I listen to ETWN all the time: Catholic Answers Live says these things, as does Jimmy Aikens and other Catholic hosts.
Do you really deny that the Catholic church says Mary was born sinless (they call it The Immaculate Conception)? That she didn’t die? They call that The Ascension.
And praying to Mary is urged throughout the church. I’ve heard many hosts on ETWN call Mary the Ark Of The New Covenant, they use it to explain why people should pray to her, and why she was born sinless.
The belief that sins can’t be directly forgiven but have to be forgiven by a priest was a belief I heard explained a few days ago, when a priest said Mortal Sins can’t be forgiven in any other way other than by directly confessing in person to a priest: a caller had asked if a Mortal sin can be forgiven over the phone, the priest said you have to confess that sin, in person, to a priest and that was the only way that sin can be forgiven, praying directly to God and asking for His forgiveness wasn’t even mentioned.
And babies being baptized before they’re aware of salvation, do you deny that babies are baptized? And Purgatory? You’re not aware of the belief in Purgatory?
The only thing that can’t be said to be direct quotes is the belief that Mary should be prayed to as she has more compassion than her Son, that’s just implied, but I’ve heard that expressed many times, that Mary is sweet, compassionate, gentle and therefore able to talk her Son into forgiving heinous crimes.
You should dig more deeply into your church’s beliefs!
Ed
Why do you have a problem with what another Christian religion believes in? I’m sure there are plenty of Protestant churches with views different than yours. Why not dissect and criticize those instead of focusing on our 2000-year-old religion which you clearly know nothing about?
It's like looking in a funhouse mirror - you are skimming and cherry picking and missing the essentials. Like the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, which protestants reject (even though Our Lord was very specific, and when many walked with him no more, he didn't say, "Wait! You misunderstood!" he repeated his statement.)
So many errors . . . it's the Assumption, not the Ascension (that's Christ). But I simply don't have the time to explain all this to you . . . assuming you would even be receptive to it.
. . . and I will pray that you continue to listen to EWTN, but with a seeker’s heart and desire for the Truth rather than as the Accuser of the Brethren.