Looking for advice from converts

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decjlc

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I’m looking for advice from people who have converted to Catholicism from another denomination (esp. Pentecostal, Evangelical backgrounds).

Were your friends and family accepting? I fear that my family will be extremely disappointed in my conversion, and I expect I may even lose some friends over it. If this has happened to you, how did you talk to them or deal with the loss of the relationship?

If this is posted in the wrong area, please let me know. I’ve looked over the board for several days but can’t seem to find a forum dedicated to converting.
 
I certainly lost some friends. But I’ve found that anyone who values you as a true friend will still be a friend even if they don’t understand your decision. 🙂

As for family, it is good to let them know that all you learned from them is still a part of your life. That your Christian upbringing means a great deal to you. Let them know that you love Jesus as much if not more because you are becoming Catholics. IOW, allay their fears that you are abandoning Christ for a cult of some such thing. They don’t understand sacramental grace and so they can’t picture how receiving the Eucharist or going to confession is a help rather than a hindrance to our relationship with Christ, you see. You aren’t going to be able to answer all their questions or objections at once, of course, but you can love them, accept them where they are, and be open to them. Most of all pray for them that the Holy Spirit will open their hearts and minds. You cannot know just how they will respond, but you can be somewhat prepared if you stay in prayer and love them in Christ. All the best to you. I will remember you and your loved ones at Mass this evening. 🙂
 
Unlikely where you live, but In England there is an age old rivalry between Catholics and Protestants.
So from a protestants perspective they feel you have let the side down by becoming Catholic,
from the Catholic perspective if you become protestant, well I will let you work that out.
 
NoSurrender said:
Unlikely where you live, but In England there is an age old rivalry between Catholics and Protestants.
So from a protestants perspective they feel you have let the side down by becoming Catholic,
from the Catholic perspective if you become protestant, well I will let you work that out.
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Actually, that’s kind of what I’m anticipating. I live in a rural area where almost everyone is some sort of Protestant denomination. I am 31 years old and, even going through college, I never knew anyone on a personal level who professed to be Catholic. Catholics are very much in the minority here and highly misunderstood.

I plan on talking to someone tomorrow before or after Mass about RCIA, etc. Then comes the fun part of telling my dad and my husband’s family (of whom many are Pentecostal ministers).
 
decjlc said:
Actually, that’s kind of what I’m anticipating. I live in a rural area where almost everyone is some sort of Protestant denomination. I am 31 years old and, even going through college, I never knew anyone on a personal level who professed to be Catholic. Catholics are very much in the minority here and highly misunderstood.

I plan on talking to someone tomorrow before or after Mass about RCIA, etc. Then comes the fun part of telling my dad and my husband’s family (of whom many are Pentecostal ministers).
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Well good luck with that, Many just stay In their protestant denominations because they were raised that way, most are so lukewarm and attend there churches once a month even if that.
Simply tell your husband that reformation churches would imply that God would have been wrong to begin with,
which is of course utter blasphemy and even heretical.
 
It didn’t phase my friends much, but my parents definitely did not approve. Remember that Christ and the Truth must come first, even before your family and friends.
 
My maternal grandparents(who half raised me) were horrified,my parents were fine, my friends didn’t care really, I mean some of them told me that they think I should have stayed Protestant and they constantly invite me to their churches because they’re more upbeat and lively :rolleyes: but I don’t get any of the “whore of Babylon” bs some proddies seem to believe from my friends(actually a lot of the friends who were inviting me to their churches have grown lapsed in their faiths and come to me for religious advice now)
My paternal grandmother was surprisingly approving(she’s a very religious Pentecostal woman who was raised Catholic, I was sure she’d have been against it)
Generally people didn’t care too much and I didn’t lose any friends even though I live in a rural town in the Bible belt (From the conversion alone-as far as me practicing my faith and standing up for the Church’s teachings is a different story, but no one said “oh well since you’re Catholic I don’t think we can hang out anymore”)
 
hizstory said:
Remember that Christ and the Truth must come first, even before your family and friends.
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I keep reminding myself of that. I think this (worried about what others might think) is what has held me back the past few years. What a waste of time!
 
decjlc said:
I keep reminding myself of that. I think this (worried about what others might think) is what has held me back the past few years. What a waste of time!
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Good luck on your journey into the One True Faith
I will keep you in my prayers.
 
  1. Not forcefully, but if asked or they are discussing ‘their’ beliefs, work towards similarities. Most of it is fear of the unknown. Once they find that the rites of baptism are the same, and the use of the "nicene’ or apostles creed are used, they are pretty okay. Let them know we aren’t praying to ‘idols’ with statues and we don’t look for the saints themselves to perform miracles in our lives. Find what myths they believe about Catholicism, then you can find common ground to show it’s not that different. On other points, agree to disagree. Times have changed. In 1978, I would have been ostracized by one and all-they didn’t know I was going to mass with a boyfriend. I converted in 1984/85. I kept in low key. Now, seeing what’s gone on in their worlds, their religious denominations, family…they’re just thrilled I’m working on the ‘good side’. My dad was a full time apostolic/pentecostal minister when I was born. His own life took a totally different turn. He accepts my Catholicism, but still tries to put in a word on behalf of Apostolic…when I have negated every argument he had against the Catholic church (except those he won’t admit to himself-need to be in charge, and politics through the ages, and his own ‘heritage’…we come from a long line of religious folks in and out of the Church…some big rebels, others saints, or royalty…he and mom were actually rebels trying to get some of the fundamentalists to see sense and drag in some of those with energy but get them to use their obsessive compulsive natures for God instead of world crazy LOL)
    Pray often, show love even more, and those that have drifted from you may come back. I hope so, I’d hate to say what’s happened in lives of those who ostracized me for this…and others, will.
And oddly enough, two or three other relatives that I hadn’t even talked to have since become Catholic…
 
Abbigaelann said:
  1. Not forcefully, but if asked or they are discussing ‘their’ beliefs, work towards similarities.
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Thank you. I think this will be key. I fear I may have to become somewhat of an amateur apologist before I can even fully become Catholic. 😃
 
NoSurrender said:
Unlikely where you live, but In England there is an age old rivalry between Catholics and Protestants.
So from a protestants perspective they feel you have let the side down by becoming Catholic,
from the Catholic perspective if you become protestant, well I will let you work that out.
Click to expand...
Yep. Haha.
 
Fear you might have to be an apologist? oh my…Please not the ones who are chapter, verse style using guilt like the fundamentalist protestants. You can say it however you like, use the written word however you like…and make it sound logical and reasonable…but without the love there will never be the understanding necessary for love…Don’t get caught up in ‘correctness’…we are imperfect, and God loves us -unconditionally. Correct is good, but too much correctness becomes wrong, if it separates you from the love and the sharing of that love. It is not academia that leads to love…but an opening of the heart…possibilities…and all things are possible…
 
hizstory said:
It didn’t phase my friends much, but my parents definitely did not approve. Remember that Christ and the Truth must come first, even before your family and friends.
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This has also been my experience, friends have been fine but my sister is horrified. My mother has been nothing but kind and understanding about it all, probably not happy, but she’s been kind. My sister, however, not so much and it has put a strain on our relationship. It breaks my heart that she’s so condescending, telling me my beliefs are of the devil. ~sigh
 
decjlc said:
I’m looking for advice from people who have converted to Catholicism from another denomination (esp. Pentecostal, Evangelical backgrounds).

Were your friends and family accepting? I fear that my family will be extremely disappointed in my conversion, and I expect I may even lose some friends over it. If this has happened to you, how did you talk to them or deal with the loss of the relationship?

If this is posted in the wrong area, please let me know. I’ve looked over the board for several days but can’t seem to find a forum dedicated to converting.
Click to expand...
I am a Convert from the Jewish Religion, my parents did not talk to me for ten years, after that they gradually came around because they could see I was not budging. (If God is with us, who can stand against you.) and like Abraham we have to expect to be put to the test IF it comes if not all the better. But we have to LOVE the LORD first he established his Church the Catholic Church its not your fault that there is 33,000 Protestant denominations all believing different things and some of them not even keeping to what the Lord asked of them in the very basic of commandments. Fear not, like the early Apostles the Lord strengthens them who go and walk with Christ. I have no regrets and have had many Blessings and insights of His Love as you will to.

God Bless on your journey go forward and don’t look back, go with your hand in the Lord’s, he is never outdone in generosity:signofcross::highprayer::newidea:.
 
Abbigaelann said:
Fear you might have to be an apologist? oh my…Please not the ones who are chapter, verse style using guilt like the fundamentalist protestants. You can say it however you like, use the written word however you like…and make it sound logical and reasonable…but without the love there will never be the understanding necessary for love…Don’t get caught up in ‘correctness’…we are imperfect, and God loves us -unconditionally. Correct is good, but too much correctness becomes wrong, if it separates you from the love and the sharing of that love. It is not academia that leads to love…but an opening of the heart…possibilities…and all things are possible…
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What I meant by that is that our families (or my dad, at least) will argue points of the faith, and I will need to know my stuff. I’ve never been able to quote exact Bible verses or anything like that…and I went to church many times a week until I was 18. That sort of information doesn’t “stick” for me. I just want to know what I’m talking about is all.
 
But I think I’m sorry is always in order lol, Christ called to the sinners, not the perfect. How cold can citing and pragmatism be? We are to work with love, not make a bigger abyss of the differences…
 
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