Joining Church-Pruning Friends YIKES!

[Captain_America]

OP: I just generally feel you’ll do okay. . . I feel you’ve got the whole “laugh because you can’t cry” notion down here. . . this is one of those human tangle deals we get sent every so often to keep us on our feet!

Just by point of reference, the real Guiding Star in human history has been the church’s insistence that we are equally God’s children. Women as well as men. Blacks as well as whites, etc. This has been the world’s greatest force on behalf of freedom and democracy.

 

[CalCatholic]

I have found that it is much more peaceful not being on facebook, twitter or any of the other social media sites! There is a calm, not hearing that daily clutter of noise, and it allows me the time to concentrate on prayers, reading the Bible and my duties at my parish.

 

[Della]

I have found that it is much more peaceful not being on facebook, twitter or any of the other social media sites! There is a calm, not hearing that daily clutter of noise, and it allows me the time to concentrate on prayers, reading the Bible and my duties at my parish.

I too have resisted the “urge” to join online social groups. My dh has an account just to communicate with relatives who never answer their cellphones except to send short text messages. Most of my days are spent quietly doing my daily routine of housework, writing, prayers, Bible reading, etc, as well. I can’t stand all the noise and hubbub so many have to endure every day. I don’t know how they do it.

Anyway, it’s sad to lose friends because of their closemindedness. It’s funny that the same people who claim to be so tolerant instantly become intolerant when you say/do something with which they disagree or don’t want to think about. But it’s always been easier to go with the zeitgeist of the times rather than think for oneself. As G. K. Chesterton observed, “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” For all intents and purposes, they are intellectually and spiritually dead, poor things, and so cannot help but be carried along with the prevailing attitudes of their day.

 

[PJM]

=DakiniArtist;12865704]And here we go…

I wasn’t advertising coming into full communion with the Church Saturday (yay! I’m getting to, long story short.)

My in-laws found out (mind you, they are cradle Catholics). They are angry with me and I got a cacophony of anger and emotion the other day. I got called a couple of four-letter words. I got told about “the history of violence and hate” the Church has. One of my parents-in-law snipped at me, “Oh just move to Indiana with the rest of the gay haters.” Another in-law said, “I can’t believe you hate women and gays so much.”

I posted a new rosary I made Monday on Facebook and that pruned out some friends who didn’t realize hubby is Catholic and asked if we were. I said, “Yes.” One friend said, “Oh. Catholics aren’t tolerant” and dumped me. I keep getting sent stories about the high rate of HIV infection in rural Indiana because the Planned Parenthoods closed because of pro-life people because of religion, so there you go. Ad nauseum.

Holy week, according to the RCIA Core Team, was, ideally, my down time for spring cleaning, praying, contemplation. I’m a stay-at-home mom currently. I was hanging out with kids, going to parish services, reading, etc. I did not anticipate this absolute landslide of hate and viciousness. At all.

Oddly, among my truest supporters, not my open-minded, oldest and dearest friend who was there when one of my kids was born (she dumped me), but are many of my gay male friends, one of whom is Buddhist and asked me sweetly to make him a rosary. They realize I’m thoughtful and, hey, there must be something amazing about the Church if Catherine is joining.

There is so much hurt, anger, and divisiveness right now and it hurts my heart. One of my in-laws was red-faced and yelling at me (because my husband was not there) over this and adamant how awful the Church was to him/her growing up. What a “huge, horrible mistake” I’m making. How awful there is that feeling! I wanted to cried for my family member.

I didn’t expect this.

Also, my brother-in-law’s wedding is soon, and he’s a lapsed Catholic marrying a non-Catholic in a ceremony presided over by a Catholic priest who is constantly in trouble for being outspoken. So, this weekend, Sunday Easter dinner should be fun!

Thanks for letting me vent. I’m gobsmacked that such a beautiful, amazing week I’ve been so looking forward to is now so wracked with so much sorrow and hate. Just wow.

Blessings,
Catie

THANKS for sharing:thumbsup:

Catie, if you’d like to learn more about our 2,000 YEAR OLD faith; things that RCIA just does not have the time to address fully; I offer a TOTALLY FREE of ALL cost home studly e-mailed weekly course that will enable you to EXPLAIN and defend what we believe and practice:thumbsup:

I’m a former [now retired] RCIA teacher.

God Bless you/. There is a GREAT deal of craziness out there. I can help you deal with it as a Christian ought to; with charity and clarity.

God Bless you, and welcome HOME

Patrick

 

[bobballen_18]

It is undoubtedly hard for you to go through this, but as I’m sure you know, God will bless you in ways you could not imagine for standing up for Truth and for coming into full communion with the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church which Jesus Himself founded.

It’s so ironic, isn’t it, that you get accused of being close-minded and intolerant, yet these same people defriend you on facebook and stop talking to you. I wish these people could just take a step back, look at reality, and see their hypocrisy.

 

[Boy_Wonder]

There is so much hurt, anger, and divisiveness right now and it hurts my heart. One of my in-laws was red-faced and yelling at me (because my husband was not there) over this and adamant how awful the Church was to him/her growing up. What a “huge, horrible mistake” I’m making. How awful there is that feeling! I wanted to cried for my family member.

I didn’t expect this.

Also, my brother-in-law’s wedding is soon, and he’s a lapsed Catholic marrying a non-Catholic in a ceremony presided over by a Catholic priest who is constantly in trouble for being outspoken. So, this weekend, Sunday Easter dinner should be fun!

Thanks for letting me vent. I’m gobsmacked that such a beautiful, amazing week I’ve been so looking forward to is now so wracked with so much sorrow and hate. Just wow.

Blessings,
Catie

The earliest Christians faced this same challenge of hostile and/or pagan relatives. Use their mistreatment of you as an opportunity to grow in holiness. Be calm and loving. Don’t argue or fight. Calmly say the right things at the right times, but otherwise let your conduct be your witness.

Also, please remember that MANY Catholics were terribly hurt by priests and religious (nuns & brothers) and have legitimate wounds. Deep down most of them would like to find a way to reconcile with the faith but the pain of their experiences prevents that. You may be the bridge they cross over to return to the arms of our Lord.

 

[TheOrigen]

Sounds to me like you ran smack-dab into the problem of humanity trying to mold the image of God into what they want it to be, rather than humans molding themselves into the image God wants them to be.

Don’t give them a second thought. You have Jesus, which is most important.

 

[Cathoholic]

DakiniArtist.

Thank you and God bless you for enduring all of this.

Cathoholic

PS

Stay as close as you reasonably can to these people. They may need your help when some of them, themselves come into the Catholic Church. God may be using you as their future “lifeline”.

 

[DakiniArtist]

Thanks, all! :grouphug:

 

[Captain_America]

Just for those who’ve been following this, all this reminds me of a couple that we used to be friends with.

Before I becamse “seriously” Catholic, I just generally held to the notion that the death penalty wasn’t sensible, that abortion was mean and nasty business to be avoided (and killing human life was involved), that married people should be faithful to their vows, that sexual experimentation was pretty much something that leads to problems, that smoking was bad, that drugs were bad for you. . .

Just stuff like that.

I got hammered for these views (particularly on sex and abortion) more than once, over a span of time. The criticism included that I think this was because I was Catholic. . . but at the time, I really wasn’t going much to church at all or thinking much about faith.

Now we just don’t see them. They’re a pair very bent on the whole sexual liberalism kick (and we’ve speculated that they do swapping), and it just got to be too much work having to put pillows up whenever the kicks and jabs came. (a bit of humor with the metaphor there).

I also lost some significant college friends over the sexual liberalism business as well. . . and given 2015 and the Democratic party, I just have a hard time really believing, at the end of it all, that one’s individual sexual pleasure is the highest goal in human existence and that sexual libertarianism should be a major focus of an American political party.

 

[Della]

Just for those who’ve been following this, all this reminds me of a couple that we used to be friends with.

Before I becamse “seriously” Catholic, I just generally held to the notion that the death penalty wasn’t sensible, that abortion was mean and nasty business to be avoided (and killing human life was involved), that married people should be faithful to their vows, that sexual experimentation was pretty much something that leads to problems, that smoking was bad, that drugs were bad for you. . .

Just stuff like that.

I got hammered for these views (particularly on sex and abortion) more than once, over a span of time. The criticism included that I think this was because I was Catholic. . . but at the time, I really wasn’t going much to church at all or thinking much about faith.

Now we just don’t see them. They’re a pair very bent on the whole sexual liberalism kick (and we’ve speculated that they do swapping), and it just got to be too much work having to put pillows up whenever the kicks and jabs came. (a bit of humor with the metaphor there).

I also lost some significant college friends over the sexual liberalism business as well. . . and given 2015 and the Democratic party, I just have a hard time really believing, at the end of it all, that one’s individual sexual pleasure is the highest goal in human existence and that sexual libertarianism should be a major focus of an American political party.

The “kicks and jabs” come from all sides when one is a faithful Catholic, don’t they? Some of our Fundamentalist brethren hit us for being too strict on sex (specifically contraception and divorce) and too lax on drinking. We can’t win in the eyes of a good many people, can we?