The Catholic Identity: Why do you choose to be/remain a Catholic?

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Thank you for all the passionate and open sharings, which can sometimes, put us in vulnerable state too! Appreciate it!šŸ™‚

I was also having many discussions with my non-Catholic Christian friends too! I realized a few things in our discussions!
  1. Do not rely entirely on Catholics to support one in his/her examination, judgement and/or understanding Catholicism. A noble and sacred religion, used by fallible and sinful people, in an immoral and fallacious way, can falsely make the religion a cult. Understand Catholicism from what Jesus Christ has created.
  • And as we find things that we struggle to understand, keep an open mind and persists in understanding and reconciling these differences as we follow Jesus Christ.
  • And, as we see evilness within the religion, as painful as it may be to see the Church that Jesus Christ built deviates from Him, we need to persist within the Church He built to do our best to make the change. Outside of the Church of Jesus Christ, there is no life. (I dont mean Church as in the community of Catholics, or the people within a physical church/parish: I mean Church as in all of Godā€™s people)
  1. Even when my non-Catholic Christian friends are right about God, what they claim to be right and true about Jesus Christ and his teaching is Catholic.
  • This is something interesting I realized. Catholicism isnā€™t a denomination that humans create to draw boundaries between different Christian denominations. Catholicism is Christianity and is what Jesus Christ instituted in Truth and in Love universally for all, across time!
  • So, sometimes, when I fall into the trap of asserting that my points are right in desperation, actually there is no need for that! What is true will remain true. And, many a times, I am wrong about what I understand of Catholicism, and what my non-Catholic friends spoke in truth about Christianity and Jesus Christ. And, what they spoke of is Catholic! šŸ™‚
That being saidā€¦ I can see the struggle in the eyes of my friends! Their whole life, their way of life, their loved ones, their ancestry, their identity has been built on their faith and belief system! So, is mine! It is easy for me to say to be open-minded, surrender and willing to change for the better. Thatā€™s why I sometimes pray to God that whatever leads me to You, I will surrender and follow, even if it means that all the truths I claim to know of now is false in your eyes, lead me Lord to surrender all these, and be open to the difficult and radical change in my life.
 
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Praying earnestly that I will get baptised in time to come as God guides me as we navigate through all the roadblock ahead of me in love and in truth. And that I will have the strength and love to make that difficult and radical change in my life as I surrender all that I treasure to God, faithfully believing that God will make all things good in His time and according to His will.
 
Just by reason and method of deduction I concluded that Catholic is the only true way, and after that flood of graces opened and the rest is history
 
I simply believe Catholicism to be true. Today during prayer I realized there are things I canā€™t get my head around in Catholicism too, but point to any other denomination that rejects them and see that they are lacking- either by being too extreme in rejection or by rejection resulting in other deeper and worse problems (or sometimes they seem to be flat out unhistorical or wrong in other parts of their faith). From when I truly became Christian, obedience was a virtue I, all thanks to Godā€™s supreme providence and not by my own accomplishments, did value and also followed much more successfully than other virtues. I understand I have been wrong before and I can be wrong now. At this very moment no other denomination makes nearly as much sense as Catholicism. Oriental Orthodoxy comes close second but it isnā€™t even that close. Catholicism makes too much sense honestlyā€¦ and it is hard to be Catholic for sure, but I would be lying to myself and would reek of hypocrisy if I left it for such reason.
 
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DoubtingKT said:
Why do we choose to be/remain as a Catholic?
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Truth be told, It would be absolutely impossible for me to leave the Catholic Faith for something different. My love for my Blessed Mother would be tugging at my heartstrings something terrible! I simply cannot live without my Mary!!! My whole world would collapse. šŸ˜§ šŸ˜‰
 
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When I was a non catholic Christian I treated God and the church as a take it or leave it thing. I didnā€™t go for years and still identified as a Christian. And this was even after powerful experiences with the Holy Spirit in my life and a strong faith. The things of the world and sin pulled me away. I need tight boundaries to keep me right and the Catholic Church provides me with those.
 
Iā€™m a Catholic because I firmly believe that it is the true religion, opposed to Christian denominations. Jesus himself established the Catholic Church, whereas the protestant denominations were all founded by people (Martin Luther, John Calvin, etcā€¦) People canā€™t just invent a religion. Thatā€™s up to God. And yes, Jesus is a person, but he is also God!!! Also, if youā€™re ever in doubt, SO MANY miracles have been attributed to the Catholic Faith!!! I hope this helps!!! šŸ™‚
 
Much has been summarized by @DoubtingKT earlier, so I wanted to extend on @tomo_pomo answer on the reasoning/deduction.

Strong scripture/tradition support for the Marian doctrines.
  1. St Mary, the Mother of God > Jesus, is the Son of God and therefore, St Mary bearing Jesus in her womb, should rightfully be the Mother of God, as illustrated in Luke 1.43.
  2. Immaculate conception > St Mary had to be without sin, to bear Jesus in a state full of grace in Luke 1.28.
  3. Assumption of St Mary > St Mary was not separated from the suffering of Jesus (Luke 2.35) and those who share in the suffering of Jesus will share in his glory (Romans 8.17). She can therefore be assumed body and soul into heaven.
  4. Perpetual virginity > St Mary give birth to Jesus as a virgin ( Luke 1.34). Matthew 13.55-56 about Jesus having siblings James, Joseph, Simon and Judas can be contradicted by Galatians 1.19. James the apostle referred to as Jesus ā€œbrotherā€ but not as blood brother by St Paul in galatians 1.19.
Strong belief in salvation and sanctification as illustrated in philippians 2.12 and matthew 16.24-26, as opposed to once saved, always saved salvation and personal judgement of individual salvation rather than God.

Acceptance of the oral tradition as valid, complementing scriptural text on 2 thessalonians 2.15.

And also, the availability of the church mass with numerous scriptural readings throughout the week and not just on Sunday. We are not called to be ā€œSunday Christiansā€ but to continue to follow Christ everyday we can, to turn away from the idols of our lives and to focus on Him.
 
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LovelyLadybug said:
Jesus himself established the Catholic Church, whereas the protestant denominations were all founded by people (Martin Luther, John Calvin, etcā€¦) People canā€™t just invent a religion.
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And not only the Apostles were killed, but many, many Christians were persecuted and died for 300 yearsā€¦ people do not accept martyrdom for a lie, martyrdom is the seed of Christianity.
 
I didnā€™t initially choose to be Catholic. My parents did that for me when I was born. God always made sense to me though. Those first questions in the Little Catechism were questions that I desired answers to. 1. Who made you? God made me. 2. Why did God make you? God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him on earth, so that I can be happy with Him forever in heaven.

No one ever had a better answer to those questions than that Catechism. Then the only times that I had a real crisis of faith, having been blessed by being attracted so much to Pope John Paul II and the divine ā€˜pullā€™ around himā€¦ I remained on the basis that if Pope John Paul II believesā€¦ then so will I. Even when I canā€™t ā€˜seeā€™.
 
Itā€™s still a bit complicated for me as I have not yet completed my conversion, but there are a few things I think I have nailed down.

This separates into two categories, one why I choose to be a Christian in general, and another why I choose to be a Catholic Christian.

Firstly, I eventually came to the realization that at some level, all the arguments (such as ontological, teleological, kalaam, pascal, etc.) have a point at which they break down or have a valid refutation. This made me aware that ultimately, no matter how far reason may get you, everything comes down to faith. Plain, basic, no-nonsense faith. At which point I assessed my options: Either believe, or donā€™t.
Previously, one of the major developments in my personal philosophy was a principle I chose found: it doesnā€™t particularly matter if certain things are true, as long as people treat them as if they were. I decided that it is vastly more preferential and useful (subjectively, in my situation) to act and live as if the claims of Christianity are true, even if it is impossible for me to ever have final assurance of that. And so, I chose to believe.

As for the Catholic part, that was a natural evolution of the concept above.
Most importantly, I find the hermeneutical principle of sola scriptura to be quite counterproductive. The idea that so many people would look at a passage and not come to vastly different conclusions is simply laughable. Sola scriptura is, quite frankly, not useful. The weight given to Tradition in the Catholic system seems much more logical. It is also far more useful to have a central authority figure like a Pope to guide the Church.
I have from that point done more research to confirm my initial impressions, and I have also gathered more points in favor of the Catholic viewpoint. On the view of Mary, Brant Pitreā€™s book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, was particularly helpful. I also happened to get a copy of the Catechism, and, my oh my, was that enlightening.
I suppose some weight should be accorded to the fact that, in a way, belief in Catholicism is a rebellion against the evangelical protestant environment created by my Christian school and parents. I also note that one of my close friends has rejected Christianity as a whole because of such an environment. Interestingly enough, he views my conversion in a positive light because, for him, both of our respective shifts mark a rejection of the status quo in such a way to make us ā€œbrothers in armsā€. I donā€™t know quite what to make of that. I can only say that my shift to Catholicism is not primarily driven by a sort of rebellion or anything, although that may play a subliminal role.
Anyway, thatā€™s about all the reasons why I have chosen to start down this road. Most central is the first point I mentioned, although the others are effective to varying degrees.
 
P.S. I do have ties to Orthodoxy, being ethnically Ukrainian (even though my parents come from the small minority of the population that is baptist, go figure). However, Orthodoxy seems much more prone to schisms arising from geopolitics as opposed to theology. The recent one over the Ukrainian church further complicates things as that would be the one I would join if I were to hypothetically choose to become Orthodox. In any case, my personal theology is way more in line with Latin thinking even if I do happen to prefer the Orthodox view of the Eucharist and am very intrigued by the concept of theosis.
 
LovelyLadybug said:
And yes, Jesus is a person, but he is also God!!!
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Our Lord Jesus Christ is one Person with two natures, Divine and human, in the unity of His Divine Person.

Excerpts from the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils (especially that of Chalcedon):

O Word and lover of Mankind,* infinite and beyond description in Your taking flesh for our sake,* the nobles assembly of Fathers proclaimed that You are both perfect man and perfect God,* one person in two perfect natures with two perfect wills.* Therefore, we profess that You are one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit.* We sing a hymn of praise to the Fathers, and we adore You.
  1. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plentiful redemption; and He shall redeem Israel from all its iniquities.*
O glorious Fathers of the Councils,* you demonstrated that Pyrrhus, Sergius, and Onuphrius,* Dioscorus, and Nestorius were in error* concerning the doctrines of Christ.* You save the flock by teaching the true principle* that Christ is one divine person in two natures.* This Christ we adore as perfect man and perfect God,* one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.* O holy Fathers, we honour you and sing to you a hymn of praise.

Source: Royal Doors
 
Truth isnā€™t a matter of preference or choice. Truth is true whether you like it or not.It is utterly undemocratic. You canā€™t vote for the world to be flat. If you ā€œchooseā€ to believe that the world is flat you are choosing a lie.
 
Simply put;it is home. Then there is the fact that I canā€™t live without the sacraments.
 
Yes, that is correct. At some fundamental level a thing either is or isnā€™t true. That isnā€™t my concern though. There are some things that may be true, but they are ultimately impossible to ascertain 100%. In such cases, the question is how we act; do we treat and live as if the thing as true, or not.

I may have formulated that point in a confusing way. For that, I apologize.
 
I am a Catholic because I found that Catholicism contains the fullness of truth.

I am a cradle Catholic, but I left the Church in my teen years to early twenties to dabble in different ā€œspiritual disciplines.ā€ I was looking into Eastern spirituality, to Paganism, up to even full-blown Satanism.

I went back to Christianity because of Protestants. They ā€œshared the Gospelā€ with me and I wanted to be a Christian once again. However, after a few years with the Protestants, I noticed their infighting and disagreements between their different churches. They werenā€™t unified!

I began looking back at Catholicism with my Christian mindset at that time, coupled with my experience in different spiritual disciplines, and I realized that Catholicism was the ā€œcomplete package.ā€

I then went to confession, confessed my departure from the Church including the times I worshiped Satan, and I have never felt so loved and forgiven ever since that day.
 
nafatyuk said:
There are some things that may be true,
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If you want to be more certain of the truth of the Catholic religion, studying the history of the early church helps. As St John Henry Newman said, ā€œto be deep in history is to cease to be Protestantā€
 
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