What has been the most difficult opposition you've personally face as a Catholic?

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margaret42 said:
this reminds me of two lines I hate hearing: 1. “I was raised Catholic”; 2. “I’m spiritual but not religious”!
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I’d tell em “demons are spiritual too”…but thats just cuz im sarcastic like that…
 
I got fired once for doing my job. I worked in Washington. Prolife stuff.
 
klmt123 said:
I feel there is a lot of seperation and different types of Catholics, within Catholicism, a lot of them really aren’t Catholic at all and they say they are.
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This is the most difficult. Where are the people I read about in the writings of the saints? I came back to the church and experienced this horrid separation; Catholics vs progressive Catholics. Progressive meaning wanting to go the way the protestants have gone: remarriage, priestesses, gay marriage, everyone gets to heaven…etc.
 
Oddly enough, I’ve had exactly zero opposition to my swimming the Tiber 13 years. I say “oddly enough” because most of my cousins here in north-central Alabama are either hard-core Baptists or hard-core Pentecostals. Some of them have asked respectful questions and have listened to my responses. The lack of opposition may because they know me as someone who was already a long-term practicing Christian (conversion experience in the mid-'70s). Now, if my mother (Church of God) had still been alive, there might have been a different story 😮

D
 
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Casilda said:
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klmt123:
I feel there is a lot of seperation and different types of Catholics, within Catholicism, a lot of them really aren’t Catholic at all and they say they are.
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This is the most difficult. Where are the people I read about in the writings of the saints? I came back to the church and experienced this horrid separation; Catholics vs progressive Catholics. Progressive meaning wanting to go the way the protestants have gone: remarriage, priestesses, gay marriage, everyone gets to heaven…etc.
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well the good news is the Church usually does not change its rules to suit others, an example is that fornication has been a social norm for 100 years. while a lot of catholics do it, the rule still hasnt changed
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
And the implication is that if things don’t go perfectly or you struggle, that you either aren’t doing the Christian walk “right”, or that unbelievers will look at your problems and attribute them to your belief system, rather than just that we live in a fallen world.
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This! 👆 So very much this!

About the opposition I have personally faced: the most difficult has come, and continues to come, from close relatives who are utterly lapsed Catholics. Some opposition has been outright condemnation of Catholicism in particular, and of religion in general, but there are two other, subtler forms of opposition that I find particularly distasteful:

First, lapsed Catholics, typically of somewhat senior age, who condescendingly speak to me about Catholicism (or Christianity in general), suggesting they “used to believe it too”, they’ve “been there and done that”, and worst, “you’re wasting your time with that”. The tyranny of “the wisdom that comes with age”.

Second, lapsed Catholics who talk to me as if they pity me for being someone who’s “incapable” of adjusting to the standards of the modern world. Basically they make you feel that your religious commitment and the life choices you’ve made based on that, have not been choices at all, nor a call from God, but rather a mild mental disability, an unfortunate weakness which they pity your for. “Poor fella, he just can’t fit in.” The tyranny of pity.

P.S. What I find interesting is that Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Bahais, Sikhs – they never do this to you. It’s always lapsed Catholics or in any case former Christians. When any of the followers of these other religions ever take offense at your religious convictions, they just go to battle with you outright, on those religious grounds. They don’t condescend or pity you. If you ask me, that’s much more fair and dignified.
 
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Yeah. A lot of people my age like to make jokes about zealous Christians. They seem to be okay with lukewarm/liberal Catholics but when I tell them I am going to church…they genuinely don’t understand why someone would be willing to practice their religion once they’re old enough to resist their parents.
 
In my later years I resisted my mother by continuing to practice after she had left…
 
Since I’m not Catholic I’m not sure if I should even answer this one, but my interest in Catholicism has drawn the attention of many people. Within my own family there are those who never miss an opportunity to point out the wrongdoings of priests, or the latest church scandal. But I don’t rise to the bait and just let things go. Their attitudes do not change anything for me.
 
Being the only person in my family that is Catholic. No one in my family is even religious at all. Having no friends because of my beliefs. Being the only black person in church sometimes. Being terribly isolated.
 
CelticWarlord said:
Since I’m not Catholic I’m not sure if I should even answer this one, but my interest in Catholicism has drawn the attention of many people. Within my own family there are those who never miss an opportunity to point out the wrongdoings of priests, or the latest church scandal. But I don’t rise to the bait and just let things go. Their attitudes do not change anything for me.
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Of course you can. It’s still affecting you personally. It’s still anti-Catholic even if you’re not Catholic or not even considering converting (although I think you should. 🙂 )

I grew up surrounded by it after my dad retired from the Navy. We moved to a small town in North Carolina where the Baptist church was across the street from the Methodist church and getting married on the other side of the street was practically a disparity of cult. My dad was a cradle Catholic (and Pennsylvanian) and that literally freaked people out. My Free Will Baptist grandmother’s preacher treated my siblings and I as pariahs and I’m sure it’s because he knew Daddy was Catholic.

I haven’t run into yet directed at me personally, but I’m sure I eventually will.
ambna said:
Being the only black person in church sometimes.
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That makes me sad. I’m sincerely sorry. That must be tough.

I hope you know I’m sincere when I say I wish you could come to Mass with me on base. We’re like the UN most Sundays. 😍😍
 
Wow. I guess that makes you doubly blessed that you do this on your own!
 
I was verbally attacked by a protestant lady when we were having coffee/tea after Mass. I didn’t even have time to sit down before she started. Answered some of her accusations and questions and then sent her to a local priest (gifted with an enormous amount of braincells and uses them). The lady has now been received into the Catholic Church.
 
To me the worst have been the atheists. Because they talk with an air of superiority and treat me like I am a deluded person living in fantasyland.
So I ask them: ok then, explain to me where dark matter and dark energy come from and how they interact to hold the universe together. They reply: those are mysteries that cannot be explained, but we know they exist. So I say: well I believe God is a mystery that cannot be explained too and I know He exists too, so in the end, it comes down to mystery. That means we are no different, you are just choosing to put your faith in certain scientific theories that exclude God, while I am choosing to put my faith in God. That’s all.
 
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