Leaving Catholicism

[ChunkMonk]

Are you trying to make a point with that remark?

 

[stupidisasstupiddoes]

No serious question. I haven’t heard the view of every Cardinal on the subject, I’ve heard his so i wanted to see if he was an exception in your world view?

 

[stupidisasstupiddoes]

Well I don’t consider myself a protestant or follower of anyh religion. I learned that most Catholics would consider me that just for leaving the Catholic church so I just wanted to make it simple to understand.

I consider you naive to be honest. Do some research on early human’s, archaeological patterns will show you that they lived in groups of ~150 based primarily around kinship ties. Periodically the groups would expand past this point, a dispute would arise and a group would break away and repeat the cycle.

Well this is really what Protestants are like, that’s why there’s so many of their denominations - they can’t agree on anything. The problem for you is that Protestantism is totally unable to give a framework for dealing with the pressing problems in the world today. That’s why i became Catholic from Protestant. The Church isn’t perfect but it’s better to be united and discussing our differences than everyone takes their ball and goes home. Protestants only have 2 strategies for dealing with the real problems of the world; 1. Water down your faith until you’re nothing but a big social club (the Church of England) or 2. Close yourself off from the evil of the world and be the last good people on earth.

Think about it.

 

[mkoopman]

I think you should take your postings more seriously. You may stand before God to answer for his soul if you teach truth without love. Your short little “tweet” to someone searching from a misunderstanding of the true faith may be that straw which broke the camel’s back, or perhaps that made weak bricks, more appropriately.
Wait, I apologize, it is all about you, my bad.

 

[FrancisPio]

Thanks for giving us more detail, it helps a lot. It seems that your questioning your Catholic faith not because of any beliefs so much but because you are going to a nondenominal college.
My suggestion would be to try to find an active Catholic church near your college. Look in google map and see if there are any nearby you. It might help you to strengthen your faith. I also recommend downloading the Catholic phone app Relevant Radio. It has some great shows such as; The Patrick Madrid Show, Simon Says, and Catholic Answers that might be helpful to you.
Lastly, try to be a leader. Don’t leave your faith simply because everyone else isn’t. I think that you will respect yourself more if you do. And remember, we are always here for you.

 

[Limoncello4021]

I think it all boils down to this: God, right now, is giving you the opportunity to better understand the Catholic faith that you have minimal foundation in and have thus left. This is the moment of His grace that has opened for you, and whether you choose to follow His lead to deepen your understanding through study and prayer, or close the door to the inspiration, is your choice. But once offered and rejected, those doors can close permanently. So be very careful in your choice.
I’d suggest you enroll in a Catholic RCIA course to refresh your faith.

 

[Arkansan]

“Consequently, the situation of those, who by the heavenly gift of faith have embraced the Catholic truth, is by no means the same as that of those who, led by human opinions, follow a false religion; for those who have accepted the faith under the guidance of the Church can never have any just cause for changing this faith or for calling it into question.” - #15 First Vatican Council

"Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” - Luke 10:16

 

[drz888]

Hope this is helpful:

God’s Choicest Blessings to you and all your dear ones, now and for all eternity.

 

[Reuben_J]

I was born to faithful Catholic parents and raise in the Catholic church. When I was 19 I decided to leave and become a Christian/protestant. Most of my family are still Catholics and we have been discussing different topics on which we have different views.

I wanted to ask you guys what implies to leave the Catholic church I’m terms of salvation?

People have said to me to keep in mind I’m leaving the sacraments and because of that I can’t be saved, but I haven’t found any biblical evidence for that. I believe in Christ as my saviour and I have confessed that as the bible says we have to.
Thank you in advance for your answers.

Just to answer your question - whether you are saved of not, it is up to God.

I can only say it is easier to be saved in the Catholic Church because it is the Church that Jesus himself founded, with all the graces and fullness of truth therein.

You are decieving yourself that you can be saved just by believing. It takes more than believing to be saved. It is in the doing too. In the Catholic Church you have all that you need to do to support your belief.

 

[thistle]

I was born to faithful Catholic parents and raise in the Catholic church. When I was 19 I decided to leave and become a Christian/protestant. Most of my family are still Catholics and we have been discussing different topics on which we have different views.

I wanted to ask you guys what implies to leave the Catholic church I’m terms of salvation?

People have said to me to keep in mind I’m leaving the sacraments and because of that I can’t be saved, but I haven’t found any biblical evidence for that. I believe in Christ as my saviour and I have confessed that as the bible says we have to.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

What do you mean by deciding to leave to become a Christian? Catholics are not only Christians but the first Christians. The Apostles were Catholic. The New Testament was written by Catholics. It was the Catholic Church that compiled the Bible.
The Catholic Church is the only Church established by Jesus and given authority in all matters of faith and morals.
Also if you are a baptised Catholic you cannot become an ex/former Catholic. Once a Catholic always a Catholic even if you walk away from the Church. There are only two types of Catholic - those in a state of grace and those in a state of mortal sin. A Catholic rejecting the Church and walking away is in the latter category and will not be saved unless they return to the Church and make a sincere Confession.

 

[fhansen]

Truth is everything in Christianity, and the CC happens to have the fullness of it. But God knows whether we truly believe Catholic truths or not; we can put the cart ahead of the horse so to speak and fool ourselves about our faith, but we won’t be fooling God.

My advice for people, whether cradle-Catholics raised in the faith or those just looking into Christianity, is to ask, seek, and knock, for yourself. Don’t assume anything; truth isn’t determined that way. God is immensely pleased by sincere truth-seeking, even if it takes us off-course now and then, because that implies a pure heart; it implies genuine faith. As long as we continue, we end up being Catholic in my experience, or more Catholic. . God will not refuse those efforts.

We don’t need to leave the Church to do this; we just need not assume that we’re already “there” just because we were raised in the faith. We need to get motivated to “seek the face of God” as the Old Testament admonishes us to. The positive result is that our “faith” and obedience are not lived out more or less mechanically, fearfully, doubtfully.

 

[Herculees]

There IS scriptural basis for it but YOU CHOOSE to interpret it differently!

Jesus said to Peter " I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build
My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”…

 

[Annie]

I was raised very secular, with very little religion, as I was baptized only because of my grandfather. When I grew up, first I was a “mere Christian,” as CS Lewis put it, someone who believed in Christ but was not a member of any particular denomination. This worked fine for a couple of years: I went to two different churches in that time (because we moved), I met some wonderful people, read every “Christian” (ie Protestant) book I could get my hands on…

However, there came a time when that was not enough. There seemed to be a lack of depth, like there wasn’t any further that I could go.

So, I can understand where you are. It is new, and you are learning things you never learned before. This is good. But in my experience, it’s like being a beginner, and what I saw other Protestants doing over the long term was either leaving or going into teaching/evangelization to renew their faith; they ddn’t seem to be moving ahead, iyswim. The Catholic Church offers so much more.

See if you can find a Newman Center at your college. That is a Catholic ministry for college students.

 

[Annie]

The reason no one has given you a definitive answer is that what the Church teaches in general is that those who leave the Church lose their salvation.

However, we also know that God judges us individually, by looking into our hearts, so we don’t say: “If my brother Joe leaves the Catholic Church, he will go to Hell,” because that would be putting ourselves into God’s place of judgement.

It’s kind of like if a man kills someone, it will make a difference whether the victim leaped out in front if the car, or if the driver were drunk, or if the driver deliberately ran him down because he owed him money or wanted to marry his wife.

 

[Catholicwife32]

Well, ages ago, the Church saw every non-Catholic as condemned to Hell, affirming that “Outside the Church, there is no salvation.” The current Catechism reinterprets this.

CCC 846 says:

Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

So, now we go back to the Catechism and look up what conscience, because that is key here.

Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law

So the conscience is not an emotion. It isn’t ‘feeling guilty.’ It is your ability to know good and evil. Knowing and knowledge are related. Now, our knowledge can be off. We can be wrong.

So here’s what the Catechism says about errors of conscience

A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.

This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man “takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.” In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.

Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one’s passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church’s authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.

If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Pray and ask God to show you the way.

Where you are now is probably where He wants you to be, but don’t close yourself from following His will toward other places.

I believe there is salvation outside the institutional Catholic Church.

However, I firmly believe that if you desire to grow deeper in your faith, and this requires a deeper prayer life, you’ll be drawn by the Holy Spirit into the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church has the fullness of “revealed,” truth and the rich tradition of “Contemplative Prayer.”

It may not be where God want’s you right now, but as I said, don’t close yourself off from where God will lead you.

God Bless
Jim

 

[Kei]

In terms of salvation, you’re leaving your number one best bet, especially if you know the Church is the Church. Indeed, if the latter is true, there’s quite a bit of trouble and serious cause for concern. Especially since you are asking us Catholics about what it means, makes it seem as though you recognize the Catholics have the Truth.

But, in general, we cannot be sure about others’ salvation.
You say you accept Christ like the Bible says. Does this mean you’ve also been baptized, eat of His Flesh like Jesus says we must to obtain life, confess your sins as told to, and follow His Teachings? If so, one should be Catholic, so it seems there’s some odd understanding of Scripture that is at odds with its purpose, which is for the faithful.

God bless and I wish you the best. Please do consider the Church. She has so much depth to offer you, the Truth in Jesus Christ.

 

[ChunkMonk]

So you don’t have a point.

I think you should take your postings more seriously. You may stand before God to answer for his soul if you teach truth without love.

Yeah, because love is definitely kiddie-gloving a man about to make the worst decision of his life.

Do you want to know why people are leaving the Church? Your post.

 

[Luke-Suncook]

People who say there’s no salvation outside the Catholic Church don’t know their bible very well. They know that cat., and let the clergy interpret the bible for them. Put your faith in Jesus, which I believe it is, and believe in God’s Word and NOT in any ONE church. Leave the doctrines of men behind and work out your own salvation. You’re doing the right thing. God bless you in your quest for truth.

 

[mkoopman]

Oddly it appears that identifying Jesus as our Savior as opposed to as our “Condemnor” is offensive to your form of spirituality. That form is stoic nasty as taught by which religious community?
Clearly He will separate the sheep and goats and spit out the lukewarm as He tells us in the Gospel. He is also very critical of the “learned” of the Levite priesthood. But classic Hollywood drill sargeant spirituality toward one who claims to be poorly catechized and is seeking to better understand Christ and His church is nowhere in The Gospel that I have known.
Please show me which book or letters present this concrete form of evangelism? I also seek to better know Our lord and am inadequate in my depth of knowledge about God and His boundless mercy.
Merry Christmas, Sarge.