PART JEWISH?

QUESTION? 

Why are we Catholic if Jesus and Mary were Jewish? When/why did this division occur?

ANSWER!

Jesus was born a Jew.He practised Judaism and was a respected Rabbi who often read the Torah (Scriptures) in the Synagogue. These Scriptures promised the coming of the Messiah,or Annointed One. All devout Jews awaited the coming of the Messiah who was to come according to well-defined prophecy. They believed the Messiah would liberate them from the political oppression of the Romans,under Caesar. Jesus Christ was the Messiah He fulfilled all that the Scriptures had prophesied concerning the Messiah and proclaimed this in the Synagogue and in a hidden way through His parables. The problem was that His liberation was not from political but spiritual oppression.So the Jewish leaders rejected Him. But many other Jews embraced His teachings and were first called Christians at Antioch. Jews who became Catholic Christians are known as COMPLETED Jews. Early Catholic Christians did not see themselves as a "new religion". Rather, they were the natural continuation of the Jewish faith -- with the promised Messiah having been revealed. 

The Christian faith is the continuation of Judaism (with the prophecies having been fulfilled). Along with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes -- the early church was initially viewed as a new sect of the Jewish faith: 

Acts 24:5 
"We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect" 

Acts 24:14 
"However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect." 

With large number of Gentile converts coming into the church, and increasing hostility from Jews who refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the lines/distinctions became more pronounced over time. Despite what some may say, Christianity does not contradict Judaism -- rather, it completes it.