Should I announce to my former church that I'm now Catholic?

[amontoya]

I entered the Catholic Church on April 7th this year and, since then, things in my life have been difficult. Jesus has been my strength and I can’t help but smiling whenever I remember I’m Catholic. I know I’ve been going through a time of testing, and I hope I’m better for it. I am very grateful for the Church. My question is, should I formally withdraw membership from my previous church? I had planned on doing it when I converted, but like I said, things have been rough. I haven’t been there in over a year, but I am still a member. I just don’t know if I should announce my conversion to the church I grew up in, or just let it go since it’s been so long.

Thank you for this website. It has been a help to me. May God bless you all.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

As a matter of prudence, it does seem that it would be a good idea to ask your former church to remove you from the member rolls. One way to do so that might make the procedure less painful would be to write a letter to your former pastor, informing him of your conversion to Catholicism and asking him to remove your name from the church’s membership. If you like, you could also make an appointment with him for the same purpose.

You need not make a formal announcement to the church as a whole that you have converted. You may though be interested in reading David Currie’s book Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic, which grew out of a letter he wrote to Evangelical friends and family to explain his family’s conversion to Catholicism.