7 Things I Bet You Didn't Know About the Catholic Church

Humility Moment: Even as a Theology major attending one of THE most orthodox Catholic colleges in the country – and perhaps the world – and a practicing Catholic to boot, there are still things about the Catholic Church that I don’t know or fully understand. Go figure, I’m a twenty-one year-old member of a two thousand year-old Church. OBVIOUSLY, I don’t know, or understand, everything. As St. Augustine so brilliantly said (as he usually does), ““We are talking about God. What wonder is it that you do not understand? If you do understand, then it is not God.”

Of course, all will be made clear in heaven, but sometimes we practicing Catholics mistakenly think we’re “better” somehow because we know and understand more than anyone else. Granted, after listening to the media’s go-to representatives of the Catholic Church (i.e. renegade nuns, Catholics for Choice, ex-priests, Joe Biden, etc.) blabber nonsense about women ordination for a few minutes, I change the channel, confident that I’ll find something more coherent on Dora the Explorer. However, it’s prideful to place ourselves on a pedestal simply because we were given the grace or opportunity to have better catechesis. Yes, most Catholic Americans know very little of authentic Church teaching, and many don’t care, but we mustn’t 

1.     Pass up opportunities to share our knowledge (respectfully!) and explain what the Church actually teaches (“No, the Church doesn’t hate homosexuals. We believe that their lifestyle is harmful to both their bodies and souls and encourage them to live chastely. We support and love the people, but hate their sin.”)

2.     Ignore chances to increase our knowledge and understanding. (Instead of “Ha! Go to a talk about conversion? I already read Scott Hahn’s book twice! What more is there to know?”)

One of the most wonderful things about being Catholic is that there is ALWAYS something more to learn. Sure, you can know the Catechism inside and out, but you can choose to go deeper in understanding every time you read it. The same goes for Scripture - why else would the Church have lectio divina?

7 Things I Beet You Didn't Know About the Catholic Church:

1.     Zucchetto trading 

There's an old tradition that you can hold up a white zucchetto (pope's white skull cap) during a papal audience, and the Swiss Guards will swap yours for the pope's... how cool is that?! 

2.     Deer beer 

3. St. Brendan the Navigator

4.     Eastern rites

There are so many awesome rites of the Eastern Church - check them out! What All Catholics Should Know About Eastern Rites

5.  St. Nicholas = boxer

There’s a colorful legend in Church History that St. Nicholas, while present at the first ecumenical council (Nicea 325 AD), punched the heretic Arius in the face. The reason: for insulting Jesus Christ by claiming his lack of divinity. 

6. Camping with the Pope (yet another reason to love JP2 the Great!)

Before becoming pope, John Paul 2 (then, Karol Wojtyla) would take people camping with him in the mountains. Check out his shoes!

7. Just War Theory (thanks again, Augustine)

Pax.