I grew up in the Bible Belt of the Midwest and was blessed with many wonderful Protestant friends. I attended Mass every Sunday with my family, but I spent a lot of time at different non-denominational churches in my area for youth group, summer camps and even a few worship services. Although I wasn’t raised in a very strong Catholic community, I was continually challenged by my Protestant friends to delve deeper into my Catholic faith while maintaining a personal relationship with Jesus. Over the years, I’ve heard lots of Protestants explain to me why my Catholic faith is ludicrous, and thanks to those experiences, Catholic apologetics is something I’ve become very passionate about. Below are the top five most common misconceptions I’ve heard about Catholicism, and what you can say to set the record straight.
1. Catholics worship Mary and the Saints.
In my experience, this is the number one reason that Protestants think Catholics are totally whacked, and to be honest, I can understand why. Imagine for a second that you’re a Baptist who goes to a Catholic funeral Mass for a deceased friend. What would you think when the entire church starts to chant the litany of the saints? “Hail Mary, full of grace” sure sounds like worship to me! Without a proper understanding of what’s really going on, it makes sense why Protestants believe this fallacy about Catholicism. When Catholics pray to Mary or the saints, we’re not bowing down to them as gods and goddesses. There is a distinct difference between worshiping false gods and asking those in heaven to pray for us and intercede on our behalf. In fact, we believe that we should ask Mary and the saints to pray for us, because they all have a special relationship with God in Heaven.
Most Protestants don’t believe in praying to the dead. But if you take a look at Revelation 5:8, John sees 24 saintly souls bowing down to the Lamb, offering the prayers of the faithful people on earth. The verse literally reads, “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.” Again, in revelation 8:3-4, John sees an angel offer the prayers of the faithful to God. “Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.” Both of these scripture passages were taken from a Protestant translation of the Bible and very clearly indicate that the angels and saints do in fact intercede on our behalf. Therefore, pray away!
2. The Bible never says anything about Purgatory, therefore it doesn’t exist.
It’s true that scripture never explicitly talks about Purgatory, but it also never says anything explicit about the Trinity, the Incarnation or original sin. Nevertheless, Protestants seem to have no problem accepting these doctrines as absolute truth. Herein lies the problem with the Protestant notion of “sola scriptura” (scripture alone). By believing in this principal, Protestants are essentially digging their own graves. John 21:25 clearly states, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Catholics believe that our faith is composed of both sacred scripture and sacred traditions, and scripture itself disproves the idea of “sola scriptura.”
Although scripture doesn’t explicitly describe Purgatory, there are many scriptural references pointing to it. In Matthew 12:32, Christ says, “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” The fact that Christ implies that there is forgiveness in the world to come clearly points to the fact that we can be purged and purified of our sins after death. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he writes, “He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” Since we know that Heaven is free of suffering and Hell cannot be associated with any form of salvation, it follows that there is in fact a place the soul can go before entering heaven to be purified of our earthly sins. A lot of Protestants have issues with this because they believe that we are fully redeemed by Christ dying on the cross for us, and this is very true. But thanks to these scripture passages, Catholics have believed since the beginning that Purgatory is in place to purify us of our sins so we are ready to meet God once we enter heaven. Therefore, when we die, (assuming we’re going to Heaven), we are forgiven of our sins and then purified in Purgatory before entering Heaven.
3. Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest? Only Jesus has the power to forgive sins.
1 John 1:9 states, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Do Catholics think you have to remember every single sin you have ever committed and confess them to a priest to avoid eternal damnation? No way! The confessional would be packed! Small sins (called venial sins) can be forgiven by confessing them directly to God. Mortal sins (the violation of God’s law in a serious way with full knowledge and consent, i.e. murder, adultery, fornication, etc.) must be confessed to a priest in the sacrament of confession in order to be forgiven.
Jesus had the power to forgive sins, and he passed this power on to his holy apostles (Matthew 9:6-8). Jesus told his apostles, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:21-23).
It is also important to remember that during confession, the priest merely acts as a mediator between us and God. He is there to offer counsel, guidance and peace, and of course absolution for the sins we have confessed. The priest doesn’t act as God, but instead should reflect the merciful heart of God by expressing patience and love toward the individual. It’s almost like having a really awesome accountability partner.
4. Catholicism teaches that you can pay to have your sins forgiven. (Indulgences)
The word indulgence originally meant kindness or favor, but it came to mean debt in the Latin translation. In the Catholic church, an indulgence is a removal of the temporal punishment a person receives due to sin. Here’s an example. If you steal something and then repent, God will forgive you. But God’s forgiveness does not excuse you from needing to return the item you stole. When a person repents of their sins, they are forgiven. Bottom line. But they are not excused from the temporal punishment of time spent in Purgatory, the place where the soul is purified in preparation to spend eternity with God in Heaven.
Indulgences are granted by the church as means of a person removing some or all of their temporal punishment in Purgatory, they are not a means of forgiving sins. The sin must have already been forgiven in order for the temporal punishment to be lessened. Indulgences have been a part of church doctrine and tradition for thousands of years. In Matthew 18:18, Christ says, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” This scripture passage indicates that Christ gave His church the responsibility to forgive sins (the sacrament of confession). It also indicates that it is within Church jurisdiction to grant indulgences to faithful people hoping to reduce their temporal punishment in Purgatory.
While we accept these teachings as absolute truth, Catholics reject the notion that you can pay money to earn an indulgence. In fact, the Council of Trent issued very clear orders as to how indulgences should be granted in order to prevent people from abusing them. “In 1567 Pope Pius V canceled all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions” (Catholic Encyclopedia). True indulgences can only be earned through prayer, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, reading of Sacred Scripture and frequent visits to the sacraments.
5. Catholics make stuff up. They invented their religion.
This is where history comes into play. All religious beliefs aside, this claim is simply inaccurate. In the 16th century, there really were some heretical bishops asking for money to build churches in exchange for the forgiveness of sins. In no way does the Church condone this type of behavior. It didn’t then and it doesn’t now. It must be understood that the sins of one or many clergy members are not a reflection on the church as a whole. Alice von Hildebrand says it best, “Ignorant people stubbornly refuse to make a distinction between Her Holiness as Bride of Christ and Holy Teacher and the often pitiful actions of her wayward and rebellious children.” (Luther, I’m looking at you!) Although he claimed to be rejecting the clergy members’ abuse of indulgences, Luther saw the situation as a window of opportunity to push his own religious agenda. His ideas were contrary to other church doctrines that had been in place since Jesus established the Church. Sola scriptura and sola fide (by scripture alone and by faith alone) were two of his most prominent beliefs and essentially state that the Bible is our only source of truth and faith is our only source of salvation. But don’t forget everyone, Catholics make stuff up!
To the order of brevity, I have only touched on basic explanations of the Church’s teaching. I urge anyone with further skepticism to check out www.catholic.com for more complete explanations on Catholic doctrine and Sacred Scripture.
Hear me out, I have a lot of respect for the Protestant faith and I sincerely admire many Protestant people. C.S. Lewis is one in particular whom I hold in high regard. Devout Protestants often reflect God’s love in their joy and zest for life better than many Catholics I know and their zeal is something we should all try to emulate. While it is vital to promote the unity of all Christian faiths, Catholics need to be reminded that while we have the Catechism and hundreds of other church doctrines defining our faith, our forefathers wrote the Bible and we too can use scripture as a sword and shield to defend out faith.