Top 10 Biggest Misconceptions About the Catholic Faith

With all the misunderstandings and Chick Tracts sometimes going around, you'll never really get the truth. The purpose of this is to inform you.

CATHOLICS: Please try to vote on which ones you have seen the most in your life and comment on them. Add more if needed.

NON-CATHOLICS: Feel free to ask questions. This is going to be a good way for you to learn about us.

You all have a great day.

1. We hate homosexual people

   This is not just a misconception for Catholics specifically, but Christians in general. If this were true, Christians would be violating Christ's command to love their neighbors as they love themselves.

   But loving someone does not mean you must support their actions. You can disagree with someone's actions while still viewing them as no less or more human than you. That is not what people call homophobic.

   We do not hate homosexual people at all. We dislike homosexuality, but we are taught to love our neighbor. Really, we are taught to love everyone, even our enemies.

2. We worship Mary

   

   Just because Catholics hold a high view of Mary doesn't mean worship, and in fact, we only worship God. The reality is, we Catholics hold high respect for Mary for being the mother of our Savior.

   I mean, yes, people bow down to her and give flowers, but people (especially in Asia) bow to others out of respect and give flowers to their deceased relatives, again out of respect, not worship as if they are gods. Oh, and the term "Mother of God" doesn't put Mary in a position higher than God either. The term has been used for two millennia by not just Catholics, but many other Christians historically and presently, to acknowledge that Jesus is God and forever remains God, even during his birth and the rest of his humanhood.

   In other words, because Jesus is God, both words can be used interchangeably, so it can be said that Mary is the Mother of God. It does not at all mean that Mary is the creator of God. But overall, Catholics venerate Mary for her role in conceiving our Lord and Savior and being a woman of God.

3. We don't accept science

   

   Yes, there are Catholics, and even Christians in general, who adhere to theistic evolution, old Earth, and the Big Bang, which I do as well. Fun fact: It was a Catholic priest who came up with the Big Bang theory.

   Well, I actually do. Many of us believe in evolution. Ready?

   God causes organisms to evolve.

   We can also believe in the Big Bang by saying that God caused it.

4. We worship idols

   This is an argument against our statues. We do not worship the statues. We make the statues like one would make a statue of an important person. We make statues of Jesus like one would make a statue of a king.

5. We added books to the Bible

   Actually, Protestants removed books. Martin Luther said something about some of the books not being as important as others, which led to their removal. Also, some books were removed because they didn't agree with their religion.

6. We can get salvation only through good works

   This is a common strawman that anti-Catholics use against the Church. The truth is, like other Christians, we believe that only through Christ can we be saved, and no amount of good works can earn us Heaven.

   But the reason we do good works is to live out our faith, out of love for our Lord and Savior, because faith without works is dead (read James 2:24 in the Bible). I like to think of it this way: a husband does good things for his wife (and vice versa) because he truly loves her, not just so he doesn't get divorced. So yes, we understand that we cannot buy our way into Heaven with our works, but works do matter.

   The idea that the Catholic and Protestant views on justification are opposites because the former believes in faith plus works while the latter believes in faith alone is not only an oversimplification, but it is not true.

   Like Protestants, Catholics believe that we cannot bribe our way into Heaven with our works, since only God is good enough. The real difference is whether works are a result of faith or whether faith includes works, which Catholics believe is the latter. Otherwise, there is not a big difference. Catholics emphasize works because a living faith is accompanied by works (James 2:24).

7. We have secret societies that are trying to control the world

   I was shocked too.

   I mean, we have societies, but they're about worshiping God and giving to people. I do not think we have any "secret societies."

8. We oppress women

   At this point, I kinda ran out of very common ideas and I went to the Internet. I am... speechless.

   We are not anti-women at all. We believe that Jesus is the son of Mary, and we honor her. We also have women in many positions of power in our Churches, even though we do not allow them to be priests. The ability for women to have children is a gift from God.

9. We think we can pay our way to Heaven

   I grew up close to a few Catholic churches and, consequently, around some Catholic children. I went swimming at a Catholic church every Tuesday as a young adolescent and for many years after. There was definitely some tension between us non-Catholics and both the Catholic leaders at the pool and the vast majority of the Catholic children there. I was too young to give it much thought, but it did stick with me for a while.

   Then, when I was a young man in my early twenties, I met and bonded with a guy at work who was a married Catholic. My girlfriend and I ended up going to their house for dinner a few times and we all had a great time. A few dinners in, my girlfriend and I arrived and the girls went into the kitchen to girl talk while I sought out my friend and found him in his study. He was wringing his hands and was obviously very upset. I asked what was wrong and he showed me a letter he had received from his church asking for an increase in the amount of money he was expected to send. It was substantial.

   I was very worried for him and asked if he felt it was necessary to pay in order to continue at that church, if he felt it was right to have to pay to worship or practice his religion. He felt it was very necessary, but I could tell it was going to be tough for him to make ends meet. I'm only relaying this because, in that one incident, I saw the greed of a church become a terrible burden to a friend. I still don't get it.

10. We are Pagan

    Our actions with the rosary (for example) are not Pagan. Everything we do is about growing in faith. Other things are physical ways to express our faith, like the Sacraments.

The Contenders

11. We believe only Catholics are saved

12. We believe the Pope is infallible

    We do not believe the Pope is incapable of error or without sin, like God is. If the Pope were to say something like the moon landing is fake or the Earth is flat, it would not mean he is automatically right or that we would have to believe him. The Pope can make infallible statements, but that applies only when he is speaking ex cathedra, which is a rare case. So the Pope is not on the level of Christ or a replacement for Christ, but a spiritual leader we highly respect.