Catholics often hear outright lies about our faith. Many Protestants tell us “Catholics worship idols!” That is as untruthful as “Catholics worship Mary.” No Catholic worships anyone but God. When we explain “We revere and respect The Mother of God. If Mary had not freely chosen to be the Mother of Jesus, and said ‘I will be the handmaid of the Lord.’, Jesus would not have been born and our souls could not be saved. Are we wrong to respect and revere The Mother of Our Savior?”
Many anti-Catholics ignore that simple truth, and go on to repeat other lies, like “The Catholic Church killed millions of people in The Inquisition.” When Catholics respond, “The Inquisition lasted over 350 years. In those three and a half centuries, 3,500 people were killed, usually by Civil Authorities.”, some anti-Catholics pull other accusations from their quiver of insults.
“You Catholics aren’t allowed to read The Bible.” Catholics reply, “Our priests encourage us to read The Bible and we have four Bible readings at every Mass.” Many Protestants then repeat other lies, including utter nonsense like “The Catholic Church was invented by the Emperor Constantine in 350 AD!”
When we reply with the clear historical record, that Emperor Constantine joined The Catholic Church three hundred years AFTER the first Pope had moved it to Rome, where it grew despite persecution, they go on to other nonsense like “You Catholics do not know the Lord. You do not have a Personal Relationship with Jesus. You have not been born again!”
We patiently explain, “We obey Jesus’ clear instruction ‘If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.’ by receiving Holy Communion. At every Catholic Mass since The Last Supper, bread and wine become The Body and Blood of Christ. We know, and obey, He Who Fulfilled the Prophecies. We have such a personal relationship with Him that we receive His Body and Blood at each re-presentation of The Last Supper. Since we have His life in us, we truly have been ‘born again’.”
Still, the anti-Catholic will hurl insults and accusations. Why? Where does this deep anti-Catholicism come from? What is the source of these lies and distortions? Why are there anti-Catholics?
Often, lies and distortions are encouraged by special interests with financial concerns. We find that the old saying “It’s hard to get a man to see the truth about something if his job depends on not seeing it.” applies to some anti-Catholics.
Some of the hundreds of thousands employed by Protestant denominations will tell lies about The Only Church Jesus Founded simply because they see it as a threat to credibility and employment. That is a big reason why there are anti-Catholics. We who are blessed understand. We pity, rather than scorn our attackers. And, we are thankful for having been given so many, many opportunities to obey Christ: “Love your neighbor. Do good to them who hate you.”
It is not The Church that anti-Catholics hate. They hate their sins, but fear them too much to get rid of them. They shun the teaching of John 20: 23 referring to Jesus’ provision of Confession and Absolution to forgive and let go of sins. Jesus speaks and gives to the Apostles, the first Bishops who would ordain His priests in His Church with that same awesome power, victory over sins: “Whose sins you forgive on earth are forgiven in Heaven.”
The Only Church Jesus Founded is so miraculous that we can understand why it’s hard for anti-Catholics to have enough faith to believe it.
