How does the Catholic thing work?

[Eyeball Chambers]

My wife is Catholic, and I've come to realize their culture is way different from my own non Catholic culture even though we're from the same city and our grandparents and great grandparents came from the same places.

It's like the Sopranos but they're not Italian.

[ratherbebig]

well you do what your wife tells you that's how it works

[Zillotch]

My wife is Catholic

catholicism is evil, and 'catholics' will burn in hell.

if u would like to eternally ditch ur nutty wife,,, take up an appropriate form of christianity, lol

[Redux]

I dated a Catholic chick for a couple of years and I still didn't understand it.
That Catholic shit be weird. Very weird.

[BIG AL MCKECHNIE]

Its a cult to control the feeble minded through fear and manipulation.    Bloody  successful one too I must admit but Hendy the 8th of the 19 inch calves showed them who was boss when he declared they were crap and started his own form of the cult. 

[Sizwe]

Its a cult to control the feeble minded through fear and manipulation.    Bloody  successful one too I must admit but Hendy the 8th of the 19 inch calves showed them who was boss when he declared they were crap and started his own form of the cult. 

Although not before he wrote a book explaining why they're actually right and being bestowed the title 'defender of the faith' by the Pope =P
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3307338-defence-of-the-seven-sacraments

[FREAKgeek]

through the vatican, under the world's greatest charlatan, the pope

[QuietYou]

And the countless murders in the name of religion had nothing to do with steroids right 

[Notomorrow]

Do immoral shit then confess to god and its ok

Why Catholic girls are notoriously so sexually freaky...cause after confession its all forgotten.

Catholicism.

[sync pulse]

Roman Catholicism is all about how Jesus Christ gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter, the first Pope, at the Last Supper...Every Pope since has been considered a part of an unbroken chain of command, if you will, since then.  This is because Divine Intervention has come into play with every Pope selection since then, giving a continuity.

[Eyeball Chambers]

I completely messed up in asking my question. She's non religious and this wasn't a religious question. I literally mean their culture, traditions, and the way they live. I mean they do everything differently than all the Protestant people I know with the exact same background and ancestry.

Could anyone possibly know what I'm talking about? I have had multiple catholic girlfriends and it's always the same. I'm not complaining, I think they're great. I just don't understand it. 

[IroNat]

Catholicism is all about guilt.

I had 14 years of Catholic education.

Do you think I sent my kids to Catholic school?  No way I would put my kids through that.

Catholicism right now is strongest in Latin America.  It is easier to recruit uneducated people who are more prone to believe in the irrational so that's where they target.

Catholicism was originally the only Christian religion.  All other Christian sects spring from it.  It had it far-out adherents like most other religions and still has a few who are real zealots.  The glazed eye types.

Most Catholics in the USA are not like that.  They pick and choose what they want to adhere to.

[IroNat]

I completely messed up in asking my question. She's non religious and this wasn't a religious question. I literally mean their culture, traditions, and the way they live. I mean they do everything differently than all the Protestant people I know with the exact same background and ancestry.

Could anyone possibly know what I'm talking about? I have had multiple catholic girlfriends and it's always the same. I'm not complaining, I think they're great. I just don't understand it.  

Catholics have some unique beliefs.  Saints, the Virgin Mother, and a few other things.

They don't worship Saints or Mary which is a common misconception.  The pray to the Saints and Mary who are closer to God so that they might intercede on their behalf with God.

There are often statues of the Saints and Mary in the churches but they are not Gods.  Protestants are not into Mary or Saints.

The Catholic religion is also much more ritualistic than Protestant religions.  They have a priesthood.  Protestants have ministers.

[Dos Equis]

Catholics have some unique beliefs.  Saints, the Virgin Mother, and a few other things.

They don't worship Saints or Mary which is a common misconception.  The pray to the Saints and Mary who are closer to God so that they might intercede on their behalf with God.

There are often statues of the Saints and Mary in the churches but they are not Gods.  Protestants are not into Mary or Saints.

The Catholic religion is also much more ritualistic than Protestant religions.  They have a priesthood.  Protestants have ministers.

What's the difference between praying to a Saint and worshiping a Saint?

[IroNat]

What's the difference between praying to a Saint and worshiping a Saint?

Better than I could ever explain it.

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-saint-542857

When I was a kid my mother would tell me to pray to St. Anthony if I lost something.  He is the patron Saint of lost causes/things.

So I would say over an over, "Please St. Anthony, help me find it...please St. Anthony, help me find it...etc".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_of_Padua

I'd say that and keep looking.

[Dos Equis]

Better than I could ever explain it.

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-saint-542857

When I was a kid my mother would tell me to pray to St. Anthony if I lost something.  He is the patron Saint of lost causes/things.

So I would say over an over, "Please St. Anthony, help me find it...please St. Anthony, help me find it...etc".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_of_Padua

I'd say that and keep looking.

The links don't explain the difference, if any, between praying and worshiping.  Sounds like the same thing to me. 

[IroNat]

The links don't explain the difference, if any, between praying and worshiping.  Sounds like the same thing to me.  

"Catholics believe that both types of saints (canonized and acclaimed) are already in Heaven, which is why one of the requirements for the canonization process is proof of miracles performed by the deceased Christian after his death. (Such miracles, the Church teaches, are the result of the saint's intercession with God in heaven.) Canonized saints can be venerated anywhere and prayed to publicly, and their lives are held up to Christians still struggling here on earth as examples to be imitated."

https://www.thoughtco.com/prayer-of-impetration-to-saint-nicholas-542652

"In this prayer, we ask Saint Nicholas to intercede for us and for all who need his help. (Impetration, by the way, is simply a fancy word for petition or entreaty -- in other words, a request.)"

[Dos Equis]

"Catholics believe that both types of saints (canonized and acclaimed) are already in Heaven, which is why one of the requirements for the canonization process is proof of miracles performed by the deceased Christian after his death. (Such miracles, the Church teaches, are the result of the saint's intercession with God in heaven.) Canonized saints can be venerated anywhere and prayed to publicly, and their lives are held up to Christians still struggling here on earth as examples to be imitated."

https://www.thoughtco.com/prayer-of-impetration-to-saint-nicholas-542652

"In this prayer, we ask Saint Nicholas to intercede for us and for all who need his help. (Impetration, by the way, is simply a fancy word for petition or entreaty -- in other words, a request.)"

They are praying to Saints to ask the Saints to pray to God.  Still sounds like worship.  I think the disconnect here is I consider praying and worshiping to be synonymous. 

[The Scott]

Catholicism is a cult.  In fact, it's said that a cult is a religion without political power but in the case of the Catholic Church that doesn't hold water because they have tremendous political power.  Not so much in the States but in other countries where they mix religion with politics. 

The Catholic way is built primarily upon the cornerstone of GUILT.  The Church is not of the Christ just as LDS is not of the Christ.  Both are of men and we all know just stupid men and women can be. 

[IroNat]

Catholicism is a cult.  In fact, it's said that a cult is a religion without political power but in the case of the Catholic Church that doesn't hold water because they have tremendous political power.  Not so much in the States but in other countries where they mix religion with politics. 

The Catholic way is built primarily upon the cornerstone of GUILT.  The Church is not of the Christ just as LDS is not of the Christ.  Both are of men and we all know just stupid men and women can be. 

This.

[IroNat]

They are praying to Saints to ask the Saints to pray to God.  Still sounds like worship.  I think the disconnect here is I consider praying and worshiping to be synonymous.  

Who said it had to make sense?

It's irrational.

Religions believe in superior beings who usually can't be seen. Some religions make statues of them for people to relate to and make belief easier.

Lord Vishnu


Baal


Jesus meets Elvis

[FREAKgeek]

This is how it works:

Girls allow you anal to maintain vaginal virginity.

[IroNat]

A lot of the priests are gay.  Same with Catholic brothers (kind of like monks)

Not being able to marry encourages gay men with a guilt trip to become priests.

Result: Gay priests molesting boys.

A lot of Catholic nuns are lesbians.

[IroNat]

This is how it works:

Girls allow you anal to maintain vaginal virginity.

Catholic girls start much too late.

[Dos Equis]

Who said it had to make sense?

It's irrational.

Religions believe in superior beings who usually can't be seen. Some religions make statues of them for people to relate to and make belief easier.

Lord Vishnu


Baal


Jesus meets Elvis

My opinion that praying and worshiping are essentially the same makes sense to me, but we're really talking semantics. 

Religion is indeed a faith-based belief.  A common and pretty weak argument from atheists is that you cannot prove the existence of a faith-based belief.  Duh.  Of course you can't. 

But as I've debated with Ozmo and others on this board, our world is permeated with faith-based beliefs, including things related to science.  We have one or two pretty long threads on here where I make the point that the origin of life on earth contains faith-based beliefs, regardless of whether you believe in intelligent design, "the big bang," macroevolution, etc.