In the last few months, I've really noticed people bashing the Catholic church and our beliefs. I'm not sure if I've never heard these things before recently, or if the people in my life have always said/felt these things and my eyes have simply been opened to the pure hatred towards my religion. Let's face it, that's what a lot of this is: people openly hating the Catholic religion simply because they do not understand our beliefs and traditions, or because they've been brought up hearing others spew the same hate and misconstrued 'facts' they now preach. As a Christian and a child of God, I am appalled by this behavior.

"If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." - 1 John 4:20

Here are a few of the misconceptions I've heard:

The Catholic Church does not want you to read the Bible. The very first Christian Bible was made by the Catholic Church, and is read at every mass. I grew up with my parents reading me verses from a children's Catholic Bible before bed. I went to CCD (Sunday School) every week, where we learned the Bible. Not only do we want you to read the Bible, we openly encourage and teach it.

Catholics worship Mary and the dead. When Catholics pray to Mary, they are asking her to intercede with her Son for them. Think about it this way: if your mom comes to you asking for your help for something important, you would bend Heaven and Earth to get her what she needs, right? So we’re simply asking Mary to pray for us to her Son, because we know she has a lot of pull with Him. This does not mean that we pray to Mary instead of Jesus, I pray to Jesus daily, it just means that when we do it's because we're asking her to pray for us. We also believe in a Communion of Saints; you can find this phrase in the Apostles Creed. The word communion means an act or instance of sharing. The communion of saints are the believers in the past, the believers in the present, and the believers in the future; all of these people share the belief of salvation in Christ.

Catholics believe the pope is incapable of sin. The Pope is human, and can make mistakes. In fact, he attends confession like the rest of us. Papal infallibility is often times confused with flawlessness. Don't worry, even Catholics have gotten confused by this one. Papal infallibility does not mean the pope cannot sin, and isn't only a characteristic of the pope; it belongs to all bishops when they join the pope to teach a doctrine as true. Jesus himself promised this to the apostles and those who came after them (the bishops): "He who hears you hears me," Luke 10:16 and, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven," Matthew 18:18.

The Catholic Church added books to the Bible. The Catholic version of the Old Testament does have seven more books than the Protestant and Jewish Bibles, but they were removed from the Protestant Old Testament and the Jewish Bible; they were not added to the Catholic Bible. The Jewish Bible at the time of Jesus included these seven books, and this version of the Old Testament was used by the authors of the New Testament. These books were removed from the Jewish Bible shortly after Jesus' death to avoid offending the Romans. This new version of the Old Testament was the version that Luther accepted because he did not agree with some of the ideals in these seven books (such as purgatory), and is the reason that Protestants have seven less books than Catholics.

Catholics are not really Christian. The Catholic religion is the original universal Christian religion.

Catholics and science do not mix. Many scientific advances have actually come from the Catholic church. Take, for example, the Big Bang Theory proposed by a Belgian priest named Monsignor Georges Lemaître. Lemaître said the entire universe jumping into existence that quickly, out of nothingness, and in a flash of light is how he would expect the universe to respond if God were to actually utter the command in Genesis 1:3, "Let there be light."

The movie God's Not Dead presented this same argument against atheism (for the part on the Big Bang, watch from 1:38 - 3:08):

Science has been used as a weapon against the whole of Christianity as "proof" that God does not exist countless times. I don't know about you, but scientific advances only give me a sense of awe and prove the existence of God more fully to me.

I have heard these and so many other misconceptions about my religion, and I think it's time we put them to rest. I ask questions when I am faced with a misunderstanding about another person's beliefs. I give them the opportunity to explain those beliefs to me. I confront the situation with an open mind and an open heart. And, in the event that I still do not agree with them, I respect that it's something important to them. All I ask is for the same in return. You do not have to agree with everything I believe, and I am not asking you to change your beliefs for me, just respect mine as I will respect yours.