Ignorant Catholics-boot to the head!
One of the things that you tend to hear a lot of from Christians who, after 500 years being separated from the Catholic Church, are prone to misconceptions about what the Church believes, is that there is some distinction between "Catholic" and "Christian." So pervasive is this idea that you hear Catholic teenagers make the distinction. I remember nearly suffering a busted artery at a campus religious forum when I was in college when I heard the so-called Catholic student make that distinction.Obviously, the forum in question was not sponsored by the campus Newman Club. Had it been, the Catholic panelists would have known something of what they were talking about.
I don't really have a problem with the curious Baptists, Pentecostals, and others who have questions about the Faith. In their religious world, our rosaries, litanies, and prayer books must seem odd and out of place. A lack of inquiry, though, tends to perpetuate ignorance. I once had an independent Baptist preacher tell me that Catholics didn't believe that Christ rose from the dead!
Of course, Catholics do believe in the Resurrection-it is the pillar of the Faith itself. We also believe in the divinity of Christ and the necessity of Christ's blood for salvation, as well as in the Virgin Birth, the truth of scripture, and the Second Coming. If that doesn't qualify Catholics as Christians, I am not sure what does.
Because I understand that non-Catholics may not know much about Church doctrine or beliefs, I can't really blame them for not knowing that Catholics are Christians-I do blame ignorant Catholics who use that kind of misguided terminology.
Ignorant Catholics get a boot to the head!
Labels: Holy Mother Church
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 7:30 AM
3 Comments:
As Matt and I discussed after he told me of this - Catholics are the original Christians... everything else is split off from us.
How truly sad that those who claim to know their faith know absolutely nothing.
Renee;
I think a lot of the young people who claim to know their faith have probably been very poorly catechized.
There is a difference between "Catholic" and "Christian" when you speak about the institution of the religion itself.
My mother taught me very early about the distinction between Catholics and Christians... "You must be a Christian to be Catholic, but you do not have to be a Catholic to be a Christian." As I tell my children, the attempt to Prostantize the Catholic Church in order to gain more converts is in my opinion a sin. Why would we diminish our faith to be more like a group that left our Church because they didn't like it. We should strive to bring them back into the flock and raise them to our level.
Teenagers are often put in a position of having to differentiate Christian ideals with their peers, especially in the South. To chastise their efforts is, IMO, wrong. As long as they understand and embrace the differences, then let them be teachers of Christ. If they do not understand, then it is our job as Parents to teach them.
Unfortunately, the Dioceses of Knoxville does not do a very good job of this. Again, that is my opinion.
JD
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