I am a catholic, and some people i know arent understanding. Like how I don't believe in premarital sex. Or how the rules are a little more strict. You dont have to follow it like strictly or anything you just interpret it in your own way. Through out history irish( catholics) were thought dumb ect. ect. ect. i am a Catholic and am in all honors 1 classes. My friend methodist thinks our masses are more fun then hers in a way. It gets you more involved with church. Sit, stand, kneel, pray. Granted we dont have a coffee and desert break like her church but hey we do feel more surrounded by god. in my oppinion.

This thread.

Let it die.

Now.

I'm not against catholics. They have the right to practice their religion and they are entitled to their own beliefs. I just happen to disagree with most of their beliefs.

Songbird3000--mostly right on your history. The Eastern Church that you are talking about is actually called the Orthodox Church, fyi. The bishop of Rome decided to break off of the orther 4 churcheds (Constantinople, Jeruselum, Alexandria, and Antioch) in 1054, and so he started the Catholic Church (get it? The Roman church--hence,Roman Catholic). And you're right, the Orthodox church hasn't changed since. In the Bible, it says that the the Bible is not open for private interpretation (and yet, we have 2000+ types of Christian churches).

Sorry, PiZazZChica17, but all of the Christian Churches were not derived from Catholicism. They came from Orthodoxy (also known as the Eastern Orthodoxy, b/c it was made up of the Eastern 4 churches).

It seems your putting up with a lot for your faith so you deserve a pat on the shoulder. I am a Christian and nothing is wrong with Catholics so stay strong in your faith and as long as you put god first your doing the right thing.

I have NOTHING against catholics, but I know a lot of people do. But...the same thing goes for christians. A LOT of people don't like christians either..I should know since I am a christian. But catholics have basically the same beliefs as christians, just they mostly focus on Mary. My best friend is a catholic, and I go to church with her all the time!! So, I don't think that catholics should be given a hard time for their religion. Actually..nobody should!

lol um...maybe i should READ the posts before wasting 15 minutes of my life typing everything out...go Italian...*waves a little flag*...woohoo...

Lots of love,
Lynne

Ok, just listen to the expert here ok? Ok, after Jesus died and came back to life, those believe that believed He was the Son of God and all that stuff called themselves CHRISTIANS. They kept going on and doing all their stuff and converting people until basically, everyone was a Christian. They eventually developed Catholic traditions - you know, Masses, monasteries, all that stuff - and I dunno if they called themselves Christians or not. now, in the middle ages, the Eastern and Western Churches had developed differently. Eastern was like, Israel, all that stuff over there, and the Western side was basically Constantinople and left of that. Now they had been doing SO MUCH STUFF differently that in the Dark Ages (you know, about 500 to 1000 AD) they were just like, whatever, let's make it official, we're not together anymore. We are now two seperate churches, they said. and ever since then there has been the Eastern church and the Western church. the Eastern church are STILL DOING the same stuff they've been doing for 2000 years, and that's really cool because they look at stuff like homosexuality and they say, well we've never agreed to that stuff before, we're not gonna do it now and that takes care of that. So now we'll focus on the Western Church. Well they kept doing such bad stuff, you know, selling church offices, selling tickets to heaven, and having married priests, that about 1500 (don't know exact dates sorry) Martin Luther said what the heck, screw this Catholic crap, I'm outta here, and he went and posted some stuff he didn't like on a door for people to talk about. Well, some other people heard about Luther, and they were like, hey, that's right, we don't like the Catholic Church either! let's go be REBELS by ourselves! Then they went off, making guy sounds all the way like, Who da Reformation leader? YOU da Reformation leader! YYYEEEAAAHHH....etc, etc. So they went off and started the PROTESTANT church. (see? PROTESTANT? they were PROTESTING the Cahtolic church)well, then they decided that they all weren't really *da man* anymore. Somebody named Ulrich Zwingli realized that hey, you know what, this bread and wine doesn't REALLY become Jesus' blood and body when I pray over it like everyone says, so I'm gonna go off and start my OWN little rebel group. So we went off and told himself that he was *da Reformation leader*. Then almost all those guys went off and started their own little rebel groups, and those groups they started became the PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS we have today. babtists, Anababtists, Lutherans, Presbyterians...all those groups were started in about the same 150 years. Look it up. All that stuff happened about 1500. It's called teh REFORMATION.It's kinda important so remember that.

and Joey, my mom (my mommy) told me that when Catholics pray to saints, they are asking them to pray for them. Think about it. All those holy people have been up in heaven for years. They're bored. give em something to do for heavens sake. Ask them to pray for you. That's what I thought it was. Granted, some people have corrupted the practice and are actually praying to the saints, but their breath is kinda wasted.

Ok, hope this helped, now I have to go write essay on the Reformation,

Lots of love,
Lynne

I dont know. Maybe its name association, youve got alcoholics, homophobics, gamblinolics the list goes on and on. Then again it could be the pervert priests that you read about in the papers.

mostly what itallian said

I'm a Protestant Christian, but I don't hold anything against Catholics. I could express all my views, but they are the same as ItalianStallion's. I see no need to repeat them.

First of all, Christianity did not derive from Catholicism, Catholicism derived from Christianity. In addition, only an extremly ignorant person would claim that Catholics are not Christians. And while I am not a Protestant, I will not try and convey the contemporary views of this group, but I can provide historical information as to how the religion developed.

The Protestant movement first began in 1517 when Luther, seeing corruption in the Catholic church in terms of absenteeism, not obeying laws of chastity and the selling of indulgences, published his 95 Theses which listed these exact objections to the church. In the theses, he also attacked papal infallability and the heirarchical system in general.

His main claim was that every practice in the church should have a biblical precedent. Because of this, he saw that the sale of indulgences, absenteeism, clerical tax and court exemptions, clerical celibacy, monastic life, and the sacraments of Confirmation, Ordination and Last Rights did not have any biblical precedent and therefore should not be practiced in the church. Since the Catholic church would not conceed to these issues, Luther broke off from the Catholic Church to form the Protestant Reformation. This is the bare bones, but if you wish to learn more, I suggest you talk to an educated Protestant for more information, as I do not know much of the contemporary aspects.

However, as a former Catholic/current non-denominational Christian, I have several problems with the Catholic faith. First, it is taught in a very daunting way. Going through the process of Confirmation as well as simple masses, it seemed that the general assumption was that you were all damned and you had better straigthen yourself up so you do not go to hell. I personally believe that God understands that everyone sins and that is why there is forgiveness. I do not believe that a hierarchical system is needed for the Church. In fact, I believe that it deters from the true meaning of Christianity. I believe that acceptance to heaven is faith based not duty based which seems to be the Catholic approach from what I have seen.

I live in Atlanta, Georgia and there are plenty of Catholics here, but there is a small Jewish population compared to many other areas of the South.

*Nods to Flypaper and Pizzaz*
I'm from Georgia.

yup, i'm from florida too. i know what you mean

i live in the south (fl- which is about as far as you go) and am a catholic. and basically being a southern catholic is like being a snake found in ireland--you don't come across too many! catholics are a minority here and the butt of many ignorant, "good ole boy" jokes. The christian that i am though, can look beyond this and not let it bother me. Sometimes i'll go to my friend's baptist church and they'll look at me like i'm a heretic...in church!!! mighty ironic!
but christianity is the main "religion"-- i personally don't care if you worship bull frogs-- but if you believe in it...go for it. too many folks arounf here are still lost in the woods.

There's another major sect of Christianity in the world which is a powerful force in Russia and Greece, but hasnt taken hold here; Orthodox Christianity. We have the rich tradition of the Catholic Church without their molestation problems (our priests marry). I suggest converting.

Let's see, I've heard that we worship Mary, we worship candles, we worship flowers, we worship Satan (for anyone who does not think exactly the way Random Religious Fanatic #256 does, worships the devil. /sarcasm), and we are the cause for rising gas prices. oops, looks like I put the "/sarcasm" a bit too early. :P

The saint thing, I don't do.. I don't pray to saints, I think it's kinda silly, too. If I want something done, I go directly to the front office, ya know?
Not that I don't believe that saints exist. They are people who did some really froody things and are noted for it. Prayer to them? Eh... I dunno. It's not my style.
(The real) Eveic: You don't have a style!
Drew: ... ... ...Oh, shut up.

About the "boring" services: It's about worshipping God, not about entertaining you. A Catholic mass is a serene appreciation for God They just do the same thing in a different way. Personally, I perfer the Catholic mass. (Unless you are a type that just goes through the motions, then it doesn't mean a thing.) Not meant at you in particular, Princess-that's a mass "You" directed at those who think that way. I heard that from a girl at my school, but couldn't word the above properly. She also had a problem with the hymnals. ("Singing out of a book") O_o

Where did all this hate of Catholics come up?! I have been Catholic all my life and never have I heard anyone criticize it more then on this website. Catholicism has been around since 30 AD. Most other religions don't even come close to that. If something was bad about Roman Catholics then we wouldn't have lasted this long.

I don't have anything against catholics my cousins aunt and uncle are catholics