I used to be Catholic too (yeah right)

[rinnie]

One statistical note - the number of parishes in the US is declining, not increasing(USCCB.com.) While some may be coming back - I would speculate that most are not and it’s unlikely - if they have children - that they are coming back either. Most parishes that are closing are on the coastal regions, with the East coast getting hit the hardest.

At NYU - their Newman center isn’t being used anymore so they rent it out to Muslims.

On Long island, at St. Matthew’s - the priests never returns calls or emails from one of it’s parishoner’s nephew. Good thing he’s not considering the priesthood. Getting the cold shoulder from a religious is one of the surest ways to limit vocations and give a GREAT impression of the faith community there.

In Jersey, 7 parishes are being combined into 2 (no reference other than word of mouth.)

There are so many great and faithful Catholics on the East coast - but they are drowned out by the thousands of unformed and mediocre Catholics.

The West coast is at the crest of their liberal agenda and is just stating to experience difficulties. We’re visiting family right now int he Seattle area and this has been my experience:

1. 
   *]So many liturgical abuses I’m not really sure I was in a Catholic Church.
   *]During a homily - the priest said he skips of part of the reading from the Colossians - because it’s not up to date and he doesn’t beelive it anymore.
   *]A homily based soley on experential knowledge instead of the word of God - (would have been OK if it wasn’t contrary to scripture.)
   *]I admit, I wear jeans to Church sometimes on Sunday, not often, but occasionally (not making a judgment call here - just an observation). However, I’ve never seen so many shorts, jeans, mini-skirts, and see-through shirts revealing bras anywhere in my life, especially on children under 18 years of age than in Church on Sunday.
   This is the state of our culture. Our college aged students need to be evangelized yes, but our priests and ourselves first!
   1. 
      *]

1. 1. 
      Wow. Was this done in a RCC. I can’t believe a RCC Priest would say that he does not believe in scripture. This just does not add up. If it was done in the RCC all I can do is pray for this priest and hope he can come back to the light. Did you tell the Bishop about this?

 

[Dismas2004]

Wow. Was this done in a RCC. I can’t believe a RCC Priest would say that he does not believe in scripture. This just does not add up. If it was done in the RCC all I can do is pray for this priest and hope he can come back to the light. Did you tell the Bishop about this?

No - however when I get home I will probably draft a letter. Every time we visit family here, I leave more encouraged for our mission work with college students. This is exactly the kind of situation we are trying to change.

The Bishop here really has his job cut out for him. This is such a unfaithful diocese the change will be slow and painful. So they will continue to be in our prayers.

FYI - It’s St. John’s in Covington, WA of the Archdiocese of Seattle.

 

[rinnie]

No - however when I get home I will probably draft a letter. Every time we visit family here, I leave more encouraged for our mission work with college students. This is exactly the kind of situation we are trying to change.

The Bishop here really has his job cut out for him. This is such a unfaithful diocese the change will be slow and painful. So they will continue to be in our prayers.

FYI - It’s St. John’s in Covington, WA of the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Thank God for that! But you are right even if it wasn’t the RCC it should never have been said in any Catholic Church. I can’t imagine such a thing.

 

[distracted]

It seem’s that You hear I used to be Catholic but then I changed to Protestant because…

Now here is my question?

2 question’s really. Do you think that they really were Catholic?

And how many who claim that they really were strict Catholic’s at one time don’t seem to know the faith at all. I mean none of us know everything about our faith. Granted its hard. But the ones who claim they were like Catholic forever then changed to another faith out of the blue? Something don’t sound right. Especially when they don’t know the easy questions.

i think ignorance is the main reason Catholics leave… but then some choose to be ignorant. I have tried to talk to those fallen aways… about the Church… They have no arguments, to speak of, and yet they resist what i say… so… i guess something in their lives… or hearts or whatever… is more important than having the Church… and sometimes we Catholics are like that too… so we have to be understanding… I mean, sometimes i wonder why i put up with this or that in the Church, but its a long story what i mean… and if i elaborate, may constitute a… digression from the main point…

 

[rinnie]

i think ignorance is the main reason Catholics leave… but then some choose to be ignorant. I have tried to talk to those fallen aways… about the Church… They have no arguments, to speak of, and yet they resist what i say… so… i guess something in their lives… or hearts or whatever… is more important than having the Church… and sometimes we Catholics are like that too… so we have to be understanding… I mean, sometimes i wonder why i put up with this or that in the Church, but its a long story what i mean… and if i elaborate, may constitute a… digression from the main point…

I know what you mean distracted. But I think alot of people need to learn the Church’s Teaching. The Teaching of the Church. Its like we can’t say or get that point across enough. Not what the People of the CHurch do, or how one parish or another may have failed to meet all peoples needs. Because no parish will ever do that. But the teaching of the CHurch, is what I go for. Not to judge one person or another or What a priests personal opinions are. Because people forget a Priest is human and can speak on a human level also. Just like us. But when he teaches scripture and has the Gift of the HS thats another story. Thats what the RCC is all about. Thats what we are there for. The fullness of the Truth. Not human failure. Show me a Parish that does not have humans in it that do not fail. But the Church itself the Living Christ now thats the fullness of the truth.

 

[Dismas2004]

The main reason I see is a true lack of formation for many, many, many years. I don’t mean memorizing the catechism, or going to CCD - I mean true formation. There has been a true lack of formation in this country from before I was born in 1975.

My Grandmother is a great example. She is so hungry for the faith and intelligent, albeit very old now. But she still loves to hear about Theology and the bible. She’s 75+ but loves learning scripture. The reason: She’s in love with Jesus Christ and His church.

What we need is a true renewal at every lever - but where do we start?

I’m going to start another thread with just that question.

 

[ericka1701]

I agree that a percentage can go to Mass, can go through the rubrics, and knows all of the words to all of the prayers, but there is no fire in their hearts. Most of the percentage I know tend to be cradle-Catholics, so maybe it’s a possibility they left to try to search for God elsewhere. I also know quite a few reverts, and they seem to be pretty on fire people, so in someways leaving the Church isn’t always a bad thing, because as I’ve heard remarked by the people who have left and come back, “I didn’t know what I was missing until I found out what I didn’t have”.

I converted a couple of weeks before I turned 22, and I’m currently more involved with church than I have been in my life, and I’ve been a once a week church goer my whole life, except for the 6 months or so I stopped going altogether. I can’t seem to get enough going to Mass, and I couldn’t even dream of leaving the Church. Recently I been arguing with my parents about vacation plans because I’ll be gone on a Sunday, and the closest Catholic Church is 8 miles away (and they don’t want to have to drive that far, even with gas compensation… maybe I’ll win them over… ). Anways, before I digress… .

I keep praying that those who haven’t really experienced all the Church offers. May they one day fall back in love with the Church.

God Bless!
Ericka

 

[mom4truth]

A big AMEN to post #45! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!!

 

[biandblessed]

Well, I did used to be Catholic, that is if being Catholic is going to CCD and listening to them shove **** down your throat. I stopped being Catholic when I was 14. Sad but true. I was tired of the whole “Its magic just believe it don’t ask questions” stuff. I can’t just simply believe. You are telling me to read a book that is 2000 years old and take it as the truth to life?!! Come on. I have read the Bible, front to back and every which way you can. I think Jesus was real, I do, but one must remember that there were lots of people like him running around claiming to have life figured out. I guess the real reason I stopped being Catholic was I was asking questions that no one had the answers to and finially I figured out that no one know anything about what really happened. Everyone who claims to know the faith is going on the Bible as a work of pure non-fiction with no exaggerations, that and assumptions.

 

[rinnie]

Well, I did used to be Catholic, that is if being Catholic is going to CCD and listening to them shove **** down your throat. I stopped being Catholic when I was 14. Sad but true. I was tired of the whole “Its magic just believe it don’t ask questions” stuff. I can’t just simply believe. You are telling me to read a book that is 2000 years old and take it as the truth to life?!! Come on. I have read the Bible, front to back and every which way you can. I think Jesus was real, I do, but one must remember that there were lots of people like him running around claiming to have life figured out. I guess the real reason I stopped being Catholic was I was asking questions that no one had the answers to and finially I figured out that no one know anything about what really happened. Everyone who claims to know the faith is going on the Bible as a work of pure non-fiction with no exaggerations, that and assumptions.

You my friend is actually what I am talking about. Let me begin by teaching you a little about the faith. First of all you claim that the faith started with the bible. Let me be the first to explain to you the Faith started with Jesus Christ and the Church. The church is what Jesus left us not the bible. Because not half of what we need to know is in the bible it is in the Church. Second of all, ask questions, ask all the questions you want. And I promise you one thing you will find the answer in the Church or there is no answer. That you can take to the bank. You want to know the Catholic faith, sit down with a RCC priest he will and trust me CAN explain it to you. Not shove it down your throat. Our faith is not about magic, the bible, our church is about God. There was no magic in Jesus Christ hanging on that cross and suffering on that Cross. That was what we call the RCC. Jesus Christ a perfect human being without sins that loved us so much that suffered for our sins. He never shoved anything down anyones throat. He died so we could have life. You really need to learn the faith before you preach it. You again are a perfect example of what I was talking about! And we do not call the teachings of that great love … We call it sacrifice, pure perfect love and sacrifice for our sins. You should be ashamed of yourself and I pray for you more than you will know. To call our faith what you did.

 

[SD_Catholic]

Well, I did used to be Catholic, that is if being Catholic is going to CCD and listening to them shove **** down your throat. I stopped being Catholic when I was 14. Sad but true. I was tired of the whole “Its magic just believe it don’t ask questions” stuff. I can’t just simply believe. You are telling me to read a book that is 2000 years old and take it as the truth to life?!! Come on. I have read the Bible, front to back and every which way you can. I think Jesus was real, I do, but one must remember that there were lots of people like him running around claiming to have life figured out. I guess the real reason I stopped being Catholic was I was asking questions that no one had the answers to and finially I figured out that no one know anything about what really happened. Everyone who claims to know the faith is going on the Bible as a work of pure non-fiction with no exaggerations, that and assumptions.

First of all, if you know the Bible so well, you’ll know there weren’t “lot’s of people” like him… in fact none! None of them claimed the things he claimed of himself, or did the things he eventually did…

Telling you anything will not make you believe in God and Jesus… it takes faith to have belief… no one can give you the grace to have faith but God.

Actually not everyone is going on the Bible (alone) for their faith. … The CC has 2000 years of documents that back up their claims… All these documents along with the Bible make a pretty good argument for the reality that this stuff is more than just someone’s imagination… Perhaps you are looking for this type of historical information rather than just proof from the Bible?

SD

 

[jmcrae]

Well, I did used to be Catholic, that is if being Catholic is going to CCD and listening to them shove **** down your throat. I stopped being Catholic when I was 14.

First, no one except God can give you faith, and not even God can give it to you if you don’t really want it.

Sad but true. I was tired of the whole “Its magic just believe it don’t ask questions” stuff.

Second, they probably used the word “mystery” - not “magic”. Two totally different things.

How gravity works is a “mystery” but we don’t stop believing in it just because of that - and we know that it isn’t “magic.” It’s the same with God - He’s bigger than what we can explain, but not being able to explain doesn’t mean that He doesn’t exist, or that we therefore stop believing in Him.

I can’t just simply believe.

Really? I’ll bet there are plenty of things that you just simply believe, and never question. For example, you probably just accept without questioning that your birthday is on such and such a date, that your last name is what you’ve been told it is, and that you are related in some way (biologically or by adoption) to the people that you call “Mom” and “Dad.” You have absolutely no way of proving any of these things - birth records and adoption records can be forged. But you believe all these things, simply on blind, unquestioning faith.

So, you have the ability to simply believe what you are told. But in the case of the teachings of the Church, you are choosing not to.

You are telling me to read a book that is 2000 years old and take it as the truth to life?!! Come on. I have read the Bible, front to back and every which way you can. I think Jesus was real, I do, but one must remember that there were lots of people like him running around claiming to have life figured out.

And how many of those other people’s followers said that they had seen them risen from the dead? How many of their religions do you see around you, today?

I guess the real reason I stopped being Catholic was I was asking questions that no one had the answers to and finially I figured out that no one know anything about what really happened.

Did you try reading the Catechism, or was the whole of your questioning done to some poor young woman or man who was trying to do a bit of volunteer work in church, by helping out with the Sunday School?

What was the context of your questions? Were you sitting down in a meeting, or were you just flinging your questions at them while they were trying to teach a particular lesson plan, or on their way out the door to go home?

Did you give them time to prepare their answers, or were you putting them on the spot and asking them to know everything right in that moment, and have it memorized in their heads to give to you as a one-line, simple response?

Because, you know, that would change the quality of the response you would get. Most people, even catechists, don’t have the whole thing memorized, and don’t have any quick, pat answers to give you in response to some kind of a pop-quiz situation.

 

[Rawb]

Well, I did used to be Catholic, that is if being Catholic is going to CCD and listening to them shove **** down your throat.

Which is not what Catholicism is, and if you gave it time to truly think about this you’d realize that attending CCD is not what a religion that billions of people follow is about. SOMETHING has to be attracting people to it.

I stopped being Catholic when I was 14.

Such a knowledgable age, 14. At 14 I was just entering high school, and about the only thing I knew for certain was that I was too young to have it all figured out.

I was tired of the whole “Its magic just believe it don’t ask questions” stuff.

Catholicism is known for being able to stand up to questions, if people take the time to delve into it. There is a LOT of information on The Church (it could take a while to study 2,000 years of teaching and doctrine, much of which accompanies the history of western civilization in itself). Read St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica for starters, and the other doctors of the Church, and then the Catechism. Logic is essential to Christianity, especially Catholicism (a point which was made by our current pontiff)

I can’t just simply believe.

Why?

You are telling me to read a book that is 2000 years old and take it as the truth to life?!! Come on. I have read the Bible, front to back and every which way you can.

The point of which was what? Catholics know they cannot simply read the Bible and ‘poof’ it’s all so clear and nicely wrapped. For one thing it’s a series of letters written by various people over the course of several years in a culture radically different to ours. What do the metaphors mean to the people of that time? What would someone have understood when they heard a certain passage quoted at that time? How would people have been expected to act at that time? What are the coloquialisms of that time? If you don’t take these things into account, what will you learn? You’d be like a baby given a car and told to drive, you wouldn’t understand any of what you’re reading, and would come to conclusions vastly different from the intentions of the authors. Who were those authors, anyway? Would their point of view, their perspective and personal history effect what they had written? You bet. That is Bible study.

I think Jesus was real, I do, but one must remember that there were lots of people like him running around claiming to have life figured out

.

Exactly! So consider their points then. What were they? Did their prophecies come true? Did their followers risk death to maintain their belief? Is there still a following, evidence of their validity? Is there historical records to verify the claims of those prophets?

I guess the real reason I stopped being Catholic was I was asking questions that no one had the answers to and finially I figured out that no one know anything about what really happened.

What were the questions? There is always an answer, you just didn’t find it (or maybe didn’t like it, but there is always an answer)

Everyone who claims to know the faith is going on the Bible as a work of pure non-fiction with no exaggerations, that and assumptions.

The Bible, and the Didache, and the writings that didn’t make it into the Bible, such as the Letter of Clement. Then the writings post Apostles, such as the work of St. Justin Martyr, or St. Polycarp. Also, it is widely known that occasionally Our Lord used the Rabbinical teaching method of hyperbole to prove a point (‘exaggerations’, as you put it), but we know which times he’s doing this. This goes back to having to understand the culture at the time Sacred Scripture was written.

Much happened before the Bible that the Catholic Church still holds to. The Church holds up all of Sacred Revelation; Scripture and Tradition. Again, it is important to really examine the Church and her teachings, and know why we do things, and ask these questions from people who do know the answer, and be willing to listen to the answers.

 

[Romgtr]

Please check out my video on Youtube. My user name is Romgtr. My video is called, “How to find the true religion.” God bless!

 

[Bennie_P]

When I first announced to my protestant friends that I was going into full communion with the Catholic Chruch the so_called wx-Catholics started coming out of the wood work. The line “I used to be Catholic too.” has become an almost daily response in my ears. My response back? - You still are… then I leave it that…

And when non-Catholics ask me how or why I would become Catholic, I will ask if they have been baptized by the Father Son and Holy Spirit? and if they answer yes, then I tell them, " …well you are one too…you just don’t realize it yet."

Being Catholic is not always understanding what it is all about, but just the willingness to seek Christ and our Fathers will… we are just at different levels of conversion working toward the Holiness we are all called to seek…:getholy:

 

[rinnie]

When I first announced to my protestant friends that I was going into full communion with the Catholic Chruch the so_called wx-Catholics started coming out of the wood work. The line “I used to be Catholic too.” has become an almost daily response in my ears. My response back? - You still are… then I leave it that…

And when non-Catholics ask me how or why I would become Catholic, I will ask if they have been baptized by the Father Son and Holy Spirit? and if they answer yes, then I tell them, " …well you are one too…you just don’t realize it yet."

Being Catholic is not always understanding what it is all about, but just the willingness to seek Christ and our Fathers will… we are just at different levels of conversion working toward the Holiness we are all called to seek…:getholy:

Boy I bet that one throws them for a loop Love that answer!

 

[Agripa]

I agree to a point, but there are many other reasons that may apply.

First, many, many more people are more highly educated than ever before. Since WWII, middle and working class people have received all sorts of incentives to go to school and earn advanced degrees. With such education, we expand our powers to reason, to catalog, to meaningfully reflect on life, science, history, culture, etc. This often brings religion and belief under a much harsher microscope than for those with less advanced educations. Most pastors would not admit this, but they would rather the pews be filled with children and union laborers than a bunch of doctors, lawyers and scientists any day!

Second, at least in the US and in Europe, democracy has replaced (to varying extents) aristocratic, monarchical or theocratic rule. The model of the Church fits much better under more autocratic regimines than democratic ones. You will note today that the church thrives where it can establish at least a symbiotic role with dictators and autocrats than in more democratized countries - ie. the Church thrives in Africa and Latin America, not the US, England, Germany, the Netherlands etc.

The Church itself is hierarchical and indeed the model of God as defined and presented by the Church is one of omnipotent Ruler needing our full obedience and belief. This is clearly traced back to the Roman emporers that alowed Christianity to be poured into the Old Roman cultural vesel.

Third, life, overall, at least in developed nations, is no longer as “nasty, brutish and short” as it once was. In advanced cultures, where recreation, liesure and decent healthcare abound, we live longer, are less fearful of war, attack, death and desctruction, all things and circumstances the Church provided ready answers for centuries ago.

These realities do not dovetail well with notions of individual rights, democratic institutions, or the gaining of critical knowledge.

I think these are at least reasons to consider if you want to know why there are so many “former Catholics”!

 

[mseaton]

I left the church for about 3 years and I learnt so much about the Catholic Church during the bible study in the protestant church. I then was convicted about the Holy Eucharist andi I immediately recognized the richness of my faith. I will never leave again.

 

[rinnie]

I left the church for about 3 years and I learnt so much about the Catholic Church during the bible study in the protestant church. I then was convicted about the Holy Eucharist andi I immediately recognized the richness of my faith. I will never leave again.

I have heard this so many times. Isn’t it wondeful how the truth no matter where it comes from leads back to the CC. If you just can have the grace from God to accept it,and see it. I guess its true God will reveal things to you when he is ready and you are ready to see them.

 

[mseaton]

You are totally correct! Bible study was an intricate part of our training and so we feel that we have lost out. The answer is evangelization which was never done in the past. We Catholics need to become bold and make a commitment to read our bibles.