Mormon Student at Notre Dame Converts to Catholicism

[why_me]

An active Catholic is one who would attend mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation. Everything else is optional. QUOTE]

If that is all that it takes to be an active catholic then I can understand why some former mormons may find this to be wonderful since Mass can last from 45 to 60 minutes. However I do not consider a catholic who goes to just mass active. It is the least that a catholic can do. But there is much more to do to be active. Going to mass every sunday does not make a catholic devout. But saying the rosary, going on retreats and attending adorations do. Plus, praying during the week, having a small shrine in the home, for example in my home I have a statue of the virgin mary with the child jesus sitting on her lap plus my mom’s infant of prague and an old saint theresa statue. None our huge but a cozy size. Sorry, just going to mass just doesn’t make one active in the catholic church.

 

[why_me]

The student is now defending himself from the attacks on the blog and also on the MAAD board. I you follow Z’a links you can read what he says about his conversion. And also what other LDS are saying about it.

Not true, not true, not true. I see no attacks on the MAD board. In fact, the posters are giving him a warm welcome. Also, the mods have interfered on the thread when needed and two posters were banned from that particular thread because of what they were saying. And both posters are well known MADites. Read for yourself. And Rebecca, please do not believe everything that you read on this catholic board about the MAD board.

mormonapologetics.org/index.php?showtopic=42917&st=140

Now the entire thread is a teaching lesson for the antimormon catholic posters who name call on this section of the forum. It was a pleasure to read the MAD threads about this subject.

The poster’s name is Levi.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Not true, not true, not true. I see no attacks on the MAD board. In fact, the posters are giving him a warm welcome. Also, the mods have interfered on the thread when needed and two posters were banned from that particular thread because of what they were saying. And both posters are well known MADites. Read for yourself. And Rebecca, please do not believe everything that you read on this catholic board about the MAD board.

mormonapologetics.org/index.php?showtopic=42917&st=140

Now the entire thread is a teaching lesson for the antimormon catholic posters who name call on this section of the forum. It was a pleasure to read the MAD threads about this subject.

The poster’s name is Levi.

whyme, perhaps you missed the part where lds were surmizing that he had become a drunk and morally decrepit and that it was his lacking of “the Spirit” that caused him to cave into peer pressure and became Catholic. He showed up to defend himself. I would say the kudos go to Levi. I wouldn’t give those people the time of day.

 

[Robert_in_SD]

News story here. Somebody posted it on MADB. That is where I first heard of it.

Big deal! One Mormon converts to Catholicism, and it is a news story. Hundreds of Catholics convert to Mormonism, and nobody hears about it.It was a commentary. It was not a news bulletin. I’ve seen many “Catholic [Student, Priest, Deacon, etc.,] Converts to [Fill in Denomination]” commentaries as well.

It proves nothing. Don’t get bothered about it.

Peace,
-Robert

 

[zaffiroborant]

Not true, not true, not true. I see no attacks on the MAD board. In fact, the posters are giving him a warm welcome. Also, the mods have interfered on the thread when needed and two posters were banned from that particular thread because of what they were saying. And both posters are well known MADites. Read for yourself. And Rebecca, please do not believe everything that you read on this catholic board about the MAD board.

mormonapologetics.org/index.php?showtopic=42917&st=140

Now the entire thread is a teaching lesson for the antimormon catholic posters who name call on this section of the forum. It was a pleasure to read the MAD threads about this subject.

The poster’s name is Levi.

I referred to Z’s link so people could read it themselves. If it was all so sweet why did Levi feel the need to defend himself? And no I don’t think that it was all nasty but Jason and Lance were none to nice and Fuller was belittling.

 

[zaffiroborant]

Catholic20064;5119748:

An active Catholic is one who would attend mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation. Everything else is optional. QUOTE]

If that is all that it takes to be an active catholic then I can understand why some former mormons may find this to be wonderful since Mass can last from 45 to 60 minutes.** However I do not consider a catholic who goes to just mass active**

. It is the least that a catholic can do. But there is much more to do to be active. Going to mass every sunday does not make a catholic devout. But saying the rosary, going on retreats and attending adorations do. Plus, praying during the week, having a small shrine in the home, for example in my home I have a statue of the virgin mary with the child jesus sitting on her lap plus my mom’s infant of prague and an old saint theresa statue. None our huge but a cozy size. Sorry, just going to mass just doesn’t make one active in the catholic church.

This may be the way things work with the LDS, people issuing judgments on other peoples activity level, check lists to determine who is active and who isn’t. But as we have pointed out Catholicism doesn’t work that way, each individual is free to develop their own spirituality, making their own decisions about devotions to practice and ministries to participate in. Yes a Catholic who only attends Mass on Sundays (and that other thing you keep missing) is an active Catholic. For years my next door neighbor(and her late husband) did just that and nothing more, and no one judged them for it. When the last of their children (11 total) were older they volunteered more and continue to do so now that their children are grown but it is not required of them.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Indeed. I in fact learned to pray the Rosary prior to even starting RCIA or even visiting a Catholic Mass. In many ways, I believe I owe much of my conversion to that wonderful devotion.

Hi xixxvmcm95, it is good to see you. Congratulations and Welcome Home! :extrahappy:

 

[why_me]

why me;5122463:

This may be the way things work with the LDS, people issuing judgments on other peoples activity level, check lists to determine who is active and who isn’t. But as we have pointed out Catholicism doesn’t work that way, each individual is free to develop their own spirituality, making their own decisions about devotions to practice and ministries to participate in. Yes a Catholic who only attends Mass on Sundays (and that other thing you keep missing) is an active Catholic. For years my next door neighbor(and her late husband) did just that and nothing more, and no one judged them for it. When the last of their children (11 total) were older they volunteered

more and continue to do so now that their children are grown but it is not required of them.

The point is: activity is depended by what is required by that particular church. The mormons have their way and the catholics have their way. But certainly when it comes to what is required mormons require much more since it is a church that depends on its members to keep the meetings functioning. Without the involvement of members, there would be no sunday school, talks in church, priesthood meetings and relief society. Mormons have no paid clergy to keep things moving along.

 

[why_me]

I don’t mind it. When the LDS church goes bankrupt, there will hopefully be a bunch of potential buyers. When a religion is true, history will tell. When a church is false, history will tell.

Many catholic churches are short of funds because they depend on the collection plate and if the collection plate is more or less empty, problems will come. The lds are just a tad different. No threat of bankruptcy yet.

 

[RebeccaJ]

The point is: activity is depended by what is required by that particular church. The mormons have their way and the catholics have their way. But certainly when it comes to what is required mormons require much more since it is a church that depends on its members to keep the meetings functioning. Without the involvement of members, there would be no sunday school, talks in church, priesthood meetings and relief society. Mormons have no paid clergy to keep things moving along.

Priests are members, and it is not possible for them to do everything on their own. They have the help of volunteers for everything they do.

 

[why_me]

whyme, perhaps you missed the part where lds were surmizing that he had become a drunk and morally decrepit and that it was his lacking of “the Spirit” that caused him to cave into peer pressure and became Catholic. He showed up to defend himself. I would say the kudos go to Levi. I wouldn’t give those people the time of day.

One can not compare the tone there to the tone on this section of the forum on the mormon threads. Also, the lds mods came in and issued warnings. But the tone was rather positive. Why do you give people here the time of day when they can be so rude to mormons?

I say kudos to levi also but he did get a nice welcome from many members of that board.

 

[why_me]

Priests are members, and it is not possible for them to do everything on their own. They have the help of volunteers for everything they do.

The priests are paid clergy who do most of the work. Plus, the catholic church has religious who make promises and take vows. But the average member is just required to go to Mass to be an active catholic. And most catholics do just that. The mormons are different. Without the involvement of its membership all wards or branches would collaspe. No paid clergy and everything is volunteer work when it comes to keep the church going on a sunday and throughout the week.

 

[RebeccaJ]

One can not compare the tone there to the tone on this section of the forum on the mormon threads. Also, the lds mods came in and issued warnings. But the tone was rather positive. Why do you give people here the time of day when they can be so rude to mormons?

I say kudos to levi also but he did get a nice welcome from many members of that board.

I have yet to see a Catholic tell anyone that they are not Catholic because they don’t have the ambition to something higher.

Anytime I have read MADB, there is always a very anti-Christian tone there. There are people there who absolutely hate the Holy Trinity. They use “creedal Christians” as some sort of derogatory way to refer to all of Christianity. I have seen that term used here as well. They have no respect whatsoever for people who leave Mormonism.

They are being nice-nice to Levi at the moment. I predict that if he posts there long enough, it won’t be too long before they are attacking him personally instead of responding to what he says. This will be followed by analyzing him with armchair psychology. I’ve seen it, a hundred times.

Also, the usual batch of anti-Catholics haven’t come around yet to tell him that he has joined the great and abominable church, the whore of the world. We’ll see.

 

[hosemonkey]

To Zerinus:
There were many pagan temples in Rome, the mormon temple will just be one more among many. The Catholic Church triumphed over all of them.

 

[IWillBeHeard]

Let me tell you about the new rules on here…

1. If you support any sort of view that is different than what the mods believe, you will be banned. Discussion is not open for different and new ideas. Even if Catholicism is making a mistake, we support tradition.
2. Everything the Catholic Church has ever done has been infallible. Therefore, there is no need for you to question anything about Catholicism, the Church is perfect. If the Church told you to kill someone, you should do it, no questions asked.
3. Any rude and ignorant comments to others stating “You are not a true Catholic if you voted for Obama” will be accepted and is encouraged.
4. God didn’t give you this conscience to use for yourself. You must substitute other peoples judgment for your own, and never question them, because their judgment is better.
5. If you child someday asks you if they should use a condom, you should tell them “No, let yourself get HIV instead.”

 

[NewSeeker]

To Zerinus:
There were many pagan temples in Rome, the mormon temple will just be one more among many. The Catholic Church triumphed over all of them.

:clapping:

 

[zaffiroborant]

The priests are paid clergy who do most of the work. Plus, the catholic church has religious who make promises and take vows. But the average member is just required to go to Mass to be an active catholic. And most catholics do just that. The mormons are different. Without the involvement of its membership all wards or branches would collaspe. No paid clergy and everything is volunteer work when it comes to keep the church going on a sunday and throughout the week.

Most of the work??
Like I said our parish has 48 ministries one can volunteer for, either as a participant or as a leader/teacher/administrator. In the formation ministry for K-8 we have 135 volunteers and this doesn’t include the volunteers who offer their time and talent to our parish school. We also have volunteers who give their time for the formation of our teens also giving time for social activities. In adult formation again we have people who volunteer to cover RCIA (not to mention those who give their time as sponsors) and other formation activites like, bible study, SCC, and TOT for a short list.

At Mass we have 30 volunteers who “make it happen” (not including choir members, musicians, ushers and others) and we have 5 Masses on a week-end. These volunteers serve one Mass a week so you are looking a 150 people plus who give their time. And this doesn’t include those who minister to the homebound.

And the volunteers in formation and worship mentioned above are just a small part of the work that the members of our parish perform to keep our church running. There are many ministries filled with volunteers in service and administration that are vital to the functioning of our church.

But according to you if we all just decided to not volunteer well our priest could handle all of it.
What a crock, just more of the undercurrent of disdain your posts show toward Catholicism and Catholics.

 

[Stephen168]

I do not consider a catholic who goes to just mass active.

Neither does the Catholic Church.

It is the least that a catholic can do.

No it is not. If you were Catholic, you would know what is the least ‘a Catholic can do,’

But saying the rosary, going on retreats and attending adorations do. Plus, praying during the week, having a small shrine in the home, for example in my home I have a statue of the virgin mary with the child jesus sitting on her lap plus my mom’s infant of prague and an old saint theresa statue. None our huge but a cozy size. .

None of this is required, if you were Catholic you would know that.

 

[Stephen168]

The priests are paid clergy who do most of the work.

How about a list of all the work that gets done at a Parish, then we can see how much of it the Priest does. It is clear to me that you have no idea.

Plus, the catholic church has religious who make promises and take vows.

so?

But the average member is just required to go to Mass to be an active catholic. And most catholics do just that.

If you were really a Catholic, you would know better

The mormons are different.

Yes, they are volun-told to help; Catholics volunteer to help.

Without the involvement of its membership all wards or branches would collaspe.

If you were really a Catholic, you would know this is true at every Parish (and I would guess every protestant church as well)

No paid clergy

Your theology shows it.

 

[why_me]

Neither does the Catholic Church.

No it is not. If you were Catholic, you would know what is the least ‘a Catholic can do,’

None of this is required, if you were Catholic you would know that.

Sorry, but a priest did tell me that going to Mass was the least that a catholic can do. It is required but there is so much more that a catholic should do and praying the rosary is one of them. Pope John Paul was attempting to bring the rosary back in vogue.

What should a catholic do? Pray the rosary, attend adoration, go on a retreat once a year and pray. It may not be required but it would certainly help their soul. Now that would be an active catholic.