Catholicism Comments: 2001

Catholicism Comments:

2001

The following are various emails I received in 2001 on Catholicism. The the emailers' comments are in black and enclosed in "greater than" and "lesser than" signs. My comments are in red.

>Hi Gary!

I've attended Catholic schools my entire life and have never once been taught that we pray TO Mary. Even in the prayer, "Hail Mary", we ask her to "Pray for us sinners." We ask Mary to pray FOR us, because we feel she has God's ear.<

True, the official Catholic teaching is that Mary is invoked to ask her to pray for us. But semantics aside, an important issue was mentioned by an ex-Catholic at a Bible study I attended last week. He stated, "If two different people in two different places are praying to Mary at the same time, how can she them both? She would have to be omniscient or omnipresent to do so."

A good point, but it's not just two people but potentially thousands or even millions that could be praying at once.

>My in-laws are Baptist (and my husband's grandparents didn't attend our wedding because I am Catholic) and I can't tell you how much it breaks my heart to have them think I belong to some cult.

Julie<

I would never call the RCC a cult. I just disagree with its teachings. And that is sad about the grandparents. Their loss.

>P.S. Incidentally, my husband converted to Catholicism. His quote: "The Catholic church is 2000 years old and was started by the apostles. If we're doing it wrong, they were doing it wrong."
12/17/01<

IMHO, the RCC of today bears little resemble to the Church of the 1st century.

>Mr. Zeolla,

I read a response you had in your email correspondence, and I am shocked that you would have said it. I recently joined the Catholic church and consider myself *that* "Catholic" as you put it. The catholic church does not teach that you must be a Catholic to be saved or to go to heaven. Perhaps if you were to study a little more you would understand how grievously wrong that comment is.

Mark
12/6/01<

I have studied the teachings of the RCC plenty, including reading all the way through their new Catechism of the Catholic Church. And I document from the Catechism the RCC's teachings on salvation in great detail in the two part article Salvation in the RCC. I would suggest you read it.

Otherwise, I am not sure what you mean by "that Catholic."

>Hi Gary,

I am so tired of hearing who is right and who is wrong......cant we all just love one another and read the Bible and have faith in God and Jesus Christ...regardless of what Religion you are?...Catholic or Baptist

Am I being to harsh?

Hope not,
Thomas
6/9/01<

People have honest disagreements about what the Bible teaches. There's nothing wrong with that, provided the disagreements lead people to study the Bible more to decide for themselves what is true. It is a problem if it causes animosity to develop between people.

Personally, my parents are Catholic and I am of Baptist persuasion. But we have never allowed our differences to affect our relationship. And that is the way things should be.

>Greetings Gary,

I am interested in reading the apocryphal books. I suppose an argument could be made to use dynamic equivalence when translating these books, since they are not canonical, but I would prefer to read a translation that uses formal equivalence.

Do you recommend a particular translation of the apocrypha? I've seen editions of the AV that include the apocrypha, but I find the AV's English awkward to read. The only other formal equivalence translations that I've seen that include these books is the RSV and the NRSV. I've seen your review of these translations on your website. While they might not be the best choices when choosing a Bible translation, do they provide good translations of the apocrypha? Do you prefer one over the other?

I thank you for any help you can provide. I appreciate the effort your have put into your website. It has been a wonderful source of information for me! I look forward to purchasing your upcoming book.

God bless,
Tim
3/29/2001<

Any Catholic Bible would have the apocryphal books in them. I read them by borrowing a New American Bible (NAB) from my parents (who are Catholic). The NAB seems to be a cross between a FE and a DE version. So it should be accurate enough for these books. My book Differences Between Bible Versions should be available by the summer of this year (2001).

>Gary,

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for responding to my email. I truly appreciate your guidance in this matter. May God bless you and your ministry.

Tim
3/30/2001<

>Gary,

I am a lay Catholic. I just finished sampling your site. Refreshingly you posted a link the Catechism of the Catholic Church for your readers. I almost dropped my mouse...

Your readers are more likely to get a clear view of what the Catholic Church teaches . There is also a search engine at that site so they can key word search rapidly.

Thanks for being the first Protestant site I've seen that actually tries to allow readers to see for themselves what the Catholic Church says... through her own words... and sites... Most Protestant sites only teach their "understanding" of Church teachings.

Sincerely,
J.E.B.
3/16/2001<

Note: The Catholic Catechism is posted on the Web at Catechism of the Catholic Church.

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