How have you managed to remain Catholic?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rubee
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In light of all the scandals and the confusion?
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Many reasons. Perhaps up there is this: being aware of Church history.

If more people were actually knowledgeable regarding the history of the Church, they would see that scandal has rocked the church from the beginning. Even the early Church Fathers dealt with really bad priests.

It’s really nothing new. In a sense, scandal is the norm.
 
My faith has never been contingent on any actions of any man, priest or otherwise. People are people and they will let you down. If one is not convinced that The Church is Christ established then I do not blame them for entertaining thoughts of leaving. That is not me though. My loyalty and Faith is not shaken. I am just angry at certain priests and Bishops.

450 thousand priests in the world… of course there will be bad ones. If 4 priests out of one hundred are predators that is awful (and I believe it is about 4% of all priests that have ever been accused of wrong doing) … but it is not reasonable to suddenly group the good 96 in with the bad 4. Then some bishops do not do the right thing in response to these bad priests… These me are not impeccable, they will do the wrong thing sometimes. God promised that The Devil will not prevail against His Church. I know which Church Jesus was talking about. Therefore, I will not leave.

Besides… I have partaken of The Eucharist. What would I do? Go back to being a protestant? Nope, no thank you.
 
Rubee,

You do not have to fear that a priest not in the state of grace causes the Eucharist to be invalid.
We have Our Lord Jesus Christ’s promise that as long as the proper words are said and the priest has been ordained, then for your sake Our Lord allows the consecration to be valid.

Jesus gave the Church authority, and that is what the Church teaches. God bless you.
 
I did think of leaving but not seriously. I pretty much planned to stay because of the support of CAF members and friends in real life who were definitely staying because of the Eucharist and Sacraments.
 
Rubee said:
I had doubts during this latest scandal of the past few weeks about the Eucharist. Not about the real presence as a truth but about the priests doing the consecrating. What if my priest is one of these awful people? How do we know that what they do is valid? What if they are not validly consecrated themselves? Ie, they were never Christian to begin with and never took the faith seriously so never meant any acts/vows they made before God?
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This very thing was addressed many years ago. Centuries ago. It is called The Donatist heresy. Briefly stated and abridged… Centuries ago people were saying that The Validity of The Sacraments depends on The priest being in a state of Grace. Donatism was condemned as a Heresy at, I believe, The Council of Alres in 314AD and a few more. St Augustine was around during that time and wrote against this heresy.

Do not worry about the validity of Sacraments being dependent on whether a priest is behaving himself or not. The Church has spoken on the matter. Be at peace.
 
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I was born one and I’ll die one. No degenerate institutional Churchmen who neither believe nor practice the same faith as I and who are only there for their own comfort and pleasure are going to sway my own faith.
 
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It’s true, where else can you go? I missed mass for the first time in years yesterday. I feel nauseated most of the time. I have a stress rash and my peace of mind is non-existent. I can’t look at children without feeling appalled at what happened to many of them. I think it is the worst thing anyone could do.
This, I think, isn’t the last time there will be a horrific scandal. It looks like something that happens periodically. I won’t admit to being Catholic or subscribing to a disgraced belief system.
 
Rosalie, it’s not our beliefs that are flawed. It’s people, and it’s a critical time for us to be strong in our faith. It’s easy to show faith in good times, but showing your faith during difficult times is what I believe God wants in us. Focus on Christ and his teachings, not the individuals whom bring disgrace upon themselves. But do pray for them, and all the wonderful priests that continue to serve God need our prayers too.
 
Thanks, Convert3. Doing so would make us a little like martyrs. As for the individuals who brought disgrace…I’m sorry but I will pray for the little innocent victims. I hope the predators (well now, I don’t want to cuss in this forum…) get what’s coming to them.
And yes, our poor priests must be even more mortified than we are. I try to say something funny or appreciative to them after Mass and they do appreciate it.
 
44] But I say unto you , Love your enemies, bless them that curse you , do good to them that hate you , and pray for them which despitefully use you , and persecute you ; … [46] For if ye love them which love you , what reward have ye?

Matthew 5:44-46​

 
St. Peter is right, there is NO WHERE we can go because this is the one true faith! We need to stay faithful to God and understand that just because there’s a human scandal does not mean we should leave. Stay strong and faithful!
 
This is the Lords church and He will intervene when He thinks best. His chosen people betrayed their God again and again ultimately rejecting His Son. Yet to this day His Covenant with Israel stands. He has allowed the scandals in the Church to be brought into the light. He is allowing His Church to be dragged through the streets, and be mocked If we are faithful we will trust and wait for the Lords to complete his purification of the One Holy and Apostolic Church.And we suffer because we must suffer for our mother the Church.
 
The faithful are like distress beacons, they can throw all the mud of scandal on us they want, but the signal still gets through.
 
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