religion

[toby99]

Hi - Can anyone summarise the differnces in religious beliefs etc between someone who has been christened in the Church of England and someone who is Catholic?

Thanks for your help

[Le Chat]

Catholics believe in Purgatory - a awaiting zone between heaven and hell where you stay whilst your judgement takes place - C of E do not believe this.
Catholics pray to saints, rather than straight to God himeslf.
Catholics confess sins to a Priest and say special rosary prayers rather than pray to God directly.
Catholics are obsessed with the 'virgin Mary' whilst CofE pay her scant heed.
Catholics are steeped in guilt as they grow into adults.
A Catholic crucifix has Jesus on the Cross dying, whilst CofE have a plain cross to depict Jesus as having risen and alive.
Catholics often have 3 children to make it appear that they have not used contraception. 1 or 2 kids looks like you have used protection - 3 you can just about get away with.
Catholics jump on the bandwagon about Henry 8th, yet Protestantism started in Germany with Martin Luther, a Catholic monk, who was so disgusted with the wealth and corruption of the Catholic Church, that he created the new religion removing all the parts that were so abhorrent to a truly religious person.Creating CofE was a convenient excuse for Henry 8th to link in with Protestantism and taint its worthy nature.

[rojash]

C of E believe in fairy stories
Catholics believe in similar but slightly different fairy stories.

[Theland]

It is not as simple as Roman Catholic and Protestant, just two camps.
There are many denominations of Protestantism, and they differ widely in their beliefs.

[jno]

the main force behind the creation of protestantism was to do with worshippers having more direct personal contact with God rather than through a layer of priests and popes. So Protestant 'authorities' - the Archbishop of Canterbury, for instance - don't actually have anything like the authority of the pope; congregations are meant to address God directly - no confessing your sins to an intermediary. When the pope says something, all the Catholic priests of the world will teach it (at least in theory). But when the archbishop says, for instance, that there's no harm in gay priests, American Anglicans cheer but African ones are outraged. Plus as Theland says, there are lots of Protestant sects and other beliefs such as Mormonism. This is all still an obstacle to reunion of the Christian church. No way are Protestants going to accept a pope. No way are Catholics going to give him up.

[Lil O'lady]

The differences have been created by politicians and embellished for their purposes. These differences are latched on to by people who need to hate (I'm sure le chat doesn't mean to hate, and I forgive her / him / it). Most catholics are normal intelligent people and don't really believe 'transubstantiation' line. Most catholics in the UK use contraception safely and intelligently and don't allow someone's dogma to mess up their lives.