Becoming Catholic? Called a church

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So after long bouts with athiesm and the help of CA live and apologetics etc… I am coming back to faith not 100% sure which denomination but was considering catholic the most. I finally called the church office or whatever I found on google. The person on the phone didn’t seem too thrilled, they sounded bored or bothered or maybe i misunderstood but i did ask about coming to church and what would I have to do etc… Dunno. I figured they would be more excited… Maybe I got spoiled by Catholic Answers? Lol…
 
Well, whatever they feel like, it’s great news!
Hope you stay for the long haul and welcome home.
 
Don’t let a boorish secretary scare you away from the Church. I’m sure you’ll meet plenty of Catholics who don’t live up to the standard set by the Church. We all struggle. But call back and ask if you could join RCIA. Or just directly ask for the priest. He should be able to help.

Good Luck!
 
Not every parish is staffed with professionals, sad but true. Ours is 🙂

You might do some digging on the parish website, get the name of the Faith Formation director or the Dir of Religious Ed and contact them.
 
Catholic Parish offices are OFTEN staffed by unpaid volunteers; who are “naturally” overworked.

Don’t let this throw you

It IS GOD the Holy Spirit who is working within you to bring you HOME [to His Home]

My friend their IS a price to pay for ALL Good things; you’re Salvation next to God TOPS that list so do what- ever is necessary.

The NORMAL Path to entry into the RCC is through a program in initiation called RCIA [Rites of initiation for Adults] which runs from Sept until Easter as the NORM. so call and ask for the RCIA coordinator OR the Pastor reguarding RCIA [it might be too late for this year; but that is the Pastors call]

If you are a returning Catholic ALL that is NECESSARY is to make a GOOD Confession; call and get confession times or CALL and make an appointment with the Pastor to do so.

In the meantime you’ll be in MY daily thoughts and prayers

Patrick
 
Welcome Home! don’t worry about it too much but wait patiently,because Jesus established the Catholic Church in Mat 16:16-18.If people are hostile doesn’t matter.its between you and Jesus.God Bless

Revelation 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
 
You can go to mass whenever you want. You don’t need to join to do that. So feel free to go.

The one thing you shouldn’t do is receive communion until after your situation is sorted. Do you mind expanding on your situation? Were you baptized Catholic? And if so, how far did you go? (For example, have you already done the sacrament of penance and received first communion in the Catholic Church?)
 
It’s possible they misunderstood what it was you were asking for. What you need to do is get in touch with whoever is in charge of RCIA classes and find out when and how to get into the program. In the meantime you can certainly attend Mass. Sit next to somebody friendly-looking and let them know you haven’t been to Mass before (I’m assuming you are not Catholic… if you’ve been to Mass before you will probably be able to follow along with what you remember, or let somebody know it’s been a while). I’m sure many members of your local parish would be happy to welcome you back and help you out.

The main thing of course is not to receive the Eucharist (communion) until after you’ve received Reconciliation (confession), which if you’ve never been Catholic before you’ll need to go through RCIA first before that can happen. If you were Catholic before, and have already had your first sacraments, then your first priority should be to receive Reconciliation as soon as possible, and then you can participate fully in Mass.

If you would explain your situation in a little more detail here we can help you out better.
 
What everybody else said. The people who work in the offices of Catholic parishes are often volunteers, and sometimes even if paid they are not exactly up to the level of great customer service. Please don’t let their lack of understanding and/or enthusiasm put you off.

What you need to find are the RCIA classes. See if you can reach out to a priest directly rather than just someone in the office. The priest should be best able to point the way to the classes, which may or may not be held at the parish where you are inquiring.

Good luck and a sincere and enthusiastic Thanks from me for your interest in Catholicism!
 
There are certain other denominations who have raised the enthusiasm bar, if you told a Jehovahs witness you were thinking of joining then you’d get 20 of them round your house before you could make a cup of tea. Unfortunately the theology they could offer you afterwards is well… lacking. Once you get past the Catholics then Catholicism won’t disappoint you.
 
Well there are 1.2 billion of us so obviously there’s a distribution of quality. I’ll be writing a thread soon-ish on personality types that do and don’t mix well with Catholicism.
 
Great advice above, and a wonderful, warm welcome to the OP to the amazing Catholic Church! I’m so happy to hear you’re finding your way to the Church and the Real Presence of our dear and merciful Lord. May God bless you each and every day on the journey!
 
WELCOME HOME!!!

I’m sorry to hear this happened. But don’t let it bother you, that’s not the reason you are joining the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

If you are a regular listener to CA Live I’m sure you might remember some remarks that is often made by Tim Staples.
The Church is a hospital for sinners not a museum of saints. People are at different stages in their faith journey which means you should see different levels of spirituality within the members of every Church. If everyone in the Church is excited that you are there then what you are seeing is not real.
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I can’t remember it word for word, but it went something like that.

God Bless
 
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It’s not just some unpaid volunteer. The Church really doesn’t have it’s act together for faith formation. I have a friend who was raised Anglican. He went to convert to Catholicism and they made it as hard as they could on him. It took months. He was joking to me that he knew more about the Bible and Church teaching than the RCIA instructors did, because it was drilled into them as Anglicans, not only what that faith believed, but how it differed from Catholicism.
 
jfz178 said:
It’s not just some unpaid volunteer. The Church really doesn’t have it’s act together for faith formation. I have a friend who was raised Anglican. He went to convert to Catholicism and they made it as hard as they could on him. It took months. He was joking to me that he knew more about the Bible and Church teaching than the RCIA instructors did, because it was drilled into them as Anglicans, not only what that faith believed, but how it differed from Catholicism.
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Sure this might have happened in his local Church and that local Pastor doesn’t do it any other way. But I don’t think it’s fair to take your friends experience and apply it to the entire Catholic Church.

Dr. Andres said he went to his local parish had a discussion with the Priest, told him he read, cover to cover, and understood the Catechism. Then asked how he should proceed. The priest said if you understand everything in the Catechism you seem to already know everything we would teach you, how about we set up a couple one hour meetings and we can bring you in the Church next month at Easter.

Tim Staples said he had a similar experience, but declined the offer. He felt even though it would be redundant to him, going through RCIA would better make him a more involved member of the Church community he was joining.

Some Priest might not have their act together but the Church does. They take conversion very seriously. They want to make sure you understand what the Church founded by Christ believes and not just what your Anglican teachers told you she believes. If your friend already read and understood the Catechism cover to cover he should have discussed this with the priest.

Maybe the Priest would have knocked some time off his sentence. 😉
 
MT1926 said:
If your friend already read and understood the Catechism cover to cover he should have discussed this with the priest.

Maybe the Priest would have knocked some time off his sentence.
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He did and the priest didn’t.
 
Sorry to hear that.

But it still sounds like this was the Priest’s decision, not the entire Catholic Church. So I still stand that placing blame on the entire Church is uncalled for.

God bless
 
Your parish maybe, other parishes have their act together.

If you call our parish asking this sort of question, you will be sent to me. I will drop everything and talk for as long as you want. I will ask a little about your faith journey, introduce myself, offer to meet you for Mass (if it is a man calling, I will ask him if he’d rather me have a man meet him and have a list of volunteers who are thrilled to take a newbie or returning Catholic to Mass). After we talk a bit it helps me suggest various groups or classes that might fit, I will get you registered for Formed and suggest a few things to watch/read there.
 
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