Some Popular Catholic Myths Part 5

“The Church doesn’t do enough to help the poor.”

This is one of the most erroneous Catholic myths in modern times.  On the contrary – the Catholic Church is the LARGEST charitable organization in the WORLD.

Every day, the Catholic Church feeds, clothes, shelters and educates more people than any organization in the world – even more than many countries.  Charities run by the Church include:
-  5,305 hospitals including 1694 in the Americas and 1,150 in Africa.
-  18,179 clinics including 5,762 in the Americas and 5,312 in Africa 3,884 in Asia.
-  17,223 homes for old people, the terminally ill and the handicapped – most of them (8,021) in Europe and the Americas (5,650).
-  9,882 orphanages – a third of them in Asia.
-  Countless homeless shelters and food banks.

Indeed, most countries around the world don’t even come close to the charitable contributions of the Church.

“The Church has changed its position and no longer believes in Purgatory.”

This is patently false.  This is often confused with the Church’s position on Limbo, which was never a matter of doctrine but merely a way of trying to reason the fate of unbaptized children.

The doctrine of Purgatory, however, is rooted in Scripture and has always been a teaching of the Church. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it’s a “final purification of the elect” (1030-1032).

2 Macc. 42-46, Matt. 5:25-26, Matt. 12:32, 1 Cor. 3:12-15 all speak to the reality of Purgatory. Matt. 18:32-35 and Luke 12:58-59 are additional verses that support this doctrine.

“Catholics were prevented from reading the Bible During the Middle Ages.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

During this period, the world’s illiteracy rate was close to 85%.  Most people couldn’t even read the Bible let alone own one.  Because they were handwritten, Bibles during this time were extremely expensive and hard to come by.  Churches would chain their copies to the pulpit.  This was not done to keep the Word of God from the masses – but to protect it from theft.

During this time, some educated heretics took to making their own translations of the Bible.  The result was inaccuracy and perverted doctrine.  Since the Church was the only place one could acquire an officially-translated Bible, they were kept from the general public.  This is no way means that the public was kept from the Bible – just from owning a copy so that they could distribute their own flawed translations.