J
Jack_245814
Guest
I have to begin by saying that my father is a great man; he is a good person in the true sense of the word, has raised me to imitate him, and if it weren’t for the example set by him I don’t know where I’d be today. He works hard, he loves his family, and he loves his fellow man. I have the utmost respect for him in every way.
However, he has stopped being a Catholic (several years ago, in fact), despite being raised in a very devout family. I understand that it is my duty to, first of all, obey, respect, honor, and love him (so long as he doesn’t command me to sin); and, secondly, to try to help him back to the faith (which proceeds necessarily from the first obligation).
Our post-modernist, relativistic world has led him to believe that all religions are a path to God. He prefers Buddhism. He’s not some asinine, self-righteous new-ager or anything, but this is his religion at this time. When I try to discuss Catholicism with him, he points out the many similarities between Catholicism and other religions.
The catechism itself answers this objection:
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth.
He still maintains, though, that there’s no real proof that the Roman Catholic faith is the only true and perfect way to reach God. I’ve told him that the Catholic religion was the faith held by all his ancestors for over a thousand years, but this is hardly a good argument, especially considering how little tradition is respected these days.
Therefore, I ask you to give me some advice as to how to deal with this particular manifestation of apostasy. I am nowhere near knowledgeable enough to handle it.
I think the other two major things that caused him to leave the faith were the prohibition against contraception, and the fact that being a Catholic means accepting the views of other, more pious and learned men (the hierarchy of the Church), in lieu of your own thoughts, on religious matters at least. I’m not really comfortable bringing up the issue of contraception . . . at all. I know he had a vasectomy, and I suppose I should tell him about the Church’s current teachings on Natural Family Planning; I guess that’s just what I’ll have to do, even if it’s more than a little embarrassing.
As for his issue with hierarchy and “organized religion”, that’s a bit harder to deal with. He is humble, and believes humility to be a virtue - indeed, his Catholic ethos has been quite well preserved in general - but he doesn’t accept that other men can tell him what to believe. The only answer to this objection I can think of at this time is that a big way of expressing humility is submitting to the will of others; any other answers that I can think of rely on being a Christian in the first place.
Luckily, I think he is slowly beginning to turn around. He goes to mass with me every Sunday that he doesn’t have work. He even believes in transubstantiation. Even here, though, I have a problem. I told him that he shouldn’t take communion since he is apostate (trying my best not to be judgmental, but focusing on his salvation); he won’t accept this. He says “Christ hung out with prostitutes and money-lenders and all sorts of horrible sinners; he died for all of us, not just Catholics.”
I answered that of course he is right; any sinners have the chance to be reconciled with God and forgiven by him. But it would be profaning the Body and Blood of our Lord to partake of this Sacred Mystery while in a state of grave sin. He responds that “it’s not up to the Church to decide who can and cannot receive the eucharist” - despite the fact that it is through the Church that transubstantiation happens in the first place! So I need help here also.
Thank you all so much; I’ve been praying for him (and the rest of my family: we were all Catholic at one time but all fell eventually), and it seems like God is already answering my prayers bit by bit. Hopefully you all can help my father in this process as well.
God bless!
However, he has stopped being a Catholic (several years ago, in fact), despite being raised in a very devout family. I understand that it is my duty to, first of all, obey, respect, honor, and love him (so long as he doesn’t command me to sin); and, secondly, to try to help him back to the faith (which proceeds necessarily from the first obligation).
Our post-modernist, relativistic world has led him to believe that all religions are a path to God. He prefers Buddhism. He’s not some asinine, self-righteous new-ager or anything, but this is his religion at this time. When I try to discuss Catholicism with him, he points out the many similarities between Catholicism and other religions.
The catechism itself answers this objection:
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth.
He still maintains, though, that there’s no real proof that the Roman Catholic faith is the only true and perfect way to reach God. I’ve told him that the Catholic religion was the faith held by all his ancestors for over a thousand years, but this is hardly a good argument, especially considering how little tradition is respected these days.
Therefore, I ask you to give me some advice as to how to deal with this particular manifestation of apostasy. I am nowhere near knowledgeable enough to handle it.
I think the other two major things that caused him to leave the faith were the prohibition against contraception, and the fact that being a Catholic means accepting the views of other, more pious and learned men (the hierarchy of the Church), in lieu of your own thoughts, on religious matters at least. I’m not really comfortable bringing up the issue of contraception . . . at all. I know he had a vasectomy, and I suppose I should tell him about the Church’s current teachings on Natural Family Planning; I guess that’s just what I’ll have to do, even if it’s more than a little embarrassing.
As for his issue with hierarchy and “organized religion”, that’s a bit harder to deal with. He is humble, and believes humility to be a virtue - indeed, his Catholic ethos has been quite well preserved in general - but he doesn’t accept that other men can tell him what to believe. The only answer to this objection I can think of at this time is that a big way of expressing humility is submitting to the will of others; any other answers that I can think of rely on being a Christian in the first place.
Luckily, I think he is slowly beginning to turn around. He goes to mass with me every Sunday that he doesn’t have work. He even believes in transubstantiation. Even here, though, I have a problem. I told him that he shouldn’t take communion since he is apostate (trying my best not to be judgmental, but focusing on his salvation); he won’t accept this. He says “Christ hung out with prostitutes and money-lenders and all sorts of horrible sinners; he died for all of us, not just Catholics.”
I answered that of course he is right; any sinners have the chance to be reconciled with God and forgiven by him. But it would be profaning the Body and Blood of our Lord to partake of this Sacred Mystery while in a state of grave sin. He responds that “it’s not up to the Church to decide who can and cannot receive the eucharist” - despite the fact that it is through the Church that transubstantiation happens in the first place! So I need help here also.
Thank you all so much; I’ve been praying for him (and the rest of my family: we were all Catholic at one time but all fell eventually), and it seems like God is already answering my prayers bit by bit. Hopefully you all can help my father in this process as well.
God bless!
He is an expert on Eastern Religions and New Age.