What are the main things that people misunderstand about Catholicism?
One of the major things is the place of Mary in the church for us. I would say our understanding of Mary, and the communion of the saints. A lot of people who are not Roman Catholics would say, "Oh, you worship Mary, you worship statues when God has said you shall have no idols before you", and "why are you worshipping Mary when Mary is a human person?" She is a human person, we don't worship Mary. In actual fact, she's a model of what good discipleship is about. The saints who go before us, especially saints that are recognized in the church, we pray to them. We ask them to assist us but it's not in the sense of the worship that we offer to God. It's like people who model for us what being a good Christian is. Christ is there and we have a direct relationship with God, with Christ, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and we're in that relationship even now. Then there are saints like Saint Eugene de Mazenod, who is our founder of the Missionary Oblates, who helps me to see how to live my life well and how to live my priesthood well. There have been priests and they are people who have gone before us, they are in the communion of the saints and they can pray for us. I would ask them, "Will you keep me in your thoughts because I'm going to do something quite special this week?" I am asking the saints to pray for me, or to pray for a family who are going through bereavement, but God knows it also, God is there. It's just when there's one voice, it's stronger when you have a hundred voices. That's the way it works. That's a common misunderstanding.
