Catholic Vocabulary

Catholics have a short-cut way of referring to Catholic devotional subjects.  Not only do we not realize the understanding of what our words mean, but we defend them without trying to think how they are perceived.

Huh?

Take a phrase like, "Pray to St. Anthony."

A non-Catholic would say, "No, pray only to God."  We Catholics do pray to God but we ask St. Anthony to intercede for us by continuing our prayers.   It's quick to say, "Pray to Saint Anthony."  It would take too much time to say, "Since I believe in the communion of saints, which is ...... hence I'm appealing to saint ....... to intercede for me to God, since I can't always dedicate a lot of time constantly praying."

This short-cut Catholic terminology caused a stir on FaceBook, the other day.  Some non-Catholic said that Catholics don't use the Bible.  In the backlash, a Catholic quipped, "Catholics wrote the Bible."  Well!  Now the discussion picked up!

Now Catholics know God inspired the Bible, but the Catholic Church was responsible for the formulation, preservation, and integrity of the Sacred Scriptures.  The Catholic church saved the Bible from destruction and extinction from marauders.  The Catholic Church translated the Bible into many languages.  Until the invention of the printing press, the Catholic Church painstakingly copied the Sacred scriptures.  With the printing press, the average person now had access to the Bible.  Some people have tried to manipulate and corrupt the Sacred Scriptures, but the Catholic Church has preserved the version that everyone accepts today.  Christians of all denominations around the world owe a debt to the Catholic Church for "writing the Bible."

Isn't it just quicker to say "Catholics wrote the Bible?"