What church should I convert

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Sophie111 said:
Noone can tell you which Church best suits your personality and background and best help you grow to be as good a person as you can be.
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So, we should choose the institution that tells us what is true or not , good or not, sinful or not, based upon our personality and background?

No. There’s only one truth, contained in Roman Catholicism
 
Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

The Catholic Church
 
ziapueblo said:
Orthodoxy is false? That’s odd because the Second Vatican Council says that the Orthodox Churches are “true Churches” which have apostolic succession and the Sacraments.
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This is not from Vatican II, but from the 2000 CDF document Dominus Iesus. The Latin often translated as “true particular Churches” is better translated as “real particular Churches” (especially in light of the footnotes given for this assertion). This is not controversial, since a particular Church is a validly ordained bishop and his flock celebrating a common Eucharist.

But there is only one, true catholic Church as professed in the Creed–and the Eastern Orthodox Churches cannot be said to be it. The same CDF that noted the reality of these particular Churches in the same document noted that this one Church of Christ did not subsist in them and in a subsequent document noted that the acknowledgement of such realities “does not signify that the Catholic Church has ceased to regard herself as the one true Church.” (Commentary on the Document “Reponses to Some Questions with Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.”

If there is only one true Church, then others are not the true Church. False simply means they are not this one true Church, not that everything they say and do is false.
 
Certain Eastern Orthodox Churches are currently in schism with each other, so I’m not sure how you find the one Church of Christ among them in such a situation.

The Catholic Church alone has all four marks of the Church professed in the Creed–the EOs and OOs in particular do not have the “one” or the “catholic” (for EOs, the very idea of a “catholic” or “universal” ecclesiology is controversial).
 
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DictatorCzar said:
After researching, I believe that all the Protestant churches are false. I have three choices of which I should convert. It’s confusing me so much. Should I convert to Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or Orientla Orthodoxy? There all confusing and similar and I don’t know which one to pick? Please help!!!
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Since you are already a baptized Christian, you fall into the Latin tradition. If you become a Catholic the Latin church would be your ascribed church per the canons.
 
It’s actually pretty easy. Live the spiritual life of the Church you are attending and after about a year you can petition to have a canonical transfer. All you need is some paperwork and a letter from your priest to the Lain Bishop and Eastern Bishop. I have never heard of someone who submitted for a transfer but was denied. Rome is not involved in the process to transfer Churches sui juris any more, just the Bishops.

I’m canonically Roman Catholic but for many years I have been attending a Ruthenian Church and have “gone native” from day one. I may petition to have a canonical transfer, although, there is no need to. I live the life as a Byzantine and that is what counts. Our daughter was chrismated and it’s all good as far as I’m concerned. Maybe in the future.

The first time I attended the Divine Liturgy I was worried that I would be the only non-Slavic person in the Church. That was not the case as where I live the city is very diverse and so is the parish.
What is difficult when switching Churches is learning that they are not Roman Catholic. Theology is different, liturgy is different, lectionary is different. But if you are willing to “go native” and learn you can find a home in one of the Eastern Churches.

ZP
 
Maximilian75 said:
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Sophie111:
Noone can tell you which Church best suits your personality and background and best help you grow to be as good a person as you can be.
Click to expand...
So, we should choose the institution that tells us what is true or not , good or not, sinful or not, based upon our personality and background?

No. There’s only one truth, contained in Roman Catholicism
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Noone can tell you…
One has also to interiorly acknowledge the truth of what is heard.
That comes from the Holy Spirit…and people of good faith and virtue are often called to belong to religion’s other than the Catholic Church.

To deny this reality is to deny the existence of good and holy persons in other religions.
 
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“and people of good faith and virtue are often called to belong to religion’s other than the Catholic Church.”
  1. religions
  2. that’s a pretty big assertion. Do you have a magisterial source to back you up?
 
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What about the church of Anitoch? Wasn’t that in Peters authority?
 
I think you are looking at truth from the point of view from an insider looking out.

If you look at it from the point of view of a sincere outside seeker looking in then your “Truth” is relativised to but one “truth” among many competing truths and which one comes from God ultimately is decided by the individual’s conscience led by the Holy Spirit - not by the, as yet unverified, institution which has no clear bona fides for its claim to absolute Truth.
 
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Maximilian75 said:
“and people of good faith and virtue are often called to belong to religion’s other than the Catholic Church.”
  1. religions
  2. that’s a pretty big assertion. Do you have a magisterial source to back you up?
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Do you have a recent Magisterial source that supports your apparent view that those who freely choose to join (or stay in) a religion other than Roman Catholicism are not good or holy and therefore (I assume) damned?

I would think my view is hardly a “big assertion” but just common spiritual sense and an appreciation of the real world since Vatican II’s clarifications.
Did you grow up with non Catholic friends or have many extended family members you get on with who are not Catholics? I have mixed with all religions since leaving my Catholic school in the 1970s.
I tend to find my non Catholic friends are more virtuous and spiritual than many Church goers I know
at church. I am married to a non Catholic who is more holy than I.

Or perhaps I have misunderstood your view?
 
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Salmonslayer said:
I was the outsider. I’m a convert, there’s only one right answer.
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I think then you may have forgotten how unclearly you saw things before you personally came to realise the Catholic Church is the right place for you.

It seems other people have gone through the same early experience as yourself and just as sincerely come to different conclusions under the same guidance of the HS.

How that can be I do not know.
But I do know the Spirit blows where it will and its not for me to judge the Spirit’s mysterious workings nor the holiness (or not) of those in other religions following the lesser lights given them by God.
 
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Seperate but equal huh?

I guess I just was taught that the Catholic Church is a full BODY of believers with a Western Lung and an Eastern Lung. If it’s called Catholic and is in communion with Rome its considered Catholic to me regardless of east or west rite.
 
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Just quoting Vatican II:
  1. The Holy Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, is made up of the faithful who are organically united in the Holy Spirit by the same faith, the same sacraments and the same government and who, combining together into various groups which are held together by a hierarchy, form separate Churches or Rites. Between these there exists an admirable bond of union, such that the variety within the Church in no way harms its unity; rather it manifests it, for it is the mind of the Catholic Church that each individual Church or Rite should retain its traditions whole and entire and likewise that it should adapt its way of life to the different needs of time and place.(2)
  2. These individual Churches, whether of the East or the West, although they differ somewhat among themselves in rite (to use the current phrase), that is, in liturgy, ecclesiastical discipline, and spiritual heritage, are, nevertheless, each as much as the others, entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman Pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in primacy over the universal Church. They are consequently of equal dignity, so that none of them is superior to the others as regards rite and they enjoy the same rights and are under the same obligations, also in respect of preaching the Gospel to the whole world (cf. Mark 16, 15) under the guidance of the Roman Pontiff.
  3. Means should be taken therefore in every part of the world for the protection and advancement of all the individual Churches and, to this end, there should be established parishes and a special hierarchy where the spiritual good of the faithful demands it. The hierarchs of the different individual Churches with jurisdiction in one and the same territory should, by taking common counsel in regular meetings, strive to promote unity of action and with common endeavor to sustain common tasks, so as better to further the good of religion and to safeguard more effectively the ordered way of life of the clergy.(3)
ZP
 
Take a look at your motives and you’ll have the answer you seek. For Spring is a breeze guiding the ship of destiny upon the sea to Winter’s Eve.
 
Needy1 said:
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TK421:
When I converted it became extremely clear that Orthodoxy is false for nearly identical reasons that Protestantism is false.
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WHAT.
WHY?
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Because all caps and emotions are not how a person is suppose to identify what is truth.

Neither Orthodoxy nor Protestantism submit to the Roman Pontiff and sometimes there is objectively only one correct answer to a question, which in this case means that if a person is converting to the Christian faith, they should become Catholic. If they become Orthodox then they are not joining the Church that was established by Jesus. If they become protestant, they aren’t joining a church at all since these don’t possess valid Holy Orders in addition to not submitting to the Bishop in Rome.

There are a variety of reasons for why this happened, but ultimately, the number one reason why the Christian faith isn’t united is pride.
 
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