Dogma of my Baptism

Ok I was baptized raised and confirmed, yes confirmed, Catholic.

I attempt to be a practicing Catholic, but I have problems getting with religion of most kinds let alone Christianity. However, in honor of Lent, there are some things I’d like to clear up about my religion. I will not defend it, but I will make some things clear.

WE ARE CHRISTIANS. In fact we are the FIRST Christians. We are the apostolic faith in its origin. There was Jesus, death, Peter, Constantine, us. Linear. We are the church of Peter.

PROTESTANTS: Most (not all, I gets down with the Methodists and the Lutherans) Protestants came from the Church of England. This was a church started by in opposition to the Catholic Church because they would not let him annul his consummated marriage to Catherine of Argon to marry Anne Boyle. He had a habit of getting married (6 times) then divorcing/ beheading his wives. No big.

THE BIBLE: Catholic and Protestant Bibles both include 27 books in the New Testament. Protestant Bibles have only 39 books in the Old Testament, however, while Catholic Bibles have 46. The seven books included in Catholic Bibles are Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch. Catholic Bibles also include sections in the Books of Esther and Daniel, which are not found in Protestant Bibles. These books are called the deuterocanonical books. The Catholic Church considers these books to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. These books came out BEFORE the many versions and corrections of the Protestant Bible.

SAINTS: Certain Catholic saints are associated with certain life situations. These patron saints intercede to God for us. We can take our special needs to them and know they will listen to our prayers, and pray to God with us. We do not worship them. We do not pray to them. We ask them to JOIN US in our prays to God, or to pray for us when we’re busy like doing biochem and can’t concentrate to pray on our own. It is kinda like when more than one gathers in his name he’s there kinda thing. Sometimes you can’t always have another person there, Saints substitute for the other person. They are patron Saints because they are good at praying about certain things. Like you don’t want drunken uncle Cletus to pray at thanks giving you ask ain’t Bertha, cause she’s better at it.

THE VIRGIN MARY: Similarly we do not worship the Virgin Mary. We do give her praise, however. God choose her to have his freaky kid for Christ’s sake’s (couldn’t avoid the pun.) I think that’s pretty bomb. But even in the Hail Mary we say, “pray for our sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” Not save them, not forgive them, pray for them. Ain’t that the same thing MOST OTHER Christians do in their’ prayer requests? Ask other people to pray for them?

PURGATORY: I got nothing really. I mean supposedly it’s the third state before being admitted to heaven. According to Roman Catholic dogma, some souls are not sufficiently free from sin and its consequences to enter the state of heaven immediately, nor are they so sinful as to be destined for hell either. These souls, ultimately destined to be united with God in heaven, must first endure purgatory—a state of purification. In purgatory, souls achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. Other dogma associated with this is that this is the place unbaptized children go, who have either accepted Jesus or died before understanding go. Also the ignorant, like populations of remote lands not yet touched by the western world, who have never been introduced to Christ, go. I think it’s a crock of shit, but I said I was gonna be honest and not defend my church.

Welp there you go dogma, history, clarification, and understanding.