When I was in other churches such as the pentecostal church and Lutheran church I had heard many misconceptions about the Catholic Church. I had been asked or even told by individuals that the Catholic Church does not read the bible or they worship Mary.They practice idolatry by praying to statues. There are many other incorrect things that people assumed ,because they only see with their eyes and do not know the facts.
One of these misconceptions was that we as Catholics do not read the bible. This is definitely not true. In fact during the Mass every Sunday the Priest will read out of the bible.Usually there is one reading from the body of the bible, not including the Gospels. Then there are two more readings from the Gospels. This goes throughout the year and ends up going through the entire bible. There are Masses during the week where more readings are done. This myth most likely came about ,because bibles were generally locked away in the church. They were locked away not to prevent people from reading, but to prevent them from being stolen. In fact almost all Catholic families had a family bible where deaths and births were written in them. Checking in history the very first bible was written in the 2nd and 3rd centuries by catholic scholars. It was approved by the Catholic councils of Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397.
Another misconception is that Catholic worship Mary. In Catholic theology there are actually three typs of worship. The first is the adoration given to God alone. This adoration is called Latria and if given to anyone else would be a Mortal Sin. The next type of worship is given to Mary the Mother Of God. It is called Hyperdulia. It is not any kind of adoration, but it is just a reverence to her and is therefore not idolatry. The third type of worship is given to the saints. This is called Dulia and again it is only a form of reverence and therefore again is not idolatry.
I also found that individuals would say that Catholic are not Christians. Again this is not true. In fact if one were to go back through history you would find out that the first Christians. This can be realized by looking at the early doctrines and teachings. You will find that the Catholic Church uses the same teachings and doctrines today and always has been.
Someone was always saying that as Catholics we pray to the statues are in the church. They were either statues of Jesus, Mary or one of the Saints. In fact we do not pray to the statues. We are only using them to remind us of who the individual is. We do not pray to the Saint or Mary, we ask the person to pray for us. When a person dies and goes to heaven that is not the end of that person. We still have a connection to everyone who is in heaven. We can always ask for that person to intercede on our behalf. This is called the Communion of saints. This is based on 1 Corinthians verse 12 where Paul compares Christians to a single body. This is also shown in Hebrews 12:1 where it shows that we have a great cloud of witnesses in heaven.
These are only some of the misconceptions of the catholic church. I would suggest to anyone looking for more information to use the internet and do a search for these things. Just make sure that what you are reading is being written by Catholics. If not then you may get another misconception. Some of my favorite authors or people are Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins. I would also suggest checking out Catholic Answers on the internet at http://www.catholic.com/ or go to EWTN at http://www.ewtn.com/ and search those sites.
I would also suggest to go to a local catholic church and speak to a priest and ask your questions.
Thank You for reading and God Bless.
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