T
TrueLight
Guest
Awesome post!I hesitate to post this. I’m not debating religion this weekend, there are more important things. Christ is entombed and we are in mourning yet awaiting His glorious Resurrection tonight. Still, I believe I can post this in a way that is only uplifting and supportive, which is all I’ve been trying to do this weekend.
I was Roman Catholic. I was devout Roman Catholic. I attended the Tridentine Mass, prayed the rosary (in Latin even). I tried to start college Catholic groups in my hometown. I studied my faith and I did know it. I loved and still do love the Catholic Church.
But my faith is weak. I couldn’t be part of a church that doesn’t help me to practice what she claims to teach. I didn’t understand why so much has been lost since Vatican II, and nobody had a very good answer for me. Still I tried to remain loyal to Rome. For a year or more I endured homilies that were either condemning of Rome and hardline traditional (a memorable one praised the Tea Party from the pulpit) and outright blasphemous. I ignored the hideous churches, void of sacred architecture and not in any way catechetical.
My Orthodox friend was patient. He never tried to get me to convert, until one night I burst out on him all my frustrations. He finally told me the only true way to explore Orthodoxy - “Come and See”. I went and saw a church where everyone acted respectfully towards Holy Communion. Where the priest didn’t shy away from his authority, and yet is funny and approachable. Where everyone talks about Christ and faith, even the men (of whom there are no shortage). Where popular piety hasn’t been abandoned.
Yet I wasn’t going to abandon Rome without doctrinal foundation. If Papal Infallibility fell apart, so does the Catholic Church. So I went to the Early Fathers. I didn’t find any quote definitive of Papal Infallibility or universal jurisdiction save perhaps one. One quote does not a doctrine make, and neither does it help that the man was known for writing in flowery language and was trying to suck up to Rome at the time.
It was very, very, very difficult to leave the Roman Catholic Church. I’ll freely admit to having cried. It was difficult to enter Orthodoxy, which at times seemed strange. Yet here I am, the journey over halfway over, and I couldn’t imagine not making prostrations, not venerating the icons when I enter, not being part of that popular piety.
There is a Western Bias in our culture that Orthodoxy left Catholicism, but from our perspective it was quite the opposite. There were Five Patriarchs and they divided into two groups of one and four. Who left who? Nevertheless I am infinitely grateful for the multitude of things I learned from Catholicism, a mother on my way to my true home.
So why am I not Catholic any longer? Because I found Christ’s True Church, a modern, historical, spiritual, rational, sin-loathing yet compassionate Church, preserved by the Holy Spirit from any innovation for 2,000 Years. May we all have a blessed Pascha.