Former Catholics-How many years were you Catholic before you left.

[pprimeau1976]

I don’t mean to be a pain in the rear, but there is no such thing as a former Catholic. Once you join another Church, you’re a doubting Catholic. If you get excommunicated, your an unprotected Catholic. If you go to hell, you’re a crispy Catholic. When you are in heaven, you are a purified Catholic.

But I get the point though. My dad was 37 when he officially joined. And I was 7 when he converted. But in those 7 years he always went to the Catholic church, but never took Communion. I guess he was an incomplete Catholic.

 

[Mannyfit75]

Most of you if not all of you know Im not catholic and never was but I have to say this is what I encounter in my life with the catholics I know. They just dont seem to have that relationship with Christ. It is all about the CHURCH. The church is made up of people so it cant be all about The CHURCH—it has to all be about a relationship with Christ.

So I applause you believers and everyone else who found a relationship with Christ–regardless of what church you attend.

The Church my friend is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. We love the Church because of Jesus because he is the Head of the Church.

Most importantly, the Liturgical Worship of the Mass is Christ Centered.

Any devout Catholic here can testify to you that they go to Mass because it is where we RECEIVED the Body, the Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and we do Eat Him just as he commanded us in John 6:51-60 and his call to Do this In Rembrance in Me.

Catholics have a MORE DEEPER RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ.

The Majority of Protestant only believe in the Symbolism of Holy Communion not Real Presence.

The reason I have read that why you Ex-Catholic left is that you are Poorly Catechized and COMPLETELY misunderstand Catholic doctrine. You should have not left for you have cause a wounds upon the Body of Jesus Christ for your selfish desire to leave the Church.

 

[Mirdath]

I don’t mean to be a pain in the rear, but there is no such thing as a former Catholic. Once you join another Church, you’re a doubting Catholic. If you get excommunicated, your an unprotected Catholic. If you go to hell, you’re a crispy Catholic. When you are in heaven, you are a purified Catholic.

But I get the point though. My dad was 37 when he officially joined. And I was 7 when he converted. But in those 7 years he always went to the Catholic church, but never took Communion. I guess he was an incomplete Catholic.

I found out the other day that I have to file paperwork with the bishop to formally defect and officially get recognized as an apostate. Forget that, it’s too much effort

 

[Rachel_Malloy]

Moderator interjection:

I do not normally intervene in discussions, but I feel compelled to do so in this case.

It is not particularly fruitful for any of us for this discussion to be just post after post of “34 years Catholic- left 6 years ago”… “10 years Catholic - left 2 years ago”. Right? What good does that do? How does that bring any of us closer to the Truth? It’s just reviewing notches on a belt so to speak.

So, I’m making a small adjustment to the topic of this thread. Rather than posting the date or duration of your time in and out of the Catholic Church, let’s get to the meat of the discussion…

Why did you leave? Why did you stay as long or as little as you did? What finally made you willing to leave?

Now I want to ask that the snide digs at the Catholic Faith be avoided… “I left because all you Catholic’s lead around by the nose by a Mary worshiping pope” blah blah blah… This is not productive, nor charitable, nor an example of the faith that you currently belong to.

Let the discussion continue, and may God bless you-

Rachel

 

[Verisimilitude]

… let’s get to the meat of the discussion…

water, Verisimilitude – let’s not start an argument here. In my case at least, the realization that I could not believe ended years of pain and frustration. Loss of faith, if that’s what happened to me, is not a pleasant process and not something to be belittled.

Many must think it’s Friday, and do not want meat.

 

[Mirdath]

Many must think it’s Friday, and do not want meat.

If you want to talk about it, that’s fine, but yours and water’s initial comments – ‘you’ve thrown away the greatest gift ever’ and ‘why did you enter it to begin with’ – were not exactly setting a pleasant tone for such a discussion.

I posted a more in-depth explanation of why later on; feel free to start with that

 

[Verisimilitude]

If you want to talk about it, that’s fine, but yours and water’s initial comments – ‘you’ve thrown away the greatest gift ever’ and ‘why did you enter it to begin with’ – were not exactly setting a pleasant tone for such a discussion.

Tone is usually determined by hearing an inflection, but if you can pick up my apparent tone based upon my history I’m not sure I see it; regardless.

I was questioning the OP specifically, and curious if she joined the Church to get married in the church for her husbands sake rather than a personal conviction of her own. While not uncommon it isn’t the basis for good decision making.

That then would lead to other questions like why would someone be so flippant about faith, and if her possible lack of personal conviction influenced her husband to leave.

 

[manualman]

Allforhim, I know what you mean about getting your impression of catholicism from those you meet who claim the name. Unfortunately, we DO have a lot of nominal members who know little of their faith and seem to be disinterested in knowing Jesus as Lord.

Much of this is actually due to a major difference in approach between us and Protestantism. Catholicism tends to be like Judaism in that people still identify themselves that way long after the beliefs have been discarded. Protestant folks who lose faith, on the other hand, very quickly discard the label. What’s more, the behavior applies to whole churches. When one Protestant ‘church’ becomes lukewarm, a group often splinters off and starts a new and exciting place of on-fire believers, fellowship and enthusiasm. But the old church doesn’t die quickly it withers slowly over generations. After a couple more generations, the NEW one gets lukewarm too. Thus catholics aren’t any more prone to lukewarmness than protestants. We just have much more scattered salt than y’all. You guys tend to withdraw and consolidate, we keep the weeds and wheat together.

It grieves me to hear that you never found healthy fellowship in the catholic church. It’s there, you just have to look a bit. If/when the day comes when you just can’t make scripture fit what your preacher is telling you it says, come on back and hear it from those who sat at the feet of the apostles themselves!

 

[Contarini]

Most of you if not all of you know Im not catholic and never was but I have to say this is what I encounter in my life with the catholics I know. They just dont seem to have that relationship with Christ. It is all about the CHURCH. The church is made up of people so it cant be all about The CHURCH—it has to all be about a relationship with Christ.

Isn’t Christ a person? Isn’t the Church His Body?

No Church, no Christ. Period.

That, by the way, is why I am *not *a Catholic. Clearly many people know Christ outside the Roman Communion; therefore it is problematic to claim that the Roman Communion is the True Church.

Edwin

 

[Steadfast]

12 years in
12 years out
1 year in

 

[SuzieB]

Tone is usually determined by hearing an inflection, but if you can pick up my apparent tone based upon my history I’m not sure I see it; regardless.

I was questioning the OP specifically, and curious if she joined the Church to get married in the church for her husbands sake rather than a personal conviction of her own. While not uncommon it isn’t the basis for good decision making.

That then would lead to other questions like why would someone be so flippant about faith, and if her possible lack of personal conviction influenced her husband to leave.

Actually, my conversion led my husband back to the church. When we married my DH did not consider himself Catholic, and we did not marry in the church.

He started going to mass with me as part of my RCIA. Before that, the last time he attended mass regularly was before him confirmation.

I was actually the more devout Catholic in our family.

My Dh actually began the process our family leaving the church. He was the one that said to me. “I’m never going back.” He means it.

I’m sorry I sounded “flippant”. It was a really sad time for me.

 

[manualman]

Edwin, no problem! Those folks are quite simply catholics and don’t know it!

Surely you know a few total non-christians who also show certain suspiciously holy attributes? Same answer. Christ established one, holy, catholic and apostolic church on earth through which all of us must be saved. But that fact does not in any wat constitute handcuffs on God, not does it obligate him to reject those who earnestly seek Him, acknowledge their own weaknesses and desire His Grace.

There now, come on in.

 

[Mystic_of_God]

I was extremely well-catechized, thanks. I’d say on par with anyone here, and more than many. I’m well-versed in the classics, still have chunks of the Baltimore Catechism memorized, etc. etc.
.

I happen to think you are right. It is simply too bad that everyone knows absolutely NOTHING about the spiritual life, including yourself. Everyone is so concerned with theology it makes my stomach hurt. Everyone is convinced, Protestants or Catholics that:

A. Sinlessness is impossible.
B. There are two ways to take, the common way, where you simply are content to be mediocre because of the conviction that A is true, and the impossible way of the saint.

Both of these are unbiblical, A, because it was directly refuted by CHRIST HIMSELF, and B, because it follows from A.

But there is only one way to take, that “way of the saint”, everyone tries to pass by as impossible. Those who try to take the supposed “way of the ordinary”, end up pitching a pup tent at the beginning of the “way of the saint”, and sit there. Some will occasionally wander up the road, by will back off when the reach the first Dark Night.

But they never grow. They never attain holiness. They spend a long time in purgatory, for nothing. All because of an overused phrase: “Nobody’s perfect”.

I did not think of this. This was thought up by those who took the way of the saint. St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, as well as such alive people as Scott Hahn, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, etc.

 

[Verisimilitude]

My Dh actually began the process our family leaving the church. He was the one that said to me. “I’m never going back.” He means it.

I’m sorry I sounded “flippant”. It was a really sad time for me.

We all walk the same path at different times, and age and experience don’t always have much to do with it, but more often circumstances do.

As much as I think the CC is the most authoritive path in our communion with God, all paths lead to God. Meaning, despite what religion we profess, to include Mulsims, Jews, JW, Mormons, Atheist, Agnostics, Baptists, Hindu…I think God will read each of our hearts as an individual and weigh that with whatever the full Truth actually turns out to be.

I hold out the possibility that the Catholic Church could be wrong in some of it’s positions with respect to who/how/why someone earns eternal punishment because I think the Grace of Jesus encompasses more than our limitations close them.

I don’t know for sure, but I no longer have the fear of it becasue it isn’t up to me. Only I am up to me, and that is difficult enough to manage. There may be small truths of the Truth in many faiths, but if I had to choose what entity on Earth holds more of that Truth, I’d be hard pressed to convince myself that it was Martin Luther, Muhammed, John Smith, or someone/thing other than the Catholic Chrurch.

I understand many of the Church scandals have hurt the faithfull and faithless, but I also understand that those scandals were not precipitated by the Spirit of the Church, but rather for the very many human reasons we all fail to sometimes; fear, greed, lust, and power to name a few.

I tried, but couldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes the water needs refreshing. Luther was a change of water the refreshed the Church, but also washed some out of the tub.

I think we have a duty to be wary and question what seems wrong to us in our Church so real evil cannot enter, but I also think we have a responsibility to do so without leaving the building.

 

[Mirdath]

Tone is usually determined by hearing an inflection, but if you can pick up my apparent tone based upon my history I’m not sure I see it; regardless.

Tone can also be a function of word choice and sentence structure, which don’t require hearing. If I missed the mark, I apologize – it can be hard to pick out over plain text sometimes.

 

[kamz]

I was born and raised Catholic and left the church for 4 yrs 1997 to 2000, I came home to God’s one true Church and have been on fire for God and his wonderful Church ever since… sometimes it takes leaving the One True Church to realize what you are truely missing out on… I would never want to be anywhere but in the church that Jesus began… Praise The Lord!!

I love being Catholic

 

[SuzieB]

We all walk the same path at different times, and age and experience don’t always have much to do with it, but more often circumstances do.

As much as I think the CC is the most authoritive path in our communion with God, all paths lead to God. Meaning, despite what religion we profess, to include Mulsims, Jews, JW, Mormons, Atheist, Agnostics, Baptists, Hindu…I think God will read each of our hearts as an individual and weigh that with whatever the full Truth actually turns out to be.

I hold out the possibility that the Catholic Church could be wrong in some of it’s positions with respect to who/how/why someone earns eternal punishment because I think the Grace of Jesus encompasses more than our limitations close them.

I don’t know for sure, but I no longer have the fear of it becasue it isn’t up to me. Only I am up to me, and that is difficult enough to manage. There may be small truths of the Truth in many faiths, but if I had to choose what entity on Earth holds more of that Truth, I’d be hard pressed to convince myself that it was Martin Luther, Muhammed, John Smith, or someone/thing other than the Catholic Chrurch.

I understand many of the Church scandals have hurt the faithfull and faithless, but I also understand that those scandals were not precipitated by the Spirit of the Church, but rather for the very many human reasons we all fail to sometimes; fear, greed, lust, and power to name a few.

I tried, but couldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes the water needs refreshing. Luther was a change of water the refreshed the Church, but also washed some out of the tub.

I think we have a duty to be wary and question what seems wrong to us in our Church so real evil cannot enter, but I also think we have a responsibility to do so without leaving the building.

Very well said. Three years ago, I would have been in total agreement. But I’m not there now. But I’m still prayerfully discerning where I should be and asking the Holy Spirit to lead me. So you never know.

 

[water]

Very well said. Three years ago, I would have been in total agreement. But I’m not there now. But I’m still prayerfully discerning where I should be and asking the Holy Spirit to lead me. So you never know.

Suzie, praying is great. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide you on your journey. Sometimes, He tells you directly, but many other times, He has someone else tell you.

 

[Traveller1534]

I’m 18, and Im gonna leave the church as soon as I move out, which should be in around 3 month.

Amen to that. I wish I would have left the church sooner than I did. It wasn’t until after I left that I truly began to know and walk with Jesus.

 

[Traveller1534]

Manny, I admire you for hanging in there and trying to snatch this person back, as is discussed in James 5: 19-20. That is why I am speaking up, too. I realize that it is derailing a thread and going OT, but IMO, trying to do what James says is more important than following internet etiquette.

I find this to be the saddest thread on this board.

I was evangelical Protestant for over 40 years. I was incredibly involved in some of the best evangelical Protestant churches in the U.S. (Many authors of prominence were members of my churches, also great evangelicals like the President of Campus Crusade for Christ.)

I came into the Catholic Church in 2004. I wish I had come into the Catholic Church 40 years earlier. Nothing that any Protestant church offered me, including “asking Jesus into my heart to be my personal Savior” was as good as what I am freely given in the Catholic Church.

Today, I pity Protestants. My daughter (who is converting to Catholicism) describes Protestant worship services as " a pageant of the real event, mass."

I only hope that when you become disillusioned with Protestantism–and you will–it is not as painful as mine was. Protestantism is a show. There are elements of truth in it, but why would you want to live on crumbs when you could eat the whole loaf?

May God have mercy on you.

The only dog and pony show going on is Catholicism, that is why the Reformation happened.