are many Catholic doctrines I don’t agree with …
I think I can get closer to God by keeping reforming my life , even as a Protestant … lol

 

[Al_Masetti]

Huguenot:

Sorry, I haven’t got a VCR : I’m still in the Stone Age …
And I don’t think it will be broadcast in France …

And does your post mean that to get closer to God I must necessarily convert to Catholicism ? I don’t see the need of doing so, since there are many Catholic doctrines I don’t agree with …
I think I can get closer to God by keeping reforming my life , even as a Protestant … lol

Check out EWTN anyway… They are received in Ireland and Germany, and you are in between!

 

[Huguenot]

Al Masetti:

Check out EWTN anyway… They are received in Ireland and Germany, and you are in between!

Well, it’s true I’m between Ireland and Germany … so I should be able to receive it to …
But anyway why do you want to convert me ?
If I want to convert I think it would be easy for me to find a Catholic priest to explain things to me : most of my compatriots are Catholics ( about 4/5th … ) …

 

[donbjc]

I don’t visit too often, but today thought I would take a look and found this thread interesting. I have not come in contact with anti-Catholic literature or websites, but I know they exist. They also exist about other religions and the more popular the religion, the more rabid the attacks. I think the attackers feel threatened that their own religion is not on sturdy ground and therefore they must spend all of their time attacking the ones who are.
If they spent more time learning about God and studying their scriptures and praying, and serving people less fortunate than they, and generally trying to live the 10 commandments, they would not be so filled with hate for others who are trying to do those things.
They are jealous of what we have and they are enraged that we have this strong faith and relationship with God. I truely believe that Satan is in control of them and it is he who works through them to tear down anything Christian. He will always be there to cause strife and it is best to ignore and stay on the straight and narrow path to someday be able to enter into eternal life with God.
I think it is best not to be visiting these anti-Catholic sites, just as you would not visit a porn site. They are evil and we should avoid anything evil.
Just my humble opinion,
Don

 

[Al_Masetti]

Huguenot:

Well, it’s true I’m between Ireland and Germany … so I should be able to receive it to …
But anyway why do you want to convert me ?
If I want to convert I think it would be easy for me to find a Catholic priest to explain things to me : most of my compatriots are Catholics ( about 4/5th … ) …

It’s not about conversion to Catholicism. It’s about “conversion in heart and mind…” , which is precisely the issue you raised in your post of 3 Feb.

 

[Huguenot]

Al Masetti:

It’s not about conversion to Catholicism. It’s about “conversion in heart and mind…” , which is precisely the issue you raised in your post of 3 Feb.

thanks for the precision …

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

bjd2006pc:

Hello,
I am very interested in converting to the Catholic Church.

I have been doing a lot of research on the net. However, I have run across many disturbing websites. Many of these websites are very bigoted. In fact, if they attacked anybody else, such as racial minorities, they would have been yanked off the net. But what makes Catholicism such a target. I don’t really know why.

Some of the websites claim Catholicism is a pagan religion. I am a logical person, and that claim makes no sense. So, what some of these fanatics are saying is that Christ, founder of the Church, is a pagan. Whoa, that is a big time fallacy!

I told my inquiry teacher that those who are so filled with hatred towards Catholicism (and other faiths) are not so confident about their own faith.

What are your thoughts? Also, what are some great websites for Catholicism? I have been to ewtn and catholic.org. What are some others?

Thank
Joe

Joe,

Try:

Scripture Catholic - proves the Biblical Bases for Catholicism.
Ave Maria Radio - Catholic Radio
Relevent Radio - more Catholic Radio
Ignatius Press - Catholic publisher
Liguroi Publications - Catholic publisher
Get Fed - Catholic bookstore
New Advent - Old Catholic Encyclopedia
Mary Foundation - Free Catholic Apologetics CDs.
Catholic Home Study Service - Free Catholic books & study materials

If you need some more, feel free to PM me.

 

[JeffAustralia]

I hear that the late Fulton Sheen said once there are millions who hate what they THINK the Catholic Church is all about, and that he doubted there’d be more than he could count on one hand who actually understood the Church and still hated it. I’m also a convert, and I still find it frustrating that the Church spends so little time making its TRUE beliefs clear, and not squashing the nonsense especially in the media.

 

[AquinasXVI]

Jeff:

The Church and the Truth needs the solidarity and committment of the laity for the “New Evangelization.” We cannot wait for the clergy to ignite us, our faith in Christ and His Church should be enough to light that fire.

All of us have the Royal Prieshood, Prophet, and Kingship given to us at Baptism. So, in our little corner, we have to become the leaven.

As for the thread, I think the big picture is that there are forces beyond the human at work. From the beginning the Truth has been perverted by the enemy to lead astray…these horrible websites are part of that twisting of truth.

in XT.

 

[Scott_Waddell]

Why are there so many anti-Catholic websites? Well, why are there so many porn sites? Simply because whatever good comes from the net, you get lots of bilgewater as well.

 

[Jesus_Freak]

bjd2006pc:

Hello,
I am very interested in converting to the Catholic Church.
Joe

Joe,
You are looking for a denomiation and organization. I believe that as long as you have Jesus as your savior, find a church that teaches the world of God, not some religion. And keep praying so God will lead you and satisfy your hunger for Him.

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

Jesus_Freak:

Joe,
You are looking for a denomiation and organization. I believe that as long as you have Jesus as your savior, find a church that teaches the world of God, not some religion. And keep praying so God will lead you and satisfy your hunger for Him.

Practicing Catholics do have Jesus as their Lord and Savior.