[Editor's note:  Please bear with us as this page is developed. We hope very soon to have all the below questions answered, and even more in the near future.]

Here are a list of some of the common questions many Catholics and non-Catholics have about the teachings of the Catholic Church. With the help of many good apologetic books and websites, we have given a short answer to each question. For more comprehensive answers, please refer to the list of citations at the end of this page.

1. Why do Catholics pray to Mary and the saints? Isn't that a form of idolatry?
   
2. Why do Catholics have statues? Doesn't the First Commandment forbid the use of "graven images"?
   
3. Mary wasn't really a virgin her whole life, was she?
   
4. Why does the Church have a ban on contraception & artificial birth control?
   
5. Why does the Church oppose abortion & euthanasia?
   
6. Why do Catholics have a pope?
   
7. How can the Pope, a mere man, be infallible?
8. Why can't priests marry?
9. Why can't women be priests? The bible says we're all priests.
10. Why does the Church oppose so-called "same-sex marriage"?
11. Why does the Church claim to be the true Church? Can't people get to Heaven with any religion or just by being a good person?
12. Catholics can't really believe the Eucharist is Jesus' Body and Blood. It's just a symbol!
13. What's the difference between mortal and venial sin?
    

1.  Why do Catholics pray to Mary and the saints? Isn't that a form of idolatry?

When Catholics pray to Mary and the other saints in heaven it is not in worship but in fervent request for their prayers on our behalf. The American Heritage Dictionary provides two definitions for the verb 'pray.'

1. To utter or address a prayer or prayers to God, a god, or another object of worship.
2. To make a fervent request or entreaty.

You may have heard the second definition used, for example, when a person says "I pray your permission to speak." This is the definition Catholics mean when they speak about praying to the saints in heaven.

As Scripture indicates, those in heaven are aware of the prayers of those on earth. This can be seen, for example, in Revelation 5:8, where John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."

Those angels and saints in heaven are aware of our petitions and present them to God by interceding for us. It should be noted that asking one person to pray for you in no way violates Christ's mediatorship between God and man. St. Paul tells us, "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:1–4). Intercessory prayers offered by Christians - which is what the saints in heaven are - on behalf of others is something "good and pleasing to God," not something infringing on Christ's role as mediator.

Catholics plead the intercession of the saints because we are informed in the Bible that the prayers of certain people are more effective than those of others. "The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (James 5:16). Since those who are in heaven have been made perfectly righteous and are without sin, their prayers are all the more effective before the throne of God.

For more on this topic:  Catholic Answers, Dave Armstrong, Scripture Catholic

2.  Why do Catholics have statues? Doesn't the 1st Commandment forbid the use of "graven images"?

Exodus 20:4 does forbid the making of a "graven image" of God. But what is a graven image? The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as "an idol carved in wood or stone." In context, then, the Bible clearly forbids idolatry of material things. Worshiping carved wooden blocks or stone is a grave sin, but using them as a visual aid in a religious context is not. We know this because God commanded the construction and use of religious statues in the Bible.

For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).

During a plague of serpents sent to punish the Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to "make [a statue of] a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (Num. 21:8–9).

One had to look at the bronze statue of the serpent to be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually, not merely as religious decorations.

Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one's mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by looking at pictures of them.

For more on this topic:  Catholic Answers, EWTN

3. Mary wasn't really a virgin her whole life, was she? Doesn't the Bible say, for instance in Matthew 13:55, that Jesus had brothers?

While most English translations of the Bible speak of the "brothers" of the Lord in several places in the New Testament, we need to remember that neither Aramaic, the language Jesus probably spoke, nor Hebrew has a separate word for cousin. Instead, the word "brother" is used throughout the Bible to describe persons of close relation (cousins, nephew, etc.). For example, in Genesis we read, "And when Abram heard that his brother [Lot] was taken captive..." (Gen 14:14, King James Version). Yet we know from Genesis 11:27 that Lot is actually the son of Abram's brother Haran, making Lot Abram's nephew, not his brother. In Matthew 29:15 Jacob is called the brother of his uncle Laban. Similar uses can be found in 1 Chron 23:21-22, 2 Kings 10:13-14, Dt 23:7 and Jer 34:9. The term "brother" is used even to describe a friend in 2 Sam 1:26 and an ally in Amos 1:9.

Plainly then, the use of the word "brothers" in Scripture is not a convincing argument that Mary had other children besides Jesus.

Another common objection to the Catholic teaching that Mary was an ever-virgin stems from Matthew 1:25: "[Joseph] had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus."

Some Christians wrongly believe that this passage implies Mary and Joseph had relations after the birth of Jesus. But such an understanding of "until" forces a modern use of the word onto Scripture. In the Bible, the word "until" only means something did not happen to a certain point. It says nothing of what happens after, and should not be read as an implication that events reversed themselves at some later point in time. For instance, in 2 Sam 6:23 we read, "And so Saul's daughter Michal was childless until the day of her death." But no one would interpret Scripture to mean that after her death Michal bore children. Similar verses can be found in Ps 110:1 and Gen 8:7.

The Bible makes several strong cases for the Catholic Church's position that Mary had no children besides Jesus, as outlined by Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church (Picayune, MS):

1. At the Annunciation Mary asks the angel Gabriel, "How can this be" (Lk 1:34) - a question which makes no sense except in the context of a vow of lifelong virginity.
2. The Bible recounts Jesus at the age of 12 being lost for three days and found by his parents in the temple. There is no mention or hint of other children.
3. In all of the passages referring to Jesus' brothers, the authors are careful to only call Jesus the son of Mary, no one else. And in referring to Jesus as "the son of Mary" (Mk 6:3) the force of the Greek implies Jesus was Mary's only son, not a son.
4. In the Jewish society of Our Lord's time, a younger son would never publicly give an older son advice, much less reproach. Yet we find Jesus' brethren advising him to leave Galilee and go to Judea to make a name for himself (Jn 7:3-4). In Mk 3:21 his brethren try to restrain him, saying, "He is out of his mind." Such passages are understandable if they were in fact Jesus' uncles or elders.
5. Hanging from the Cross, Jesus entrusts his mother's care to St. John (Jn 19:26-27). Such an action would be unthinkable if he had other brothers.

That Mary bore one son, Christ Jesus, has been the consistent teaching and belief of Christians down through the centuries. Among other early Church Fathers, Augustine (391-430) described her thus: "a virgin conceiving, a virgin bearing, a virgin pregnant, a virgin bringing forth, a virgin perpetual."

Protestant Reformers Luther, Calvin and Zwingli likewise believed in Mary's perpetual virginity. On February 2, 1546 Martin Luther wrote that Mary was "a virgin before the conception and birth, she remained a virgin also at the birth and after it."

In conclusion then, there is no Biblical evidence that Mary had children besides Jesus. There are, on the other hand, both a strong Biblical case, and the mountain of Christian Tradition, which support the Catholic belief that Mary was indeed an ever-virgin.

For more on this topic:  SCBorromeo, Catholic Answers, Scripture Catholic

4. Why does the Church have a ban on contraception & artificial birth control?

Few realize that before 1930, all Protestant Christian churches agreed with the Catholic Church in condemning the use of artificial contraception as sinful. In 1930 at their decennial Lambeth Conference of bishops, the Church of England was the first to break with Christian tradition and approve the use of artificial birth control in limited circumstances among married couples only. Since then, virtually all Christian churches (including Latter-Day Saints) have followed suit.

Immediately following the 1930 decision of the Anglican Church, Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical on Christian Marriage, Casti Connubii, which included this proclamation:

"Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question [of artificial birth control], the Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense of the integrity and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of her divine ambassadorship and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin." -Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii 56, Dec. 31, 1930.

Pius XI's encyclical concurs with and upholds the Biblical teaching that contraception is wrong. As Catholic Answers rightly notes, the Bible mentions at least one form of contraception specifically and condemns it. Coitus interruptus, was used by Onan to avoid fulfilling his duty according to the ancient Jewish law of fathering children for one's dead brother. "Judah said to Onan, 'Go in to your brother's wife, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.' But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also" (Gen. 38:8–10).

The biblical penalty for not giving your brother's widow children was public humiliation, not death (Deut. 25:7–10). But Onan received death as punishment for his crime. This means his crime was more than simply not fulfilling the duty of a brother-in-law. He lost his life because he violated natural law, as Jewish and Christian commentators have always understood. For this reason, certain forms of contraception have historically been known as "Onanism," after the man who practiced it, just as homosexuality has historically been known as "Sodomy," after the men of Sodom, who practiced that vice (cf. Gen. 19).

The Church Fathers likewise agree with Catholic teaching:

"Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted" -Clement of Alexandria, (The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 [A.D. 191]).  

"This proves that you [Manicheans] approve of having a wife, not for the procreation of children, but for the gratification of passion. In marriage, as the marriage law declares, the man and woman come together for the procreation of children. Therefore, whoever makes the procreation of children a greater sin than copulation, forbids marriage and makes the woman not a wife but a mistress, who for some gifts presented to her is joined to the man to gratify his passion" (The Morals of the Manichees 18:65 [A.D. 388]).

The Catholic Church holds the sexual union of husband and wife to be a sacred gift from God containing in the one act two distinct purposes. The two aspects, or purposes of the marital embrace are the unitive bond between the spouses (i.e., intimacy, pleasure) and the procreative nature of the act (i.e, children). To frustrate the act in order to avoid children in the pursuit of pleasure only is to frustrate the will of God who gave us the gift of human sexuality.

By way of analogy, consider the act of eating. Like sex, eating has two purposes: nutrition and  pleasure. When a person decides they want only the pleasure of eating, but not the nutrition -- and induces vomiting after meals -- society rightly recognizes the disorder and seeks to help the individual restore their diet and eating habits to normalcy, even so far as to offer medical and psychiatric treatment. Contemporary society has no difficulty seeing disorder on the one hand, but paradoxically finds in contraceptives a sort of miracle cure to many of life's problems: poverty, abortion, sexually transmitted disease, and so on.

Yet rather than serve to eliminate, or even reduce these problems, after decades of social experimentation a strong case can be made that the widespread use of contraceptives in the West has lead to a dramatic increase in promiscuity, marital infidelity, the divorce rate, STDs, and abortion.

For the legitimate intentions on the part of spouses to space, or even avoid the conception of children, the Church teaches that, "Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom" (CCC 2370).

For more on this topic:  Catholic Answers, Contraception: Why Not?, Dave Armstrong

5. Why does the Church oppose abortion & euthanasia?

The Church has always taught that from the moment of conception all human life has an intrinsic dignity which must be respected and not violated (CCC 2270). Furthermore, innocent human life may under no circumstances be deliberately destroyed (CCC 2258). Both procured abortion and euthanasia involve the direct, intentional taking of innocent human life, and are therefore a grave offense to God, the Author of life.

For more on these questions, please visit the Life Teachings page.

6. Why do Catholics have a Pope?

Catholics have a Pope (from Latin: "Papa" or "Father") because the Catholic Church has a visible head in addition to her invisible head, Christ Jesus. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ. A vicar is one who serves as a substitute or agent of another.

Before his death, Christ chose Peter from the twelve to shepherd his flock in his absence. Our Lord charges Peter: "feed my lambs...feed my sheep" (Jn 21:16-17), constituting Peter guardian of his entire flock in his own place, thus making him his Vicar and fulfilling the promise made in Matthew 16:18-19:

"And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  

We see Peter's role as head of the Church played out in the pages of the New Testament. In Acts 1:15, Peter initiates the selection of a successor to Judas soon after Jesus ascended into heaven, and no one questions him. In Acts 5:3, Peter exercises his binding authority, by declaring the first anathema of Ananias and Sapphira which is ratified by God, and brings about their death. In Acts 15:7-12, Peter resolves the first doctrinal issue on circumcision at the Church's first council at Jerusalem, and no one questions him. After Peter spoke, all were kept silent.

Just as when Judas died, a successor was elected (Acts 1:15), so when Peter died, Linus was elected as Peter's successor. And after Linus, Cletus. And after Cletus, Clement...and after Paul VI, John Paul. And after John Paul, John Paul II. And after John Paul II, Benedict XVI.

The Catholic Church is the only church which has an unbroken line of succession down through the centuries to Peter, and therefore to Christ himself. You can see the entire list of popes here.

"The Lord says to Peter: 'I say to you,' he says, 'that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. ... ' [Matt. 16:18]. On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. . . . If someone [today] does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" -Cyprian of Carthage (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; first edition [A.D. 251]).

For more on this topic:  Catholic Answers, Scripture Catholic, Bible Christian Society