2) “Universality” - I will agree with you on this
3) “The stance of the Church on the primary issues of the day, abortion, gay marriage, contraception, male priests.” Unfortunately, most parishioners don't take the teachings seriously, but just go through the ritual motions. My evidence would be the fact that Catholics are a huge voting bloc for the Democratic party.
4) “The Church heirarchy. Not voting on doctrine. Having an acknowledged head of world wide church. Authority of the magisterium.” - no point in debating this as I know it's strongly believed by Catholics that Peter was the first Pope. The Greek Orthodox, who also claim to be the people who were the first church, claim that the concept of the “Pope” was not introduced until centuries later. Of course, you will disagree with them and they will disagree with you and both will state their own evidence.
5) As a non-Catholic who has attending Mass, I see much less focus on Christ in these services than I do in evangelical services. Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don't understand.
the focus on Christ in the mass is the eucharist as catholics believe that the eucharist is the actually body and blood of Jesus.
the eucharist is the reason for the mass...not the homily or the music or the prayers to the saints....it’s hard to imagine how you can be more Christ focused than that.
Which is why they are in schism. You might ask them why Constantinople is now called Istanbul.
5) As a non-Catholic who has attending Mass, I see much less focus on Christ in these services than I do in evangelical services. Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don't understand.(sic)
Obviously you aren't paying attention, particularly during the Gloria, the Creed, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, et al. However, admitting that you don't understand is the first step on the journey to achieving understanding.
I would suggest that you look more deeply than what you hear at a Mass. It is a liturgy and has many aspects but the central focus comes down to the "sacrifice" of the Mass, i.e. Jesus gave his body and blood for our redemption. A gift from God the Father. Christ is the single focus of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Look into it.
Could you give me some examples of how the Mass is not focused on Christ?
1) "Apostolic Succession" - having worshipped with Russian and Antiochian Orthodox for 10 years (while still being Catholic) I think it's fairer to say that you'll get a range of opinion about that amongst the Orthodox. Most that I've read, agree that the Catholic apostolic succession is unbroken and valid, bu would disagree about what a legitimate "Petrine ministry" would actually consist of. It's a church governance question, a structural one and not one of theological doctrine.
3) "The stance of the Church on the primary issues of the day... abortion, gay marriage, contraception, male priests." Here's were we ARE talking about doctrine, and the doctrine is unchanging. Whether "most parishioners" take it seriously or not, those who deviate from these doctrines deviate from Catholicism: they can't be taken to "represent" Catholicism if they don't adhere to it. That would be like saying "most" of the Apostles and His many disciples deserted Our Lord on Good Friday, therefore Christ's Church was a failure. No. It was just marred (as always) by the failings of sinful men.
As for the "huge Democratic voting bloc": Catholics --- and this is shameful --- on the whole voted for Obama in almost exactly the same percentages as all American voters, taken as a whole. That is, they went for Obama by a couple of percentage points. If you break that down, you see that regular Mass-goers went for Romney, non-Mass-goers went for Obama, and a number nearly equal to both didn't vote at all. Just like the millions f eligible Americans who did not vote. Very sad, in fact crushingly disappointing, but not a distinctively Catholic phenomenon.
5)"As a non-Catholic who has attending Mass, I see much less focus on Christ in these services than I do in evangelical services. Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don't understand."
This is actually an inaccurate understanding, but perhaps I can clarify some of it for you.
(1) The whole Mass has just 2 basic parts, the Liturgy of the Word (the readings at the lectern) and the Liturgy of the Eucharist (what happens at the altar).
(2) The WHOLE Liturgy of the Word is about Christ,since the whole Bible is about Christ (as Jesus Christi Himself explained to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, (Luke 24:27)
(3) They WHOLE Liturgy of the Eucharist is about Christ, since it is the action of Christ Himself. Christ is the High Priest whose central saving action is the offering of Himself as a sacrifice to His Father. This is what the Liturgy is, and nothing else. Its action is HIS action.
(4) Mary is mentioned only one time in most Masses, and that is only if the "I confess to Almighty God" is recited, in which it says
"Therefore I ask Blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you,
my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me
to the Lord our God."
In other words, her name is mentioned ONCE, and only because she, the angels and saints, and YOU, are being asked to pray TO GOD for all sinners.
Does this make a bit more sense?
“1) “Apostolic Succession - The Church has been in existence since Christ walked the earth, and the Bishop of Rome is in unbroken succession with St. Peter.” - the Greek Orthodox church would disagree with you.”
Then the orthodox must show where the succession is broken. The Catholic church believes that both the Catholic church and the Orthodox church both have valid consecrations and that their present bishops are a part of Apostolic Succession. The division between us and the Orthodox is one of schism, not heresy.
“3) “The stance of the Church on the primary issues of the day, abortion, gay marriage, contraception, male priests.”
“Unfortunately, most parishioners don’t take the teachings seriously, but just go through the ritual motions. My evidence would be the fact that Catholics are a huge voting bloc for the Democratic party.”
Catholics vote about 50/50 for the Republican and the Democrat parties. If one were to exclude California, Catholics vote more Republican than not. I agree that we do have dissenters, but that does not change the fact that the Catholic church does teach that contraception is sinful, that abortion is sinful, that gay marriage is sinful and that the priesthood is to be restricted to men only.
What are your thoughts on contraception?
“4) “The Church heirarchy. Not voting on doctrine. Having an acknowledged head of world wide church. Authority of the magisterium.” - no point in debating this as I know it’s strongly believed by Catholics that Peter was the first Pope. The Greek Orthodox, who also claim to be the people who were the first church, claim that the concept of the “Pope” was not introduced until centuries later. Of course, you will disagree with them and they will disagree with you and both will state their own evidence.”
The foremost Greek patriarchy wasn’t founded until Constantine. Only Antiochene and Alexandrine patriarchs have any claim to similar status with Rome.
“Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don’t understand.”
Are you looking at the actions of the parishioners or at the liturgy itself? I’ll be happy to walk you through any questions you may have. It’s not very clear what is going on to someone who doesn’t have much experience in the Catholic church or in the Liturgy.