Is anyone here a positive Catholic?

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I consider myself to be a positive Catholic! It really does not matter to me what the music is like; whether other people are/are not holy enough; whether Mass is in English or Latin or even some random language I don’t understand. If I have access to Jesus and the sacraments, that is all I could ever need.

I am content to worry only about my own faith, my daughter’s faith, and to pray for the conversion of my husband. I pray for the conversion of sinners, but I don’t concern myself with complaining about who they are.

Jesus promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail. I believe Him.
 
It’s good to hear from so many other people on the forum who are finding joy and value in their personal Catholicism and not manifesting a unhealthy level of concern about either the state of the Church or what other Catholics beyond your control might do. I always suspect that there are many such people on the forum and in real life, but because they tend to be going about their own business and keeping more quiet than those who are full of complaints, sometimes I need to be reminded that they exist.
 
I have positive feelings about the Church and I would classify myself as a very joyful Catholic. I followed these forums for probably 8-10 years before converting and I made up my mind back then that I would never allow myself to be negative, scrupulous, etc. I want to be a joyful Christian.
 
I am very positive about the church, it is normal where humans are involved that good and bad things happen. I tend to take things as they come and pray for when they do not come in a good way like I would for a family member. Overall, I feel blessed to be a Catholic.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
because they tend to be going about their own business and keeping more quiet than those who are full of complaints,
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That’s the nature of online forums, sadly. They tend to attract argumentative and contentious people, so naturally, they’ll be unhappy and grouchy.
 
I’m in … I like many, many things that are happening in the Church. Sure, it is always disheartening when people give the most negative possible interpretation and predict doom and gloom, but there is much to be optimistic about.
 
OKComputer said:
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Tis_Bearself:
because they tend to be going about their own business and keeping more quiet than those who are full of complaints,
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That’s the nature of online forums, sadly. They tend to attract argumentative and contentious people, so naturally, they’ll be unhappy and grouchy.
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Hey!!! I may be argumentative and at times contrarian, but I’m not unhappy and grouchy!
 
I’m sure you are not.

I do wonder sometimes if people “get it”. They’ll talk about how no one wants to be Catholic/go to church yet all they do is complain, whine, argue, and be miserable. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t want to join a church that had that effect on people either.
 
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OKComputer said:
I do wonder sometimes if people “get it”. They’ll talk about how no one wants to be Catholic/go to church yet all they do is complain, whine, argue, and be miserable. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t want to join a church that had that effect on people either.
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I wonder, too. I’m convinced many of these folks don’t realize how they present themselves to the world. Yet, CAF has managed to help many people make their way to the church (self-included). I think many of us can recognize just how different CAF is from the lived experience of being Catholic.
 
That is true, and I’m sorry if I painted all of CAF here with a broad brush. I didn’t mean to do that.
 
OKComputer said:
That’s the nature of online forums, sadly. They tend to attract argumentative and contentious people, so naturally, they’ll be unhappy and grouchy
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That’s not true!! Why are you saying that? Show us your source and get off my lawn!!

😉
 
Though we all have a few things that bother us, I feel positive about the Catholic Church. We are an imperfect people. But we strive to become better.
 
I agree that there is too much emphasis on the problems in the Church, and I know I’m part of it, as I can be very harsh in my criticism sometimes. I’ve never meant to be a pessimist however, if I criticize anything it is only because I love and care about the Church, and want to protect her from the consequences of her faults. But of course, for every negative in the Church there are a hundred positives, and it would be a good thing to use some of that love for the Church to give compliments as well as advise.
 
Sure, good solution. Why not start more positive threads and ignore negative ones? Let people be people; you can’t change their negativity if that’s what they want to express. I wouldn’t worry about it myself, but work for change in a positive way. I think for anyone who is really watching the signs of the times, this is indeed a dark time for the church but at the same time one full of hope for God’s mercy always rises to meet us. I myself gravitate toward balanced positions, neither complaining/negative nor obliviously happy/slappy. And social media including this forum tends to stress the former.
 
I suspect that many “negative” folks who post here (myself included) are more positive / happy in real life.
I believe that part of the reason that there is a lot of negativity / complaining here is due to the nature of the Church, which is hierarchical. If I were a Baptist, or Lutheran, I could join a different church, and I could possibly join a committee for a pastor search, etc. In the Catholic Church, obviously, that is not how things work, and we can’t necessarily go to our pastor and “complain”, or voice our concerns, without seeming rude, or possibly being categorized as a whiner / nutcase. We may be 90% happy as Catholics, but that 10% comes out sometimes!
So, sometimes people need to"vent", or there’s almost a feeling of “am I the only one who thinks ____?”
So people seek out company for certain miseries, here at CAF, because it’s too dangerous to express some things at the parish level IRL, honestly.
 
Correction and feedback about improvements still needed can come off as negative, but it is necessary.
Let us think for a minute about what could be going on in our churches if victims of sexual abuse had not forced the rest of us to take notice. Children are safer because they spoke up. The victims finally got some justice they had been denied. It has been difficult, but on the whole it was needed and is yielding a Church that is safer for the innocent.
That’s just one example. “A wise son loves correction…” Don’t we know there is a reason that our Sacrament of Healing requires us to disclose our failures, but nothing requires us to disclose our own personal achievements?
I belong to a parish full of positive people. It is quite lovely.
 
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PetraG said:
Correction and feedback about improvements still needed can come off as negative, but it is necessary.
Let us think for a minute about what could be going on in our churches if victims of sexual abuse had not forced the rest of us to take notice. Children are safer because they spoke up.
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That seems like an extreme example to bring onto this thread.
Child abuse is not only a serious moral wrong, it’s a crime. Of course we should be alert to it and report crimes.
I would further hope that something serious like child abuse would be reported to the police and not by someone starting a forum thread complaining about it.

Nothing I’ve said in this thread says we need to keep quiet about serious problems we see with our own eyes.
I think you’re also very aware that the vast majority of things complained about by Catholics, including on this forum, are nowhere near the serious level of people committing child abuse or even actual liturgical abuse. Rather, they are things that one person simply doesn’t like, and he thinks his own preference should be the way everything is done.

I’ll leave it at that so we do not ruin the positive tone of the thread. I am pretty amazed you would use an example like that though, as it seems like you’re suggesting that positivity is why we had a child sexual abuse crisis in the Church, which is definitely not the case.
 
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