Advice to a protestant that is thinking of converting

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I am a protestant who is thinking of converting to Catholicism. I currently have no doctrinal problems with the Catholicism. As a background, I have went to a private catholic school since kindergarten all the way to high school. I always joined the mass when our school had went which was every week at Friday, and I do understand the beauty of catholic traditions, at it seems to me the mass invoke a sense of numinous experience that I cannot find in protestant service. I even joined in on the rosary and novena prayers when it was exam time, and even now in medical school I would pray the novena during exam time. And even back during my final high school years I had gravitated more in terms of teaching to Catholicism, I find Sola Scriptura to be a self defeating position, after all the bible that the protestant picked as the sole and ultimate source of God’s teaching is by itself compiled by the church, I think that works is the natural conclusion that follow faith to such that I believed that if you don’t feel the desire to do good works you should question whether you truly have the transformative faith described in the bible or mere intellectual faith which put me closer to the catholic doctrine of salvation than the protestant.

With all of this, then why am I not a Catholic? It has to do with my experience with my catholic friends back at school. I do realize that we must separate the official teaching and doctrines with how it was being practice. For instance I do realize that Catholic does not worship Mary nor is she higher than Jesus, I do realize that Papal Infallibility only works for in office and it does not extend to everything the Pope says. In practice however I found that many of my catholic friends appears to have an extensive respect toward Mary that is not found in their attitude to Jesus, it is hard for example when I enter the chapel in my school complex that the much more candles are lit in front of the statue of Mary than Jesus and so many more pray at the feet of Mary’s statue compared to Jesus. I found that the infallibility extended to the Pope and even general clergies appears to me borderline on blind trust on everything they said. I also noticed that the drive of my Catholic friends to read the bible is nowhere close to my protestant friends, and even to the drive to learn about the Catholic faith, I had a conversation once with my catholic friend in which somehow I could recite more church documents than she could.

Again, I understand that these are not representative of the Catholic Church teachings or doctrines, but it seems to me that these behaviors (maybe due to my protestant upbringing) are hardly proper. I am not here to criticize or demonize any of my Catholic Friends, but it just appears to me that there were no one within my school nor the church complex in which my high school is located either the teachers or the sisters that managed the school or the fathers during homili rebuke or even address this issue and behaviors, and my fear is that once I converted I too will ended up in these sort of practice, which I don’t want to
 
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Well I’ll tell you a story. I was in the Catholic Church once which has a statue of Jesus and Mary. So once being Protestant myself, I start walking straight to the statue of Jesus. All of a sudden it dawned on me that it is kind of disrespectful to Him to not pay my respects to His mother whom he Loves.

All of a sudden I have this dilemma in my conscious because ultimately I don’t want to disrespect my Lord Jesus by failing to respect His mother. So I decided to pay a quick visit to the statue of Mary and immediately as she came into view she pointed me right back to her Son.

I realized this in that moment. Mary is not going to lead me away from her beloved Son and consequently she is not going to lead me away from my Lord. After that I calmed way down about the Marian dogmas.

As for your concern regarding the behavior of other Catholics, hey brother we’re not perfect but that’s okay because our Lord is.

God bless!
 
Thanks, for the reply. I don’t have trouble with respect towards Mary, it just seems to me that the same amount of respect is not given to Jesus. And yes, I know that no one is perfect it’s just appears to me that this seems a common trend from what I see
 
A lot of cradle Catholics don’t have a clear understanding of what the Marian dogmas as well as the dogma of papal infallibility mean. Priests would be the exception. 1: because they have an education and 2: because they generally went about getting to knowtheir faith. That’s more than the Church dares ask of any Catholic today it seems. As a convert, I often find myself at the “traditional” side of things. All the things you describe above say to me you are more Catholic than most… I’d recommend talking to a Catholic priest. He will not only be able to explain what your Catholic school friends couldn’t, but he’ll also be more than happy to help you along your way to the Church Jesus founded.
 
OP, I don’t know who “your Catholic friends” are, but I am in late middle age and I hang out at a Newman Center where a lot of the attendees are college students and all the ministry functions are done by college students. I hang out there because it is close to my house and it is open late on most weekdays whereas the area parishes are all done with services by 11 am and often locked, unless there’s a funeral or a scheduled prayer group.

The students all read Scripture and they have a regular Bible study. They seem reasonably interested in learning new things about their faith too. They have Adoration every week for a 24 hour period that involves adoring and worshipping Jesus in the Eucharist, including a whole hour of songs about Jesus, of which I bet most of them were written by Protestants. I don’t have anything against that but my point is these aren’t Marian hymns. By contrast there is relatively little focus on the Rosary.

The local parishes all have daily Rosary and daily Divine Mercy (which is a Jesus/ God centered prayer chaplet) and there are a lot of older people there who also read Scripture, tote around copies of Magnificat magazine (which is full of Scripture as it contains the Office prayers). I am also aware of many people who have a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which is a traditional Jesus devotion.

I guess my point here is that if you are looking at the habit of one group of friends you happened to know in school, you’re not seeing all the Catholics out there. And if you choose to focus on having an issue with Mary instead of actually looking to see the ways in which Catholics are honoring Jesus and reading their Bibles, then you’ll see what you want to see, which again won’t be the whole picture of what’s going on. Furthermore, even among people who say the Rosary, it is constantly being emphasized that the Rosary is a Jesus-centric prayer. I just was reading a popular Rosary meditations book called “The Contemplative Rosary” which is based on the teachings of St. Pope JPII and it makes a major point of this and describes ways the Pope suggested to focus on Jesus’ life while you pray.

So, it’s your choice whether you want to look for ways in which Catholics are devoted to Jesus or just decide there aren’t any because you saw candles in front of Mary on the day you arrived at one particular church. I hope you went and lit a candle or two to Jesus to even it out, that’s what I do when I see one shrine does not have enough candles, whether it’s Jesus (it’s usually not Jesus) or some more obscure saint (because St. Therese always has tons of them but maybe nobody was thinking of St. John Neumann).
 
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You need to study Catholicism, not just as a religion, but as a culture. It’s an entirely different worldview from Protestantism or the Eastern Orthodox. Ask Jesus to help you discern where you will best serve him. I converted many years ago. I didn’t study or appreciate Catholicism as a culture and worldview. That was unwise. Make it your mission to study the cathechism and Canon Law thoroughly before converting.
 
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Welcome! First, the Mass essentially is Christ. He is made present to us. It is Christ-centered - He being the source and summit of our faith. Ponder those two words for a time.

Do some people take certain devotions too far? Or appear to? Of course. Pay no attention to the exceptions - examine the rule!

Get a catechism and go spend time in Christ’s true presence at adoration. Allow the Holy spirit to convict your heart. And, as you contemplate Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and when you are made aware that He is there, you will be changed.

Tolerate fellow Catholics, even love them if you are able, but focus like a laser on Christ.
 
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Hi,
First welcome to these forums, and I’m glad to hear you’re interested in Catholicism. I myself went through RCIA as an adult. I’m not a convert, I’m what they call a revert- I was baptized as an infant, but my parents never got me Confirmed, and we weren’t particularly devout. I came to the Church my sophomore year of college.

Have you ever prayed a Rosary? I have to tell you, I actually had a hard time with the Rosary. I thought “maybe I don’t have to do this, maybe its not my cup of tea”. Now, I find myself praying Hail Marys for just about anything. Its my go-to form of praying throughout the day, not when I’m sitting down or in a Church or something.

At the end of the day, we are Christians. Our private prayer is going to sound like “Lord I need help with this. Lord thank you for this blessing.” Not “Mary I need help, Mary thank you for this”. Every bit of Marian devotion leads to Jesus, points to Jesus. It never stops at Mary. Mary is important, but she is only important because she is the Mother of God, which is quite important. But, at the end of the day, Mary is ONLY important because of Jesus. Really same can be said with St. Joseph or really any of the saints, or any of us. “This person is a saint because they had great faith in God. They were an example Christian, we want to follow Christ in a similar way that they did”.

About Catholics and the Bible, St. Jerome said, “He who is ignorant of Scripture is ignorant of Christ”. St. Jerome was a Bible scholar and was actually important in the early translations of the Bible into Latin.

I would be praying about this. Spend some time on these forums. But honestly, it sounds like you would benefit from going to RCIA. You can attend RCIA for years and never convert. They’re just classes which instruct about the faith.
 
Converting wouldn’t make you adopt practices that you feel are flawed. A few points that I’d like to raise are:

The Church has authority to direct the faithful and the clergy. Some things are food for thought and guidance, while other things are required belief or required practice. All things said don’t amount to infallibility, yet you shouldn’t automatically reject what is said… many things, if you look into them more deeply, and contemplate them in line with our beliefs, make more sense.

Regarding Catholics and bible reading… yes, it’s true that protestant’s often know their bible verses better, yet Catholics… at least the practicing ones, do generally know it… they just don’t know where to find it in the bible.

As to Mary, you needn’t be guarded about her… Consider what Christ said ‘to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And the disciple to her to his home.’
 
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I just wanted to add, that recently I went inside a Protestant Mega-Church. Idk what your background is, and I’ve been to plenty of Protestant Churches when I was younger. But, having not been in a while, it was striking that there were about 30 or 40 people there, but in the hallways (which were large and they had a coffee shop). But I wanted to pray, so I went in the main worship space, and was in there for like 30 or 40 minutes. No one else ever came in the whole time.

Its just a different culture. They’re still Christians. But, they don’t kneel and pray in silence. Their Church had very hard floors. You wouldn’t kneel in there if you wanted to. Not saying that all Protestants don’t do that. But, it was striking. So maybe reflect on that fact, that you’re going into the Church and seeing people praying at all.
 
First of all, I’m really thankful to all of the replies

To make a few things clearer, I don’t have a particular problem with the rosary, I have participated in a rosary prayer, I have my own rosary even and I do pray the rosary even now. My main point was that I felt that the same or even higher degree of reverence was not attributed to God in practice. I understand that the official teaching is that Mary is not God nor should she be revered above God, this is I suppose why even on the rosary you have prayers like the fatima prayer which basically is a prayer to Jesus, I’m just saying that in practice there seems to be a discrepancy.

Two, I admit that it was unfair of me to use a small sample to make a generalization. My point is, the catholic church as a whole seems to me to be in this environment where it unintentionally propagate these practices. For instance that while I don’t think appeal to traditions and authority are wrong necessarily, but within the church I imagine that it would be very easy to leave doctrinal or theological things to the clergy and I imagine that if I was in this situation long enough I would probably do it too, and this is what I am afraid of, and it was somewhat substantiated by my experience. Again there is a huge possibility that this is due to my culture as protestant like what many have posted above, and that is why I posted this thread, to get more perspective and to that I am thankful to all of you

Someone mentioned the eucharist, while this is the typical dividing point between protestant and catholic, I don’t personally have problem with the transubstantiation. I used too, but I had looked into the miracles of the eucharist and while I still think some are flimsy, you get to miracles like the Lanciano miracle and it seems to me that the transubstantiation is not only possible but quite real
 
What I would say to you is that if you are considering becoming a Catholic you need to stop focusing on the things that you are, which are externalities. Whether you find the Mass beautiful or not is of importance, but only secondary importance. The piety and devotions of others should not be of primary concern to you. Your first concern should be for the salvation of your own soul.

If you know, understand and accept those things taught by the Catholic Church the question has to be what are you waiting for? You should arrange to be received into the Church. If you do not accept what the Catholic Church teaches then Catholicism is not for you or you need to continue with your discernment.

Do not concern yourself with how many votive candles burn before statues of our Lord and our Lady. Instead, ask yourself can, and do I, believe the Faith taught by the Catholic Church
 
DMSP said:
My point is, the catholic church as a whole seems to me to be in this environment where it unintentionally propagate these practices. For instance that while I don’t think appeal to traditions and authority are wrong necessarily, but within the church I imagine that it would be very easy to leave doctrinal or theological things to the clergy and I imagine that if I was in this situation long enough I would probably do it too,
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I’m not sure how someone who is reading this forum could come to that conclusion. Sure, there are Catholics who just leave it to the clergy, there are Catholics who only go to church once a year, and Catholics who do all sorts of practices that don’t lend themselves to building a strong relationship with Jesus. Some of these Catholics will later grow more in their faith and some won’t. With billions of people in the Church you will see all kinds.

But on this forum you are seeing another subset of Catholics who are engaged with their faith, make an effort to understand what the Church teaches, and often question some non-dogmatic teaching of the Church. Many if not most Church teachings are non-dogmatic, and the few that are dogmatic are likely to be accepted by Catholics because they make sense from a natural law moral standpoint (Thou shalt not steal, Honor your parents etc) or they make sense in view of Scripture and tradition (the Trinity, the Holy Eucharist etc).

Being a Catholic does not mean you become a brain-dead sheep after X number of years in the Church. You can choose to become that or you can choose to find some way to actively live your faith. I would also note that not everyone feels called to become a deep thinker on faith matters and some of them are more focused on raising a family, helping the poor and oppressed, or some other practical task and that’s just fine too. It doesn’t mean they’re stupid.

Many of us actually become MORE, not less, engaged in the Church as we get older and face actual life challenges like illness of ourselves or loved ones, death of loved ones, other life accidents or disasters. Your friends may fall in this group who haven’t yet experienced enough life to really get in deep with Jesus. But making a decision about your own faith based on how your friends act is not mature. If I did that, I’d either be an agnostic or I’d be a non-practicing lukewarm Catholic.

I also think pretty much EVERY religion that’s been around longer than a few years is drawing on tradition. People like to be connected with those they perceive as holy people who went before. I don’t see many people saying, Okay, let’s throw out the Bible and all past Christianity and come up with a new, totally different approach ourselves.
 
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I understand what you are getting at. I am a convert from a mainline protestant denomination. While attending Mass that first year while in RCIA I would watch how others were in church as a way of learning, what to do to fit in sort of thing. Once I actually was confirmed and became a practicing Catholic I started to see a little of what you saw while in school. I mean I was on fire and I just didn’t understand why all these people weren’t.

Years down the road now I see it more clearly, those who will move mountains to honor the Blessed Mother but receive our Lord in the Eucharist in a no big deal kind a way. Or they attend Mass every week because they know they have to but have very little knowledge of why.

There was a long period of time when catechesis was done poorly within the Church, therefore we have generations who do not really know their faith well unless they have made an effort to learn it. There seems to be a turn happening with catechesis, doing a better job with young people and thus turning out more informed Catholics. At least the effort is there.

The one thing I have learned is I am Catholic because the Catholic Church is the Truth. I remain Catholic because she is the truth. I will practice my faith in the way I know to be correct and I will continue to learn as much as I can about this amazing faith I belong to.

If you believe the Church to be Truth, join the Church. You will find all kinds of Catholics where ever you go. Welcome home!
 
My mother always said converts make the best Catholics. Usually it’s because they had to make the effort to change from whatever they were before, decide to convert, learn about the faith and then learn all the practices largely on their own. Often they have to deal with family members or friends who disapprove of their choice or think they’re a bit barmy to bother. Nobody is going to go through that if they aren’t “on fire” as Horton said.

A lot of cradle Catholics on the other hand just take it for granted. They might catch fire down the road and they might not.
 
I would highly recommend talking to a Catholic priest, I think it will help. You really have to look at the bigger picture because looking at your one group of friends does not really do much good. I know many Catholics who have interest in reading the bible. RCIA classes also might help you learn more about the faith. Good luck and God bless you!
 
DMSP, I converted 6 years ago at the ripe old age of 65. I was an active Protestant with an early background in Christian Science (heretical, I know) and due to many moves, I was a member of several mainstream Protestant denominations. I also had Catholic catechesis when 19 while experiencing a spiritual crisis. Every Protestant convert has trouble with Marian devotion, as well as, Papal infallibility. Protestants also have trouble with angels. It is a journey we take and like any journey there are portions we like, some we dislike, and some that seem to make no sense. A very wise priest told me that it is okay to question as long as we accept the doctrine. The greatest minds in Catholicism sought answers and were rewarded for their efforts. It appears that you worry too much about what others may or may not be doing.

I understand fully, as all converts do, the confusion felt when watching what we perceive as a singular devotion to the Mother of our Lord Jesus. A friend told me that she knows Mary has a solitary purpose–that of bringing us, her children, into right relation with Jesus. Like any child, we run to mom when we scrape our knees or have hearts bursting with sorrow. We go to a big brother or dad when we need something fixed. Moms kiss way more booboos than dads fix broken objects.

That being said, I will relate what I have come to discover on my pilgrimage in this world and the journey homeward. We will never find the perfect church because we are an imperfect world that succumbs to the lies of the devil. Each of us much encourage and challenge each other to learn more about the depths of our heritage as Christians.

Do not be afraid to show love and devotion to Mary. You can never love her more than Jesus loves her. Learn from those devoted to Mary and share with them your love of Jesus.

As for Scripture… Catholics hear more Scripture in Mass than any Protestant congregation. Protestants have the corner on Bible studies and study groups. However, there are more and more groups being developed in Catholic congregations. My own parish has a Bible timeline study that is run twice a year for three years now and is full every session. There are two more adult Bible study classes, there are three men’s groups and a newly formed women’s group.

Of course, the area of the country where you live can be a obstacle in finding a vibrant seeking parish but you are not mandated as to what parish you choose to join so explore, settle in and seek a spiritual director. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it is a priestly duty and there is no charge for it! You won’t find that in the Protestant tradition. Talk to others about forming groups. Take a look at Bishop Barron’s Catholicism series, check Scott Hahn and Matthew Leonard both of whom are converts.

I strongly urge you to attend RCIA, even though you’ve been schooled, and finish your journey home. Worry about you and pray for everyone else.
Joyfully in Christ!
 
You’ve had a lot of great responses, and I’ve given you some lengthy ones as well. So, I’ll try to be brief. I was just relating to you my experience with the Rosary and with Marian devotion. As someone not raised very strongly in the faith, I didn’t grow up with a Bible or a Rosary. As a kid, we went to Mass sometimes, that was about it.

So, I’d encourage you to keep asking questions. It sounds like you already know a lot about the faith. I can say with full confidence, that you can enter the Church and just pray to Jesus 100% and not do any Marian devotion. But, I think over time, the more you learn about it, you’ll probably pick up a level of Marian devotion. I think any good Catholic has some level of devotion to Our Lady. Like the Eucharistic miracles you mention, much of Marian devotion comes from Apparitions. Fatima, being one of the biggest approved apparitions that happened most recently.

In Fatima in 1917, Our Lady lamented at how little Catholics prayed the Rosary. She asked the children to devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to pray “the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war”. It happened during WWI.
I’m not sure how much Fatima is responsible for the amount that Catholics pray the Rosary these days, and have strong Marian devotions, but it is certainly a reason to do so. Our Lady of Fatima asked the children several times to pray the Rosary daily.

Here’s a list of all the approved Marian Apparitions. I didn’t know there were 16 myself. The 3 biggest ones are Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima. I’d research all of those.

http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/vatican.html
 
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Um, there aren’t 17 Vatican-approved Marian apparitions. There are only 16. Matt Slick is not Catholic, CARM is an anti-Catholic site - it’s best to avoid linking it here - and Matt made an error because he included Champion, Wisconsin (Our Lady of Good Help) in a list of Vatican-approved Marian apparitions. I don’t think he understands the difference between a bishop-approved apparition and a Vatican-approved apparition.

As far as I know, Champion, Wisconsin “Our Lady of Good Help” is only bishop-approved, not Vatican approved. It’s still approved, as the local bishop normally has the right to approve apparitions in his diocese, but the Vatican only endorses a small subset of bishop-approved apparitions, and Champion, Wisconsin doesn’t make the cut.

A much better source for Marian apparitions and the like is MiracleHunter.com which I believe is run by actual Catholics who understand what they’re writing about. Here is the Vatican-approved list from that website.

http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/vatican.html

For the benefit of the OP, I would also add that Catholics are NOT required to believe in Marian apparitions, even the ones that are endorsed by the Vatican, and there are a goodly number of Catholics who don’t believe in them and/or don’t think it’s healthy for Catholics to focus on them.
 
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I was unaware of that site entirely. Unfortunately, it was the second result for “approved Marian apparitions”, right under Wikipedia. Yes, I did kind of raise my eyebrow when I read the Wisconsin one being on there. I would think maybe I would’ve heard that.

Wow, that site is quite ridiculous. I’ll change my link to yours…

Yes, the OP isn’t required to focus on Marian apparitions, or even the Rosary. I think, over time, as a Catholic, one will eventually discover these things. So, all in good time. I myself would’ve had absolutely 0 Marian devotion only like 8 years ago. And now have a pretty strong one. Although, as St. Maximillian Kolbe said, “Never be afraid of loving Mary too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.”
 
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