Almighty God and Creator, You are the Father of all people on the earth. Guide, I pray, all the nations and their leaders in the ways of justice and peace. Protect us from the evils of injustice, prejudice, exploitation, conflict and war. Help us to put away mistrust, bitterness and hatred. Teach us to cease the storing and using of implements of war. Lead us to find peace, respect and freedom. Unite us in the making and sharing of tools of peace against ignorance, poverty, disease and oppression. Grant that we may grow in harmony and friendship as brothers and sisters created in Your image, to Your honor and praise. Amen.

Catholicism is a form of Christianity. In fact, it predates Protestantism (which is usually what people mean by "Christianity" in this formulation) by over a millennium.

But this particular thing isn’t a “debate” in any sense, even by secular historians of religion — this is just an objective fact. Catholics (and all the forms of Orthodox) are not just Christians but the fucking OG Christians!! Where does the first 1500 years of Western Christianity go if you just outright deny this? That’s how basic this is.

Catholicism is a form of Christianity. In fact, it predates Protestantism (which is usually what people mean by "Christianity" in this formulation) by over a millennium.

“I’m the Public Universal Friend.”

“What gender are you?”

“Christian.”

“Yeah, but what’s in your pants?”

Notably though, the situation with Mary is a little more complicated (and imho funnier). Mary did not receive the “be not afraid” as a greeting or react merely to the presence of an angel with fear. We’re told that after the angel shows up to her and says “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” Mary was “greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her heart what sort of greeting this might be.” That’s when the angel tells her be not afraid. Basically, this strange man showed up at her house and instead of a normal hello he said something weird as hell to her, and she went on guard understandably, and then the angel realized how he came off and told her hey it’s okay you’ve found favor with god I’m here to tell you you’ve won the divine messiah baby lottery.

Aside from that 100% this post, the “biblically accurate angel” people refer to is a certain depiction of the “wheel” cherubim referenced in Ezekiel, spinning wheels within wheels covered in eyes with wings. Iirc there’s also references to human hands and a weird combo of faces in some verses. The others are traditionally understood to be/depicted as just dudes, with the exception of the six-winged seraphim (I believe that’s what they’re called) in Isaiah. The angel Raphael in the book of Tobit literally is thought of to be just a regular guy until he reveals himself as an angel and even then I don’t think his appearance changes much, maybe he gets a radiance but I forget now.

Kodachrome by Thomas Nebbia.

A two-page spread from “Where Jesus Walked,” National Geographic, December, 1967.