Yes, dh means dear or darling husband. I am so used to using it with my email groups that when I am typing on the computer that it is second nature. I also use dd (darling daughter), ds (darling son), and mil/fil (mother in law/ father in law).
Conversion? of Cradle Catholics? I guess I didn’t know I was in a group that was/is being derogodated.One must be wary of there being the implication that cradle Catholics don’t go through a conversion process of some sort. Conversion is a lifelong process. When one becomes an adult responsible for one’s own life and activities, the choice to continue being a practicing Catholic may not look obvious or earthshaking but it is a conversion moment itself.
I chose to leave off practice as soon as I could and my family couldn’t force me to go any more. I couldn’t wait to leave. So I know choosing to continue as a rock-steady, steadfast Catholic is a conversion.
One must be wary of there being the implication that cradle Catholics don’t go through a conversion process of some sort. Conversion is a lifelong process. When one becomes an adult responsible for one’s own life and activities, the choice to continue being a practicing Catholic may not look obvious or earthshaking but it is a conversion moment itself.
I chose to leave off practice as soon as I could and my family couldn’t force me to go any more. I couldn’t wait to leave. So I know choosing to continue as a rock-steady, steadfast Catholic is a conversion.
How is it that Post Vat. II Catholics (I am assuming, and you know what that means.) are more well Catechized than we “Cradle Catholics”? My confusion is the voting patterns of supposedly well Catechized Catholics of what I assumed were Post Vat. II Catholics, (apparently another misguided assumption) during the last election for POTUS.I’ll admit it. I have used the term “cradle Catholic” in a derogatory manner.Usually, it has been when talking about how my dh wasn’t able to answer my questions about the Catholic faith before I converted. He falls into that category of not well catechised adults. When had a big argument about infant baptism before we were married. He wasn’t able to tell me why. All he would say was that he knew that they told him in CCD, but he didn’t remember why. It just was. You just accept it. Now, for someone like me who wants to know why and to be shown, that just did not work!
So, I’m sorry if the term offends you, but it does help when you are trying to explain to others why someone who is a Catholic very evidently doesn’t know what the church stands for or why. So, since I am now the mom of 4 “cradle Catholics”, I am making sure that my “cradle Catholics” don’t fall into the category of uninformed/ unformed Catholics. I don’t want them to be cultural or cafeteria Catholics either!
Your “Catholics” only use of “Cradle . . . .” designation is not universal. A fellow “Cradle Episcopalian” differs, from earlier in this thread:
Perhaps use of the “Cradle” handle varies by geographic region and not by religion?
I think there is a miscommunication here. My “cradle Catholic” IS a Post Vat. II Catholic. Most of the people that I hear from on this subject beleive that Pre Vat. II Catholics were better catechized. “Cradle Catholic” is used broadly for anyone who was born and raised Catholic whether it is Pre or Post Vat. II. My personal experience is that most of the negative comments have been about those who went through the late 60’s & 70’s where it seemed to be more of a feel good thing than teaching them about their faith. That is why I use the Balitimore Catechism with my kids along with what they use at CCD. Which I have to say that we are blessed in that their CCD books are very good. But, as a CCD teacher, my big problem is that the parents, who were raised in the Post Vat. II, don’t follow through at home or make it a priority. They expect us to teach in 1 hour a week for 30 weeks everything that the kid needs to know. That is just unreasonable! They need to step up find out what their kids are learning. Talk to them about it. Share with them and most of all PRAY together as a family and GO TO MASS! I had 2 kids this year that didn’t even go to Mass. One didn’t go to church at all. The other went to the Protestant chapel service. I don’t get it.
I certainly don’t get it either, why a child is going to Catechism and they don’t go to Mass let alone that they go to a Protestant service! Are they Catholic?
Sorry, yep, I miscommunicated. I was only thinking of all of us ooooooooold Cradle
i was a “cradle Episcopalian” until i joined the Catholic church last year. i don’t know if there might be cradle methodists or cradle presbyterians because i have never attended those churches.
Just remember this though… glory is for God not you, me or anyone else. This is not a contest of who’s more holier and all that other rheteric that comes from human point of view. We can throw around different theories, arguments and the like all day and night but at the end of the day it’s a term that does create a line of division amongst us as brothers & sisters in Christ. I can’t stop you or anyone else from using the term but I will say that again we should be focused on serving God and living in love, peace, and unity with each other all for the glory of Christ not for the glory of ourselves. Remember too that God is watching all this stuff and He knows the hearts of all men. We can persuade and sweet talk each other but we cannot bs God by any means. Lets remember who we’re really serving here. God bless you & all on here!!!
:grouphug:I agree, I had to do almost a year of RCIA when I had been reading and studying the c hurch including reading the the catachism. I am glad to be a cathoilc now but reading how Irishcatholic feels makes me feel sad. You don’t know how a long time protestasnt can feel coming inmto the church. We can feel as if we may be suspect by the “cradle catholics” as if we were going to be real catholics. I am insulted that he thinks that way about us.
First, St. Polycarp was a “cradle Catholic” since he had been baptized 86 years prior to his death by martyrdom. That was in the 100s AD, well before the time of Constantine - in fact, small-t tradition holds that St. Polycarp was baptized as an infant by St. John the Apostle. It’s true that in the time of Constantine, adult baptism was quite common, but this was due to the preponderance of mixed marriages during that era - Constantine’s father was a pagan, and his mother was a Catholic; same with St. Augustine, and many other leading figures of that era. Both of St. Ambrose’s parents were pagans - he himself was an adult convert.Donseas wrote: How could the Church have lasted these two thousand years without the cradle Catholics?
Does anyone know when “cradle Catholicism” began? In the early church, possibly right up to when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome (325?), adult baptisms were the norm it seems. Adults made the choice, the decision: give oneself as a freewill offering to God or not? Somewhere along the line, the official church fell into line with the old Jewish practice (according to the Law of Moses) of presenting the baby in the Temple on the 8th day. I was baptised at 8 days old in 1936, but obviously had no say in the matter: I was my Mother’s gift to God.
When I was 46 years old I decided to be baptised again, this time in full awareness of the sanctity of baptism, in full and complete awareness that I was giving myself to God, of my own free will and joy!
So, cradle Catholics take note: perhaps its the Converts who, like Mary, have chosen the better path?