"I'm only Catholic because I was raised Catholic"

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HeWillProvide

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So as an adult I am finally questioning Catholicism since as a child that was all I knew.
Sometimes I look at it as so complicated, so many rules, so many doctrines. so many details, so much “stuff” when all I want to do is have a relationship with God.
Where do I start when researching the history of the Church? I am not against it. I just want to justify why I believe it. I want a reason other than “because I grew up with it” as my reason for being Catholic. I want to embrace the “rules” and doctrines and all the “stuff” because I know it is right instead of begrudgingly “doing” them because I feel like I “have to” follow them. I don’t want to feel like yelling, “Gosh, let me just live my life!” when I learn of another “rule” I’m supposed to follow or another procedure I’m supposed to follow.

Where do I begin?
 
HeWillProvide said:
So as an adult I am finally questioning Catholicism since as a child that was all I knew.
Sometimes I look at it as so complicated, so many rules, so many doctrines. so many details, so much “stuff” when all I want to do is have a relationship with God.
Where do I start when researching the history of the Church? I am not against it. I just want to justify why I believe it. I want a reason other than “because I grew up with it” as my reason for being Catholic. I want to embrace the “rules” and doctrines and all the “stuff” because I know it is right instead of begrudgingly “doing” them because I feel like I “have to” follow them. I don’t want to feel like yelling, “Gosh, let me just live my life!” when I learn of another “rule” I’m supposed to follow or another procedure I’m supposed to follow.

Where do I begin?
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Really basic approach is to read the Gospels, because there is a history of the events in the life of Our Lord. The Mystery of the Incarnation was revealed at the time of Christ’s life with the Apostles. The healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the description of the sitting at the right hand, and of the second coming in glory, are all contained there in the Gospels.

The second part is understanding how the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and the visible Church is in communion with the Holy See. The Catechism may be helpful there, and it has many references.
 
I’m thinking more along the lines of the “rules” of the Church since I get into discussions with Protestants. Popes telling us what to do, etc.
 
The first thing that you have to accept is that no doctrine or dogma is arbitrary, and that disciplines (policies that “can” be changed) are usually one way rather than another because one way is simply better in practice than another.

Get a catechism, that will help.
 
HeWillProvide said:
I’m thinking more along the lines of the “rules” of the Church since I get into discussions with Protestants. Popes telling us what to do, etc.
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The Magisterium has been given the responsibility to “feed my sheep”, by Christ, so the must tell us what to do. They also study theology more than the average person so are more authorities in that respect, and receive the strength of the Holy Spirit from Holy Orders for actualizing their role.

Do you mean the precepts of the church?


  1. *]Liturgy on Sundays and holy days of obligation and day of rest
    *]Confession of serious sins at least annually
    *]Reception of the Eucharist during the Easter Season
    *]Observe established days of fast and abstinence
    *]Help provide for the needs of the Church

    These are all contained in the Gospels and traditions, but their form is one of Church discipline (changing over time).
 
HeWillProvide said:
I’m thinking more along the lines of the “rules” of the Church since I get into discussions with Protestants. Popes telling us what to do, etc.
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What rules? The Ten Commandments? The precepts of the Church? They’re right out of the Bible.

It sounds like you are being influenced by anti-Catholic, know-nothing-about-the-Catholic-religion Protestants, of which there are many.

Have you read any books about the Catholic faith? Any books about the history of the Church and the Bible? Do you know where we got the Bible so you can tell your Protestant friends? What are the “Popes telling us to do,” that you or your friends feel is wrong? Do you know that “Pope” means papa, father? When Jesus returned to heaven, he left us the Church as our teacher and appointed St. Peter as his deputy. When St. Peter died, another was appointed in his place, and so on, until the election of Benedict XVI, who is the 265th head of Christ’s Church.

Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and promised to be with it ALWAYS (Mt 28:20). He also promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church to all truth ALWAYS (John 14:16-18, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-15). Jesus promised that the “powers of death” would not prevail against His Church (Mt 16:18-19). Was Jesus making empty promises?

Do you know how many thousands of Protestant congregations there are, each with their own interpretation of the Bible? The answer has to be NO — no one knows. There are an average of five new ones every week somewhere in the world, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia. And they all claim to teach the truth. 😛

The Catholic Church is God-made. All Protestant ecclesial communities (there’s only one Church) are man-made in or after the 16th century…

If you want the Truth, be Catholic. Protestants have some of the truth, mixed with man-made errors, but not all of it.

They’ll try to tell you that Catholic doctrines are man-made, but that’s not true. Very little if anything they have to say about the Church is true.

Read the little book Where We Got the Bible, Our Debt to the Catholic Church by Henry Graham. It’s online here:

catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/protestantism/wbible.htm

It’s also available cheap from Catholic Answers and Amazon.

All Protestants are “Bible-only believers,” but there was no Bible as we know it until the beginning of the fifth century. Jesus didn’t leave us the Bible. He left us the Catholic Church as our teacher. The Church produced the Bible. The New Testament consists of 27 of the Church’s own writings.

You are very fortunate to have been born and raised Catholic. You must now find out why the Church teaches as she does so you can defend your faith against the enemies of the Church. They mean well, but they are ignorant of the Truth.

Jim Dandy
Ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, ecstatic to be Catholic
 
HeWillProvide said:
So as an adult I am finally questioning Catholicism since as a child that was all I knew.
Sometimes I look at it as so complicated, so many rules, so many doctrines. so many details, so much “stuff” when all I want to do is have a relationship with God.
Where do I start when researching the history of the Church? I am not against it. I just want to justify why I believe it. I want a reason other than “because I grew up with it” as my reason for being Catholic. I want to embrace the “rules” and doctrines and all the “stuff” because I know it is right instead of begrudgingly “doing” them because I feel like I “have to” follow them. I don’t want to feel like yelling, “Gosh, let me just live my life!” when I learn of another “rule” I’m supposed to follow or another procedure I’m supposed to follow.

Where do I begin?
Click to expand...
Try listening to convert stories of The Journey Home…ewtn.com/tv/live/journeyhome.asp

If you want a book…Surprised by Truth Series by Patrick Madrid.

Or books by convert Scott Hahn…start with his book…Rome Sweet Home…where he relates his discovery of Catholicism.
 
Catholicism for Dummies. Excellent and easily read explanation of the faith, its practices and history. Written by two excellent Priests, who have two PhDs and a ThD between them. I learn something each time I read it.
 
kkollwitz said:
To start, you may enjoy reading Why Do Catholics Do That?

You can get it used at Amazon.

amazon.com/Why-Do-Catholics-That/dp/0345397266/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339640277&sr=1-1

Also I’ll suggest the new video series Catholicism, by Father Robert Barron, who also has an assortment of topical bits on YouTube. Catholicism isn’t cheap, but your local library may carry it.
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I read that book. It explained things from the viewpoint of Roman Catholicism without delving into the Bible all that much… :confused::o
 
Jim_Dandy said:
What rules? The Ten Commandments? The precepts of the Church? They’re right out of the Bible.

It sounds like you are being influenced by anti-Catholic, know-nothing-about-the-Catholic-religion Protestants, of which there are many.

Have you read any books about the Catholic faith? Any books about the history of the Church and the Bible? Do you know where we got the Bible so you can tell your Protestant friends? What are the “Popes telling us to do,” that you or your friends feel is wrong? Do you know that “Pope” means papa, father? When Jesus returned to heaven, he left us the Church as our teacher and appointed St. Peter as his deputy. When St. Peter died, another was appointed in his place, and so on, until the election of Benedict XVI, who is the 265th head of Christ’s Church.

Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and promised to be with it ALWAYS (Mt 28:20). He also promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church to all truth ALWAYS (John 14:16-18, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-15). Jesus promised that the “powers of death” would not prevail against His Church (Mt 16:18-19). Was Jesus making empty promises?

Do you know how many thousands of Protestant congregations there are, each with their own interpretation of the Bible? The answer has to be NO — no one knows. There are an average of five new ones every week somewhere in the world, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia. And they all claim to teach the truth. 😛

The Catholic Church is God-made. All Protestant ecclesial communities (there’s only one Church) are man-made in or after the 16th century…

If you want the Truth, be Catholic. Protestants have some of the truth, mixed with man-made errors, but not all of it.

They’ll try to tell you that Catholic doctrines are man-made, but that’s not true. Very little if anything they have to say about the Church is true.

Read the little book Where We Got the Bible, Our Debt to the Catholic Church by Henry Graham. It’s online here:

catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/protestantism/wbible.htm

It’s also available cheap from Catholic Answers and Amazon.

All Protestants are “Bible-only believers,” but there was no Bible as we know it until the beginning of the fifth century. Jesus didn’t leave us the Bible. He left us the Catholic Church as our teacher. The Church produced the Bible. The New Testament consists of 27 of the Church’s own writings.

You are very fortunate to have been born and raised Catholic. You must now find out why the Church teaches as she does so you can defend your faith against the enemies of the Church. They mean well, but they are ignorant of the Truth.

Jim Dandy
Ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, ecstatic to be Catholic
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You sound as if you had a tough time in the protestant world. That was quite the rant. 🤷
 
JohnHall said:
I read that book. It explained things from the viewpoint of Roman Catholicism without delving into the Bible all that much… :confused::o
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That is because Jesus founded His Church without a bible. Aside from being inspired, the bible is essentially the Cliff’s Notes of Christ. There is infintely more to Christ. The bible tells us that it is incomplete in numerous places. A few are Luke 3:18, John 20:30, John 21:25, Acts 2:40, 1 Corinthians 11:34, Ephesians 6:21-22).

It is a great tragedy that so many who love Christ have only the bible.
 
po18guy said:
It is a great tragedy that so many who love Christ have only the bible.
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It is a great tragedy that you feel that way. I know bible believing Christians have more than “only the bible” -they have Jesus Christ. Shame on you for saying that it is a “great tragedy.” What would Jesus say to that? You hypocrite. You proclaim to be a Christian Catholic, but put down those who believe in God’s word alone.

Examine yourself before getting mad at me. I know you will, and if not, good. Just know I mean no ill-will.
 
po18guy said:
That is because Jesus founded His Church without a bible. Aside from being inspired, the bible is essentially the Cliff’s Notes of Christ. There is infintely more to Christ. The bible tells us that it is incomplete in numerous places. A few are Luke 3:18, John 20:30, John 21:25, Acts 2:40, 1 Corinthians 11:34, Ephesians 6:21-22).

It is a great tragedy that so many who love Christ have only the bible.
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👍👍
JohnHall said:
It is a great tragedy that you feel that way. I know bible believing Christians have more than “only the bible” -they have Jesus Christ. Shame on you for saying that it is a “great tragedy.” What would Jesus say to that? **You hypocrite. You proclaim to be a Christian Catholic, but put down those who believe in God’s word alone. **

Examine yourself before getting mad at me. I know you will, and if not, good. Just know I mean no ill-will.
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Sure looks like you mean no ill-will—.

Is there any other “Catholic that’s not Christian?”🤷
 
There is also a nice book called

What makes us catholic
by Thomas H. Groome
 
There are a lot of resources out there, even free ones.

The Bible and the Catechism are online.
This site has lots of faith tracts that explain some of the more difficult/controversial teachings.
There are old articles from “This Rock” (now “Catholic Answers Magazine”) that answer a lot of common questions.
There are audio podcasts of the Catholic Answers Live program. There is a Q&A Open Forum on Tuesdays & Thursdays where people can call in and ask whatever they want, and the rest of the week is Q&A on whatever topic(s) was/were chosen for that day.
There are also a lot of good apologetics websites out there, blogs, etc.
 
I felt at times as you may have felt. Thats why I focus on what Jesus said (paraphrasing) in summoning up the ten commandments and that’s to love God with all your heart and treat others as you would like to be treated. That’s pretty much also basic Devine law in other religions as well. Since I been following the 2 everything has been pretty much falling in place for me.
 
Jim_Dandy said:
What rules? The Ten Commandments? The precepts of the Church? They’re right out of the Bible.

It sounds like you are being influenced by anti-Catholic, know-nothing-about-the-Catholic-religion Protestants, of which there are many.

Have you read any books about the Catholic faith? Any books about the history of the Church and the Bible? Do you know where we got the Bible so you can tell your Protestant friends? What are the “Popes telling us to do,” that you or your friends feel is wrong? Do you know that “Pope” means papa, father? When Jesus returned to heaven, he left us the Church as our teacher and appointed St. Peter as his deputy. When St. Peter died, another was appointed in his place, and so on, until the election of Benedict XVI, who is the 265th head of Christ’s Church.

Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and promised to be with it ALWAYS (Mt 28:20). He also promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church to all truth ALWAYS (John 14:16-18, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-15). Jesus promised that the “powers of death” would not prevail against His Church (Mt 16:18-19). Was Jesus making empty promises?

Do you know how many thousands of Protestant congregations there are, each with their own interpretation of the Bible? The answer has to be NO — no one knows. There are an average of five new ones every week somewhere in the world, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia. And they all claim to teach the truth. 😛

The Catholic Church is God-made. All Protestant ecclesial communities (there’s only one Church) are man-made in or after the 16th century…

If you want the Truth, be Catholic. Protestants have some of the truth, mixed with man-made errors, but not all of it.

They’ll try to tell you that Catholic doctrines are man-made, but that’s not true. Very little if anything they have to say about the Church is true.

Read the little book Where We Got the Bible, Our Debt to the Catholic Church by Henry Graham. It’s online here:

catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/protestantism/wbible.htm

It’s also available cheap from Catholic Answers and Amazon.

All Protestants are “Bible-only believers,” but there was no Bible as we know it until the beginning of the fifth century. Jesus didn’t leave us the Bible. He left us the Catholic Church as our teacher. The Church produced the Bible. The New Testament consists of 27 of the Church’s own writings.

You are very fortunate to have been born and raised Catholic. You must now find out why the Church teaches as she does so you can defend your faith against the enemies of the Church. They mean well, but they are ignorant of the Truth.

Jim Dandy
Ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, ecstatic to be Catholic
Click to expand...
Thanks. This was helpful. Yes, Protestants questioning me which is good because then I must question myself and Catholicism. But sometimes I wish I could get out of the “your church is wrong, mine is right” debates and just have a relationship with God. But I know that’s not reality.
 
HeWillProvide said:
Thanks. This was helpful. Yes, Protestants questioning me which is good because then I must question myself and Catholicism. But sometimes I wish I could get out of the “your church is wrong, mine is right” debates and just have a relationship with God. But I know that’s not reality.
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I grew up in a wonderful Protestant Church. When I became a Catholic it was with the realization that my Protestant Church was not wrong. It was just incomplete.

I’ll try to explain. I was taught “Faith” saves. This is correct as far as it goes.

The Catholic Church teach both Faith and Works are necessary for salvation. Works come from Faith.

I have lost nothing of the beauty of my previous faith and have gained “the fullness” of faith in the Catholic Church.

If rules bother you, think about what it takes to be an artist, a musician, an athete or how to accomplish anything worthwhile in this world. For instance, a successful musician, spents many many hours studying chords, scales - all the rules of good musicianship.

Before you cast away “the rules” learn what they are, what they mean, and how they are applied to your life. I look at the rules like telling a child “do not touch that stove” A child does not understand why the rule exists but if he disobeys that rule, he will be burned.
 
HeWillProvide said:
So as an adult I am finally questioning Catholicism since as a child that was all I knew.
Sometimes I look at it as so complicated, so many rules, so many doctrines. so many details, so much “stuff” when all I want to do is have a relationship with God.
Where do I start when researching the history of the Church? I am not against it. I just want to justify why I believe it. I want a reason other than “because I grew up with it” as my reason for being Catholic. I want to embrace the “rules” and doctrines and all the “stuff” because I know it is right instead of begrudgingly “doing” them because I feel like I “have to” follow them. I don’t want to feel like yelling, “Gosh, let me just live my life!” when I learn of another “rule” I’m supposed to follow or another procedure I’m supposed to follow.

Where do I begin?
Click to expand...
There are many catholic sites, blogs by our apologetics and so forth. Just focus that the Church Made the Bible, the Bible came from the Catholic Church and gave it to the world. Protestantism is no authority to interpret the bible since it is not their own. Then you can start to find the answer of the Church regarding to the questions in your mind, You can ask our apologist in this site and they will guide to strengthen your Catholic Faith. Just Pray, and open your heart to find what you are looking for.
 
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