Are there Protestants coming back to the Catholic Church

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Tess said:
Jesus did not bring religion, HE brought a relationship with GOD
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You are correct, and in any relationship there is the active communication from both sides that are non ambiguous, tangible and real . Hence the seven sacraments which can also be found with validity in the Orthodox communion.

Peace!!!
 
We are seeing more conservative ELCA coming home to the LCMS. Also our new pastor was a catholic priest who wanted a family.
 
I recommend a program on EWTN called The Journey Home.
Weekly they is a guest who tells his/her conversion story. Many protestant ministers have come home to the Catholic Church.
It is amazing to me to hear how the Holy Spirit worked in their lives to bring then Home!
 
Fr. Dwight Longnecker recently published this article contains some insights similar to yours. He, too, believes that the Church will become smaller as “cultural” Catholicism dies off, but he believes it will be a positive development in the end.

dwightlongenecker.com

Ireland and the End of Cultural Catholicism | Fr. Dwight Longenecker

The vote to allow abortion in Ireland has revealed what we already knew--that Ireland's Catholic faith has eroded, and the once great and powerful Irish church has become a husk of what it once was. I am no expert on Ireland, Irish history or the Irish church, but I expect the malaise has the...
dwightlongenecker.com dwightlongenecker.com
This is why I would offer the phenomenon of Catholicism in the American South as an interesting model for the future.
In our town of Greenville, South Carolina there is virtually no cultural Catholicism. Yes, there is an Order of Old Hibernians who keep the Irish cultural alive and the Hispanics treasure their cultural links with the faith as do the Vietnamese, but these are minor currents. The majority of Catholics in the Southern USA are Catholics not because they are Irish or Italian or Polish, but because they’re Catholic.
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In my opinion, the death of cultural Catholicism can’t come too soon.

From it will emerge not only a smaller and more vibrant church, but also a church that is truly multi racial and multi national…and surely that’s an important part of what it means to be Catholic.

But to push this further, what is it that will bind us all together? If it is not our shared Irish, Polish, Vietnamese or Hispanic culture–what is it?

Here’s a radical thought: what if the thing the drew us together was a dynamic new appreciation of our shared Catholic culture?
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I went to a catholic church near where I study and one of the priests was formally Anglican. I could still be married to his wife compared to other Catholic priest who would live a more clearer focus on celibacy.
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
The Church Militant is, I believe, experiencing a purification. I think it highly likely it will get smaller. I feel impressed often to pray for Catholics to embrace with humility the reality of a Church with reduced worldly influence and coming to grips with the secular age. It is going to be very hard at times.
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And what do you think will happen with the millions of people who have been baptized in the RCC? They are counted in the numbers of worldwide Catholics and are assumed to be part of the Church. Do you think the Church will continue to count them as members?

I am curious about this. The worldwide RCC claims 1.2 billion members. Can you do that and dismiss a goodly portion of them because the Church is being ‘purified’?
 
The call to be a husband and father as well as a minister lead him to convert.
 
Dhc8_Type said:
The call to be a husband and father as well as a minister lead him to convert.
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So, I’m assuming his call to be a ministerial priest of Jesus Christ to the Church founded by Christ Himself, was not as authentic as his ‘call’ to be a biological father and earthly spouse, yes?
 
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Are you asking about what I think about general church policy? As far as I’m aware, ‘the church’ numbers all the baptized as Catholic.
I’m not dismissing anyone. I’m suggesting that as time goes by there will perhaps be less Catholics to number because a lot of people will simply walk away because they don’t believe. I’m not especially happy about that, but that’s the way things are trending.
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
Are you asking about what I think about general church policy? As far as I’m aware, ‘the church’ numbers all the baptized as Catholic.
I’m not dismissing anyone. I’m suggesting that as time goes by there will perhaps be less Catholics to number because a lot of people will simply walk away because they don’t believe. I’m not especially happy about that, but that’s the way things are trending.
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But Joy, most Catholics are baptized as infants. There may be less who have parents who make that choice, but the intentional walking away comes significantly after that initiating sacrament.

Those who walk away are no less Catholic than those who go to Mass each week. At least, so the Church says.
 
According to CARA, about 22% to 25% attend Mass weekly. No idea where you got your stats, but they are incorrect.
 
I don’t know how anyone could question the authenticity of either his marriage or his priesthood.

The Catholic Church has had married clergy for 2,000 years. The Roman rite had both married and celibate clergy for about 1,000 years, and now again has both. There is no contradiction whatsoever with a man being both married and a priest.
 
I’m not really sure what you’re expecting me to concede here. I’m aware that the definition of a Catholic is a baptized member and that most Catholics are baptized as babies. The fact that they walk away in their droves is hardly going to make the Church stronger, is it? And if they don’t baptise the children they have then clearly numerically the Church will shrink.
 
otjm said:
According to CARA, about 22% to 25% attend Mass weekly. No idea where you got your stats, but they are incorrect.
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It’s early here, so maybe I’m misunderstanding or confusing myself, but your stats don’t invalidate what @ComplineSanFran said. Your stats indicate 22-25% attend weekly. That leaves 75-78% who don’t which leaves plenty of room where it could be plausible for 20% to be “CEO” Catholics.
 
otjm said:
I don’t know how anyone could question the authenticity of either his marriage or his priesthood.

The Catholic Church has had married clergy for 2,000 years. The Roman rite had both married and celibate clergy for about 1,000 years, and now again has both. There is no contradiction whatsoever with a man being both married and a priest.
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Yeah…what does that have to do with leaving the ministerial priesthood of Jesus Christ to become a Protestant pastor with a wife and kids?
 
ComplineSanFran quoted "only 20% of those who were baptized Catholic attend Mass even once or twice a year. "

It is weekly, not “eveonce or twice a year”.
 
OK, I follow where you’re coming from.

I still don’t really read it that way (as it makes no sense), but I do understand where you’re coming from.
 
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