Opinion: Practicing Catholic

[LatinByzCath]

I would define a “practicing Catholic” as just that - they go to mass weekly, and receive the sacraments as regularly as possible. They also make an effort to develop their interior life (many a Catholic putts their butt in a pew each weekend while no change takes place in their heart.)

If we were grading Catholics, “practicing Catholics” would be the “C” on the grade scale. They do just enough to be able to declare that they’re Catholic without a comment like “I’ve never seen you at Church.”

We should try to be the best Catholics we can be, which means reaching above and beyond “practicing”. We should recieve the sacraments of confession and Holy Communion weekly, if not more often! We should strive not to fall into sin, and get back up when we do. We should be active in our parish! The list goes on.

I think there’s a great deal of difference between someone saying they “practice Catholicism” and “I am a Catholic.”

Our faith should be who we are, not just something we do.

 

[Abu]

The term “practising” Catholic is perhaps too loose as has been shown by the differing definitions put forward.

Since Christ requires us to be faithful to Him, His Church and all of Her dogma and doctrine, as She teaches, rules and sanctifies, a better term might be a “faithful” Catholic – faithful to all of Her teaching, who tries to follow Her teaching and rules, tries to avoid the occasion of sin, frequents the sacraments, and offers others the inestimable worth of Christ’s Church to others as and when the opportunity presents itself.

To know Her dogma and doctrine requires real effort and formation by study.

 

[Blessedwithfive]

Quote:
Originally Posted by fencersmother
My OPINION of a “practicing Catholic” would include:

Minimum Sunday and all Holy Day of Obligation mass attendance
Penance on a regular basis (say at least every quarter, but once a month, better)
More than a glancing knowledge of Catholic prayers, hymns, sacramentals, sacraments
Knowing that Holy Communion really is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ
Familiarity with the saints
Regular prayers including the Rosary
Charitable, forgiving, brave, humble.

*I would not consider a person who went to mass only once a month a “practicing” Catholic.
My issue with this list is that it doesn’t take into consideration that we are all at different places in our faith.

I’m going to give some examples from my own life to illustrate why I think this isn’t effective. Simply because I am the best example I have and I know I am doing my best to practice my faith. I only hope that out of Charity you’ll believe me on that.

• Minimum Sunday and all Holy Days of Obligation: When do we start counting? I have attended mass 3 of the last 4 sundays. (One missed for health reasons). Prior to that… I missed 7. Then I went to confession. If I look at the last 2 years my mass attendance has been very spotty. Attend mass. Miss 12 weeks. Confession. Attend 9 weeks. Miss 2. Confession. Attend 1 week. Miss 7. Confession. You get the picture - I was all over the place. Was I practicing because I attended confession and had a genuine intent each time to do better, or not practicing because I didn’t actually manage it? By this list, the latter. I disagree but perhaps that is what most people think.
• Rosary: I’ve tried but I don’t like it. I was raised pentecostal and I like free form prayer. I accept that it is a good practice but it isn’t the best practice for everyone. I am attempting to increase my prayer to Mary as she is a resource I don’t take advantage of nearly enough, but I’ve accepted this isn’t the way for me to do it. I prefer to focus on improving my prayer life overall, and the best way to do that is using a prayer method I am comfortable with. Surely focusing on prayer overall is more important?
• More than a glancing knowledge of Catholic prayers, hymns, sacramentals, sacraments: I have a reasonable understanding of the sacraments, but the rest? Nope. There is nothing wrong with protestant hymns so long as they aren’t contrary to the faith. I have a very limited understanding of sacramentals. I know a few basic Catholic prayers, but due to my preference for free-forming it’s not great. Same issue with the Saints. This is mainly a hang over from my protestant days. One day I’ll get around to it, but I haven’t seen it as a priority. Perhaps I am wrong, but I have chosen to focus on the big things that I struggle to accept first. The intent I have is certainly right - to understand and follow Church teaching.

They are not the only points where I have issues with the list, but I think that illustrates how it isn’t always clear cut that a Catholic must have this, or must do that.

I am honestly at a loss as to why anyone would put requirements on me that the Church doesn’t. If something is good enough for the Church, then that is the standard we should use for our fellow Catholics. When I read this list I see a “good to do” list for some things and “good to have” for others, but not many things we should be requiring of each other to be counted as more than Catholic in name only. I have a huge problem with saying “You sin, so you aren’t Catholic”.

My requirements to be a practicing Catholic comes down to two things.

1. Belief in the fundamentals of our faith, as they understand them. Some things are more important than others. I do agree that a practicing Catholic should acknowledge that Holy Communion is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. It is so central to our faith I don’t see how one could claim belief in the fundamentals and not believe this.
2. A genuine attempt to live according to the faith.

I do not have ability to tell how genuine someone is when they say they meet those two criteria. Charity requires then that I accept them at their word. Even if I do see things that make me wonder (A fault on my part, not theirs).

My requirements for determining when I am practicing my faith are much more strict than those I put on others. I know my heart. I do get to judge me. I won’t put those requirements on someone else.
-_______________________________

You are a practicing Catholic. You seem to realize that Mass is important and missing it is a sin. The people who refer to themselves as practicing catholic but don’t follow the precepts of the church I don’t feel are “practicing” at all. They are catholic in name only. The church does five us a simple minumum requirements. We need to follow them. Just my opinion. Isn’t it nice that we can discuss different points of view as adults!

 

[JaKael02]

1. A genuine attempt to live according to the faith.

I really liked this one. This thread has helped me understand the variety of responses people have in what a practicing Catholic entails. In my humble opinion, the responses vary but we would tend to get a generic sense of what practicing is if we saw it in action.

 

[LongingSoul]

Generally when the media uses the term, it denotes the committed attendance of Sunday Mass. We see the term quite a lot in the Australian media. The Prime Minister is a ‘practicing Catholic’. The opposite term would be a ‘lapsed Catholic’ and that generally denotes someone not committed to Sunday Mass obligation.

Most of the other qualities of a good Catholic are not really up for that sort of comment by anyone else I don’t think. That isn’t a judgment we can make of one another.

 

[Avila123]

I like Blessedwithfive’s offering of:

A genuine attempt to live according to the faith.

It is short and to the point. No matter what a person’s circumstances, knowledge or place on the journey of faith, it seems to cover it.