Affirming Truths and Dispelling Misconceptions About the Catholic Faith

My hope for the readers of the following paragraphs is that the insights and the information presented helps with understanding of the teachings and practices of the Catholic faith more fully. What is divided by misconception can only be united through open-minded understanding.

The Bible. Catholics believe all sacred scripture (particularly the Old Testament) to contain extensive parabolic and hyperbolic language.

The Holy Bible, the Old Testament in particular, is filled with symbolism. The stories presented in the book of Genesis, for example, were written for the understanding of the people of the time (around 5000 years ago). This was addressed as early as 415 AD—long before the Eastern schism and Protestant reformation—by Saint Augustine of Hippo. In his work De Genesi ad Litteram (On the Literal Meaning of Genesis), he wrote “It was for the sake of those who cannot arrive at an understanding of the text … unless scripture accompanies them more slowly, step by step, to the goal to which it is leading them” (52).

Take the specific example of the creation story in Genesis. The Church holds it to be a symbolic explanation of events. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work,’ concluded by the ‘rest’ of the seventh day” (CCC 337).

Christianity. Catholics are Christians.

The Protestant Reformation has resulted in a terminology-related divide between Catholics and Protestants. This rift calls to my mind interactions which resulted in the need to explain the concept of Christianity to Christians. These interactions included claims such as “I used to be Catholic, but now I’m Christian.” Another person asserted that she “converted to Christianity.” This is impossible. A conversion would have made sense had this person been Jewish, Muslim, or atheist, but as a former Catholic, she had been Christian from baptism. Catholics are Christians, so claiming to convert from Catholicism to Christianity defies basic logic.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte ‘a new creature,’ an adopted son of God, who has become a ‘partaker of the divine nature,’ member of Christ and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1265).

To be Christian is to be a follower, or disciple, of Christ. A Christian Church is one centered on the divinity of Christ as the son of God, His actions, and His teachings. Catholics believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Catholics are His disciples, doing His work on earth. Catholics are Christians.

These criteria apply to the Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Assemblies of God, Presbyterian, and Pentecostal Churches. Additionally, most independent, self-proclaimed non-denominational churches are Christian. Though their interpretations, practices, sacramental worldview, and fundamental theology greatly differ, they all believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Not all Christians are Catholics, but all Catholics are Christians – every one, without exception.

Confession. A priest can neither reveal nor act in response to what he hears during the sacrament of confession/reconciliation.

Canon Law 983 §1 “The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.”

Canon Law 984 §1-2: “A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded. A person who has been placed in authority cannot use in any manner for external governance the knowledge about sins which he has received in confession at any time.”

Death and Angels. When people die, they do not become angels.

This misconception goes far beyond the Catholic Church. In fact, it is prominent among Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The simple truth is that angels and humans are two distinct creations of God. Neither becomes the other. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the angels: “The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings (not having physical bodies, existing as pure spirit) that Sacred Scripture usually calls ‘angels’ is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of tradition” (CCC 328).

“With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they ‘always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven’ they are the ‘mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word’ [St. Thomas Aquinas]” (CCC 329).

While human beings do leave the physical body behind at death, and become beings of pure spirit, we do not become angels. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania explains in more detail in “On the Holy Angels,” an article published on their website. “Angels are immortal spirits; their existence had a point of origin, but will have no point of termination,” the article states. “Human souls are also immortal spirits. However, angels are pure spirits, i.e. they have no bodies (material component), whereas humans are embodied spirits – body-soul composites.”

The author continues, “No angel ever was or ever will be a human being. No human being ever was or will become an angel … It would be a service to the truth to point this out … because [the faithful] have almost certainly been exposed to this particular inaccuracy” (Gontis).

The Eucharist. The bread and wine used during Holy Mass become the body and blood of Christ.

During the transubstantiation at Holy Mass the bread and wine undergo a metaphysical transformation. They become the physical presence, the body and blood, of Jesus Christ. This was reasserted in the thirteenth session of the Council of Trent in 1551. “And because that Christ, our Redeemer, declared that which He offered under the species of bread to be truly His own body, therefore has it ever been a firm belief in the Church of God, and this holy Synod doth now declare it anew, that, by the consecration of the bread and of the wine, a conversion is made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood; which conversion is, by the holy Catholic Church, suitably and properly called Transubstantiation.” This is the largest difference between Catholic and Protestant belief.

During the transubstantiation at Mass, the priest stands in persona Christi (in the person of Christ).

Canon Law 900 §1: “The minister who is able to confect the sacrament of the Eucharist in the person of Christ [in persona Christi] is a validly ordained priest alone.”

Mary. Catholics venerate, but do not worship Mary.

As Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, the Catholic faithful hold the Blessed Mother in very high regard. She is admired for her complete giving of herself, her life, and her will to the will of God without hesitation. Catholics strive to do the same. Sacred scripture tells of an angel appearing to Mary and saying, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:31-32 NAB). This was huge. An unmarried woman in that time could have been stoned to death for being with child. Mary’s response: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Catholics endeavor to be handmaids of the Lord, to accept His will regardless of worldly scrutiny. Mary is a shining example of this difficult virtue.

Members of the Catholic Church pray to Mary and ask her intercession. This is not worship. She is not a God. Mary was a human woman, as human as anyone else. She was not in any way divine. God chose to come to earth and live as a man, so he was born a man–of a woman, a human woman.

Mary is humankind’s spiritual mother. She is an example of complete devotion to God. As a Jewish mother, she taught her son, Jesus, to pray. He prayed the psalms, the very psalms prayed by Jews and Christians today. As told in recollections of Christ’s passion according to Mark, Luke, and John, when her son was crucified, and most of the disciples ran and hid, Mary stayed. While Peter denied Christ three times (Matthew 26:69-75), Mary and John stayed at the foot of the Cross.

Before He died on the cross, Jesus said to John, “Behold your mother,” and to Mary, “Behold your son” (John 19:26-27). With those words He entrusted his mother to the care of His disciple in a real and tangible way. He entrusted the spiritual care of His disciples to His mother in a real and earthly way. Today, she continues to care for her son’s disciples, in a supernatural way.

The very prayers offered to Mary are rooted in sacred scripture. The Hail Mary is taken from the first chapter of the Holy Gospel according to Luke using the words of the angel and those of Mary’s cousin Elizabeth. The Angelus incorporates the Hail Mary into her own words of response. Finally, the Canticle of Mary (Magnificat) consists of Mary’s words to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:46-56).

Consider this: If Catholics worshiped Mary, the Hail Mary would not end with a call for her intercession, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.” Simple logic.

Politics. Catholics are not encouraged to align with one specific political party.

In the United States, neither of two major political parties fully align with Catholic teaching. Even when just examining matters of the dignity of human life, one can find conflict between both the Republican and Democratic ideologies in the United States political system and Church doctrine.

According to its 2016 official platform, readopted in 2020, the U.S. Republican Party supports the death penalty. “The constitutionality of the death penalty is firmly settled by its explicit mention in the Fifth Amendment. With the murder rate soaring in our great cities, we condemn the Supreme Court’s erosion of the right of the people to enact capital punishment in their states.”

This is in direct conflict with the Catholic Chruch’s teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the human person, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide” (CCC 2267).

The U.S. Democratic Party adamantly supports legal abortion. The party’s official platform states, “We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion.”

Like the Republican position on capital punishment, this conflicts with the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Catechism states, “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person—among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life” (CCC 2270).

In 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement which included the following: “It is not the Church’s task to set forth specific political solutions–and even less to propose a single solution as the acceptable one–to temporal questions that God has left to the free and responsible judgment of each person. It is, however, the Church’s right and duty to provide a moral judgment on temporal matters when this is required by faith or the moral law. If Christians must recognize the legitimacy of differing points of view about the organization of worldly affairs, they are also called to reject … a conception of pluralism that reflects moral relativism. Democracy must be based on the true and solid foundation of non-negotiable ethical principles, which are the underpinning of life in society” (3).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged.

“The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised for the common good of the nation and the human community” (CCC 2237).

Papal Infallibility. The sitting Pope is not considered to be an infallible man.

The man who holds the office of Pope—past, present, and future—is a man. By his very nature, he is fallible just like any other human person. Papal infallibility applies exclusively to the Pope official teachings and interpretations of scripture, tradition, and doctrine. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “The Roman Pontiff [the Pope], head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful … he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals” (CCC 891).

Priests. Only some Catholic priests take a vow of poverty, not all.

Most priests we encounter in our parishes are diocesan priests. These men studied under the authority of the local diocese and report directly to the bishop. They make promises of chaste celibacy and obedience to the bishop and his successors.

Priests who belong to religious orders such as the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explains, “Priests who belong to a religious order … take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Diocesan priests make two promises- celibacy and obedience; these promises are part of the ordination ceremony. It is also expected that diocesan priests will lead a life of simplicity consonant with the people they serve.”    

The Saints. Catholics do not worship the saints.

This misconception is very similar to that of the Catholic faithful’s relationship with and admiration for Mary. Catholics do not worship saints. Catholics do not worship Mary. Catholics worship the triune God. “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” These are the first words of the Nicene Creed, the profession of faith proclaimed aloud at Holy Mass every week.

Catholics admire the saints and hold them up as shining examples of Christianity. The saints are men and women who lived their lives for others, in communion with the will of God. Faithful Catholics turn to them for intercession, asking them for their prayers.

Now, one might ask, “Why not just pray to God yourself?” Catholics certainly do. Plus, Catholics ask the saints for prayers, too. It is just like asking people who are alive today for prayers (family, friends, clergy, religious).

Structure of Belief. Catholic belief and teaching are based upon faith and reason.

Church philosophers from Anselm to Augustine to John Paul II asserted the vital need for logic and reason when examining Church teachings and traditions. In 415 AD Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote De Genesi ad Litteram. In the work, he issued a warning. “In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision, even in such as we may find treated in Holy Scripture, different Interpretations are sometimes possible without prejudice to the faith we have received,” he wrote. “In such a case, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it” (18.37).

Saint Anselm maintained a motto related to the study of religious belief: fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding). He wrote in Monologion in 1077, “If anyone does not know … that there is one nature, supreme among all existing things, who alone is self-sufficient in his eternal happiness, who through his omnipotent goodness grants and brings it about that all other things exist … I think he could at least convince himself of most of these things by reason alone, if he is even moderately intelligent” (1).

In his 1998 papal encyclical Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason, Saint John Paul II asserted, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth … and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth.”

This approach is in stark contrast to the sola fide (faith alone) approach employed by some Protestant denominations.

Works Cited

Anselm of Canterbury. Monologion. 1077.

Augustine of Hippo. De Genesi ad Litteram. University of Chicago Press, 1950.

Catechism of the Catholic Church. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.

“Code of Canon Law.” The Holy See.

“Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.” Council of Trent, 1551.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “The Participation of Catholics in Political Life.” The Holy See, 24 November 2022.

Gontis, James F. “On the Holy Angels.” Diocese of Harrisburg, n.d.

John Paul II. “Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason.” The Holy See, 14 September 1998.

“Priesthood, Ordination, Seminary.” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, n.d.