Sentinel photo by JOSH YODER
Shown is a statue of Jesus Christ outside of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Parish in Lewistown.

By Josh Yoder

Sentinel reporter

jyoder@lewistownsentinel.com

LEWISTOWN — Like other Christians, Catholics believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. They follow his teachings as set out in the New Testament and place their trust in God’s promise of eternal life.

But the religion is full of misconceptions.

To help dispel some of those misconceptions, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church’s Fr. Peter Rettig of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church explained some common myths that surround Catholicism.

Catholics worship idols

The first misconception that Rettig discussed was that Catholics worship idols. Many people see statues of Saints, the Virgin Mother Mary both inside and outside of the Catholic buildings all over the world. Rettig explained that the statues are simply a reminder of the history of the Catholic faith and they all signify the same thing — belief in Jesus Christ.

“Catholics only worship God, which we believe to be three persons — The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit,” Rettig said. “A Catholic praying in front of a statue may look like idol worship, however, we simply use statues of Saints to remind us of theological beliefs. In other words, for example, we have pictures of our deceased loved ones in our homes to remember and admire them. But yet we do not worship them.”

“In the same way we admire and remember our spiritual family members throughout 2,000 years of church history,” Rettig continued. “In addition, the statues of Saints or of Jesus became a longstanding tradition of the Catholic church because masses of people in early Christian history were illiterate and could not read the bible, therefore we depicted religious beliefs through imagery.”

Catholics are wealthy

The second misconception of the Catholic faith that a lot people believe in is that many Catholics are swimming in money. Rettig says that is simply not true. In fact, Catholics believe they should view money as a resource intended to be shared with others and be detached from excessive desires for personal wealth.

“The Catholic Church, may be the largest Christian denomination in the world and in comparison to others, we might have more, but we are not wealthy,” Rettig said. “On the Parish scale, most Parish finances go to Parish upkeep. But a large portion goes to charity. For example, Catholic charities is the largest charitable organization in the world.”

“Also, the St. Vincent DePaul Society in Lewistown offers over $40,000 a year in charitable aid,” Rettig continued. “On the world wide scale, the Vatican is rich in historical assets, handed on over the centuries, such as artwork and religious vessels, but the Vatican bank is certainly not bursting at the seams.”

The Catholic Church is a cult

The last misconception is Catholic Church is a cult that worships Mary. Many Catholics treat Mary with respect because she is the one who gave birth to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“If you google the definition of “cult” it reads, “a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure of object.” Going off this definition, we do not venerate a figure or object, as clarified above in our rejection of idle worship, but rather, we venerate the person of Mary,” Rettig said. “And, venerate ” is defined as, “to regard with great respect, revere.”. Venerating is not the same as worshiping. Worship is “adoration for a deity,” and in no way do we see Mary as a deity. We simply revere, regard and respect her as the theotokos, which is the early Greek Christian word for “God-bearer,” who bore Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in her womb.”

“We adopt this veneration from the earliest Christian writers, such as Ignatius of Antioch, disciple of the Apostle John, bishop of Antioch, who was martyred for the Faith in 108 A.D,” Rettig continued. “Among many other things written on Mary, he writes, “the virginity of Mary, her giving birth, and the death of the Lord are three mysteries to be loudly proclaimed.” Other early Christian writers emphasized Mary’s veneration, such as Clement of Rome (99 A.D), Polycarp (155 A.D), Justin Martyr (165 A.D), and Irenaeus (202 A.D).This is where Catholic’s veneration, not worship, for Mary comes from.”