Many people write to Catholic Fundamentalism on Facebook. Many are very critical of The Church. After reading endless criticisms of The Roman Catholic Church, it is apparent that anti-Catholics believe themselves to be intelligent and knowledgeable.
Sadly, most are amazingly uninformed. Still, millions of people feel compelled to attack The Roman Catholic Church.
About the thousandth time that one reads something to the effect that “Catholics worship statues.”, or a common variant, “Catholics worship Mary.”, an uncharitable question may come to mind: “Do these people ever think of anything new?”
Critics have been told that they appear to be more “intellectual” by prefacing criticisms with something that looks like validation. So, many begin with a pious announcement like: “The First Commandment says we are not supposed to worship idols. Don’t Catholics know that?”, they conclude with a sneer.
It is hard to be patient with questions and statements that reflect such an abysmal lack of knowledge about The Church. Most who criticize reflect the fact that someone has intentionally misguided them. As we realize that, we understand that all the critics of The Church are souls, seeking truth.
We are told to “Love our neighbor.” So, we patiently reply that Catholics are aware of the First Commandment, that Catholics do not worship idols, and that we all know if we did worship idols, we would be sent to Hell for doing so.
Scripture does not encourage us to reply to those who criticize God and His Church by saying something unkind about how little they know. Our goal is to not even think negative things about critics of The Church, even though we have heard them a thousand times.
Critics of The Church are souls, searching for truth. They are carrying a crippling burden of error and misinformation. We must pray to find helpful responses will cause them to move a little closer to Her gifts.
If we don’t politely remind them that Jesus plainly, clearly, and simply said to the first Pope, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock, I build My Church.”, who will?
