by H. Thompson-Lewis
I am a teacher who has taught in both public and Catholic schools while living in the Northeastern part of the United States. I never understood what religious prejudice really meant until my family and I moved to the Southeastern part of this country. Not only is there such animosity towards Catholics, but I learned that certain Protestant groups actually teach their members that we Catholics are not God-fearing, nor are we “saved”. Some Protestant groups actually tell their members that we are part of a cult and that we are going to hell.
I was fortunate to be hired by a Southern Baptist principal in a Southern Baptist school. I told him up front that I was a Catholic and that I would not hide that fact from my students. He told me that it would be good for the students to interact with people of another denomination and he knew that I considered myself “born again” (fully embracing the fact that Jesus is my Lord and Savior). It was a year of spiritual growth for me as well as for my students.
During daily prayers, I remember one student asked if we could pray for her grandmother. I said yes, of course, and asked her what was the problem. She hesitantly said, “Well, she’s Catholic.” I asked her what her point was and she looked at me totally confused as did the rest of the class. It was then that I told them that I was Catholic, too! Oh, my goodness! You should have heard the gasps, the hands flying over mouths to keep in the sounds of disbelief. I had one student cry out that I could not be Catholic because I believe in God! The disbelief was written all over their faces. How could their God-loving teacher be a Catholic? Well, that began a school year filled with information from me about what a Catholic really was all about.
By the end of the year, most of my students believed that some Catholics are okay (i.e., we are saved). Some remained entrenched in their prior belief that Catholics were not okay — that they are poor, unsaved people who are not Christian. No matter how hard I tried, I could not turn some of them around with this issue. However, I am happy to say that some now realize their misconceptions about Catholics and have thanked me for setting them straight.
Most of my students believed that Catholics pray to idols and that we don’t give God the proper respect. After all, we pray to Mary, don’t we? I told them that they ask me and others to pray for them. I told them that it was in this same manner that we ask Mary and the saints to intercede for us. I also told them that God was and is the Supreme Being — our Father in Heaven. Moreover, I explained to them that we know we can directly confess our sins to Him, but that through the sacrament of Penance, we can be absolved of our sins by his representative, the priest.
Some of my students began to respect Catholicism by the end of the year. They had discovered how much effort and time we put into our faith. At Easter, I remember telling my students how on one Friday, I was going to do the Stations of the Cross with my family. They asked for an explanation and when I explained to them what that meant, there was a real look of respect on their faces. These students had not realized the depth of Catholicism.
This experience has deepened my convictions regarding my Catholicism and spurred me onto greater faith. We can learn from out Protestant brothers and sisters in the same way they can learn from us. Yes, Catholics need to read the Scriptures more often. We also need to evangelize and witness for Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit!
We need to embrace our Protestant Christian brothers and sisters and unite. We need to enlighten the world about our faith in Christ and illustrate to others our shared Christian principles. Most of all, we need to demonstrate to others that Catholics are indeed Christians.
© Copyright 2002 Catholic Exchange
