Your Worst Anti-Catholic Experience

[D'Ann]

Nice -> Very nice

Amdg wrote that a long time ago and it always remained in my head. It gives me hope and comfort.

Pax,

Debbie

 

[xristos.anesti]

You know, I have been in 2 wars... and in those wars, Orthodox were fighting Muslims and Roman Catholics, Muslims were fighting Orthodox and Roman Catholics and Roman Catholics were fighting Orthodox and Muslims.. it was good old "lets smash them all" kind of war.

But I have never, ever seen so much blind hate, and stupidity, total ignorance and lack of knowledge in regard to religion, as on this forum (not OBOB but CF in general).

Simply unbelievable.

 

[MrZoom]

My worst experience was a few years ago in a Usenet group, and actually partly my own fault. I was critiquing a particularly virulent anti-Catholic's posts, and somewhat sarcastically asked about a particular publication he referenced, which I had never heard of. A net search revealed that it was in fact a Catholic publication, and when I admitted this, he pounced on it and threatened to post my admission on his website. But I continued to debate him, to the point where he got annoyed enough that he just killfiled me. (Actually part of it was I sent several different versions of one post, and tried to submit "cancels", but the cancels didn't take.) My "admission" never made it on his site.

 

[Fantine]

If you ever happen to look at the textbooks that are used by many fundamentalist Christian schools (and many homeschoolers) you will find that the History and English texts are rife with anti-Catholicism, either through the choices of literature or their interpretation of events in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

The texts I saw were from Abeka.

http://www.abeka.com/

It is one thing to talk to someone who is anti-Catholic and another to see it promoted in black and white in schools all over the country.

 

[FullyMT]

My worst anti-Catholic (well, anti-Christian in general) experience was last night.

I got a random IM from a troll and I was the lucky pick from CF. It was an....interesting conversation and I've never been ridiculed like that before. God, bless that person.

 

[alban]

It was my first year at university and the Christian Union was a tremendous source of friendship and support; that was until they found out i was going to Walsingham on pilgrimage. Literally the whole CU turned on me- they kept trying to convert me to 'Christianity' and told me things such as 'i thought Mary was God'.

It never amazes who cruel Christians can be- all we can do is pray.

 

[Colabomb]

It was my first year at university and the Christian Union was a tremendous source of friendship and support; that was until they found out i was going to Walsingham on pilgrimage. Literally the whole CU turned on me- they kept trying to convert me to 'Christianity' and told me things such as 'i thought Mary was God'.

It never amazes who cruel Christians can be- all we can do is pray.

Yeah, the mary thing is huge fodder for anti Catholics who don't do their research.

 

[Song of Songs]

I have been in many anti-Catholic situations -- the worst probably was on an inter-faith missions trip to Mexico City with other college students. We were having lunch with a local pastor who was sitting right across the table from me and spouting off tremendous bitterness towards the Catholic church and its bondage of the Mexican people. I continued talking with him -- fellowshipping about the Lord, my experiences with God, my thriving youth ministry, the healing power of God we had witnessed among us, etc.... He was really drawn into my stories.

After a while, when he was obviously comfortable with me and approving of my spirituality, I told him I was Catholic! He was shocked... but I could see puzzlement. I did not fit into his "mold" of Catholic.

There are terrible misunderstandings of one another's beliefs on both sides of the fence. In situations like these, we are given the opportunity to build a bridge of understanding with our common love for Jesus.

As uncomfortable as this situation was, my worst discomfort has been in Catholic Churches hearing a priest berate Protestantism in his homily (which is too short to begin with). Why not focus those few precious minutes on growing with the Lord? As I often brought Protestants to mass with me, this was particularly painful -- a horrible, unloving way to treat a guest!

Song of Songs

"To be a witness means to live one's life in such a way that it would not make sense if God did not exist." --Cardinal Suhard

 

[the_cheat]

I've never had a real anti-Catholic experience, unless you count getting snapped at on the internet by strangers. Which I don't count. *shrug*

 

[AMDG]

As uncomfortable as this situation was, my worst discomfort has been in Catholic Churches hearing a priest berate Protestantism in his homily

Thankfully, this unfortunate situation seems to be a case if one man's opinion rather than official teaching. For the longest time, I have heard those embracing Protestantism referred to as "our separated brothers". (That is the official teaching.) And I have found even in some books on OTHER Christian and non-Christian faiths, the ones with the official teaching of the Church tend to be on the "nicer" side than the ones of some of the Protestant denominations. (Probably shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.)

 

[AveMaria]

This thread just makes me want to cry.

I'm not a Catholic, I'm a High church, Anglo-catholic Anglican, but most of my relatives seem to think they're the same thing, so I've had many similar experiences.

Several of my relatives have tried to 'convert' me - in fact, a few continue to attempt this. It gets quite maddening, and I've received similar emails, letters, and phone calls.

What I find very surprising, is that I often wear a medallion of Our Lady, and it's unbelievable how many perfect strangers have tried to evangelize me based on that - standing in line to get a coffee, pay for gas, at the grocery store, in the elevator, etc.

 

[Ave Maria]

This thread just makes me want to cry.

I'm not a Catholic, I'm a High church, Anglo-catholic Anglican, but most of my relatives seem to think they're the same thing, so I've had many similar experiences.

Several of my relatives have tried to 'convert' me - in fact, a few continue to attempt this. It gets quite maddening, and I've received similar emails, letters, and phone calls.

What I find very surprising, is that I often wear a medallion of Our Lady, and it's unbelievable how many perfect strangers have tried to evangelize me based on that - standing in line to get a coffee, pay for gas, at the grocery store, in the elevator, etc.

Wow. I wonder what kind of responses I'll get when I start wearing a crucifix in my area which is highly Protestant and anti-Catholic? One thing that really surprises me is that the Lighthouse Recovery Center (a primarily Protestant place for recovering addicts here in town) actually has a crucifix hanging on the wall. That's really surprising because much of the Protestants in my area are anti-Catholic, some vehemently so.

 

[ej]

I went to a secular school, and I had to wear my crucifix UNDER my clothing so it could not be seen.

 

[Ave Maria]

I went to a secular school, and I had to wear my crucifix UNDER my clothing so it could not be seen.

Wow that's sad.

 

[Colabomb]

Wow. I wonder what kind of responses I'll get when I start wearing a crucifix in my area which is highly Protestant and anti-Catholic? One thing that really surprises me is that the Lighthouse Recovery Center (a primarily Protestant place for recovering addicts here in town) actually has a crucifix hanging on the wall. That's really surprising because much of the Protestants in my area are anti-Catholic, some vehemently so.

Many Protestants still use Crucifixes.

 

[kunfuzdchic]

My worst experience was when i was attending a university two years ago. There was only an orthodox church nearby so i started going there just for prayer and i had also joined the youth group.It was the next best thing as there was no chapel over there.and the teaching at the group meetings was great. Then on one particular day, one of the teachers started going on and on about how the Orthodox religion was the one and only TRUE religion in the world.Then he started with the Roman Catholic Church and started listing sooooo many things that, i just sat there appalled with tears falling down my eyes.I had come here to learn something about God and there they were talking about the disrespectful way that catholics behaved in church ,not removing shoes on sacred grounds, such disregard for the communion....i don't remember much except that crushed feeling.It didn't help that i was the only catholic there.The man then turned the subject to the protestants.I never went back.What is it about pointing fingers?

 

[Ave Maria]

Many Protestants still use Crucifixes.

Not around here they don't. I am assuming that the Protestants who use crucifixes the most are Anglicans, Lutherans, and such. Well, go figure cause we don't have any Anglican/Espiscopalian or Lutheran churches in my county.

 

[Colabomb]

Not around here they don't. I am assuming that the Protestants who use crucifixes the most are Anglicans, Lutherans, and such. Well, go figure cause we don't have any Anglican/Espiscopalian or Lutheran churches in my county.

Yeah, the more fundementalist you get, the less crucifixes you'll see.

 

[Ave Maria]

Yeah, the more fundementalist you get, the less crucifixes you'll see.

I kinda figured that.

 

[sean102]

It happened to me my Junior year in High School. It was ash Wednesday and 1st period math class. I was to leave 15 minutes before class ended to go to the church and serve 8:30 mass. My teacher, who is/was Jahovass witness, had asked why I was to leave and I told him. Well he flipped out. Saying I'm crazy for being catholic, he said let was stupid, and the pope was a fake, he went on and on for a good 10 minutes, I just sat there and starred at him as he went on and on like a fool, if I had a tape recorder I would've had him fired. I just got up and walked out more proud about my religon than I ever was in my entire life. Ever since that I have valued my religon so much.