47 Comments

• Seanmor | Dec 07, 2012, 09:52 AM EST

  Is membership in the Roman Church more important that being a truly practicing Christian?

• mreinhar2001 | Dec 02, 2012, 11:45 AM EST

  warlockes scores as definitely not a Catholic. anglo-norman regarding "Now james lets have one on How Protestant are You:" NICE ONE!

• warlocks | Dec 02, 2012, 02:34 AM EST

  well i never did believe in virgin birth or a human Man be a Son of any God or Jesus is alive in the host. and Mary being raised up to heaven in her Body . Spirt i would go along with. Even Saint Paul wrote . only a Fool Believes Jesus rose up to Heaven in His body . if you use your God Given Brain & logic you can figure all of it is Based on Greek,Roman , Egyptian Mythology, Smoke & Mirrors

• Will Hamilton | Dec 01, 2012, 07:45 AM EST

  The 6th question should have been "how mad are you if you believe all the lunatic nonsense in questions 1 to 5. The Vatican prefers to pretend there are 1 billion Catholics in the world because that's how the elderly male virgins claim power. The last thing they will ever attempt is to exclude people who are actually Protestants according to their beliefs. If the same questions were asked of all so called Roman Catholics in Ireland they'd realise just how insane the religion is. Adoring a dead peasant Arab child bride because she didn't break her hymen while giving birth to a god that was it's own father: loony tunes for adults

• casualMBA | Nov 30, 2012, 12:01 PM EST

  Amen

• TayandCake | Nov 29, 2012, 09:09 PM EST

  Also, Anglicism seems to be based around tea and triangle sandwiches

• TayandCake | Nov 29, 2012, 09:06 PM EST

  4 is new to me and its creepy, anyone agree? Sounds like the Sith

• anglo-norman | Nov 29, 2012, 05:49 PM EST

  Now james lets have one on How Protestant are You...

• RedBranch | Nov 29, 2012, 03:58 PM EST

  3.5 out of 5 not bad for a Protestant!

• casualMBA | Nov 29, 2012, 12:28 PM EST

  "...a deep ADORATION of Mary..."? Not even the "Magisterium" believes that! And, as far as the "Magisterium" goes (or is defined,) what has happened to Vatican II and and its elemental concept of "the people of God"? And, one additional omission, the writer neglected to include ?6 for a "Magisterium Catholic," i.e., "...6. You accept there is no Christian love, charity, or works of faith, in the future of a Petri dish."

• mreinhar2001 | Nov 29, 2012, 12:01 AM EST

  Irishphotograph: Jesus Christ is one of three persons in one God. Ergo as mother of the human form of Jesus, Mary is the Other of God.

• mreinhar2001 | Nov 28, 2012, 11:56 PM EST

  They forgot to mention belief in the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity that makes up the one God. I think that is odd.

• aloistmartin | Nov 28, 2012, 06:39 PM EST

  TomSwinford@ No more Discovery Channel for you

• howareya | Nov 28, 2012, 06:00 PM EST

  Well Jack...I would rather live my life believing in a just and loving God and a heaven and find out I was wrong...than live my life as if there was nothing after and find out I was wrong!

• howareya | Nov 28, 2012, 05:25 PM EST

  aloistmartin, old story I'm familiar with, what is your point? Catholicism is definitely not for me, nor will I subject my family to it or any other organized religion. Once we are grown we can make our own choices. As far as I'm concerned, the church is responsible for a goodly portion of the ills in this world.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 28, 2012, 03:55 PM EST

  phinsman: You only have a Bachelors. Would a Catholic with a Ph.D trump you?

• phinsman | Nov 28, 2012, 12:47 PM EST

  Brendan, I totally agree with you. I grew up in a Catholic family, but my logic oriented brain has made me totally non-religious and a non-believer. I have an Engineering degree and also taught High School Physics, Chemistry and Principals of Mechanics and now work in Networking Services for our local school district in Eugene, Oregon. I was amazed to learn this in 7th grade in Catholic School... our religion teacher taught us that when you believe in something, it's based on faith and there is no proof. That's when I started to be a non-believer.

• BrendanDunphy | Nov 28, 2012, 12:37 PM EST

  I opt for Science over Religion. After all, isn't it better to figure out how things work, rather than just make stuff up?

• stanchaz | Nov 28, 2012, 10:39 AM EST

  There are so many priests, preachers, and shamans who have the gall, the sheer arrogance, of claiming to speak for God. A direct pipeline to the Almighty! God did this, God told me. God loves that, God wants this. Hey, like .... ENOUGH already! I know that there are many many good people who call themselves Catholic, many good people out there out there searching for answers, searching for community, and searching for a way . ...in this all-too-harsh world. There's only one thing I can say to you: think for yourself,be yourself, trust yourself. Don't just accept something because it comes from a religious "voice of authority". For ultimately YOU are responsible for your life, and how you try to live it. That’s why you have freedom of choice and a conscience: to choose, NOT just to follow..... Personally I like the prayer of St. Francis myself, in summing up what's most important in this all-too-short life: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.

• stanchaz | Nov 28, 2012, 01:01 AM EST

  As I've said earlier, I am no longer a practicing Catholic - or Christian - but that is not to say that I don't believe in an existance beyond human death - I do. But it has nothing to do with Heaven and Hell, Purgatory and Limbo - the four options for a Catholic. It has everything to do with science, especially quantum physics. In quantum physics - or quantum mechanics - we begin to deal with the monomental questions of our very nature and existence, and herein lies our ultimate path to understanding where we transition to following our mortal death. The great conundrum confronting Quantum Physics is the indeterminable behavior of sub-atomic particles such as the electron. Yet it is our understanding of its unpredictable behavior - and accommodating this behavior - that has led us to develop the most mind-bogling technological devices like the Iphone and Ipad and a 1,000 other devices - even if we still don't quite understand why the electron instantly changes its behavior the instant we observe it. Herin lies our answers to the afterlife, real but through science, not religion. This, obviously, is an incomplete answer to an alternate explanation as to why there is a beyond beyond the end but I or perhaps someone else will pick up this line of thought.

• Seanmor | Nov 27, 2012, 11:49 PM EST

  My answer to the above questions would probably get me a failing grade as a Catholic. But I'll always support the R.C.'s opposition to killing the unborn and same-sex marriages.

• misneac | Nov 27, 2012, 10:05 PM EST

  I am very impressed at the high intelligence of Young Pike at the age of eight !He seems to have slipped up a bit in the interim as I dont notice him listed in the Fortune 500 ! JackFnTwix knows nothing about history or Germany of the late 1930s ,otherwise he wouldnt make such ignorant or bigoted comments about the Pope !

• aloistmartin | Nov 27, 2012, 06:14 PM EST

  Malarkey ! The Canon is only One Part of the Mass ! Taking it out of Context, is pure Lutheranism !

• aloistmartin | Nov 27, 2012, 06:08 PM EST

  Cyn@ the story says that six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant's body. The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.

• Cyn | Nov 27, 2012, 05:22 PM EST

  No, no, no, no, and no. Really since the 4th grade when I learned enough about science and mythology to understand the difference. In a catholic school, mind you. Then I went on to read history other than the bible, take comparative religion classes in high school and college and realized a goodly portion of catholic doctrine is basically stolen from earlier religions they wiped out via the Romans. That and I think that women need to be recognized as viable human beings capable of planning their own families, that priests should be of both sexes and allowed to marry. My uncle Fr Nils Francis Thompson despairs for my soul.

• citizen69 | Nov 27, 2012, 04:43 PM EST

  Answer: Not Catholic at all. Yes, shock horror, you don't need to be Catholic to be Irish and over 15% of people in Ireland are Protestant!

• Irishphotograph | Nov 27, 2012, 04:42 PM EST

  The Almighty Creator GOD has no mother. Blessed Mary was the mother of Jesus the Son of God not God the Father. Jesus actual blood and body cant be present in the Eucharist. Jesus was using bread and wine to teach spiritual truths. The reason the Roman Catholic Church massacred people wanting to read the Bible. Is because it exposes them as a false church trading off on traditions.

• KatieMurphy | Nov 27, 2012, 04:17 PM EST

  We got a wonderful thanksgiving gift from two grand aunts - they renouced the church of a pope who both hid the endless molestation of children and in 2009 showed what is nothing but hatred for Jews,by UNexcommunicating a Holocaust denier, Bishop Williamson.

• anglo-norman | Nov 27, 2012, 01:38 PM EST

  Mr O' Shea there are Irish people who are not Roman Catholic. Is this site suggesting that to be Irish you must be catholic? Yet 95% of Irish Culture & Life non-catholic Irish people have been & are the most successful in all realms.

• JackFknTwist | Nov 27, 2012, 01:36 PM EST

  yes , the closing f the westrn mind to ratioal thought and the rise of the Crusades, the Templars, t inquisition ...and then you appoint an ex Hitler youth pope. Well well, how gauche.

• JackFknTwist | Nov 27, 2012, 01:34 PM EST

  My my ! How superstitious in fairies and the supernatural has all become so serious.....n youe believe is raising from the dead, real body and blod.....what next ?

• WoundedKnee | Nov 27, 2012, 01:02 PM EST

  Tiseyerish--You tell us you're a lapsed Catholic. I'd more accurately say non-Catholic. And that's entirely your business. But you obviously don't and never did understand Catholic tradition as regards Mary, so please don't try to impose your ignorance here.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 27, 2012, 12:59 PM EST

  O'Shea: "Personally I agree with the the Times writer that “do you believe in the resurrection?” should have been included." It WAS INCLUDED, you dope, what the hell does Q.1 ask?

• WoundedKnee | Nov 27, 2012, 12:57 PM EST

  Yet another badly written article by an Irish Central "journalist" (sic). We Catholics don't adore Mary, O'Shea, you're a complete dope who should back to undergrad school. Amadan.

• YoungPike | Nov 27, 2012, 12:35 PM EST

  I rejected Catholicism when I was about eight and I would never indoctrinate any child with any religion. Beware the tyranny of religion!!!

• Teresa Cross | Nov 27, 2012, 12:32 PM EST

  I am a recovering Catholic. I brought up my daughter in the Catholic Church but finally I became Eastern Orthodox then Anglican. I m a mystic at heart so I am contemplative!

• howareya | Nov 27, 2012, 12:19 PM EST

  Tiseyerish...as Pipermac52 explained....we have a veneration/honor to Mary. We don not adore her as a God. You ask why we have statues/pictures/shrines to her. Well, do you have pictures, tokens etc etc of your family/children/grandchildren around your house? Kind of the same thing but on a bigger scale. And sad that you have lost your faith due to the suffering and sadness here in our lifetime. But if you think of our lifetime in relation to eternity..it is less than a blink of the eye. I think of it like this... You watch your child learning to walk and she falls down and skins her knee. She wails and is in pain. At this point .... this is the worst, most painful thing for her. But you, as a parent, know that she will heal and be better. That is like our lifetime and God. It is not meant to belittle the sufferings of people now, but we will be better in eternity. Just my opinion. :=)

• eiriamach | Nov 27, 2012, 12:13 PM EST

  Christian belief is compatible with reason, science, and social and political progress. People who feel compelled to toss aside science and reason to conserve their religious beliefs are generally those who search the Gospels in search of moral rules with they can mean-spiritedly use to stigmatize women, gays, and "secularism," and to protest against progress. An open-minded reading of scripture leads to embracing science, vindicating reason, and instilling a commitment to social and political progress. If your religion does not reveal and open up the real world to you, you've got the wrong religion.

• handsome68 | Nov 27, 2012, 12:04 PM EST

  According to this, I guess I am "Catholic", since I scored highly on them all. The article doesn't mention the Church Militant, about which I have a bit of trouble, but so did, for example, Joan of Arc. So I am in fairly good company there. And what about the Ascension? Most of youse liberal omadhauns wouldn't know a practicing Catholic since you avoid them like the bubonic plague.

• jamieLM | Nov 27, 2012, 11:57 AM EST

  Towngate: faith is defined in Webster's dictionary as "unquestioning belief that doesn't require proof or evidence." That doesn't mean it's not true. People choose to have faith in all kinds of things, besides religious beliefs. I choose to have faith in the tenets of the Christian faith. Whether others choose to do the same or not, makes no difference to me. I can't prove there is a God to non-believers and they can't prove to me that there isn't. Each to his own.

• Towngate | Nov 27, 2012, 11:08 AM EST

  "FAITH" has been defined as: 'Believing absolutely - something you know for a fact, to be untrue'!

• jamieLM | Nov 27, 2012, 10:40 AM EST

  That would be "no one"...up all night in the NICU.

• jamieLM | Nov 27, 2012, 10:37 AM EST

  Well, that was easy! I scored zero - and sleep like a baby. Religion is primeval nonsense that no reasonably intelligent, rational human being truly believes. While I have lost my religion I have not lost my faith - yes, they are completely different concepts.

• jamieLM | Nov 27, 2012, 10:31 AM EST

  @TisEyerish, I think a lot of our suffering is man-made. We humans are imperfect: self-centered, greedy, power-hungry, poor decision makers, and reckless with the earth's resources, etc. If earthly life was joyful and peaceful 24/7, there would be no need for faith, God/Jesus, and the Resurrection. We'd already be in Heaven. The list is interesting, but know one really knows the heart and mind of others. Pedophile priests were administering the Sacraments at Mass every day and performing other religious duties while abusing children. How Catholic were they? Being labeled a Catholic because you believe in #1-5 doesn't necessarily mean you're practicing your Christian faith in your daily life.

• PiperMac52 | Nov 27, 2012, 09:55 AM EST

  Two of those questions are flawed from the start. We do Not "perform" the sacraments, we receive the sacraments. WE do not have a deep "adoration" for the Blessed mother, we have a deep veneration(honor) or love. Only God can be a adored. Obviously the writer of this article is not a practicing Catholic.

• TisEyerish | Nov 27, 2012, 09:42 AM EST

  I have to disagree with Joan; obviously, Mary is adored; otherwise, why shines all over the world dedicated to her? Why statues or stained glass renderings of her in every church you enter? Why May celebrations dedicated to her? Unfortunately, I am a lapsed Catholic. I say "unfortunately" because I wish I still had the faith that I had when I was a child. I have come to feel that, if there is a God, He is not a very nice one...otherwise, why suffering all over the world? It's easy to say that the devil is responsible for that. However, if the force of good is stronger than the force of evil, then why does God allow this? If Jesus died for our sins and they were all forgiven, then why is baptism necessary and why aren't we all living in the Garden of Eden? Yes, I wish I still had faith; it was much easier back then. You just had to be good and, when you failed at that, go to confession and receive penance and all was right with the world again.

• joan1954 | Nov 27, 2012, 09:34 AM EST

  # 1 is okay, #2 we receive the sacraments nor performs them, # 3 we do not "adore" mary as adoration is to God alone, #4 and # 5 are okay.