I came home to the Church about a month ago and I attend an indult Latin Mass.
I fully believe in everything that the Church teaches…but I feel like leaving the Church. I’m so disheartened. Here’s the story:
Like I said, I’m a recent revert and I have been meeting with my parish priest for the last two weeks because I want to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. I have spent about 4 years reading and learning about the faith; I wanted to make sure that I believe in EVERYTHING the Church teaches. I would never enter the Church and become a ‘cafeteria Catholic’. As a result of this study, I now have a pretty thorough understanding of doctrine and belief etc.
I was very excited about meeting with my priest every week but now I wish I didn’t bother.
It seems that every Catholic I meet is a liberal who is against the Church’s moral teachings. I recently started University and I visited the Catholic Chaplaincy. The Priest was great but the place seems very liberal, for example, the room where they say Mass has a gay pride flag pinned to the wall. One of the chaplains is an ex-nun (which seems strange). They also let non-Catholics worship there/use the facilities eg. chapel etc.
I’ve just came back from my weekly meeting with the Priest and I feel very demoralised. I decided that I would ask the Priest about everything that troubled me about Catholicism. I don’t think it went well. I asked him about ecumenism and the need for other Christians to become Catholics. He said that the Catholic Church is not the Church of Christ per se, but that the Church of Christ subsists in it. He said that the Church of Christ is actually the large fellowship of all Christians, irregardless of denomination. He did say that the Catholic Church has the fullness of faith however. He also said that the Roman Catholic Church had placed too much emphasis on the primacy of the Pope and that more needs to be done to accomodate the Orthodox.
I asked him whether he believed in contraception and he didn’t give me an answer. He told me that most Catholics in this country do not have a problem with contraception and that it is not an infallable teaching. I told him that I was against contraception and he looked less than impressed. I told him that I could not in good conscience ever use a condom and he said that while this is ‘proper’ most Catholics disagree.
I told him that I will keep attending the Latin Mass and that I hope other younger people will attend. He didn’t greet that comment with enthusiasm either.
At the end of the meeting, he asked me whether I would like to keep seeing him. I told him that I still wanted to be confirmed but he seemed less enthusiastic than he was last week.
I’m starting to think that there are no faithful Catholics left. Everyone I meet seems so hypocritical. I’m gutted because I really believe what the Church teaches, but it seems that the church is infested with dissenters who look down on orthodox catholic teaching. I wish I met Catholics like the ones on this forum.
I feel like leaving the Church…everyone seems so hypocritical…even the Priests. I don’t know what to do. The SSPX is looking more and more appealing. I’m feel very upset at the moment
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