Why do catholics pray to mary, confess their sins to a priest, pray to saints, and have all these ritualistic?

You have a better understanding of the bible than most catholics. Matthew 23:9 is proof of it. There is only one Father and only he should be called father. And no where in the bible does it say to pray through mary. Mary was a regular human female. The only difference with her was that God saw her worthy of carrying His son. And confessing to a priest is not biblical either. Jesus is the only person that can free you of your sins. That's what he was sent here for. John 3:16. John 1:29 says of Jesus, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

Putting faith in Jesus is the only way to wipe your sins away.

You don't have to confess to an imperfect human to be cleared from your sins.

Catholics are catholics because its an easy religion to be in. If they sin they just confess and are forgiven after reciting some prayers. But the bible talks about two gates.Matthew 7:13 says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it".

Keep reading your bible and you can be sure that the religion that follows the bible to the letter is the real religion. Most catholic beliefs are actually traditions. Jesus talked about religions that relied more on tradition than what was actually in the bible and he condemned them. Matthew 15: 3-9

~Jesus replied,

"And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

4 For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'

5 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,'

6 he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8" 'These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

9They worship me in vain;

their teachings are but rules taught by men".

As you can see, Jesus had some strong words to say about these people.

We follow the teachings of Christ. He taught the Apostles and they taught us.

It's called Tradition (with a capitol T) not to be confused with the traditions of men (lower case t).

Other churches have not been handed down Tradition from generation to generation. Is all (other churches) have is the Holy Bible.

Catholics compiled the Bible...we were "The Church" long before the Bible existed.

While we are discussing The Holy Bible; Please I urge you to read a Catholic Bible. Protestant bibles are missing important books. At the very Least read I&II Macabees. This will guide you in the truths you are neglected of.

http://www.drbo.org/ Online Bible

You should pray on that thought.

God Bless.

<<The Bible says in John 14:6 i am the way the truth and the life, no man comet to the father except by me" see no man the Bible says that Jesus came down here for the remission of sins, not for a man to do his job>>

And we Catholics agree.

The problem is your interpretation of scripture. You assume you are right in what you have interpreted and Catholics rely on the original Apostolic interpretation that has been consistent and unchanged for 2000 years.

An individual interpretation is subject to individual bias, experience, and culture. The Church interpretation is timeless. It comes from God, through his Apostles, passed on to his Church.

Most often what happens is non-Catholics read the Bible, they interpret it and decide the Catholic Church is wrong, because the Catholic Church does not appear to follow the Bible based on that individuals interpretation. The problem is you have no way of knowing, or supporting your interpretation. You only have you, and your assumptions.

The Church has Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the writings of the Early Christians, all of which give consistent support to the Church teachings and current application of those teachings.

Catholics will need to continue to teach history to our naive Protestant brothers, who are sheep without a shepherd. The scattered writings that became the New Testament weren't assembled by the Church into an authoritative canon for nearly 500 years.

The Protestants commit the same basic error as Jews and Muslims. They want a religion of the book. In fact, actual Christianity is a religion of the Word, and the Word is Jesus Christ, who lived the life rather than writing a book.

As Jews, Muslims, and Protestants have learned, people can read a book any way they please. The teachings of the Word of God were entrusted to a living Church, the faithful Christians who proclaim the Word in ever-new words, and who say no to the false teachings of the revisionists

Unlike many protestant denominations, the Catholic Church actually follows the bible.It is after all our book, being the catholic Church compiled it. We actually know what is in it. Everything the Catholic Church does can be backed up by the bible or Sacred Tradition. Thank you for playing,now have a nice day and go get an education.

Catholic Christian

1.Mary is alive, in Heaven, close to her beloved Son. She can hear us, and pray for us, if we ask, just as any friend on earth can do.

2. Catholics confess sins to a priest because Jesus told His first priests, the Apostles, that those whose sins they forgave, they were forgiven, and whose sins they retained, they were retained. The priests have this power, given by Jesus, and they sit in the place of Jesus, for this purpose. God is forgiving the sins, through the priests.

3. We pray to saints, for their prayers on our behalf, for the same reason as in number 1, above. They are alive, in Heaven, and can hear us. They are our friends, and are very close to God. They pray for us, just as those on earth pray for us.

4. The Catholic Church is the original Church begun by Jesus. She has all authority from Him, and she wrote the New Testament. Purgatory is in the Bible, even though the name isn't. Trinity isn't in the Bible, either but most Christians accept it.

Protestants accept only parts of the Bible that they agree with, and jettison all the rest. The Bible is the Catholic Church's book. She wrote some of it, and she collected all of it together (397AD).

All authority has been given to the Church, not to the Bible. The Holy Spirit protects the Church. The Bible was given by the Church, to the world.

All Christians "pray to mary, confess their sins to a priest, pray to saints, and have all these ritualistic" <rituals?>.

It's only Protestants who don't. The earliest Christians would gather at the tombs of martyred saints, believing that they had passed into the presence of God, and asked for their prayers.

"Calleth no man the father upon th earth for one is your father which is in heaven."

What do you call your father? It also says call no one teacher, but have you ever had a Sunday school teacher? Jesus told his Apostles, "call no man your father....and call no man teacher". He did not tell the rest of us not to.

"And what about purgatory"

Luk 12:47 "That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.

Luk 12:48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows...

Purgatory's just as good a place as any to get all that beating over with.

Jesus gave Peter and the Apostles the ability to hear confessions and forgive their sins. Jesus gave the sacraments to the apostles and thus their successors (clergy). It's all in the Bible.

Also with praying to the dead (souls in Heaven) and for the dead (souls in purgatory).

With ever thing that you mentioned, it's all based on scripture. I don't the verses memorized and my books with this info are in boxes. (I'm moving). But I honestly know that the Catholic Church is formed through scripture. It all started with Jesus and the 12 Apostles. Jesus gave them His authority on earth because He was returning to Heaven.

You should first learn what it is to be a Catholic and what they actually believe before you criticise them. Especially with a book called "The Bible" that you have the Catholic Church to thank for in the first place.

"We concede—as we must—that so much of what they [the Catholic Church] say is true: that the papacy has God’s word and the office of the apostles, and that we have received holy scriptures, baptism, the sacrament, and the pulpit from them. What would we know of these if it were not for them?" - Martin Luther

I agree with Robert P. first thing you need to understand is the bible is a catholic book. the catholic church put the bible together, meaning, it chose the books to be called inspired scripture. how? it is all done through the knowledge of apostolic tradition. the bible also says, confess your sins to one another... Jesus, paul, and stephen all used father in a "spiritual father sense." are they wrong too? you are taking single verses to make these judgements. you have to take the bible as a whole. for instance... the pope... read Sam 22:20-24 then read Mat 16:18. do these sound alike? I think so.

Simple' please don't knock at what you don't understand.

bigger and greater people then you , pray for intercessions

you are obviously from the thousands of splinter groups of christianity,

that criticise the catholic church, reasons may be because the catholic church is the original, with history..saints, world wide recognition or maybe its your own passed on church doctrines views.

Try to go to a mass and see the beauty, you will see no hatred or criticism pointed to other faiths, but only the Gospels

God-bless Denis C.