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claymcdermott
Guest
Lets not say unconstructive things. That doesn’t really help
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As_for_my_House
Guest
I have a son who left the Catholic Faith (never really accepted it as an adult), and when he started to feel that emptiness of leading a godless, instead of coming into the faith he joined a house church (non-denominational evangelical).
The community nurturing (love bombing) and overwhelming enthusiasm for Christianity is what drew him to this group. He just couldn’t find that in our Catholic Church.
I think we Catholics could learn a thing or two about how to relate to new-born and baby Christians from other christian faiths, then maybe we’d have less of own children looking for a faith group outside of the Catholic Church.
The thing is we Catholics are so mature ( compared to other Christian Faiths) that we expect the newbees to just fall in line. So the newbees have found a kindergarten in other churches. Problem is that they need the wisdom, Sacraments and and Holiness that only the Catholic Church can give them or they probably won’t grow much in the Faith.
Maybe we need a love bombing group (Catholic kindergarten) in every parish. Are we Catholics really listening to the Holy Spirit and meeting the needs of to our newly born Christian brothers and sisters?
The community nurturing (love bombing) and overwhelming enthusiasm for Christianity is what drew him to this group. He just couldn’t find that in our Catholic Church.
I think we Catholics could learn a thing or two about how to relate to new-born and baby Christians from other christian faiths, then maybe we’d have less of own children looking for a faith group outside of the Catholic Church.
The thing is we Catholics are so mature ( compared to other Christian Faiths) that we expect the newbees to just fall in line. So the newbees have found a kindergarten in other churches. Problem is that they need the wisdom, Sacraments and and Holiness that only the Catholic Church can give them or they probably won’t grow much in the Faith.
Maybe we need a love bombing group (Catholic kindergarten) in every parish. Are we Catholics really listening to the Holy Spirit and meeting the needs of to our newly born Christian brothers and sisters?
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claymcdermott
Guest
Hey! BubububuBucks Co!
And yeah, we probably do need to get better at the whole, as much as I hate this and it is so not for me, parish life for young adults thing. shudder.
I hate that kinda stuff, and also hate that Church as social club for the aged thing that you find everywhere, but if the young and old faithful REALLY need it…I guess we have to get better at it. sigh.
Oh, well. Jesus never promised to be cool.
And yeah, we probably do need to get better at the whole, as much as I hate this and it is so not for me, parish life for young adults thing. shudder.
I hate that kinda stuff, and also hate that Church as social club for the aged thing that you find everywhere, but if the young and old faithful REALLY need it…I guess we have to get better at it. sigh.
Oh, well. Jesus never promised to be cool.
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Jake_Parker
Guest
Seriously -this would probably help the Catholic Church a lot.
If there was more focus on reaching out to new people (especially younger), and realizing that many of them come from a much more “up-beat” background (at least the Evangelicals & non-denoms). Not all new people visiting your churches are coming from other Catholic Churches, some are Protestants (or non-Christians) checking things out. Many will not return if they do not feel welcomed, and if nobody takes the time to explain the faith to them. The vast majority of Protestant churches will go out of their way to be friendly and welcoming to the new people, and will tell them all about their faith. Hence the term evangelical.
I am not saying every person in the Church should feel inclined to do so, but I think each individual church should have at least one person that welcomes visitors. Otherwise many of them will not return, because after visiting the friendly Protestant Church, they will perceive the Catholic Church as distant and not welcoming. Certainly that is not the intention, but for many people, when they feel this, they are not inclined to return to such an environment.I am not suggesting adding contemporary songs, instruments, special lighting or sound, or making any changes to the Mass/liturgy/worship. Simply making an effort to connect with the visitor. I think this would actually do a lot of good, and bring in more people. If this is already being done, then I am unaware. I’m not criticizing, just trying to offer some helpful advice.
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daniden
Guest
Can’t argue with that. We definitely could do better on this front.
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lax16
Guest
I live in Utah and several Catholic families have found these cd’s to be very helpful:
lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/inside-mormonism-3-cd-set
Maybe if she would listen to them she would understand why her converting to Mormonism is so vastly different from Catholicism.
The cd’s are very charitable and are not critical of Mormonism.
lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/inside-mormonism-3-cd-set
Maybe if she would listen to them she would understand why her converting to Mormonism is so vastly different from Catholicism.
The cd’s are very charitable and are not critical of Mormonism.
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daniden
Guest
Thank you! I’ll take a look at them. 
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Elena321
Guest
I feel sad for your daughter that more young Catholics are not trying to be her friend.
I would have thought if she has Aspergers,that they would have tried even more:shrug:
Maybe you could ask your parish priest if he could encourage them to try to include your daughter in more things and make her feel accepted?
I would have thought if she has Aspergers,that they would have tried even more:shrug:
Maybe you could ask your parish priest if he could encourage them to try to include your daughter in more things and make her feel accepted?
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Book_Worm
Guest
Visitors, heck! There should be outreach to all those in the church community.Seriously -this would probably help the Catholic Church a lot.
If there was more focus on reaching out to new people (especially younger), and realizing that many of them come from a much more “up-beat” background (at least the Evangelicals & non-denoms). Not all new people visiting your churches are coming from other Catholic Churches, some are Protestants (or non-Christians) checking things out. Many will not return if they do not feel welcomed, and if nobody takes the time to explain the faith to them. The vast majority of Protestant churches will go out of their way to be friendly and welcoming to the new people, and will tell them all about their faith. Hence the term evangelical.
I am not suggesting adding contemporary songs, instruments, special lighting or sound, or making any changes to the Mass/liturgy/worship. Simply making an effort to connect with the visitor. I think this would actually do a lot of good, and bring in more people. If this is already being done, then I am unaware. I’m not criticizing, just trying to offer some helpful advice.
I get very frustrated when I read posters on this site claim that, because we have the Eucharist and the gift of the one, true faith, we don’t need to provide the social support that is found in so many other Christian communities. Acceptance/fellowship is a basic human need, according to Maslow. Just as we are are commanded to feed the hungry, we should also be feeding the soul of our fellow Catholics. It’s pretty hard to counsel the doubtful or admonish sinners if we barely know their names.
I took this O/T; I apologize, but I can’t help but wonder how many others have left the faith, like the OP’s DD, because they didn’t feel the love of Christ mirrored in his followers. I know in my family, there are at least four people, all from very devout families, who joined other churches for just this reason.
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Jake_Parker
Guest
It is nice to see that not every Catholic on this site uses the Eucharist as an excuse to not be welcoming to people.
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AClaire11
Guest
Amen! I know of many who have left because of this, and have been sorely tempted myself.
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claymcdermott
Guest
In defense of the unwelcoming, I think a lot of us would hate it if someone did that to us, so we refrain from doing it for others.
We don’t like the pancake breakfasts and the bingo nights, and the YA stuff is infantile feeling for us. We don’t get the appeal. We don’t like the Greet your neighbor, before church thing, we don’t like the aggressive guy handing out bulletins in the back, we don’t like it. We don’t do it to others, because we don’t like it.
That is why a parish needs all kinds. And we will be friendly enough, and show up at parish functions to make it seem like more of us like it than actually do, if you guys will take the reins on this one.
We don’t like the pancake breakfasts and the bingo nights, and the YA stuff is infantile feeling for us. We don’t get the appeal. We don’t like the Greet your neighbor, before church thing, we don’t like the aggressive guy handing out bulletins in the back, we don’t like it. We don’t do it to others, because we don’t like it.
That is why a parish needs all kinds. And we will be friendly enough, and show up at parish functions to make it seem like more of us like it than actually do, if you guys will take the reins on this one.
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RebeccaJ
Guest
The social structure of Mormonism encourages codependency.I haven’t been on here in a while, but some of you may recall that my daughter (she’s 24) had a friend that is LDS and she was considering converting, off and on, for quite some time. Well, she actually did, this past April. I know that her LDS friend(s) had a hand in convincing her to, but she had her own reasons as well. Our daughter has aspergers and most likely has a mood disorder (bi-polar II) too, which, I know also played a part. I know most of the reasons why she converted is rooted in needing a lot of friends, and a lot of fun activities (and a need for “busyness”). Another reason she converted was that she has this need for “perfection” and the ‘beauty’ she sees in the LDS faith (she is also makes many of her decisions based on emotion). She also wanted so badly to get her temple recommend (which she just got–her temporary one) because she truly believes that it is such a holy, beautiful place (she only sees the external stuff–chandeliers, all white décor, etc and it makes her feel ‘peaceful’) and she wants so badly to do all the temple work and be involved in the ceremonies (she’s especially excited for the endowment one when she gets her full temple recommend----ughh). She firmly believes all their ceremonies are based on scripture.
I get a knot in my stomach every time she goes to these things(I try not to show it though), but the temple, especially (she’s doing ‘baptisms for the dead’ now too). Our daughter lives at home because she can’t hold down a job, at this point, due to her psych issues and stuff, so we have to live with this day in and day out…all the friends coming over, all the activities…just everything, and it’s just really getting to me.We told her from the get-go that she can not use our cars for LDS activities (because we can’t support her in her conversion) or speak to her younger siblings about anything she’s learning about. For the most part, she’s been obedient about this, but there have been times she’s called us, “unspiritual” and things of that nature when she doesn’t get to use the cars for what she wants.
Although she has all these new friends now, she tells me that most of them have psych issues too and when she goes to all these activities with them (she goes to the singles ward), there is so much gossip and back stabbing. How is this supposed to be uplifting and holy? One of her good friends told me after she converted that it would be such a blessing to her and our family and she’d be well taken care of…ummmm…hardly.She even admitted to me that she’s never seen this kind of behavior from people before, but she still wants to be their friends.
We’ve tried so hard to teach her what we (as well as former Mormon friends) know about LDS (and believe me, we’ve done plenty of research and I’m learning more all the time), but while she kind of listens, we know she’s not really taking it to heart. We are trying our very best to support her in other ways and told her we’ll always be here for her, but this has become such a huge part of her life that there’s hardly room for anything else. She even passed up a camping trip this weekend with us because it would mean she would miss her LDS service. I just don’t know what to do anymore. Some friends recommended I put a green scapular under her mattress (which I did) and ask St. Monica for her intercession, which I have. I’ve also been saying the St. Michael prayer when she leaves for the temple. I’m trying hard to trust God’s plan in this, but it’s so hard.
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zaffiroborant
Guest
Well with RICA you have a program that takes nine months to a year, and the director has a chance to get to know those who go through the program, to understand them and their situation, and quirks. This does not exist in the LDS church, they are join us, get baptized from day one, and absolutely nothing else matters other than the person in question being baptized. The persons state of mind, ability to understand and fully assent to is not considered by the LDS church. That full assent is not presented to new members is illustrated by their absolute secrecy concerning every. single. thing. that goes on in the temple.
I see no problem with telling your child not to proselytize younger siblings no matter the conversion.
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