for Protestants who became Catholic or who have considered it

[ctos]

Dear Protestants who became Catholic, or who have considered becoming Catholic:

What led you to consider the Catholic faith in more detail?

1. A Catholic told you that your faith was in error.
2. A Catholic piqued your curiosity or invited you to something.
3. You were struck by the example of a Pope or other prelate.
4. You are open-minded and one day decided to read more about it.

 

[Curious]

None of the above

For me, it was a raging Protestant who attacked the Catholic Church and called it a cult. That made me want to look into it.

 

[ctos]

None of the above

For me, it was a raging Protestant who attacked the Catholic Church and called it a cult. That made me want to look into it.

That would be a form of open-mindedness.

 

[Della]

I don’t know how open-minded I was, but I did decide to read about it for myself. That reading, along with many other incidents in my life, drew me into the Catholic Church. But, that process took many years with many questions, set-backs, and lots of prayer.

 

[JimmyJeff]

I’ve not joined the Catholic Church but considered it. The way it came about for me was I had a friend who left the Catholic Church to join a Calvary Chapel. I went with her a couple times and was put off. Her new and constant Catholic bashing was so over the top that it was making me nervous. I went to the Catholic book store and bought Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating and Suprised by Truth and intended to give them to her. I ended up reading them and realized that the Catholic Church was the original church.

So why haven’t I joined? I guess I just feel that because something is original that it doesn’t mean it’s the best. I don’t mean any offense by this but so many of the Catholics around here treat Catholicism more like a materalistic, exclusive club and not a faith that it really turned me off. They don’t seem welcoming or even that they give a darn that you are there. I also think that if they really wanted “separated” Christians to come back, they wouldn’t make it so hard with endless months of RCIA. Also, I don’t think the world is as black and white as the Catholic Church seems to/

Please no slamming, Overall, I have a lot of love and respect for the Catholic Churchl, I just have some issues that I need to work through before I could honestly ever join and not feel like a hypocrite.

 

[Chris_LaRock]

I considered it, but decided not too. I meet too many Catholics who weren’t very nice. It turned me off.

 

[Pug]

I don’t mean any offense by this but so many of the Catholics around here treat Catholicism more like a materalistic, exclusive club and not a faith that it really turned me off. They don’t seem welcoming or even that they give a darn that you are there.

:wave:You are welcome here!

I’m glad for our Protestant and other visitors to this site. Feel free to come worship at a local Catholic parish as well. In my parish, we have several people who worship with us, but have not made a decision to convert. They’ve been in the parish for years. Of course, I would be happy to see them convert, but as it is, I am happy to see them each Sunday.

Just so you know, at the highest levels of management in the Catholic Church, the policy is that those who have been long living the Christian life and are baptized are not to be made to go through a long RCIA process. It is really for the unbaptized person who doesn’t know Christ. However, on the parish level, harried priests without enough time and volunteers make RCIA be a catch all.

Stick around! Maybe you’ll change your mind if you sit on the porch and talk awhile.

 

[homewardbound]

I dated a Catholic boy for a few months when I was 18, went to his confirmation, got confused and ranted at the whole family about how wrong they were. I completely closed my mind to it, went off to college and stopped going to church all together. Even Baptist ones, which is what I was raised in.

Three years later,March 2006, began dating another Catholic(hey, they’re the only nice guys I can find!) We debate endlessly about things, and I’m left in the dust at the logic and truth of it all. Not to be outdone, I study the Catholic Church as much as I can to find something to prove wrong to him to show him the error of his thinking. I was determined to set him straight!

Yeah, man did I show him!

Praying to enter the Catholic Church ASAP!

 

[jmcrae]

I voted for all four, because for me, it was a process that took many twists and turns, and included all those different kinds of people. It wasn’t so much that people were telling me that my church was wrong, as that they were making a really good case for the Catholic Church being right, and I was realizing that if the Catholic Church was right, then mine was wrong.

The interesting thing was that it was way easier to admit that my church was wrong, than to admit that anybody even had the ability to be right - until I figured out that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus - then, I realized that not only it could be right, it had to be right.

JimmyJeff;

I guess I just feel that because something is original that it doesn’t mean it’s the best.

Does this mean that you believe that modern day humans are smarter than Jesus Himself was, back in 30 AD, and that Protestants today have the ability to worship Him better now, than how He set it up for us to worship Him back then, because of human progress? I’m just curious.

In my case, I had no idea that the Catholic Church was the original - when I did find that out, I took steps straight away to become Catholic. Prior to that time, I had been under the impression that all religions came about at the same time, and that they were all man-made. I’d had absolutely no idea that Jesus had founded the Catholic Church until someone actually pointed it out to me in the Bible, in Matthew 16:18.

Up until then, despite reading the Bible daily from the age of five, I had literally never seen that verse before, and I’d had absolutely no clue that Jesus was actually the original founder of the first form of Christianity, which of course history shows us is the Catholic Church - but I didn’t know much about Church history, either, at that time, and the ministers at my church were always saying things like that Jesus never intended to establish a Church; that happened later. They were also really into the Jesus Seminar stuff, which I knew at the time was definitely “off” in some way, but I didn’t know why or how, other than that they denied the miracles of Christ, and I just thought, if they deny the miracles, then what, exactly, are we doing here, coming to Church every Sunday? Why worship Jesus if he was no different from anybody else, other than a religion being created around things he apparently never actually said or did?

The Catholic Church gave me what I needed in the way of worship, even without being able to receive the Sacraments, but I also kept attending my Protestant church because I hoped to influence them in some way - I was an Elder and a Sunday School teacher, and I thought I could influence people to believe in the Jesus of the Bible and the Church - but as I mentioned above, once I figured out that the Jesus of the Church is the Jesus of the Catholic Church, and no other - and that’s what clinched it for me, during an argument about that- he shot down one of my best arguments with four little words - One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic - an hour later I was on the phone with a priest.

(It took three weeks to get an appointment, but after that, everything went very smoothly, and I was Catholic within about four or five months after that - but this was after a process of 17 years that included two full years of RCIA that never actually took, not because there was anything wrong with the teachers, but because I just was unable to hear or understand what they were trying to teach me, because of my own wall of preconceptions - at the time, I felt like they didn’t even speak English like I did, since almost every word seemed to turn out to have a totally different meaning than I thought it did - even a simple word like “sanctuary” has a totally different meaning in the Catholic Church than I was using it for, which led to some very weird misunderstandings in my RCIA classes at that time - I eventually figured it out, but, wow, the language barrier was the biggest hurdle of all, I think.)

 

[Abira]

I chose number 4…

but actually about six months ago I had a deep prejudice against the Catholic church as an institution and a faith and decided that I had a responsibility to learn more about it…

I started with Catholicism: for dummies lol

and now I’m reading about catholic/protestant differences regarding Mary.

I don’t think I would ever convert but I feel there is something missing in me and at the moment I feel that I am connecting with a faith I thought I had lost through learning about Catholicism… did that last part make sense?? lol

Take care, S

 

[fprouty]

None of the above

For me, it was a raging Protestant who attacked the Catholic Church and called it a cult. That made me want to look into it.

Amen. I had a Protestant professor spend the whole semester telling the class that the Bible teaches that we are justified by faith alone. Then I read James 2:24.

 

[rr1213]

None of the above.

I’ve considered the Catholic Church and I’m still considering it. Sometimes I think I’ll convert, other days I’m convinced I won’t. For me, the instigation was being called out of the Episcopal Church due to recent unfortunate developments in that Communion. Being without a home, I started to investigate other liturgical churches.

 

[mdstanzel]

I’m a revert after defecting about 17 years ago. My story is too long for posting. But I went to the seminary and was frustrated by poor examples of other ignorant Catholics that did whatever they wanted. I came to the belief that since I was raise in a mix family that I may not really be Catholic in belief, so I ventured out of solo scriptura. Long story short, I was introduced to the early church fathers after several strange things happened to our cable service that stuck EWTN on our TV along with the new Catholic Radio in our area and our severe disappointment with several non-Catholic Christian congregations in our main faith and a trial in a non-denominational religion. We believe in works and baptism same as Catholics. But I do not count my second baptism anymore - fully submerged. I still find many scripturally uneducated Catholics to be their own worst enemy. But I miss the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation. Strangely enough I’ve always felt the call to be an evangalist. Now that I understand the diaconate, I think that may be my next step into my vocation. I’d reather be here with Catholics that don’t know scripture than to be with heritics that think their right. [Not intended to be offensive - just a gut feeling. I still have a large Protestant family.]

 

[JimmyJeff]

*Does this mean that you believe that modern day humans are smarter than Jesus Himself was, back in 30 AD, and that Protestants today have the ability to worship Him better now, than how He set it up for us to worship Him back then, because of human progress? I’m just curious. *

I didn’t realize that Jesus himself wrote the CCC. I assumed that was done by some fallible human beings. And no, I don’t think we are smarter but we are different. You can’t possibly think that a Mass in 2007 is identical to the first Mass ever celebrated.

Honestly, I find Eastern Catholicism (or Orthodoxy) to be much more geniune and authentic to our local parish out here in West St. Louis County. I like the idea of a Christian community that lives simply, eats simply and is devoted to helping others. I just don’t see that around here in ANY church Catholic or Protestant. Maybe I should become a Buddhist.

 

[ctos]

Thanks so much for your insights. It sounds like the consensus is that a friendly relationship was necessary (except for cases of open-mindedness perhaps coupled with having to look for a new affiliation) combined with the Catholic being willing to state clearly the Catholic point of view. There is one poster, “Other Eric”, who in the other thread said that he has twice successfully evangelized by being more focused on outward expressions of alarm at the Protestant’s effective propagation of error. He likens his approach to that of JWs. I think it’s important to look at actual success cases, where a Protestant actually decides to sincerely look at the Catholic faith (as well as cases in which a sincere look turns into, thus far at least, a decision against it: here again a lack of charity is at issue.

Invite your Protestant friends to join us. We need more insights. Our Lord did say that we should all be one.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

My husband was Catholic and a few years after we were married he was feeling nostalgic. So, he thought he would introduce me to the Church and he would take the RCIA class with me. He lasted for one class but it was too touchy feely spiritual for him. But I stuck with it and was baptized that next Easter. My husband has since fallen away from the Church, but I am a practicing Catholic. In fact, I’m a “holy roller, bible studying, Mass attending, Jesus Freak”. My hubby is rather irritated at me.

It’s sad, when I see posts that talk about experiences with some individual Catholics that really turned them turned off about the Church. I know they are telling the truth because I have seen it myself and I know the Church is filled with sinners. Some of them have real attitudes. Yet others are some of the most sincere Christians I have ever met. I guess my only advice to you good folks who are investigating the Church but unimpressed by the laity is that possibly you could concentrate solely on the theological issues and set aside the people for a while. Then, if you truly come to believe that Christ founded the Church and gave the Church His Authority to guide His people, then you can become one of the flock and impress the heck out of all those sourpusses. Your enthusiasm and Christian love is exactly what these folks with bad attitudes need. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think all or even a quarter of the Catholics out there are all that bad (in my personal experience). But there are some real unwelcoming grumps out there with faces like this : .

 

[JimmyJeff]

Invite your Protestant friends to join us. We need more insights. Our Lord did say that we should all be one.

Honestly, I’ve alway been drawn to Catholicism but it seemed so closed off like US v THEM. I truly believe that if more Catholics invited friends and neighbors to Mass or even church events, people would convert in droves. For instance, around here all VBS’s are open to the community, except the Catholic ones. The Catholic ones are only open to the parishioners. That makes people feel left out, less than and excluded. Many Catholics around here have the attitude of why would you want to come to a Catholic church if you are not Catholic. However, our local Lutheran and Methodist churches have preschools and VBS’s with huge Catholic attendance.

I’m truly not trying to be overly critical, I’m just trying to make Catholics understand that if they are to be the light of the world, they need to flip on the switch. You have a good thing but you tend to hide it.

 

[jmcrae]

*Does this mean that you believe that modern day humans are smarter than Jesus Himself was, back in 30 AD, and that Protestants today have the ability to worship Him better now, than how He set it up for us to worship Him back then, because of human progress? I’m just curious. *

I didn’t realize that Jesus himself wrote the CCC.

Jesus didn’t actually write anything, but He did give the Catholic Church to the Apostles and ordained them to be its first priests.

You can’t possibly think that a Mass in 2007 is identical to the first Mass ever celebrated.

The essential elements of the Sacrament are still the same. Incidentals like the music, the timing of when they take up the collection, and the wording of the opening prayers have changed, of course, but it’s actually quite surprising how much the same it still is.

I like the idea of a Christian community that lives simply, eats simply and is devoted to helping others. I just don’t see that around here in ANY church Catholic or Protestant.

You’re not looking hard enough. The majority of Catholic monastic communities and convents take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Lay Catholics live in the world and have to earn money because, guess who feeds, clothes, and houses the priests, the sisters, the nuns, the hermits, and the monks, while they are dedicating their entire lives to praying for us and serving us?

 

[mschrank]

I always figured that John Paul the Great knew something about the Truth and about religion. I suppose he was an example for me.

I didn’t even know much about him, it’s just from what I had read of his, from the way he looked and talked, I just knew. I don’t know, perhaps that sounds superficial, but it’s the truth!

 

[jmcrae]

Honestly, I’ve alway been drawn to Catholicism but it seemed so closed off like US v THEM. I truly believe that if more Catholics invited friends and neighbors to Mass or even church events, people would convert in droves.

I hope so. I try to invite people, but then there is also the danger of them taking the Sacraments without realizing that they have to become Catholic, first, which is difficult to explain when they don’t even know what that word means, yet.

There are some people that it’s safe to invite, because they have educated themselves ahead of time, but then there are others who just help themselves no matter what you say to them, or else get offended that non-Catholics aren’t allowed to receive Catholic Sacraments - they see church as a “fellowshipping time” and the idea of not being allowed to be part of everything right from day one somehow means that we don’t love them, etc., with all the weeping and wailing that comes standard with that trip - most Catholics only go down that road once or twice before they start sending their friends to RCIA rather than invite them to Mass right off the bat - is it right? I don’t know - but it’s understandable, from my point of view.

For instance, around here all VBS’s are open to the community, except the Catholic ones. The Catholic ones are only open to the parishioners. That makes people feel left out, less than and excluded.

Maybe they’ve had some bad experiences with non-Catholics trying to turn it into a Protestant thing, or getting offended by the kids reciting the Hail Mary, or participating in other Catholic distinctives. (Why have a Catholic VBS if they can’t do Catholic things because they have to worry about offending the Protestants?)

However, our local Lutheran and Methodist churches have preschools and VBS’s with huge Catholic attendance.

But the Catholics going in know that their kids are not going to be learning how to say the Catholic prayers, and that it’s just going to be Bible stories and happy Jesus songs.

I’m truly not trying to be overly critical, I’m just trying to make Catholics understand that if they are to be the light of the world, they need to flip on the switch. You have a good thing but you tend to hide it.

I think we tend to worry that it will get abused by people who, though well-intentioned, aren’t properly educated about it.