Though I was raised as a Baptist to believe that Catholics are not Christians, I have come to discover that this is most certainly not true. Thus, I have a feeling many of the other things I have "learned" about Catholicism are also not true. I wondered if anyone could clarify the following questions:

1. What is the Virgin Mary's role in the Catholic church? 2. Why do Catholics pray to saints? 3. Where do Catholics believe they go after they die? 4. What is the role of baptism in the Catholic church? 5. What are the sacraments and why is so much importance placed upon them? 6. What is the purpose of signs (e.g. roses) in the Catholic church? 7. What is the role of the Pope? 8. What is Catechism (spelling?) and what is it's role in the church? 9. What is the reasoning behind the Catholic church's stance concerning contraception?

Feel free to answer any or all of these questions. As someone who knows VERY little about the Catholic church, I am interested in any insight anyone has to offer.

Thanks in advance for your response.

-- Rae (hatrick09@yahoo.com), June 05, 2004

Answers

Bump to New Answers to invite comments.

-- (bump@bump.bump), June 05, 2004.

Rae, Your questions can be answered by going to the Catholic Answers website. Go there, read through the information. If you still have questions, post them here.

There are others here who will also answer your questions. But to be fair to them, even as you have conversations with them, go to the Catholic Answers website and review the material there.

In Christ,
Bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), June 05, 2004.

Hi Rae,

Many of your questions have been answered in this forum in the past, so I will refer you to some of those. I think you will find a lot of answers to your questions by going to our homepage and scrolling down to the bottom. There you will see all of the past threads divided up into categories by which you can search for the information you want. You also must understand this is a massive amount of information that you just asked about, so some may be overwhelmed in responding.

1. What is the Virgin Mary's role in the Catholic church?

When thinking about Mary, Catholic honor her for the role she took on when she said "yes" to God to bring His Son into this world. Romans 8:17 (NIV) says, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs– heirs of God and co­heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." As heirs we inherit the way a Father (God) would give to His children. So why would that include everything else (God's love, gifts of salvation, etc, God's Fatherhood), but excluding a Mother? For Catholics, Mary is our spiritual Mother (She is not God or a goddess). She is a human like us, but God preserved her for the special task of bringing His Son into the world. You may be interested in a past thread where I asked questions about this very same thing: Struggle with Marian Doctrines. Also, there is an excellent website called Catholic Outlook where the doctrines of Mary and the Saints are explained and defended.

2. Why do Catholics pray to saints?

The Saints are people who are honored as examples of those who have lived holy lives by God's grace, and have attained final salvation in heaven. While salvation is by God's grace alone, we must also continue to serve God with our whole lives. Since these people are in heaven, they are closer to God than any human on earth can be. I could ask you to pray for me, for example, but you are busy with things in this life on earth. You cannot pray every moment of the day. Well the Saints can, and are in the very presence of God. Since the Bible says that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5), how much moreso the prayers of the Saints in heaven?! We do not pray to them as God, but as brothers and sisters in Christ, asking for their prayers in our time of need. Please see this thread for more on prayers to the Saints and Mary: Why do Catholics pray in the Virgin Mary?.

Thanks for your questions. I am working on a response to the rest of them, but in the mean time I will post this to give you plenty of reading material.

God bless,

-- Emily ("jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), June 05, 2004.

Dear Rae,

I suggest checking out Catholic Outlook, as that website will have answers to a lot of your questions.

3. Where do Catholics believe they go after they die?

Check this thread which should help a lot: What happens when we die?. I linked a thread about purgatory there that should help too. If you go to this site on Catholic Outlook, you will see the Catholic views of salvation and purgatory, and like doctrines: Salvation.

4. What is the role of baptism in the Catholic church? 5. What are the sacraments and why is so much importance placed upon them?

Please see this site on Catholic Outlook: The Sacraments.

6. What is the purpose of signs (e.g. roses) in the Catholic church?

I don't know much about this, but I have heard that roses are some type of sign of the miraculous. If you go to this site (EWTN Catholic Conversion Stories), you will find the stories of numerous people (mostly former Protestant pastors). Scroll down this list to number 7 (number subject to change with newly added programs), and there you will see an interview from 4/12/2004 with former Nazarene pastor Doug Gonzales. He converted to Catholic and in the interview he talks about his miraculous experiences with roses.

ok... I will get to more of your questions later. God bless,

-- Emily ("jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), June 05, 2004.

7. What is the role of the Pope?

The pope is the head of the Church, who represents Christ on earth. This is not to say that the pope is God or Jesus Himself or a god. The pope is a fallible human just like anyone else, but on matters of faith and doctrine, God has granted the Pope a special role. When he speaks "ex cathedra," or in the papal chair, he speaks infallibly. However, he is not able to say whatever he wants. God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, preserves the pope from declaring erroneous doctrines.

This does not mean that the pope will never sin or that he is infallible in everything he says. Rather, the idea of the papal chair is seen in Scripture here:

Mt. 23:2-3 (NIV) "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Thus, Christians are bound to the teaching of the Church. In Mt. 16, Jesus established His Church with Peter as the first pope.

Mt. 16 (KJV)
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Also, in John 16:13 (KJV), Jesus said to His apostles, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."

Notice here that Jesus was not speaking to all Christians, but to the Church leaders. He promised that the Holy Spirit would guide the leaders of the Church into all truth. This is the reason why Protestantism cannot be correct, because the thousands of Protestant denominations that exist teach "truths" that conflict with one another. Since the Church is the "pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15 KJV), the Church cannot teach falsehood. The authority of the Pope is what God uses to preserve His Truth.

Please check Catholic Outlook's information on The Pope for more.

You will find more information on the papacy and many other topics at Catholic Answers' website: Fathers Know Best. This shows how the early church fathers taught Catholic doctrines even in the first centuries of the Christian Church.

8. What is Catechism (spelling?) and what is it's role in the church?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains the Church's teachings that are required for Catholics to believe. The Catechism holds up and supports the Bible, interpreting it for the Christian faithful to know how God expects us to live. This is a necessary thing, as is evidenced throughout Protestantism when different churches teach different levels of morality, or at best consider things to be "grey areas" since they are not directly addressed in Scripture. Things arose throughout history that the Church needed to address that may not have been present at the time of the writing of the Bible.

For more, please see my comments on this thread: Why?.

-- Emily ("jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), June 05, 2004.

9. What is the reasoning behind the Catholic church's stance concerning contraception?

This is a very important issue for you, since if you marry this man, neither of you will be able to use any type of artificial contraception and still remain faithful to Catholic teaching. There are alternatives such as Natural Family Planning that have proved effective for most people (see the linked threads below for more on NFP). Another thing you should be aware of (many do not know) is that birth control pills rely on abortion as a backup, so using the pills could result in aborting a child.

Ok, now for your question. All Christians agree that lust is a sin. However, I have heard some Protestants say that lust after one's own spouse is not a sin. This is obviously false. Lust is a selfish desire for one's own good, while the purpose of marriage is to consider the good of the other person. Paul talks about the husband loving his wife as Christ loves the Church, and the wife submitting to her husband as the Church submits to Christ. How could such a relationship (Christ and Church) involve lust? Instead, we are all called to chastity.

Here is what the Catholic Catechism says:

2366 Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which is "on the side of life," teaches that "it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life." "This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act."

Thus, we see the dual purpose of the marriage act is procreation and spousal unity. There are natural methods (eg. Natural Family Planning) that can be used instead of contraception, that are in accordance with what God has given women in their natural fertility cycle. This issue has been discussed numerous times on this forum. Here are some good threads:

Contraception in Christianity

Why condemn birth control?

God's Will... or not?

Until 1930, all Christians (Protestants included) condemned contraception as evil, some calling it just as evil as abortion or adultery. See this site for more on this: Catholic Outlook - Miscellaneous Objections. The Bible passage he referred to here is found in Genesis 38 (Onan).

Catholic Answers on: Birth Control.

-- Emily ("jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), June 05, 2004.

Dear Rae,

I tried to answer your questions to a greater or lesser extent. What I wrote is not official teaching (except where I cited it), but it is based on official teaching to the best of my knowledge. I may have been unclear, and if so, please ask further questions. I suggest checking the Catholic Catechism if you want to know the official Catholic teaching on something. The sites that I linked to all base their information on official Catholic teaching, and their purpose is to give you an overview or provide Biblical or logical basis for doctrines.

Please review at least some of the information that I provided, and if you have further questions about specific things, I suggest making a new thread for one issue at a time. Too many at the same time or on the same thread can be quite overwhelming. For example, one day ask a question about Mary and wait to give people a chance to respond. A day or two later (or longer), ask another question. I suspect that many of the things you wonder about have already been addressed in our archives, so I suggest you check those also.

God bless you! I will pray for you in this situation and that God will lead you to His Truth, wherever that may be. I found it helpful for myself in my spiritual journey to continue praying to God for His Truth to be revealed to me. He was faithful to do that over and over again in my life. Praying for this cannot steer you wrong. Go wherever God leads you to be.

-- Emily ("jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), June 05, 2004.

Emily,

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide an answer to all of my questions. I will look over the links you gave me and post a new thread as questions arise in my mind.

I really appreciate your explanations and especially your perspective on these issues.

Again, thank you so much for your response.

God be with you!

-- Rae (hatrick09@yahoo.com), June 05, 2004.