Forty Anti Catholic Lies

Tired of being stumped when false claims are made about the Catholic Church? Want to be armed with knowledge that puts these mistruths to rest? In these pages, veteran apologist Gerard Verschuuren provides thorough yet concise answers to forty of the most common — and absurd — lies about the Catholic Church. With precision and charity, you’ll soon be able to defend the Church when you’re told that Catholics . . . Still lives in the Dark AgesReject modern ideas of justiceOppress womenOppose free speechKilled thousands during the InquisitionTake orders from the popeReject scienceWorship statues and the Virgin MaryAdded books to the BibleInvented purgatoryWrongly call priests “father”Celebrate pagan holidaysHelped Hitler seize powerAnd so much more! Relying on historical works and official Church documents, Vershuuren authoritatively proves that these and many other claims are simply caricatures or outright misrepresentations of the real beliefs of Catholics. Read this book and you’ll be armed with the knowledge and confidence you need to defend the Catholic Church from those who wrongly disparage her teachings. Better yet, you’ll be equipped to proclaim the soul-saving truth of our Faith.

My title explains itself. But it’s misleading. There are more than 40 reasons. In fact, there are at least ten to the 82nd power, which, I am told, is the number of atoms in the universe. And that’s just in ordinary matter, which makes up only 4.9% of the universe, the rest being dark matter and dark energy. Each of my reasons is an independent point, so I have not organized this book by a succession of chapters or headings. After all, most readers only remember a few big ideas or separate points after reading a book. (I’ve never heard anyone say “Oh, that was a good continuous-process-of-logically-ordered-argumentation” but I’ve often heard people say, “Oh, that was a good point.” Which takes me back to my main point: “Why are you a Catholic?” is a good question. A good question deserves a good answer. Here are forty of mine.

New converts and cradle Catholics alike are often perplexed by the myriad of devotions, traditions, practices, and beliefs that the Catholic Church has accumulated over the past twenty centuries. Why pray to St. Anthony to find something lost? Why keep a St. Christopher medal in your car? Or why bury a statue of St. Joseph — upside down! — in your yard when selling your house? In Helen Hoffner’s lovingly-illustrated, encyclopedic Catholic Treasures and Traditions, you’ll find succinct – and sometimes amusing – answers to these and hundreds of other questions. This delightful book explains the origin and nature of most of the common traditions of the Catholic Faith, as well as the source and meaning of many of the quaint and obscure ones. From Forty Hours to First Fridays and from Holy Hours to Holy Days, you’ll find in these pages an informative, delightful compendium of the Catholic way of life, including information about: Novenas * Penance * Prayers for the Dead * First Fridays * Votive Candles * Religious Medals * St. Francis Statues * Bathtub Madonnas * Holy Cards * Crucifixes * House Blessings * Prayer Corners * Advent Calendars * Jesse Trees * Marian Apparitions * Vestments * Icons * Divine Mercy * The Sacred Heart * The Liturgical Year * Holy Days * Religious Orders * The Holy See * The Roman Curia * The Divine Office * Holy Oils * Genuflecting * Relics * Stations of the Cross * The Sacraments * The Angelus * Litanies * Patron Saints and much more to acquaint you with the many wonderful treasures and traditions of the Catholic Faith!

Author David Armstrong shows that the Catholic Church is the "Bible Church par excellence," and that many common Protestant doctrines are in fact not Biblical.

This collection of testimonies by people who've found new life in the Catholic Church gives readers an arsenal of arguments that prove the truth of the Catholic Faith. Stories of changed lives come from a graduate of the virulently anti-Catholic Bob Jones University, an Anglican priest, a former commissioner of baseball, and more.

One curious feature of our times is the co-existence of a nearly unimaginable rapidity of communications with an at-times slow, even glacial, movement of ideas. Narratives that have lost any genuine explanatory power, along with the biased historical scholarship of earlier centuries, have become entrenched in the minds of millions, seemingly immune from being dislodged. Such simplistic queries as "What about Galileo?" "What about the Crusades?" are still meant to draw Catholics up short, a conversation-stopper. Scholarship of recent decades, however, has thrown new light on these matters, and is finally allowing the truths of history to become more widely known. Here is the distillation of the best of that recent historical work for students and adults alike--an unadorned laying bare of the truth. The five myths analyzed in this book have each been shaped by post-Reformation propaganda and Enlightenment prejudices and their residual effects. With Gerard Verschuuren's new book, Catholics now have sure and ready replies to these baneful narratives. "Gerard Verschuuren has written an extremely valuable and thoughtful response to issues Catholics encounter from an often doubtful and cynical world. Each of these five myths is well researched and thoroughly covered, avoiding excessive defensiveness, yet insisting on fairness and accuracy from our critics. This book is a gift to Catholics, historians, and also to critics who seek thorough and thoughtful analysis."--MSGR. CHARLES POPE, Our Sunday Visitor columnist and blogger; pastor at Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Parish, Washington, DC. "Is anti-Catholicism the last acceptable prejudice in America? In Five Anti-Catholic Myths, Gerard Verschuuren provides a clear, forceful, and eminently factual refutation of some of the foundational slurs aimed at the Church. Here is apologetics that is timely, intelligent, and done with a flare."--RUSSELL SHAW, consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, adjunct professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome. "Mary Ann Glendon, professor of law at Harvard, has stated that 'it must be hard for Catholics brought up on movies and TV to avoid the impression that their Church holds a special niche in some historical hall of shame.' We can be grateful to Gerard Verschuuren for correcting that unfortunate misconception. He has provided anyone interested in being liberated from anti-Catholic mythology a valuable service. Five Anti-Catholic Myths is readable, reliable, and rewarding."--DONALD T. DEMARCO, Professor Emeritus, St. Jerome's University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. GERARD M. VERSCHUUREN is a human geneticist who also earned a doctorate in the philosophy of science. Now semi-retired, he spends most of his time as a writer, speaker, and consultant on the interface of science and religion, creation and evolution, faith and reason. His most recent books include What Makes You Tick?: A New Paradigm for Neuroscience (Solas Press, 2012), The Destiny of the Universe: In Pursuit of the Great Unknown (Paragon House, 2014), and Life's Journey: A Guide from Conception to Natural Death (Angelico Press, forthcoming, 2015).

With clear, compelling logic bolstered by countless Scriptural confirmations, Fr. John MacLaughlin here considers the oft-heard claim that it doesn't matter what Christian denomination you join, so long as you're sincere. Formally known as Indifferentism, this view has in recent centuries taken deep root among Christians. Indeed, indifferentism is the enemy not only of Protestantism and Catholicism, but of Christ Himself, who revealed to His apostles scores of truths about Himself and the way of salvation, never encouraging them to pick and choose among those truths. Not only then, argues Fr. MacLaughlin, is one Christian denomination not as good as another; embracing the wrong one can lead a good-hearted soul into utter unbelief, jeopardizing his salvation. For this reason, Fr. MacLaughlin devotes the second half of this immensely popular book to delineating for readers the two fundamental characteristics that will ever and always be found in the one Church that Christ founded and to which he intends all men and women to belong. Among the things you will learn here: How indifferentism threatens your salvationWhere Christ forbids preaching some doctrines while ignoring othersThe two marks the of the true church delineated by Christ HimselfDenominational lethargy: how sticking with the Faith you were born into can violate the First Commandment . . . and risk your salvationDecrees of the Council of Jerusalem (ca. 50 a.d.): proof that the apostles themselves denied that one Christian faith is as good as anotherHow consideration of indifferentism draws inquirers to the true churchHow the profusion of Protestant sects reveals the need for a final authorityThe universality of the True Church: lt existed already at Pentecost, before the Church spread beyond Jerusalem (and one Church has that very same universality today)The religion revealed by Christ: In its essentials, it's clear, definite, unchanging. Is yours?

The popular apologist and best- selling author of Catholicism and Fundamentalism addresses fifty-two of the most common misconceptions about the Catholic Faith that are held by many Catholics and Protestants. Drawing upon Scripture and the Catholic tradition, he not only shows the logical errors in these positions but clearly spells out Catholic teaching and explains the rationale behind frequently misunderstood doctrines and practices. An excellent guide to what Catholics really believe and why.