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notredame_adam
Guest
Hello all,
I am still a relative newcomer to this forum so hopefully I am approaching the set of questions / issues I have appropriately. If not, hopefully someone can direct me on my way.
I am an undergraduate college student (Catholic, of course), and I have been dating a non-denominational Christian for almost three years. She has become fed up with her non-denominational church’s approach to Christianity: evangelize, evangelize, evangelize! Apparently, they do a poor job of actually conveying a value system, belief structure, etc, and focus too much on just getting more people to the church.
So, this summer, she has attended Mass with me and my family on Sundays. She admits she is attracted to the Catholic faith, and with that, I have done my best to give her as much information about it as I can. She likes what she has found in the Church.
But I am becoming increasingly frustrated with what I see are “obstacles” to really showing someone the Truth of the Catholic Church as an American in the 21st century. So many of the new-age Christian churches that have sprung up focus so heavily on entertaining the people that it is ridiculous. Thankfully, my girlfriend realizes that a church is meaningless if it is really just making a mockery of the truth about Christ. It is not the “orthodoxy” and traditional approach that discourages my efforts.
Instead, it seems that so many times Catholocism is America is something into which people are born and do not take very seriously. It is something to which a lot of Catholics only dedicate one hour a week - and out of a duty! - and then forget during the week. In other words, as unintentionally condescending as it sounds, there are a lot of “bad” - or not devout - Catholics in this part of the world. How does someone like myself resolve this dissonance?
How do I explain to her that the Catholic Church is truly a magnificent institution established by Christ himself when so many of the people born into its membership couldn’t care less?
It seems like non-denominational churches and Protestant churches are a lot more enthusiastic about their faith. Catholics know it isn’t a statement about the faiths themselves. It is merely a reflection of the fact that those churches do not have so much of the…(struggling with this word)…deadweight that an inherited religion like Catholicism might.
In conclusion, my thesis might be this: in America’s individualistic society, it seems that evangelization as nearly impossible.
I’m trying my best. I am trying to present her with some Catholic theology as well as a basic understanding of the Church’s structure: sacraments, authority, etc.
Thoughts, anyone? I’m desperate.
I am still a relative newcomer to this forum so hopefully I am approaching the set of questions / issues I have appropriately. If not, hopefully someone can direct me on my way.
I am an undergraduate college student (Catholic, of course), and I have been dating a non-denominational Christian for almost three years. She has become fed up with her non-denominational church’s approach to Christianity: evangelize, evangelize, evangelize! Apparently, they do a poor job of actually conveying a value system, belief structure, etc, and focus too much on just getting more people to the church.
So, this summer, she has attended Mass with me and my family on Sundays. She admits she is attracted to the Catholic faith, and with that, I have done my best to give her as much information about it as I can. She likes what she has found in the Church.
But I am becoming increasingly frustrated with what I see are “obstacles” to really showing someone the Truth of the Catholic Church as an American in the 21st century. So many of the new-age Christian churches that have sprung up focus so heavily on entertaining the people that it is ridiculous. Thankfully, my girlfriend realizes that a church is meaningless if it is really just making a mockery of the truth about Christ. It is not the “orthodoxy” and traditional approach that discourages my efforts.
Instead, it seems that so many times Catholocism is America is something into which people are born and do not take very seriously. It is something to which a lot of Catholics only dedicate one hour a week - and out of a duty! - and then forget during the week. In other words, as unintentionally condescending as it sounds, there are a lot of “bad” - or not devout - Catholics in this part of the world. How does someone like myself resolve this dissonance?
How do I explain to her that the Catholic Church is truly a magnificent institution established by Christ himself when so many of the people born into its membership couldn’t care less?
It seems like non-denominational churches and Protestant churches are a lot more enthusiastic about their faith. Catholics know it isn’t a statement about the faiths themselves. It is merely a reflection of the fact that those churches do not have so much of the…(struggling with this word)…deadweight that an inherited religion like Catholicism might.
In conclusion, my thesis might be this: in America’s individualistic society, it seems that evangelization as nearly impossible.
I’m trying my best. I am trying to present her with some Catholic theology as well as a basic understanding of the Church’s structure: sacraments, authority, etc.
Thoughts, anyone? I’m desperate.
I was very puzzled by this and was myself convinced that if Catholicism ever was a true Holy Spirit led Church, it had long lost it’s way, otherwise it’s members would be different.
