What do catholics believe?

[Orinoco]

My sister's MIL wants dniece to go to the local catholic school. My sister doesn't have any objection to the school - except that she's not a catholic and doesn't know how what they believe compares to what we were taught at baptist sunday school.

Can anyone enlighten us?

Thanks

thats recent!

we were still being thought the old stuff in school and i'm only 22

But Cori I thought that all Christians believed in the Apostle's Creed - it is definitely recited in Methodist Churches. But there are other things that distinguish Catholics - transubstantiation, confession, christening/first communion/confirmation (cf believer's baptism for Baptists).

we were always thought the differance between us and protestants was that we believed that the bread and wine became the body of christ at communion, they didn't and we believed mary was the VIRGIN mother of god, they didn't. we were told these were the only real differances in belief which is what i think the origional question was. there are numerous differance in church practices though

We're not Catholic (not even married) but applied to local RC school because as well as ace academic record, their mission statement talks about understanding & tolerance of others & we back that 100%. Still, being a complete heathen, I admit I was a bit surprised by some things.

Here's some things that go on at my son's RC school (in case this helps):
Prayers 3 x day
They learnt how to cross themsleves
Icons in all the rooms (Jesus on cross etc..)
Dressing up & acting out baptism & things
Lots of religious songs
Collections for various Catholic causes
Talk about practicing for communion/sacrements

None of this stuff really bothers me but another thing I was (naively) surprised by was the playground Mum's-who-know-each-other-through-Church network. They're all really nice people but because the mum's know each other, the kids get to know each other, so being outside of that circle has a knock-on effect on ds making friends - it's hard to 'get into the gang'.

Having said all that, it's still a lively school & I'm glad we chose it for him. but if we had half decent alternatives round here I would have thought a lot harder.

HTH.

Actually I thought protestants believed that Mary was the Virgin Mother of God - but certainly she seems to have higher status amongst Catholics. What about praying to saints and Mary? Protestants don't do that.

Can I ask something about the comunion please?? Why eat it if it's supposed to be the body and blood of Christ??? I'm sorry it's very confusing to me....

witchycat, we did all those things at school (normal state RC school) . Tbh I'm a bit surprised that there that many families who go to mass regularly - bet it's not like that by the time they get to secondary school.

fuzzywuzzy, it is because Jesus apparently said at the Last Supper (the day before he was crucified), this [the bread] is my body, take this all of you and eat it. So, that's what Catholics do.

Fuzzywuzzy - Catholics believe that when the Priest raises the bread and wine at a specific moment in the mass, the substance changes into the body and blood of Christ, although the outward appearance doesn't change (we don't believe it's actually turned into Christ's flesh and isn't bread any more).

The reason you eat the bread and drink the wine is because Christ bid his disciples to do this at the Last Supper. It is to remember that he died (had his body broken and his blood spilt on the cross) to give whoever believes and follows Christ eternal life.

I like to think that just as bread and wine nourishes the body, so Jesus Christ nourishes the spirit or soul.

All very important for us at the moment as we've just started Holy Week which remembers the events leading up to Christ's death and resurrection.

Hope that helps!

Protestants see it as more symbolic I think.

cori, all mainstream protestant churches also hold to the Apostles Creed, so it doesn't really distinguish between protestant and catholic.

On the Mary thing, Catholic doctrine is (I think) that Mary never had any other children. Protestants believe that she did (including James).

One of the key points of difference is on papal and scriptural authority. Broadly, Catholics believe that scripture and the tradition of the church are equally authoritative in spiritual matters. Hence what the Pope says is just as important as the Bible. Protestants tend to put greater emphasis on the Bible as the sole source of spiritual authority.

no the church no longer carries on with the belief of original sin coming from eve. this question came up in when I attended baptism course for dd. can't remember how it was explained in detail as was permanently tired at the time.

do remember something about sin being the cause of most of human suffering. it was one of those 'well thank goodness for that moment.'

and apparently limbo was abolished last year

My mum, big catholic, won't eat meat on Good Friday and goes into a cold sweat when we do, no idea why you aren't supposed to eat meat on Good Friday!!

I think Baptists have a greater involvement with the bible and its fundimental message. Catholics know the old testement for the history(root of judism and islam et al) but are more related to the new testement and particularly to subsiquent writings by catholic philosophers and interpreters. I went to a catholic secondary school as do my kids , its fine dont worry, maybe i was lucky ,but even the nuns were cool ,more revolutionary theology than reactionary, if you know what i mean.

Re the Mary thing - I read an interesting book a few years ago and it said that the reason Mary became such an important figure in the early Christian church was that many "pagan" societies had a female goddess that was very important to their beliefs (the bearer of new life, etc) and that the early Christians had to find an equivalent in Christianity to make the transition to Christianity more appealing to those pagans they were trying to convert. Apparently originally Mary was not such an important figure. Actually, if you look into a lot of Christian traditions they have their roots in pre-christian practices

inthepink, my MIL used to weigh her food on Good Friday to make sure she was eating the correct amount for fasting as laid down by the Pope

In the Pink: Catholics don't eat meat on Good Friday (or any Friday for that matter) because Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and so it is a day of fasting. You want to share in the Lord's suffering in a small way, and so you don't feast (eat meat) on a Friday.

My mother would give me bread and butter for my dinner on Good Friday.
But then Easter Sunday was just like Christmas Day-massive pig out

Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, my Vicar is very 'high' in his beliefs, and signs himself, believes in the real presence of Jesus in the bread and wine at Eucharist (transubstantiation), and has even been known to chuck the odd Catholic hymn in.

My dear old mother on the other, good Catholic that she is, won't accept his beliefs because he isn't a Catholic priest :o

I asked her yesterday, what does she do at Ecumenical services, pray for everyone to become Catholic? She says she prays 'for everyone to become one', although she's not sure how this would be achieved.... :o

A lot of stuff that I no longer believe in.

The Creed is a very good indication of what catholics believe in. Unfortunately the catholic church is run by people, human beings, who have the same flaws and faults that we all have. So yes you will get nasty nuns and priests and homophobes and so on. But the basic foundations of the belief of the Catholic faith are to be found in the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus. This is what I shall be teaching my kids, with a healthy attitude to questioning everything they hear.

There does not exist a church without corruption, the catholic church is no better than others in this respect. But people didn't make the faith, God did, and He is what I believe in, not other people.