"recovering Catholics"?

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I’ve met several people recently who’ve identified themselves as “recovering Catholics,” as if that was supposed to make sense to me - like it’s just taken for granted now that everyone thinks of Catholicism as if it were a disease or an addiction - but since I was brought up by atheists and am now thinking of converting to the Catholic church, I didn’t really get it. When this latest person remarked that he was recovering from his Catholic upbringing, I really just thought, “Oh, stop whining. It’s a hard world and we all suffer. You just want someone to blame.”

Then I wondered whether my instinctual “get over it already” attitude was compassionate or appropriate, and whether I just couldn’t understand what these people went through because I wasn’t raised in the Church, or something.

I guess I’m just curious why it is that

a) there’s a group of people who feel sufficiently sorry for themselves because they were raised Catholic that they go around complaining about it to strangers years later

b) they think that’s actually societally acceptable

and how do practicing Catholics respond when they meet someone who identifies that way?

-Student09
 
I’m not sure what “recovering Catholic” means. To me, it is a title that tells me the individual in question hates Catholicism and wants to share their hate with others.

I’ve never really heard it put that way, but I’ve only been here a few months. Perhaps I just need more time.😉
 
The one “recovering Catholic” I have met (meaning, she used that exact term) strongly implied that she thinks of the Church as a cult, and therefore she is recovering from years of cult indoctrination.

At the time I met her, I was in the middle of RCIA and preparing to be received into the Church. I had no idea what to say to her so I changed the subject. 😦
 
I would meet them where they are and throw it back at them. “I am sorry that you are not happy with the Church. I will pray for you. If you ever have a change of heart or want to ask questions please call me. Eternity is a long time and I want to see you in paradise because one does not recover in hell.”
 
I spoke with a woman once who identified herself as a "recovering Catholic and confided to me that she had “grown up.” Then she blew her whole premise by telling me that her new religion was that of (wait for it) “Trekkie.”
 
hosemonkey said:
I spoke with a woman once who identified herself as a "recovering Catholic and confided to me that she had “grown up.” Then she blew her whole premise by telling me that her new religion was that of (wait for it) “Trekkie.”
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That’s the most silly thing I’ve ever heard. I love Star Trek and consider myself in a way to be a “trekkie” or “trekker” (I’m not sure what the difference is there). I find all the series of the Star Trek franchise to have religious undertones in a way (although I’m pretty sure Gene Roddenberry was atheist), but I certainly do NOT consider it to be a religion. Kind of like the Church of Sponge Bob, I guess.

But that kind of makes me think of one person I met online once. They said that they had grown up into Catholicism “against their will”. Huh??? Since when do we as children have a say in what our parents are going to teach us? I think that person was a child themselves, on their way into pubescence. That’s the only person I could imagine saying they were a “recovering Catholic”.

🤷
 
hosemonkey said:
… Then she blew her whole premise by telling me that her new religion was that of (wait for it) “Trekkie.”
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SNORT

Thanks a lot! Now I have to clean coffee and doughnut crumbs out of my keyboard and off my monitor!
 
Snerticus said:
That’s the most silly thing I’ve ever heard. I love Star Trek and consider myself in a way to be a “trekkie” or “trekker” (I’m not sure what the difference is there)…
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Trekkers enjoy watching the TV shows and movies and can tell you many interesting facts about them.

Trekkies wear rubber ears.
 
Leopard said:
Trekkers enjoy watching the TV shows and movies and can tell you many interesting facts about them.

Trekkies wear rubber ears.
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Darn, I’ve always wanted to wear rubber ears! :(:rolleyes:😊 Could never find the occasion to do it though! 😉
 
Most of the former Catholics that I have talked with seemed poorly educated in their faith. They have little understanding of even basic Catholic practices.

The media depicts all devote Catholics as suffering from extreme guilt or prudishness. My guess is that the views of ‘recovering Catholics’ are influenced by movies, not actual Church practice.

For example, I have a friend who is a former Catholic who left the Church because*** one*** priest was extremely rude to her mom. She now believes that Catholics are not Chrisitans, all because of the behavior of one man.

For some reason those of us who have converted from Protestant are generally appreciative of our backgrounds, while Catholics who convert to Protestantism appear angry at their former faith. I don’t know why this is.🤷
 
deb1 said:
For example, I have a friend who is a former Catholic who left the Church because*** one*** priest was extremely rude to her mom. She now believes that Catholics are not Chrisitans, all because of the behavior of one man.
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Yeah, I knew a young girl who was so angry at the Catholic church for ‘excommunicating’ her mom because she divorced her father. She eventually remarried and I asked if this “excommunication” happened after the marriage. She said no. I said the church does not excommunicate because of a divorce in itself. She told me that’s what happened. I told her I’d be willing to bet there was more going on than she realized. She then told me she was looking into the Lutheran faith. I figured I’d better stop arguing before I made her convictions stronger.
For some reason those of us who have converted from Protestant are generally appreciative of our backgrounds, while Catholics who convert to Protestantism appear angry at their former faith. I don’t know why this is.🤷
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I’ve noticed this since the beginning of my “revert” stage over 10 years ago. I’m surprised many more people don’t notice this and figure out why. I don’t want to start an argument, but it seems to me pretty clear when someone leaves something only to become grateful then there has to be a grace present. Whereas when someone leaves something only to become bitter, a grace is absent.
 
:amen:

I for one am from the Catholic upbringing and then married a non Catholic. So I have been going to Church with him but now I am coming back to my Catholic Faith. I have found that I fall in the category of not really been educated in my Catholic Faith as a young child but by going to other Churches I have found that my Faith in the Catholic Church will be stronger now than ever before.

I just hope that I will be accepted back home.:p:amen:
 
I just want to echo what others have said about converts to Catholicism from Protestantism, because I am one and their experiences are really true to my experience, as well. Sure, some people at my former church treated me very bad, and it took me years to be able to separate the message from the messengers to the point that I could give any religion at all another chance, but I’m so glad that I did. And, really, if I hadn’t been raised in an actively churchgoing household, I don’t know how I would’ve ended up here. I probably would have identified myself a “recovering Presbyterian” or just been agnostic my entire life. 🤷

As for “recovering Catholics”, I have heard the term but never met one. Maybe they had a very bad experience in the Church during their formative years and are unwilling to let go of their bitterness or other bad feelings, for whatever reason. There is also a very strong cultural component to Catholicism that some people might reject during their teenage years or twenties when they are trying to form their own separate identities, only to come back to it later. You never know.

Also, I don’t think we can discount the idea of a general breakdown of authority in the family as being a key here. Not to sound like an old fogey or what have you, but when I was a wee beastie, we went to church even if we would have rather stayed in and slept. My mother worked for a pediatrician, so there was almost nothing that you could do to “fake” your way out of going to church or school! (Believe me, I tried everything.) There was no real “why” to it, either…we went because we’re Christians and that’s what Christians do. Go to church, learn about Christ and the message of the Bible, and then after a week of trying your best to live by those examples, go back again next Sunday for more church so that hopefully you can stop messing up at it so much. This idea of being “raised against your will” in a given faith…well, I don’t even understand that. You don’t have a “will” as to the faith of your parents or their forefathers. It is what it is, and until you’re an adult you are to honor your father and mother by obeying the choices that they make for you, including going to church because that is what is best for you. I don’t know how/when/if this style of parenting has become such an unpopular idea, but it seems like a certain subset of parents that I know would rather be dictated to by their kids so long as they can still be their “friends” or be thought of as the “cool” mom/dad. That sort of thinking has to go.

I am willing to bet that for every self-professed “recovering Catholic” that you meet, there are ten “recovering center-of-the-universe”-type manchildren that obviously don’t know enough of the world outside of their own temporal desires and inclinations to even recognize which way of life is more damaging to their souls. I know which institution I would rather MY children adhere to, and it certainly isn’t the First United Church of Me that these “recovering Catholics” are the Popes of! 😉
 
Also, I don’t think we can discount the idea of a general breakdown of authority in the family as being a key here. … This idea of being “raised against your will” in a given faith…well, I don’t even understand that. You don’t have a “will” as to the faith of your parents or their forefathers. It is what it is, and until you’re an adult you are to honor your father and mother by obeying the choices that they make for you, including going to church because that is what is best for you. I don’t know how/when/if this style of parenting has become such an unpopular idea, but it seems like a certain subset of parents that I know would rather be dictated to by their kids so long as they can still be their “friends” or be thought of as the “cool” mom/dad. That sort of thinking has to go.

Interesting … would not have thought of that, but I know what you’re talking about.

The media depicts all devote Catholics as suffering from extreme guilt or prudishness.

I’ve heard ex-Catholics complain about the guilt. What I don’t understand is, I was raised non-religiously, and I have an intense sense of guilt. So where did my guilt come from, then? And when I tried to suppress that sense of guilt, I just ended up doing more things to subsequently feel guilty about. Seems to me like guilt is just part of the normal human condition, a natural response to sin … am I wrong? Are there really people who have no sense of shame? If so, are they not just sociopaths?
 
I’m a recovering Catholic.

I think your missing the point entirely.

It’s a humorous term to express how someone is in the process of cleansing themselves from their Roman Catholic indoctrination.

I would think that their are very few people who aim to be taken seriously when they claim that they’re recovering Catholics.
 
Snerticus said:
I’m not sure what “recovering Catholic” means. To me, it is a title that tells me the individual in question hates Catholicism and wants to share their hate with others.

I’ve never really heard it put that way, but I’ve only been here a few months. Perhaps I just need more time.😉
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It’s certainly not hate. A little embarrassed at having been a Catholic perhaps, but not hate.
 
genealogist said:
I would meet them where they are and throw it back at them. “I am sorry that you are not happy with the Church. I will pray for you. If you ever have a change of heart or want to ask questions please call me. Eternity is a long time and I want to see you in paradise because one does not recover in hell.”
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That wouldn’t work for a non-believer. They could care less, as they don’t believe in heaven or hell. Besides, if they turn out to be wrong, most unbelievers who have read the Bible, would not want to spend anytime with the God of the Bible.

For a fundamentalist, they’re the ones who think that Catholics are going to hell.

Either way, a very weak response.
 
Student09 said:
So where did my guilt come from, then? And when I tried to suppress that sense of guilt, I just ended up doing more things to subsequently feel guilty about.
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Sounds like anxiety to me. Anxiety is normal, but if it begins interfering with your normal life, it can cross over into the realm of an anxiety disorder.
 
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