Any not-so-dedicated Catholics around?

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MariaG said:
I think the reason you do not see more cradle Catholics here is they do not realize the need.
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Or, if I may propose an alternative explanation:

I think the reason you do not see more cradle Catholics here is because we rarely self-identify as such, even when we have questions. Converts are more likely to ask a question, and explain their ignorance with something like “I only joined the Church two years ago last Easter”.

:twocents:
tee
 
anna1978 said:
I don’t consider myself as ‘devout’ and I’m definately not one of those ‘eager RCIA types’ as mentioned above, yes there 's plenty in the Catholic church I don’t yet understand, or I’m not entirely sure I believe…but I’m working on it:blush:

Anna x
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And you’re not alone. 😉
 
water said:
Every single day, I ask God to help me to be prayful and to be a good Christian. As long as I have this prayer in my daily life, I wouldn’t consider myself as a devout Christian (Catholic) yet. 🙂

While considering myself not a devout Catholic, I would not make any of my unbelief to be a chance for others to follow the same path.

It is better to help someone go along the right path than to drag himself with me to his own destruction.

God, help my unbelief.

Am I sounding too weird? 😃
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Not at all. 🙂 Sounds like words of wisdom to me. 😉 Thanks, water! 👍
 
A devout Catholic is one who reverently and obediently follows the teachings of the CC.
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So then I guess I fall into your category of a “not-so-dedicated” Catholic since I need to go to confession on a regular basis. But wait I GO to confession so does that make me a devout Catholic?

See what I mean?

I believe everything the Church teaches is true. But I certainly don’t DO everything the Church tells me to do. I just don’t think I’m justified in doing so. But then if I thought I was justified in defying Church teachings, do I meet the minimum criteria for even being a Catholic?
 
Black_Jaque said:
So then I guess I fall into your category of a “not-so-dedicated” Catholic since I need to go to confession on a regular basis. But wait I GO to confession so does that make me a devout Catholic?
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No, you’re dedicated because you make regular use out of the sacraments when you fall and stay loyal to the church in all her teachings, even if you don’t agree.
It’s really not that complex of a question. At least I didn’t intend it to be. :o
 
Read the post by water again. It’s right on.

We cradle types even take a while to come around sometimes. (I’m speaking of myself guys).

Once you understand the true and deep meanings of the Catholic church’s teachings - the realization hopefully will become known to you and to others who feel that way. It does take prayerful reflection and meditation on the word and a great openness to the truth. Been there - done that - still pray on it - it’s a life long journey - not a destination.

Yes its’ hard sometimes to hear things you don’t want to hear or disagree with. But please remember your disagreement is usually based on a mortal perception in today’s culture and environment which has spent years targeting your brain to think do it the easy way, live by your own rules, go ahead have fun, you are in charge of your own destiny, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

To live by the word, in today’s world, is very challenging and thus the need for constant prayer and guidance and yes forgiveness for those times when we struggle with our earthly focus.

The teachings of the church are not always the popular thing, the fad thing, or the thing your neighbors, friends, or even your family may think or feel about life issues. But you can be sure, they are always the right thing to do. That’s what makes them challenging to follow.

You are not meant to go the road alone. Pray on them, consider them carefully, talk to others who are knowledgeable about the teachings. What you may find is that those who are “not-so-dedicated” are just “no-so-educated” to the reason for the truth.

Its sometimes a difficult road to travel but isn’t salvation and eternal happiness worth the effort? God bless.
 
tee_eff_em said:
Or, if I may propose an alternative explanation:

I think the reason you do not see more cradle Catholics here is because we rarely self-identify as such, even when we have questions. Converts are more likely to ask a question, and explain their ignorance with something like “I only joined the Church two years ago last Easter”.

:twocents:
tee
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I’ll take your two cents! I think they are worth a little more than that!

It is always more comfortable to be able to have an explanation like “I only have come to the Church” more recently. But sometimes I think God really wants us to humble ourselves and just ask the question no matter what.

But I think you have a good point.
 
I’ve never had a problem with accepting Church Teachings.After working all day i couldn’t discipline myself enough to pray and study,in order to form a different opinion from the Church.It is only in recent years that i have begun to do this and the more i question the more convinced i become that the Church is right.I was just determined that i would not disagree with the Church just because something was inconvenient.Someone needed to convince me with a good theological argument that the Church was wrong.
Around the 1970’s,i got into a discussion with a catholic(who did attend Mass)on the subject of contraception.He thought it was not reasonable to expect a man to control his sexual urges when there was a wife sharing the bed.However,a lot of married men would think rather differently if i,as a bachelor,used that excuse in the workplace,"oh,you cannot expect me to control myself when there is a very attractive woman working alongside.The guy i mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph didn’t have a problem with getting drunk either,even though any firefighter will tell you a lot of home fires are started by people being drunk and then dropping a cigarette butt on the carpet or sofa.
Often,one finds people who"think for themselves"when it comes to Church Teachings,yet when it comes to statements made by a political candidate of their preferred political party they blindly accept what is being said.It would be fun to have a political discussion on TV involving less well-known political figures who have not been identified by party affiliation and check out who
"thinks for themselves"in this little exercise.
 
MariaG said:
I just had a converstation with a cradle Catholic who had no idea that there are Christians out there who think we worship Mary and do not consider us to be Christians.

She was absolutely shocked and had no idea.

God Bless,
Maria
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I know what you mean. Recently I led an adult education class on Marian Doctrine. I asked them this. “Did you know that most of the Protestants in the area believe that you ( I pointed to each and every one ) worship Mary?” They were all Cradle Catholics and all were shocked and flabbergasted. I then asked them how many of them had Baptist friends. They all answered yes. Then I went to say that the likely hood that they believe you worship Mary is very high. Nearly everyone denied it. So I gave them some homework. I asked them to ask their closest Baptist friend or co-worker if they believed that Catholics worshipped Mary. Of course I gave them the general warnings that it might entail a loss of a friendship, relationship and etc.

The following week, 27 of 28 reported that their Baptist friends believed they worshipped Mary.

After the disclosure, I said that most of your Baptist friends are probably two-faced hypocrits. They will speak kindly to your face, but once your back is turned they gossip with other Baptists of how you are a Mary Worshipper. The interesting tidbit is that no one challenged me on this statement.

Is this the norm of Baptists?

Is it the norm of Cradle Catholics to wear “Rose Colored” glasses and believe all is well?
 
JoeyWarren said:
I know what you mean. Recently I led an adult education class on Marian Doctrine. I asked them this. “Did you know that most of the Protestants in the area believe that you ( I pointed to each and every one ) worship Mary?” They were all Cradle Catholics and all were shocked and flabbergasted. I then asked them how many of them had Baptist friends. They all answered yes. Then I went to say that the likely hood that they believe you worship Mary is very high. Nearly everyone denied it. So I gave them some homework. I asked them to ask their closest Baptist friend or co-worker if they believed that Catholics worshipped Mary. Of course I gave them the general warnings that it might entail a loss of a friendship, relationship and etc.

The following week, 27 of 28 reported that their Baptist friends believed they worshipped Mary.

After the disclosure, I said that most of your Baptist friends are probably two-faced hypocrits. They will speak kindly to your face, but once your back is turned they gossip with other Baptists of how you are a Mary Worshipper. The interesting tidbit is that no one challenged me on this statement.

Is this the norm of Baptists?

Is it the norm of Cradle Catholics to wear “Rose Colored” glasses and believe all is well?
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Well, I will challenge your statement!:tsktsk: I think you are being a little harsh in your characterization as them being hypocrites. They are trying to witness the love of Christ to someone whom they think is completely lost. And they would not consider it gossip, but arming themselves with knowledge about how best to “reach” Catholics.

I think none of them challenged it because they were feeling betrayed. They thought they had a relationship with a fellow Christian and were sharing Christian fellowship but have come to realize that their friends do not even think they are Christian at all! That is a tough pill to swallow. I know it is probably the single most hurtful thing I have had to deal with as a revert to the Catholic Church, to have friends that no longer believe I am a Christian because I go to the Catholic Church now.

Is it the norm for Baptists? I can’t really speak for all, but can only say in my personal experience, yes, it is the norm.

As for the cradle Catholics, I don’t think they are wearing Rose colored glasses, but I do not think many choose to get into theology discussions and so never realize what other denominations believe or what the other people believe Catholics teach. I think cradle Catholics prefer to show people thier faith by their works like James talks about in scripture.

Which of course makes non-Catholics think Catholics are trying to earn their way to heaven:rolleyes:
 
mrs_abbott said:
I know that there are alot of folks here who are really devout Catholics (and there’s nothing wrong with that, btw 🙂 ) and I admire that.
Don’t know if this is the right place for this or not but I know the mods will move it if it isn’t. 😉
Just didn’t know if there were other Catholics who are having issues with certain aspects of the CC, like maybe not believing completely in the Marian doctrines, or the teaching on contraception, etc. (just to name a few, I know there are others)?
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Around here? You’ve got to be kidding!!!

(yep, there are a few)😉
 
believers said:
You probably won’t catch many (actually millions) of them on a site like this. This place is for the eager RCIA types. The cradles don’t care and don’t know enough to be bothered.
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Um, EXCUSE ME??? We don’t care to be bothered? Why in the world are we here, then???
 
mommyof4 said:
Um, EXCUSE ME??? We don’t care to be bothered? Why in the world are we here, then???
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I don’t know if you realize this but most of the people in here are converts… not cradles. Where do you suppose the cradles are? The fact of the matter is they don’t give it much thought. I’m willing to bet most (and yes, the majority of Catholics) don’t even attend church on a regular basis.
 
believers said:
My point exactly. 59 cradle Catholics out of 1 Billion Catholics in the world.
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Umm, believe it or not, alot of those people do not have access to the internet:eek:

I live in the US. A tourist town. 80% of the school age children do not even own a computer in thier homes.

But I do agree that this seems to be a poor showing for the number of cradle Catholics. Technically, I am a cradle Catholic, but I did not vote that one since I think Revert is more accurate. As well as until it was linked to this thread, I had not seen this poll. Even us junkies have to sleep sometime and don’t actually read every thread;)
 
JoeyWarren said:
I know what you mean. Recently I led an adult education class on Marian Doctrine. I asked them this. “Did you know that most of the Protestants in the area believe that you ( I pointed to each and every one ) worship Mary?” They were all Cradle Catholics and all were shocked and flabbergasted. I then asked them how many of them had Baptist friends. They all answered yes. Then I went to say that the likely hood that they believe you worship Mary is very high. Nearly everyone denied it. So I gave them some homework. I asked them to ask their closest Baptist friend or co-worker if they believed that Catholics worshipped Mary. Of course I gave them the general warnings that it might entail a loss of a friendship, relationship and etc.

The following week, 27 of 28 reported that their Baptist friends believed they worshipped Mary.

After the disclosure, I said that most of your Baptist friends are probably two-faced hypocrits. They will speak kindly to your face, but once your back is turned they gossip with other Baptists of how you are a Mary Worshipper. The interesting tidbit is that no one challenged me on this statement.

Is this the norm of Baptists?

Is it the norm of Cradle Catholics to wear “Rose Colored” glasses and believe all is well?
Click to expand...
I had two close friends as a young adult. One was a Catholic and the other a Baptists. Both knew that I had been brought up nominally Baptists. One day I told my Baptist friend that I was thinking of attending church with my Catholic friend. The Baptist friend freaked out and told me all sorts of crazy things about Catholics. I was surprised and told my Catholic friend what he had said. She refused to believe me!! SHe told me that our friend has always shown respect for her faith and that she did not believe that he would say the things that I heard him say!!😦

I know for a fact that not all Baptists are like this but I came across enough as a nonCatholic to give me pause about some Baptists.
 
Sorry Mrs Abbott,

But you may be dissapointed with this cradle Catholic. I actually trust the Church and all teachings. Go figure, I must be an idiot.

To top it off, I read the bible. Wow. Who would have guessed.:rolleyes:

I hate threads like this.:mad:
 
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