The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism: The Converts

[Maranatha]

The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism: The Converts

It started with Scott Hahn and it is still going strong. The number of prominent Protestant clergy and theologians coming to the Catholic Church has been nothing short of remarkable. Priests like Father Dwight Longenecker and Father Alvin Kimel are new to the Church and they bring a lot of enthusiasm, scholarship and wit and humor with them. Father Longenecker might be the only priest who is a graduate of the admittedly anti-Catholic institute of higher learning, Bob Jones University. Deacon Alex Jones, a former pastor in a prominent African-American Pentacostalist Church in Detroit left behind a vibrant, growing congregation. However, the pull of Catholicism’s 2,000 year-old history and her ability to weather many storms was too much for Deacon Jones. He now travels around the country telling his conversion story. In addition, there have been prominent theologians and university scholars like Dr Francis Beckwith, who very recently was the head of the Evangelical Theological Society. He came home to the Church in April. The aftershocks from his reversion to Catholicism (he was born into the faith but later left the Church for Evangelicalism during his teenage years in the heyday of the “Jesus Movement,”) still are being felt. He followed Joshua Hochschild who surprised many in the theological world when he recently converted to Catholicism.

more

 

[OriginalJS]

This is old news. Fundamental evangelicals have been turning to Catholicism for years. Jeff Cavins, one of the best Catholic apologists around the Twin Cities, is a convert. The married priests are mostly protestant clergy that converted.

 

[Bennie_P]

But we need reminders,
Myself just coming into full communion last year, have days that feel like the honeymoon is over, as I learn about how many that always been Catholic don’t seem to appreciate what the fullness of the faith really means, and to hear reports and stories like this help me know that I made the right choice. Everytime I hear of another convert, it strengthens my faith and each time I hear a cradle Catholic tell how great they think the Church is and how much they appreciate seeing the conversions, it strengthens my faith.

There have a been a few days lately I wonder if I made the right choice, but then I don’t know what I would do now without the scaraments of the Church. There is no turning back. These stories are never old news, thanks for posting it Maranatha.

 

[KathleenElsie]

But we need reminders,
Myself just coming into full communion last year, have days that feel like the honeymoon is over, as I learn about how many that always been Catholic don’t seem to appreciate what the fullness of the faith really means, and to hear reports and stories like this help me know that I made the right choice. Everytime I hear of another convert, it strengthens my faith and each time I hear a cradle Catholic tell how great they think the Church is and how much they appreciate seeing the conversions, it strengthens my faith.

There have a been a few days lately I wonder if I made the right choice, but then I don’t know what I would do now without the scaraments of the Church. There is no turning back. These stories are never old news, thanks for posting it Maranatha.

Isn’t it wonderful that we do not have to follow others, but to only follow God. This makes it easier to do what is right and proper.

 

[Maranatha]

This is old news. Fundamental evangelicals have been turning to Catholicism for years. Jeff Cavins, one of the best Catholic apologists around the Twin Cities, is a convert. The married priests are mostly protestant clergy that converted.

I think part of the new news is this is comming out in book form.

catholicreport.org/?id=206

 

[Eileen_T]

There have a been a few days lately I wonder if I made the right choice, but then I don’t know what I would do now without the scaraments of the Church. There is no turning back. These stories are never old news, thanks for posting it Maranatha.

As a cradle-Catholic, my Faith was enkindled by the conversion story of Scott Hahn and others. It shamed me that they could explain the Faith better than me. So I had to start studying, reading the Bible and CCC so that if a non-Catholic challenged me or even just asked a question, I could answer.

Frequently while I am working at my computer, I develop websites, I am listening to The Journey Home. Sometimes, I even jot down what the converts say about their journey into the Catholic Church so I can share them with others.

Being a Catholic is like being married. There are going to be bad days but you just soldier on and trust God. He uses these moments to strengthen our Faith if we let Him.

 

[gus]

The Surprised by Truth Books
and ETWN’s Journey Home were also key to my return to the Church
Something about conversion

 

[Riley259]

The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism: The Converts

It started with Scott Hahn and it is still going strong. The number of prominent Protestant clergy and theologians coming to the Catholic Church has been nothing short of remarkable. Priests like Father Dwight Longenecker and Father Alvin Kimel are new to the Church and they bring a lot of enthusiasm, scholarship and wit and humor with them. Father Longenecker might be the only priest who is a graduate of the admittedly anti-Catholic institute of higher learning, Bob Jones University. Deacon Alex Jones, a former pastor in a prominent African-American Pentacostalist Church in Detroit left behind a vibrant, growing congregation. However, the pull of Catholicism’s 2,000 year-old history and her ability to weather many storms was too much for Deacon Jones. He now travels around the country telling his conversion story. In addition, there have been prominent theologians and university scholars like Dr Francis Beckwith, who very recently was the head of the Evangelical Theological Society. He came home to the Church in April. The aftershocks from his reversion to Catholicism (he was born into the faith but later left the Church for Evangelicalism during his teenage years in the heyday of the “Jesus Movement,”) still are being felt. He followed Joshua Hochschild who surprised many in the theological world when he recently converted to Catholicism.

more

Thanks for the inspiring reminder.

 

[Digitonomy]

It’s always good to hear these stories.

I hate to rain on the parade, but since this is a news forum I feel compelled to point out that the converts may not be the most reliable source to tell whether the “tide is turning toward Catholicism,” as the headline reports. My guess is that converts to Eastern Orthodoxy, or Mormonism, or Hinduism, or the Assembly of God, or Islam, would report a similar tidal shift, but toward their own new faith.

 

[Bennie_P]

It’s always good to hear these stories.

I hate to rain on the parade, but since this is a news forum I feel compelled to point out that the converts may not be the most reliable source to tell whether the “tide is turning toward Catholicism,” as the headline reports. My guess is that converts to Eastern Orthodoxy, or Mormonism, or Hinduism, or the Assembly of God, or Islam, would report a similar tidal shift, but toward their own new faith.

Really?

This past Easter, it was announced that over 100,000 people came into the Church, just in the United States.(2007)

In 2005, **73,684 **people were received into full communion with the Catholic Church

·

A look at patterns of growth/decline over a five-year period (1999-2002), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Catholic Church and the Assemblies of God have reported consistency in both direction and rate of change. This pattern continues with a modest increase in the rate of growth for the Assemblies of God. The Southern Baptist Convention, which had been reporting a slowing rate of membership gain, in the current data reports a significant increase in the rate of gain from 0.585 percent to 1.21 percent.
· The 2003 Yearbook reports a similar pattern of membership losses (1999-2002) among the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent for each church. The 2004 Yearbook reports continued decline at a slightly accelerated rate for all except for the United Methodist Church, the largest church in this sample, (1.21 percent. 0.57 percent, 1.41 percent and 1.08 percent, respectively).

Of course stats are from different years, but I think it is still a reason to celebrate and your opinion is n/a.

 

[Digitonomy]

Bennie P:

This past Easter, it was announced that over 100,000 people came into the Church, just in the United States.(2007)

Can you provide the number who left the Church during the past year?
Bennie P:

This pattern continues with a modest increase in the rate of growth for the Assemblies of God.

Can you cite your source for this quotation?
Bennie P:

Of course stats are from different years, but I think it is still a reason to celebrate and your opinion is n/a.

People joining the Church is always good reason to celebrate, but whether the overall trend is cause for celebration, and whether the trend claimed in the headline is accurate, depends on the overall stats - as we know, many also leave the Church every year.

 

[rien]

It’s always good to hear these stories.

I hate to rain on the parade, but since this is a news forum I feel compelled to point out that the converts may not be the most reliable source to tell whether the “tide is turning toward Catholicism,” as the headline reports. My guess is that converts to Eastern Orthodoxy, or Mormonism, or Hinduism, or the Assembly of God, or Islam, would report a similar tidal shift, but toward their own new faith.

Not to mention these are “intellectual” conversions. A bare handful compared to the huge number of rank and file Catholics embracing evangelical Christianity and converting from Catholicism to that.

The CWR quoted Brazil’s Cardinal Hummes as saying the church is losing 1% of its faithful a year in the Americas. Do the numbers - that is huge over time - a decade, two decades. And if it is not stopped that the Cardinal said “perhaps the future of worldwide Catholicty is at risk”.

The picture is quite bleak - Protestants have grown from 7% of the population to almost 20% in Mexico in the last decade. In Nepal the 7,000 Catholics are inconsequential compared to the almost 1 million Protestants. Same in China - evangelical Chrsitianity is the religious force there now.

The church is in dire trouble which I suspect is one reason for the MP. Benedict realizes things are in very bad shape.

 

[Bennie_P]

The church is in dire trouble which I suspect is one reason for the MP. Benedict realizes things are in very bad shape.

Your not putting into consideration of the growth of the Church in places like Africa, which most of us Americans overlook, The Church is growing in the South. One of the things PB XVI sees though is not so much a growth in numbers, but of the growth of holiness within the Church and that growth of holiness will bring more converts from non-Catholic churchs. It is the liberalization of many of the mainline protestant churchs that is triggering conversions of people coming Home to Rome. As to people leaving the church, those numbers can only be known ‘if’ people would declare themselves not Catholic any longer, which they do not do, and I’m finding many so-called ‘ex-Catholics’ that are coming to me and I figure to other converts and asking ‘why’? and questioning thier own reasoning and are reconsidering the Church a new. Just all the non-Catholics on this forum, what is the motivation, do they think they can convert Catholics away from the Church? Bring the Church down? or are they really questioning thier own ideas of the Church? I know I don’t go to protestant forums to see what is being said there and I don’t go to Athiest forums to see what is going on there. Nor do I go to any other religious non-Christian forums to find out what is going there.I come here to hear and speak about my Catholic faith.

The Church is not in dire trouble - you cannot look at the Church as you look at a business or even a nation. The Church shall stand - despite your nay-saying.

And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

 

[Mimi]

Your not putting into consideration of the growth of the Church in places like Africa, which most of us Americans overlook, The Church is growing in the South. One of the things PB XVI sees though is not so much a growth in numbers, but of the growth of holiness within the Church and that growth of holiness will bring more converts from non-Catholic churchs. It is the liberalization of many of the mainline protestant churchs that is triggering conversions of people coming Home to Rome. As to people leaving the church, those numbers can only be known ‘if’ people would declare themselves not Catholic any longer, which they do not do, and I’m finding many so-called ‘ex-Catholics’ that are coming to me and I figure to other converts and asking ‘why’? and questioning thier own reasoning and are reconsidering the Church a new. Just all the non-Catholics on this forum, what is the motivation, do they think they can convert Catholics away from the Church? Bring the Church down? or are they really questioning thier own ideas of the Church? I know I don’t go to protestant forums to see what is being said there and I don’t go to Athiest forums to see what is going on there. Nor do I go to any other religious non-Christian forums to find out what is going there.I come here to hear and speak about my Catholic faith.

The Church is not in dire trouble - you cannot look at the Church as you look at a business or even a nation. The Church shall stand - despite your nay-saying.

And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

Amen!
I agree with your comments.

I’m inspired by conversion stories too. Roy Shoemann was on EWTN radio today and I heard him again tonight on the Next Wave program. His story is amazing! He was an observant Jew, fell away in college (relativism and/or agnosticism), and God just graced him with His Presence – as Roy put it. He just KNEW the reality of God. And he had a vivid dream that he was talking with the BV Mary, was so filled with her purity and love that he just “fell in love” with her.

Oh, my dh converted 2 yrs ago, thanks in part to the Journey Home. It’s still my favorite show. What a great apostolate (or ministry, whatever) Marcus Grodi has.

Oh, Jeff Cavins was a cradle Catholic, then rejected Catholicism for a while (had a big falling out with his dad, which he regrets), was a Protestant minister and later ‘re-verted’. I used watch him on Life on the Rock. Fr. Francis hosts that now; he’s good, too.
I think Christopher West (Theology of the Body) is going to be on tomorrow night (7-13).

Peace,
Mimi

 

[Mimi]

Correction!
Christopher West WAS on tonight’s Life on the Rock.

ewtn.com/rock/index.asp

You can probably watch it via computer.
7-12-07

I’ve seen him live, and think he does a nice job explaining ToB.

Mimi

 

[jj2011]

Amen!
I agree with your comments.

I’m inspired by conversion stories too. Roy Shoemann was on EWTN radio today and I heard him again tonight on the Next Wave program. His story is amazing! He was an observant Jew, fell away in college (relativism and/or agnosticism), and God just graced him with His Presence – as Roy put it. He just KNEW the reality of God. And he had a vivid dream that he was talking with the BV Mary, was so filled with her purity and love that he just “fell in love” with her.

Oh, my dh converted 2 yrs ago, thanks in part to the Journey Home. It’s still my favorite show. What a great apostolate (or ministry, whatever) Marcus Grodi has.

Oh, Jeff Cavins was a cradle Catholic, then rejected Catholicism for a while (had a big falling out with his dad, which he regrets), was a Protestant minister and later ‘re-verted’. I used watch him on Life on the Rock. Fr. Francis hosts that now; he’s good, too.
I think Christopher West (Theology of the Body) is going to be on tomorrow night (7-13).

Peace,
Mimi

Is ‘dh’ dear husband? I’m pretty slow on internet abbreviations.

 

[Mimi]

Is ‘dh’ dear husband? I’m pretty slow on internet abbreviations.

Yes!
DW = dear wife
DS = dear son
DD = Dear daughter

You get it…
This might be helpful:
netforbeginners.about.com/cs/netiquette101/a/abbreviations_2.htm

OP = original post (or poster)
CC = Catholic Church
There are a few others that may be used exclusively her. Usually they’re easy to figure out.

Can you tell I’m a teacher? Glad to be of help!

Mimi

 

[Bennie_P]

Can you provide the number who left the Church during the past year?Can you cite your source for this quotation?People joining the Church is always good reason to celebrate, but whether the overall trend is cause for celebration, and whether the trend claimed in the headline is accurate, depends on the overall stats - as we know, many also leave the Church every year.

I still can not answer your questions:shrug: But I would like you and anyone else with an interst to watch this film clip of a DVD of a Conversion story in Detroit.
Pentecostal or Catholic?stanwilliams.com/AJSMovies/index.html
Here is case of a whole church body converting and I think we will see more mass conversions like this in future. The trailer takes a while to load, so be patient.

Here is a news story about it.
CHURCH VOTES TO BECOME CATHOLIC

 

[ASimpleSinner]

In Nepal the 7,000 Catholics are inconsequential compared to the almost 1 million Protestants.

From: across.co.nz/NepalChurches.html

Christian denominations are few but growing. Christian leaders estimate the number of Christians at approximately 400,000. Press reports indicate that 170 Christian churches operate in Kathmandu alone. The growth of other religious groups is harder to document because the last census was taken in 2001. - Source: International Religious Freedom Report 2005 - Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

---

The number of believers in Nepal is said to have reached about 100,000 [see figure above. Others - http://www.worthynews.com/news-features-3/nepal-ministry-trains.html

• are now saying it’s over 500,000]. The three main Protestant groups are:

the [Nepal] National Churches Fellowship,
the Agape Fellowship and
the Assemblies of God.

Source: elca.org/countrypackets/nepal/church.html (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America)

Maybe it is time that we get some of the literature of the Catholic Answers catalog translated into Nepali.

Anyone know any good translators?

 

[Maranatha]

I still can not answer your questions:shrug: But I would like you and anyone else with an interst to watch this film clip of a DVD of a Conversion story in Detroit.
Pentecostal or Catholic?stanwilliams.com/AJSMovies/index.html
Here is case of a whole church body converting and I think we will see more mass conversions like this in future. The trailer takes a while to load, so be patient.

Here is a news story about it.
CHURCH VOTES TO BECOME CATHOLIC

Thanks for the link. I like the name of their Church.

I hope they are all doing well. Is there any update? Has the pastor appeared on the Journey Home?