I went to see the Passion with my parish priest and a group from our congregation. On the way, in the car, a woman who had been raised in the parish asked me if I had grown up in the area. I told her I had been raised in a parish several miles away. She told me that she had experienced a lot of anti-catholic bigotry while growing up in our town and that she had always been taught in Catholic schools to respect other religions, but she had not received the same in return (from either Protestants or the Jews). She was a good deal older than I but I told her we had been taught likewise, and that growing up I did not experience the same bigotry, but have expiries it from time to time as an adult.
Occasionally, when I meet protestants and the subject turns to religion, the questions always revolve around the same issues; confession, our "worship" of the blessed virgin and the saints and I always patiently explain that we are not confessing to a man and we do not "worship" the saints blah, blah, blah...But it is clear to me that protestants are far more bothered by the beliefs of Catholic then vice versa. The Catholic faith is quite a bit more mystical than the Protestant faith, but there is also much mysticism in the bible in which People witnessed visions of all kinds from God, Moses, Abraham, and from Angels, as did the mother of God. And the Lord Jesus was visited and seen by many witnesses after he died and then rose from the dead. How much more mystically symbolic can you get than revelations?
Therefore, I wish protestants would just accept that Catholics have some mystical beliefs originating from the bible, that protestants do not and GET OVER IT!!!!!!