It's a Duck, it's Quacking

Anyone who's ever done their homework on the subject knows that Christianity is basically plagiarized from a lot of other religions--including the pagan beliefs that preceded it. It's no coincidence that Easter tends to coincide with the spring equinox and Christmas falls close to the winter solstice--both important symbolic events in a lot of long-dead polytheist faiths--and both holidays incorporate symbols and practices, like eggs and rabbits and evergreen trees, that had significant meaning to another religion. The pagan roots are evident in more or less every permutation of Christianity but it's most obvious in Catholicism.

Catholicism predates other denominations, so it was the one that the 'heathens' were first exposed to. The first Catholics from Celtic and Germanic and Norse tribes were converts from various flavours of paganism--because old habits die hard, they didn't entire drop everything associated with their former belief. (Even Emperor Constantine, after he converted to Christianity, routinely made sacrifices to Ares and Apollo.) Because of that, and possibly also because the church itself was trying to make itself seem appealing to pagans, a lot of practices and rituals persisted despite having nothing to do with Christianity at all--they were rooted in pagan beliefs.

But all Christian denominations view Christmas and Easter with reverence and embrace the pagan symbols they've absorbed. What makes Catholicism stand out as being clearly based on paganism is the fact that it is itself essentially paganism.

Think about it.

On paper there is only one god, but Catholics revere the Holy Trinity of father and son and holy spirit. They are on the same level. They are all gods. Look at the way Catholics in particular worship the Virgin Mary. What is she but a goddess?

Look at the saints. The saints are demigods. Like the gods of Greek mythology, the saints are cast as the protectors or stewards of specific things--of war, of learning, of travel, of childbirth. The list goes on and on. Even today, when some Catholics want to, say, pray for a safe journey when they're about to go on a trip, they pray not to their head honcho god but to Saint Christopher.

What is that but paganism?

Catholics really hate it when you point that out.