Catholicism 101: The Basic Guide to Being a Roman Catholic

We hear it all the time: Why do Catholics...? Let's face it. You tend to rack up all sorts of ways to do stuff when you're about 2,000 years old. That's older than most countries, even the United States. And seriously, who even remembers why it's illegal in Southington, Connecticut to possess silly string and in Rhode Island, string wire across a highway UNLESS it is 14 feet higher than the surface? All true by the way. We may not have the answers to those questions, but here's why Catholics do all the stuff that Catholics do.

This basic guide to being a Roman Catholic is meant to hook you up with the info for what it means to live a Catholic life. So if YA dig what YA read, check out the Events Calendar and connect with YA Buddies to see how it REALLY is to be Catholic in the 21st century.

Who is a young adult?
Young Adults are definitely NOT youth. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops defines young adults as "men and women in their late teens, twenties and thirties (USCCB, 1996)." Young adults are more likely to have finished college and are more diverse, racially and ethnically diverse than older generations (Bendya & Perl, 2000). Although many of us are single, many of us are married, divorced, widowed, and single parents. In short, focus on the adult rather than the young part.

What is a Young Adults Ministry?
There are four goals for a young adults ministry: to help the young adults connect with Jesus Christ in way that fosters personal and communal growth, to welcome and encourage young adults to participate in the life and mission of the Christian community, to connect young adults with the mission of the Church in the world today, and to help connect young adults with a positive peer community who share similar values and beliefs to help nuture and strengthen their faith (USCCB, 1996).

So, here's the fundamental perspective of the Catholic Church: (Trigilio & Brighenti, 2003)
Catholicism isn't a one-day-a-week enterprise. It doesn't segregate religious and moral dimensions of life from political, economic, personal, and familial dimensions. Catholicism tries to integrate faith into everything.

The Catholic perspective sees everything as being intrinsically created good but with the potential of being abused. It honors the individual intellect and well-formed conscience and encourages members to use their minds to think things through. In other words, instead of just giving a list of do's and don'ts, the Catholic Church educates its members to use their ability to reason and to apply laws of ethics and a natural moral law in many situations.

The general Catholic perspective is that because God created everything, nothing is outside God's jurisdiction and that includes your every though, word and deed - morning, noon, and night, 24/7.

Do Catholics worship Mary? (Trigilio & Brighenti, 2003)
First of all, Catholics do not worship Mary. We honor Mary. Second, to understand why we honor Mary the way we do, it helps to understand the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ. Catholic theology teaches that He is human and divine - not 50/50 but true God and true Man. In other words, he was one divine person with two natures - human and divine. And his humanity wasn't overwhelmed or smothered by his divinity. So whatever he did or was in his human nature was as real and as much a part of him as whatever he did or was in his divine nature. So whether he was performing miracles from his divine nature or feeling and expressing emotions from his human nature, he was still one and the same person. That said, what human being doesn't have strong feelings of affection and love for his or her mother?

Catholics identify their own feelings for Mary with the feelings Jesus had for his mom. This is nothing but devotion, without the slightest hint of worship or adoration in it.

Another argument for discouraging devotion to Mary, aka Marian Devotion, is the claim that Jesus apparently rebuked his own mother and called her woman rather than mom.  The Catholic response?  The original text of the Gospel according to John was written in Greek, not the King's English of the King James Version of the Bible.  At the wedding of Cana, when they ran out of wine, Mary told Jesus about it.  The King James Bible has Jesus saying, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" (John 2:4)  But the original Greek reads Ti emoi kai soi gynai, which literally translates to "What [is it] to me and you, woman?"  This is exactly the same translations in Latin: Quid mihi et tibi est mulier. The International Standard Version reads, "How does that concern us, woman?"  As always, a quote can't be taked out of context.  As soon as Jesus uttered the phrase, he proceeded to go and change the water into wine.  Had it been a rebuke, he would've ignored the request altogether.  By granting his mother's plea for help, he showed that he listened to her as a son but as God he performed the miracle. 

Finally, using the term woman (gynai in Greek) was meant as a compliment because Eve, the wife of Adam, is referred to as the woman. (Genesis 2:23)  In fact, Mary is considered the New Eve, because her offspring was Jesus, the New Adam, and he conquered the devil by his death and Resurrection.  So when seen in this light, the supposed insult turns out to be a term of endearment.