L
leastofthese
Guest
I just want to begin this post by asking that anyone who chooses to respond please be charitable in your responses. I am an adult and do not need to be mollycoddled, but I must be clear, I will not respond to rude posts. So if you feel the need to be rude go ahead, but know that once I start reading rude remarks in a post I will stop reading and move on to the next response. With all that said I know that the vast majority of people on CAF are very wonderful, kind, and thoughtful people and so hopefully this will not be an issue. Also,* I would like to hear from both Catholics and Anglicans *if possible. 
To help clarify the situation, I was baptized into the Catholic Church shortly after I was born. My family is Catholic on both sides. I received First Communion and Confirmation at the typical ages. Unfortunately, my mother was not very devout when I was young (and my father is a deadbeat). So my faith formation largely became the responsibility of the lay folks who worked in the Church’s Sunday school program. However, these people (however well-intentioned) were far too young and far too uninformed about their faith. At 12 years old I remember asking them pretty standard questions and either stumping them or inadvertantly making them so angry with me that I eventually stopped going to Sunday school and to church altogether.
For roughly a decade I was estranged from the Church. I never stopped believing in God or in the basic tenants of Christianity. At one point during adolescence I even tried to go back to the Church, only to be met by hostile priests who were too busy to help educate me in the faith. So I became for a time quite anti-Catholic. I bashed the Church regularly and was quite scandalized by the many uneducated “Cultural Catholics” I came across. Here I was estranged from the Church and yet I knew more about the faith than many professed believers.
But then God came to me in a million sublte ways and gently brought me back to the Church. I was amazed by the witness of people like Blessed Mother Teresa and my love for the Blessed Virgin Mary also helped guide me back. I found that my previous “spirituality” was shallow and false. I was very fortunate that at the time I found a very welcoming parish with a wonderful priest, deacon, and one lay person in particular who was also quite helpful. Slowly but surely I came to accept the faith and even many of the points of contention I had previously had with the Church. Those points of morality/faith that I didn’t agree with I told myself I would come to understand and agree with the Church in time.
But that didn’t quite happen. I read constantly, I pray daily, I go to Confession at least once a month, and I go to Mass at least once a week. I have read the Catechism several times, the Bible many times, and I have poured over the lives of the saints, etc. Many of the articles of faith I had once been unable to accept I now wholeheartedly accept (i.e. the Immaculate Conception, the Church’s teachings on abortion, etc.).
However there are some things that after years of being back I just can’t accept. I can’t accept the Church’s teachings on: sexual ethics (i.e. homosexuality, etc.), papal infailability, women’s ordination, the celibate priesthood, etc. I tried and tried to accept these teachings, believing that the reason I could not accept them was because I lacked knowledge or grace. But after years now of educating myself and praying for the grace to understand and accept these and other teachings I feel I am at a crossroads.
Two of the biggest problems I have are with the Church’s stance on homosexuality and with the the Latin-rite Church’s stance on having an exclusively unmarried priesthood. Just to clarify, no I am not a homosexual. But I do have several very close and dear friends who are. One in particular is a devout Catholic, who I am happy to say I helped bring back to the Church (he continued to believe in the Church all along but felt unwelcome in any given parish because of his sexuality). I can’t believe that just because he is a homosexual that he is going to hell.
My other big problem is quite personal. The priesthood. I have felt a call to the priesthood for a couple of years now, but I also feel called to married life. I have prayed and prayed to God to give me clarity and to show me which vocation is my true calling. But in the end I keep feeling that I am called to both. I do know that some of the Eastern-rites in the Church allow for priests to marry, but this must be before ordination and if their spouse dies they cannot remarry.
So now I am facing a question I faced when I first started to come back to the Church. When I first felt the call to practice my faith again I didn’t immediatley go back to the Catholic Church. I investigated several Christian denominations first. I ended up focusing on the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Church. I was very torn in the end between the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Now I feel the pull to convert to the Anglican Church again.
I don’t know what to do though. While I agree with much of the teachings of the Anglican Church and their worship style is similar to the style of the Mass there are big issues I still haven’t come to terms with. The biggest issue being the Holy Eucharist. I know some Anglicans believe in the Real Presence, but not all do. I do not know if I am convinced that the Anglican Church has true Apostolic succession and thus valid sacraments. I also find it hard to overcome the fact that the Anglican Church was not founded out of deep religious or moral convictions (like numerous other Protestant churches were) but rather it owes its existence to a spat that King Henry VIII had with the Pope.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this looooong post. And thank you to those of you who try to help me with your responses.
To help clarify the situation, I was baptized into the Catholic Church shortly after I was born. My family is Catholic on both sides. I received First Communion and Confirmation at the typical ages. Unfortunately, my mother was not very devout when I was young (and my father is a deadbeat). So my faith formation largely became the responsibility of the lay folks who worked in the Church’s Sunday school program. However, these people (however well-intentioned) were far too young and far too uninformed about their faith. At 12 years old I remember asking them pretty standard questions and either stumping them or inadvertantly making them so angry with me that I eventually stopped going to Sunday school and to church altogether.
For roughly a decade I was estranged from the Church. I never stopped believing in God or in the basic tenants of Christianity. At one point during adolescence I even tried to go back to the Church, only to be met by hostile priests who were too busy to help educate me in the faith. So I became for a time quite anti-Catholic. I bashed the Church regularly and was quite scandalized by the many uneducated “Cultural Catholics” I came across. Here I was estranged from the Church and yet I knew more about the faith than many professed believers.
But then God came to me in a million sublte ways and gently brought me back to the Church. I was amazed by the witness of people like Blessed Mother Teresa and my love for the Blessed Virgin Mary also helped guide me back. I found that my previous “spirituality” was shallow and false. I was very fortunate that at the time I found a very welcoming parish with a wonderful priest, deacon, and one lay person in particular who was also quite helpful. Slowly but surely I came to accept the faith and even many of the points of contention I had previously had with the Church. Those points of morality/faith that I didn’t agree with I told myself I would come to understand and agree with the Church in time.
But that didn’t quite happen. I read constantly, I pray daily, I go to Confession at least once a month, and I go to Mass at least once a week. I have read the Catechism several times, the Bible many times, and I have poured over the lives of the saints, etc. Many of the articles of faith I had once been unable to accept I now wholeheartedly accept (i.e. the Immaculate Conception, the Church’s teachings on abortion, etc.).
However there are some things that after years of being back I just can’t accept. I can’t accept the Church’s teachings on: sexual ethics (i.e. homosexuality, etc.), papal infailability, women’s ordination, the celibate priesthood, etc. I tried and tried to accept these teachings, believing that the reason I could not accept them was because I lacked knowledge or grace. But after years now of educating myself and praying for the grace to understand and accept these and other teachings I feel I am at a crossroads.
Two of the biggest problems I have are with the Church’s stance on homosexuality and with the the Latin-rite Church’s stance on having an exclusively unmarried priesthood. Just to clarify, no I am not a homosexual. But I do have several very close and dear friends who are. One in particular is a devout Catholic, who I am happy to say I helped bring back to the Church (he continued to believe in the Church all along but felt unwelcome in any given parish because of his sexuality). I can’t believe that just because he is a homosexual that he is going to hell.
My other big problem is quite personal. The priesthood. I have felt a call to the priesthood for a couple of years now, but I also feel called to married life. I have prayed and prayed to God to give me clarity and to show me which vocation is my true calling. But in the end I keep feeling that I am called to both. I do know that some of the Eastern-rites in the Church allow for priests to marry, but this must be before ordination and if their spouse dies they cannot remarry.
So now I am facing a question I faced when I first started to come back to the Church. When I first felt the call to practice my faith again I didn’t immediatley go back to the Catholic Church. I investigated several Christian denominations first. I ended up focusing on the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Church. I was very torn in the end between the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Now I feel the pull to convert to the Anglican Church again.
I don’t know what to do though. While I agree with much of the teachings of the Anglican Church and their worship style is similar to the style of the Mass there are big issues I still haven’t come to terms with. The biggest issue being the Holy Eucharist. I know some Anglicans believe in the Real Presence, but not all do. I do not know if I am convinced that the Anglican Church has true Apostolic succession and thus valid sacraments. I also find it hard to overcome the fact that the Anglican Church was not founded out of deep religious or moral convictions (like numerous other Protestant churches were) but rather it owes its existence to a spat that King Henry VIII had with the Pope.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this looooong post. And thank you to those of you who try to help me with your responses.
):