Having grown up in a Roman Catholic country (two different Catholic countries, actually), I can unequivocally say that being Catholic DOES NOT make you a Christian. I don’t say that because I was surrounded by mostly nominal Catholics, but because many of the teachings of the church contradict Scripture.
I absolutely believe that you can be a Christian and also be Catholic (though it would require you to deny some of the Catholic teachings), but the RCC does not teach the Gospel as Scripture presents it.
While any good Catholic would tell you she believes in the Trinity and would even cross herself in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, she would also add to this God the person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. In fact, the RCC teaches that Mary was virgin-born, and she intercedes on behalf of sinners. She is prayed to, and she is praised when she performs miracles. There are countless shrines built to her all throughout the Catholic nations where believers light candles, leave offerings, and pray for her to help them.
Catholics will also say that Jesus forgives sin, but they would tell you that you have to do something to earn that forgiveness. In one of the countries I lived, as penance for their sins, good Catholics would climb a mountain on their knees to reach the church at the top where they could pray to Mary and light a candle. There have been stone steps built into the side of this mountain to create a path, and along the way there are statues depicting the final days of Christ’s earthly life.
The church at the top of the mountain is opulent in its decor, and it is furnished with paintings, statues, and fountains of “holy water.” And of course there are many boxes around the sanctuary where you can leave an offering. Far from simple repentance of sins, these people have been instructed by a priest who heard their confession to make this grueling journey in order to balance the scales or weight them in their favor. The goal is to make your good works outweigh your bad works by the end of your life.
Even in their prayers, Catholics will repeat the words that Christ rose from the dead, yet their depictions of Christ are almost always on the cross or in the grave. While Christians will wear crosses on necklaces, t-shirts, or even tattoos, those crosses are empty. But Catholics will hang crosses on the walls of their homes, wear necklaces, or use rosaries for their prayers that still depict Christ’s broken body hanging.
In their beautiful, gilded cathedrals, you will find statues of Jesus still on the cross or lying in a grave. The images of a resurrected Jesus are few and far between. The importance of Christ’s resurrection is not taught to the congregation and is not emphasized as Scripture presents it.
There are many examples of Catholics who have turned to Christ once they started reading the Bible for themselves and realized what they have been taught by the priests was, at best, incomplete, and at worst, deceitful. Yet they are not encouraged to read the Bible but to listen to their priests and the Pope, fallen men who often change their position with the tides of the culture.
If you are Catholic or come from a Catholic background or have family or friends who are Catholic, I encourage you to dig deeper into this topic. While the Catholic church here in America may not carry the authority that it does in Roman Catholic countries, the foundation of the church is the same. So while we can be encouraged that celebrities and influencers are searching for truth, I fear that conversion to Catholicism is simply a way to “do the work” of earning their own salvation, which is contrary to what Scripture lays out.
For an interesting perspective on this topic, you can listen to this episode of Relatable where Allie Stuckey interviews a former Catholic who now ministers specifically to Catholics.