I’ve previously done an entire series on Catholicism. But more and more, I’m seeing on line people questioning Are Catholics Christian or not. Or indeed, in one message I received, the gyst was, “If Catholics are practicing paganism, can they really be considered to be ‘of God’?”
So, I thought I’d see what’s at the root of this.
Are Catholics Christian?
The fundamental answer here is “yes”. Obviously. They believe in Jesus Christ, follow his teachings, so Catholics are de facto Christian. (Ahem, in fact, according to the Roman Catholic Church, they are the OG Christians and all you other Christians are the result of schisms from the original… but that’s an argument for another day.)
Some of the question appears to come from two elements:
- the idea that Catholics and their relationship to saints, ritual and other elements of the faith are more akin to paganism than “good, solid Protestantism”
- my own relationship with Catholicism, Jesus, Mary and the saints.
Catholics and how the religion developed
Look, let’s be serious here. The Roman Catholic Church isn’t, and wasn’t, daft. They made sure their major celebrations and festivals coincided with those that people were already used to celebrating. There’s no point in pretending otherwise. So there’s
Christmas? Winter solstice. Although they weren’t as fussy about the Summer Solstice, although there are a fair number of Blesseds and Saints remembered on the 20th and 21st June.
The term “holiday”? Comes from Holy Day. And Catholics were the Christians on the ground when that was developed. Christianity has shaped the English language in ways beyond this, of course, but if you asked anyone in the 14th century in England if they obeyed the Pope or some other Christian leader, it would be the Pope they’d go for.
So, we have a religion here that is working with the systems in place and working, more importantly, with the expectations of the local people to convert them. I’m speaking of Ireland here of course – Ireland was not converted to Catholicism or Christianity at the point of a sword. At the point of hunger, sure, but not the sword. It was a reasonably peaceful conversion. Kinda.
Look at the days of the week in Irish:
Dé Luain = Moon Day (From the Latin “luna”: Moon). (Monday)
Dé Máirt = Mars’ Day (From the Roman god Mars). (Tuesday)
Dé Sathairn = Saturn’s Day (From the Roman god Saturn). (Saturday)
Other names come from early Christian practice, and were almost certainly brought to Ireland by the monks:
Dé Céadaoin = Day of the first fast (Wednesday)
Déardaoin = Day between the fasts (Thursday)
Dé hAoine = Day of the [primary] fast (Friday)
These three came from the monastic practice of fasting on Wednesday and Friday.
Dé Domhnaigh = Day of the Lord (from the Latin “dominus”: lord) (Sunday)
Are there elements of paganism in Catholicism?
I mean maybe?
It depends on how you define paganism. For some fundamentalist Protestants, even the mention of saints is enough to have them claiming paganism. For others, the plethora of saints in Catholicism, in place of a personal relationship with Jesus, is enough to warrant claims of paganism. Others view with concern the sometimes elaborate rituals of the Catholic Church is enough to make the claim.
But fundamentally? Catholics are Christian in that they follow Jesus Christ. The path to Heaven is through Jesus. To go to Heaven, you come to God. Okay, there’s a bit about being baptised, repenting, etc but fundamentally, believing in God, following Jesus and repenting of sins is key.
Where people tend to get confused is there a lot of rich (in more ways than one) history and details around what sin is, what repentance is, etc, etc, etc.
Add in the complications and nuance of 2000 years of people exploring details of specific situations, and working out problems through letters, and Papal bulls and all the rest of it… things get a lot more wordy.
And initially, the Church was less cohesive, to say the least, in the beginning. Pretty much from the day Jesus was crucified, his followers started disagreeing on stuff. And these people disagreed on things related to the general practices they and their people followed. And in spiritual matters, these would be pagan. Or Jewish. But either way not Christian.
So, some of the practices in paganism made it into Christianity.
The key bits people disagree with when calling Catholics Christian
People consider representations of saints, Jesus, Mary, and God as possible idolatry, something God is famously against.
Praying to saints rather than to God and Jesus.
Consideration of Mother Mary as a key figure in Jesus’ life. (The early Church wasn’t quite as patriarchal as some of the later Protestant ones).
The buying of indulgences – basically short cuts to repentance which meant that rich people never had to worry about dying in a state of grace.
The generally faffery around Catholic rituals. Austerity is and was the name of the game in many Protestant congregations. (The High Church in Anglician tradition excepted).
Wikipedia has a decent article on the whole thing.
Returning to the key point
Yes, Catholics are Christian.
No, Catholics don’t consider themselves pagan, and neither did the generations of Irish people who were practicing Catholics, even while believing in the Other Crowd. There were and are perfectly reasonable explanations for these things in the culture.
No, Catholics are not pagan.
Yes, me calling myself a Pagan Catholic doesn’t help matters, but you know what? I’m not really here to help the Catholic Church!!
Very informative article! Thank you!
The Catholic habit of using music, seasonal colour, painting and sculpture, rich fabrics and incense makes some other branches of Christianity uncomfortable. The Reformation bleached faith in many ways.