| Question Title | Posted By | Question Date |
|---|---|---|
| Seemingly extreme claims from other Christians | Ryan | Tuesday, March 8, 2011 |
Question: Hello there! I am a discrete orthodox Christian, once Catholic, now considering reconversion. I have been doing some research here and there on the net, mostly in an effort to defend against what I have seen as rash claims criticizing the Catholic Church. I ran into a site claiming that 75% of Catholic rites and rituals are of pagan origin. Also, it challenges the provision of Mary being born without original sin, calling it also a heresy to the true Christian religion. It challenges the idea that Mary was a virgin all her life, postulating that after Jesus' birth Joseph had relations with her, and cites the Bible (Matthew 1:23-25) as evidence. There are also claims on this site that the rosary has pagan origins, and that the constant repetition of prayer has also been warned against in the Bible (Matthew 6:7). I myself have certain problems with some Catholic traditions. For example, I do personally reject the celebration of Christmas as I understand the origin of December 25th to be a pagan celebration. As such, I do not agree with the Church's veneration of the holiday. In fact, I consider the holiday an insult to the Christ as it has become a vehicle for rabid Luciferian commercialism, and for most people anything but the celebration of our Lord. It is my personal, arbitrary impression that we should not be indulging in gifts in celebration of Christ. I know that if gifts were taken out of Christmas, most celebrants would cease their celebrating. But this website and some others seem to be a little overzealous in their criticisms of the Church. Please help me out here. I sincerely would like to return from whence I came (the Church), but I cannot do it without the fullest honesty of heart. And as long as I am under the impression that there is more paganism and superstition in the Church than true orthodox loyalty, I cannot make this reconversion... |
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| Question Answered by Mr. Benjamin Mathew
Dear Ryan, I'm glad to hear about your consideration to return to the Church! My advice to you, first, is to be cautious of doing research ‘here and there’ on the internet. There is a lot of deceptive, misleading, and sometimes blatantly false information out there. Often times, you will come across information (usually from protestant websites) bashing the Catholic Church. These websites will often quote single scriptures in an attempt to “disprove” Catholicism; this comes from the doctrine of ‘sola scriptura’ – the bible alone is all we need. It is important to note that the Catholic Church does not adhere to sola scriptura because there was a Church before the bible in its modern form was put together. It was the Catholic Bishops that initially picked the books that should be in the bible. If the bible didn’t always exist, than it cannot be the only authority, otherwise how would anyone know which books to put in the bible? This is important to note because the bible came from the Church, the Church did not come from the bible. The rosary is not a pagan practice, in fact, it is completely biblical. Using beads to pray may be a pagan practice, but the cross also used to be a pagan instrument of torture. Like Christmas and the Cross (which is now obviously most closely associated with Jesus than any pagan origin), the rosary is a Catholic prayer. The “Our Father” prayer was given to the Apostles by Jesus (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4). The Hail Mary is from: Luke 1:28, Luke 1:41-42, and Luke 1:48. "And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women..." "and blessed is the fruit of your womb." And for your comments on repetitive prayers, just take a look at Psalm 136, or many of the other psalms which continually repeat the same words. In fact, most songs repeat a chorus over and over despite having different verses. Think of the Rosary as a song to Jesus through Mary.
It is a blatant lie that Catholics took 75% of its practices from pagan traditions. In the same word, I find your comments about Christmas a little misinformed. Even if you accept that the Early Church made Christmas on December 25th to counter the Roman Solstice feast, we can clearly see that the Church made the right decision. Who even knows what the Roman Solstice is anymore? Everyone knows that December 25th is Christmas, the day to celebrate the birth of Christ (God’s feast has overcome the feast of the pagans). Similarly, the act of gift giving is a practice that reflects the nature of Christmas itself, namely God’s gift of Himself to us. Christmas is a day not only to give gifts to each other, but to give to the poor and needy – most Catholic Churches often have programs such as food or toy drives during Christmas to give these gifts to the poor. Though, the modern secular consumer market has turned Christmas, and all holidays into a commercial gain, this isn’t the fault of the Church. As the slogan goes, “Keep Christ in Christmas”! The site you mentioned, jesus-is-savior.com, is one of the most misinformed websites out there. Here is another answer regarding that site. Here is the link regarding the rosary, EWTN is a great source for getting your information! Mr. Mathew |
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