Replies

Thank you. Please understand, I was not criticizing. I just don't understand. Also, as I said to the other gentleman to whom I have yet to get back to, I have family members who are Catholic and we have discussed this topic. We have discussed Catholicism vs Protestantism as well. Not a heated debate. Just for informational purposes. I just want to know and understand, that is all. We are all children of God as far as I am concerned. To me, it doesn't matter which church we go to, as long as we are Christians. God bless you and your family as well.

In order to determine the content of Catholic tradition and teaching, it is best to go to documentary sources. In the 1980s, Pope John Paul II issued a comprehensive catechism of Catholicism, largely prepared by Cardinal Schonbrunn of Vienna. It is a very readable document with lots of Scriptural references. Various papal encyclicals and decrees and conciliar decrees are also good sources.

Many Catholics have been very poorly catechized, if at all. Their lack of knowledge conveyed to non-Catholics is a constant source of unintentional misinformation to those not Catholic. It is useful to interfaith discussion that we know the actual tenets of each others' respective faiths. The late Bishop Fulton Sheen famously said that, if the Catholic Church were actually the church its critics believed it to be, he wouldn't remain Catholic either. Of course, he died Catholic many years later.