Patricia Heaton on leaving Catholicism

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I recently read this interview of Patricia Heaton and it explains why she left Catholicism:
I think that the main difficulty for me, when Catholicism was this idea that was really deeply planted, was that you exist either in a state of grace or out of a state of grace, and God forbid you should get hit by a bus when you’re out of a state of grace, because it’s all over for you. And, I think that set up a horrible thing in me, that my salvation was not secure. I think that would be the main problem I had with the Catholic Church. I don’t even know that that’s [still] taught, but that was so ingrained in me. And that unless you went to confession, that you would still be out of a state of grace. You had to go to confession, get back in a state of grace.
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So it just seemed very tenuous to me, and I don’t know who can live like that, thinking, “Am I going to hell today, or not?” What I found in the Protestant faith was that your salvation is secure, and that the rest is process. So that would be, I think, the big step for me.
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She doesn’t seem to be against the Catholic Church, but doesn’t seem to think it is necessary to be a Catholic to be saved. Here is the link to the entire article:

beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Celebrities/Patricia-Heaton-Faithfully-Funny.aspx?p=1
 
JamesCollins said:
I recently read this interview of Patricia Heaton and it explains why she left Catholicism:

She doesn’t seem to be against the Catholic Church, but doesn’t seem to think it is necessary to be a Catholic to be saved. Here is the link to the entire article:

beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Celebrities/Patricia-Heaton-Faithfully-Funny.aspx?p=1
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Following the “Once a Catholic, Always a Catholic” dictum, I wonder if she is aware that just because she leaves the Church it doesn’t mean she is no longer bound by it’s teachings and obligations.

The “hit by a bus” scenario still applies.
 
Lost_Sheep said:
Following the “Once a Catholic, Always a Catholic” dictum, I wonder if she is aware that just because she leaves the Church it doesn’t mean she is no longer bound by it’s teachings and obligations.

The “hit by a bus” scenario still applies.
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Do you think the whole “hit by a bus” scenario she talks about is even truly taught by the Catholic Church? It seems to me she has just misrepresented the teaching of the Church.
 
JamesCollins said:
I recently read this interview of Patricia Heaton and it explains why she left Catholicism:

She doesn’t seem to be against the Catholic Church, but doesn’t seem to think it is necessary to be a Catholic to be saved. Here is the link to the entire article:

beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Celebrities/Patricia-Heaton-Faithfully-Funny.aspx?p=1
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Wonder who she got that idea from. That if you are in a state of Grace you are free from sin, and if you are out of a state of Grace you are in a state of sin, and need to reunite yourself with Christ.

Sounds like the bible to me, and what Christ himself taught.

So it sounds to me like she did not like the truth given to her by the Church so she left it. That’s usually always what makes people leave.

Jesus left us the Church so we could confess our sins and be back in his good grace.

On Pentecost what did Peter say when asked what do we do to have eternal life. Did he not say confess your sins and be baptized.

So to me the bottom line is she has free will to accept the truth or walk away, and she chose to walk away.

Because from what I read she has the understanding down pat, and does understand that if you are in a state of mortal sin, you can have forgivenss from the Priest in confession. She just choose to walk away from it.
 
Also by the way Christ never taught that if you can not get to the Church to confess your sins you cannot be forgiven for you sins. No one knows the extent of the great Mercy of God.

But I wish I could ask her or anyone in this world who believe in God and his good grace, why would anyone CHOOSE to remain in a state of mortal sin, and knowingly remain separating themselves from God when the bus passes them by and they can make it to the Church for confession?
 
JamesCollins said:
Do you think the whole “hit by a bus” scenario she talks about is even truly taught by the Catholic Church? It seems to me she has just misrepresented the teaching of the Church.
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she’s misunderstanding the teaching and taking a literalistic interpretation. The Church does not teach that God will punish someone who died on their way to Confession. This is because God knows you were heading there and knows what you would have confessed if you would have made it. It’s also why we need to be making Perfect Acts of Contrition when we have sin.

She (like most protestants and even some Catholics) misunderstands why Christ instituted Confession.
 
“Got a good reason, for taking the easy way out”. The 60’s live on :cool:
 
I wouldn’t have known who Patricia Heaton is (no tv here in the boonies) except that I borrowed a DVD recently of Christian (Protestant) comics - she was the host. The only anti-Catholic comment in the whole thing was a mild one said by her: “That’s why Catholics invented purgatory.” Really?
We were afraid the rest of the routines would be anti-C, but they were fine - and the majority were quite funny.

But not understanding what constitutes a state of grace is pretty common with both Protestants and ex-Catholics - even among practicing Catholics.
 
JamesCollins said:
Do you think the whole “hit by a bus” scenario she talks about is even truly taught by the Catholic Church? It seems to me she has just misrepresented the teaching of the Church.
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Yes that is truly taught. But I wonder how many people are afraid that they are not in the state of grace when they objectively may be. In order to commit a mortal sin the issue must be grave, one must realize that it is grave but chose to do the act anyway.

Annie
 
Bless her instructors…ask they be forgiven for not clearly explaining sin or its consequences.
 
Annie39 said:
Yes that is truly taught. But I wonder how many people are afraid that they are not in the state of grace when they objectively may be. In order to commit a mortal sin the issue must be grave, one must realize that it is grave but chose to do the act anyway.

Annie
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So the Church teaches if someone misses Mass one Sunday for the first time ever, realizing the Church teaches it’s a mortal sin. And there are no other Masses in their area scheduled for that day. They get hit by a bus Sunday afternoon on their way to or back from visiting the sick or feeding the hungry, something God knows they do every Sunday afternoon. The Catholic Church teaches the person went to hell after being hit?
 
I like Patricia. She was great on ELR and she even did commercials for a former company I worked for. Now living in Indiana:( her show “The Middle” is sometimes so on point it is scary.) But the number of times the Lords name is taken in vain on that show is absolutely ridiculous. It is actually quite shocking and noticeable. I would hope in her version of Christianity this would be unacceptable. I have always liked that she is vocally pro life and up to now was Catholic. While she may not be correct on this, she is still better than 99.9 percent of actors out there.🤷
 
Sy_Noe said:
So the Church teaches if someone misses Mass one Sunday for the first time ever, realizing the Church teaches it’s a mortal sin. And there are no other Masses in their area scheduled for that day. They get hit by a bus Sunday afternoon on their way to or back from visiting the sick or feeding the hungry, something God knows they do every Sunday afternoon. The Catholic Church teaches the person went to hell after being hit?
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If they missed mass on purpose meaning to offend God they would go to hell. If they missed it because they overslept then they wouldn’t go to hell. That’s my understanding anyway.
 
JamesCollins said:
Maybe they did teach what the Catholic Church teaches and maybe she just decided they were wrong.
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Yes, like those who walked away when Jesus told them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, thank God for the ones who decided to stay.
 
phil19034 said:
she’s misunderstanding the teaching and taking a literalistic interpretation. The Church does not teach that God will punish someone who died on their way to Confession. This is because God knows you were heading there and knows what you would have confessed if you would have made it. It’s also why we need to be making Perfect Acts of Contrition when we have sin.

She (like most protestants and even some Catholics) misunderstands why Christ instituted Confession.
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^THIS.^

And it seems like a person should bring up a question like this with their confessor and get it clarified rather than just giving up. I don’t watch much TV so I never caught her on the “Raymond” show or any other show I can recall. So I don’t want to make assumptions, but it sounds there might be more issues than just that one. Say a prayer for her.
 
Maybe someone already mentioned this:

If she was upset by that belief, which she must have truly believed or else she wouldn’t have been bothered by it, then how does switching to a different religion change the “policy” she doesn’t like?

See what I’m getting at? The belief is still there. The teaching is still there. She can’t make it go away by walking away from it. It’s like a child who is afraid of a ghost and so closes his eyes, thinking that if he can’t see the ghost the ghost can’t see him.
 
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