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May sound funny at first. The reason I ask is that I have observed that no matter whether in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Brazil and probably other places as well a lot of Catholics seem to believe in several deities.
Here for instance a lot of people pray to 'nossa senhora' (our Lady, the counterpart to our Lord obviously, a reference to Mary, the mother of god as they say in Germany), and to all kinds of saints, also to Jesus, and to the god of the Bible. Mary seems to be by far the most important and beloved deity to most people in Portugal, the one people honor and obtain hope from. Some people have little home altars or shrines with statuettes and pictures of Mary. Same in Brazil, especially with colored people and the masses in general. Although Germans don't have home altars afaik, Catholics also pray to Mary and saints and not so much to Jesus or the god of the Bible.
Seems Catholics believe in sort of a heavenly family, not in one god. And like with most families the mother is in the center. Thinking about it, they seem to be more similar to the old Egyptians than to Jews or Muslims
May sound funny at first. The reason I ask is that I have observed that no matter whether in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Brazil and probably other places as well a lot of Catholics seem to believe in several deities.
Here for instance a lot of people pray to 'nossa senhora' (our Lady, the counterpart to our Lord obviously, a reference to Mary, the mother of god as they say in Germany), and to all kinds of saints, also to Jesus, and to the god of the Bible. Mary seems to be by far the most important and beloved deity to most people in Portugal, the one people honor and obtain hope from. Some people have little home altars or shrines with statuettes and pictures of Mary. Same in Brazil, especially with colored people and the masses in general. Although Germans don't have home altars afaik, Catholics also pray to Mary and saints and not so much to Jesus or the god of the Bible.
Seems Catholics believe in sort of a heavenly family, not in one god. And like with most families the mother is in the center. Thinking about it, they seem to be more similar to the old Egyptians than to Jews or Muslims
RESPONSE:
Catholics were faced with a problem of how to maintain biblical montheism once it was determined that Jesus himself was divine, a second God. This transition took place in the 80's AD.
The solution, developed in the second and third centuries, was to come up with a Trinity in which there was only one God but three divine persons.
So to Catholics believe that they are monotheists, but nonChristian religions would consider them polytheists.
Mary and the saints were never claimed to be divine.
Catholics were faced with a problem of how to maintain biblical montheism once it was determined that Jesus himself was divine, a second God. This transition took place in the 80's AD.
The solution, developed in the second and third centuries, was to come up with a Trinity in which there was only one God but three divine persons.
So to Catholics believe that they are monotheists, but nonChristian religions would consider them polytheists.
Mary and the saints were never claimed to be divine.
Almost all Christian denominations believe in the Trinity. So I guess the non-Christian world, including you I imagine, thinks practically all of Christianity is polytheistic.
The trinity was always there but was not fully understood.
Excerpt from: Catholic Answers: This Rock: Quick Questions: Trinity "Looking at the Old Testament with our knowledge of the New, we can see that the Trinity was foreshadowed, but it was not taught in terms of one God in three Persons. Christ revealed the doctrine of the Trinity to his disciples; it is a doctrine that would have remained unknown to us unless God had revealed it.
The Old Testament suggests that the Holy Spirit is God. There are passages that show that the Spirit is a Person—for example, when the Spirit speaks (cf. 2 Sm 23:2; Ez 2:2, 3:24, 11:5). Also, there are passages that show the Spirit has divine attributes such as omnipresence (Ps 139:7).
One of the most commonly cited intimations of the doctrine of the Trinity is that God speaks to himself in Genesis by using a plural: "Let us make man in our image," and then we read "in the image of God he created him" (Gn 1:26-27).
The triple cry of the seraphim in Isaiah—"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts" (Is 6:3)—is thought to reflect the Trinity.
Some have seen the appearance of the three men to Abraham in Genesis 18 as a manifestation of the Trinity, though this in unclear. Genesis 19:1 seems to refer to two of the three men as angels.
It seems that there may have been some idea of plurality within the Godhead before the time of Christ, but the doctrine of the Trinity had not yet been made fully clear."
I know of the trinity issue, I am not sure that has anything to do with it, though. The trinity consists of father, son and holy ghost. However, to many Catholics those three are not important. After all Mary is not part of the trinity, nor are saints.
I have read on several occasions that the holy ghost originally was god's wife (an ancient belief in the Middle East, after all the Jews developed their religion by modifying earlier religions in the region) before early Jews systematically got rid of her in order to create their male-dominated monotheism, a tradition Christianity would later carry on.
However I doubt the average Catholic even knows about that. I don't think they pray to Mary because they identify her with the holy ghost. I guess a lot of people simply don't like the god of the bible.
Also, like any history religious history is never broken, so the tradition and memories of what one might call heathen beliefs has only been transformed, but not replaced. After all, those Semitic religions were only an import, Europeans already had their own religions long before. It might be similar to what happened to African religions in the new world, they were at best fused with Christianity, but below the level of names there still is the African core of belief. Go to Bahia or the Caribbean and you will know what I mean.
Ignorant of what? Have you ever lived in a typical Catholic country like the ones I mentioned?
Ignorant about Catholicism
And you don't have to live in a predominantly Catholic Country to know what Catholicism is and isn't - and it IS NOT polytheistic. All Catholics know there is only one God.
May sound funny at first. The reason I ask is that I have observed that no matter whether in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Brazil and probably other places as well a lot of Catholics seem to believe in several deities.
Here for instance a lot of people pray to 'nossa senhora' (our Lady, the counterpart to our Lord obviously, a reference to Mary, the mother of god as they say in Germany), and to all kinds of saints, also to Jesus, and to the god of the Bible. Mary seems to be by far the most important and beloved deity to most people in Portugal, the one people honor and obtain hope from. Some people have little home altars or shrines with statuettes and pictures of Mary. Same in Brazil, especially with colored people and the masses in general. Although Germans don't have home altars afaik, Catholics also pray to Mary and saints and not so much to Jesus or the god of the Bible.
Seems Catholics believe in sort of a heavenly family, not in one god. And like with most families the mother is in the center. Thinking about it, they seem to be more similar to the old Egyptians than to Jews or Muslims
There are over one billion Catholics in the world. Many of them don't know fling about their own faith. So I don't know what you witnessed, but if they actually believe in what you say they believe, then be rest assured that they believe in something that is not official Catholic teaching. Praying to the saints for intercession is perfectly okay, but if they are actually worshipping Mary or a saint, then that would be wrong.
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