Where Did You Meet Your Catholic Friends?

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Dempsey1919

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Where did you meet your Catholic friends?

I don’t have any Catholic friends and I think it’s making my faith journey more difficult than it needs to be. None of my friends are religious, and their behaviour has a tendency to rub off on me. For example, they drink and party a lot and I end up joining them because I hate staying home in the evenings.

Having Catholic friends would help me become a better Catholic. Share your advice on how to meet other Catholics.

Thanks
 
I guess I was just blessed enough that I converted in college, so I my home church is the college ministry. I met all (well, most) of my Catholic friends there. The others are the ones I knew in middle and high school that led me towards Catholicism.
 
I have a bunch from the Catholic college I went to. Now that I’ve graduated, though, it is harder. It helps that I teach at a Catholic school, but most of the other teachers are older than me. There are a few good places to meet people, though. At church is the best place. Of course you don’t tend to make good friends at coffee and donuts after Mass – there isn’t much time to. But you could see if your parish has any kind of young adult activities – these may be posted in the bulletin. Ours sometimes has Theology on Tap or various trips. Also, volunteering for a ministry is a great way to meet people. Legion of Mary, holy hours where you see young people, choir, pro-life vigils, clean-up days, and youth group activities are offered by many parishes and often have nice people who show up. Mind you, I’m not saying to join some long-term group like the Legion of Mary just to meet people, but it might be worthwhile to attend a meeting or two and introduce yourself to people.

Other, non-parish-sponsored Catholic activities are great too. My fiance met many of his friends through joining a pro-life group. Lots of young people are involved in these, and you can be sure you share a lot of your ideas with these people right off.

The number one thing is that you can’t be shy. You might have to be the first to strike up a conversation. But young Catholics tend to be pretty open and welcoming – they have had a hard time finding Catholic friends too, and they are generally happy to find more.
 
Dempsey1919 said:
Where did you meet your Catholic friends?
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I’m not sure, but if you find some, please let me know too. 😃

I agree with previous posters. Try the campus ministry center is you are in college or check to see if your parish has a young adult group. My wife and I we involved in our local youth ministries- that’s actually how we met. We’ve made a few friends along the way as well.

There are so many faithful catholics posting here on CAF…but I think they only exist in cyber-space. My wife and I always ask “where are all the catholics we read about or see on EWTN?” It is hard to find good catholic young adults out there…even more so ones with families. Couple that with living in the bluest of the blue states and you have a real dilema. People here seem proud that they non-practicing catholics and they make it point to let you know.

Don’t let the lack of Catholic friends keep you from your faith. If that was the case, I would have given up long ago. Use your time to be active in your parish or learning all you can about the faith. Your soul is more important than having somthing to do on a Friday night.
 
I think it is good that you realize that your current friends may not be a good influence on you. I am so lucky to have some good, solid Catholic friends. I knew some of them growing up, and others I have met by getting more involved in church. I live in a VERY Protestant part of the country where Catholics are very much a minority. I am so blessed to have truly faithful and devout Catholic friends in my life. It does make a difference.

I would suggest getting more involved in church. Join a class or bible study, volunteer, or something. People come out of the woodwork. Also, it’s worth noting that some of the people who have helped me grow most spiritually weren’t even close to my age. I’m young (23) and some of my friends at church who have sort of ‘mentored’ me and helped me grow in my faith are my parents’ age. These people have become a great support for me. In particular there is a middle-aged married couple that I have grown close to and they are always there for me when I need advice or just someone to talk to. I also have several good Catholic friends around my age that I can ‘hang out’ with, so it’s a nice balance.

I know it must be easy to get frustrated when you can’t seem to find good Catholics around you. But know that they are out there, they are real people, and pray about it. Your post has made me realize again how truly blessed I am. I will pray for you!
 
Bella85 said:
I think it is good that you realize that your current friends may not be a good influence on you. I am so lucky to have some good, solid Catholic friends. I knew some of them growing up, and others I have met by getting more involved in church. I live in a VERY Protestant part of the country where Catholics are very much a minority. I am so blessed to have truly faithful and devout Catholic friends in my life. It does make a difference.

I would suggest getting more involved in church. Join a class or bible study, volunteer, or something. People come out of the woodwork. Also, it’s worth noting that some of the people who have helped me grow most spiritually weren’t even close to my age. I’m young (23) and some of my friends at church who have sort of ‘mentored’ me and helped me grow in my faith are my parents’ age. These people have become a great support for me. In particular there is a middle-aged married couple that I have grown close to and they are always there for me when I need advice or just someone to talk to. I also have several good Catholic friends around my age that I can ‘hang out’ with, so it’s a nice balance.

I know it must be easy to get frustrated when you can’t seem to find good Catholics around you. But know that they are out there, they are real people, and pray about it. Your post has made me realize again how truly blessed I am. I will pray for you!
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I would second this, friends come in all shapes, sizes, and ages! Thankfully some of our best friends are a couple I met through RCIA who are my parents age (actually went to school with my best friend’s mom…even dated her dad back then too!). They have been an amazing example to DH and I back when we were just buddies trying to convince the world that we were not in fact dating, and now that we are married. They even lead our bible study which has couples ranging from DH and I’s age (I think I’m actually the baby :rolleyes:) up to their age.
 
Bella85 said:
I live in a VERY Protestant part of the country where Catholics are very much a minority.
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Where I live, it seems that anyone trying to follow Christ is a minority. 🤷 I’d be ok with Protestant friends. Many of them share the same morals and ideal we do.
 
Oh just to clarify, I have many wonderful Protestant friends. Much of my extended family is Protestant and are incredible people of faith. I didn’t mean to sound like I had only Catholic friends - just that I think it is a wonderful blessing to have some Catholic friends who understand your faith. I think I have a fair balance of both, and I am very blessed to have people all around me who do try to live their Christian faith, be it Catholic or not.
 
At work. There are friends I grew up with but as I began my Christian walk my social life increasingly centered around the church family, as I discarded the junk I was saved from. So work became the nuetral ground where I met people from different traditions.
 
Volunteer at church. Join parish council. Help at coffee hour or at a fundraiser. Be an usher or greeter if your parish has those positions. Sit in at special functions your church has and you will be blessed.
 
Isn’t this obvious? At your parish! That place you go every week that is FULL of Catholics…

Friends don’t have to the same age, marital status, etc. as you are. My two best Catholic lady friends are another fairly young married mom like me, with kids are the same age, and a woman quite a few years older than me whose kids are all teens and whose first marriage was annulled. Some other friends I have are a former-addict single mom and a retired couple from Minnesota who winter here in the warm weather.

Get involved in parish activities and ministries, and relationships will naturally develop.
 
Well, I went to a Catholic grammar school and a Catholic high school so I met some friends there that I still know some 30 years later

I went to a secular college but we had a Newman Club attached to the school and I met good Catholic friends there. (I know not everyone has had the same experience with the Newman Club but mine was very positive.)

I like to sing so I’ve been involved with choirs at a couple of different parishes. That has helped me meet members of the choir and other members of the parish who were close to my age and/or had similar interests.

Interestingly enough, at my first job after I graduated from college, there were a number of new hires around my age who also just happened to be Catholic. That hasn’t been the case so much with later employers but I have managed to become acquainted with some good Christians.

Living in the same place for a long time helps because you start to see that the people at Mass are the ones you see at work, the grocery store, at sporting events …
 
Mostly through my kids, they attend Catholic School and I’ve gotten to know other parents. However I have had to reach out to them to make the contact. That and I got involved in the Parish Council, so I met some there.

I do have one very good friend who is a non-practicing Lutheran. However I am slowly working her into the fold:D
 
grandiosa said:
Isn’t this obvious? At your parish! That place you go every week that is FULL of Catholics…

Friends don’t have to the same age, marital status, etc. as you are. My two best Catholic lady friends are another fairly young married mom like me, with kids are the same age, and a woman quite a few years older than me whose kids are all teens and whose first marriage was annulled. Some other friends I have are a former-addict single mom and a retired couple from Minnesota who winter here in the warm weather.

Get involved in parish activities and ministries, and relationships will naturally develop.
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They don’t have to be the same age, but they have to have similar interests. I doubt many of the 50 - 60 year olds at my church would be interested in the same video games, board games, movies, etc that I’m interested in.
 
In the parish. Whenever I’ve had Catholic friends, I had met them through the parish.

Different parishes have different personalities. There is undoubtedly a parish out there where it would be easy for you to make friends, but you might have to hunt for it. (Of course, “parish-hopping” brings its own set of problems, which are beyond the scope of this thread.)
 
When I was in my late 20’s I made a Christ Renews His parish weekend and made good Catholic friends there. Then when I was about 30, I made a Cursillo and made good friends there. I have been in a Cursillo Group Reunion with the same friends for about 20 years now and we are very close. I also have made friends at my parish from being on various committees and projects. I guess the answer is to go to where the Catholics are to make Catholic friends.
 
You do have to decide what it takes to call someone a friend.

If you are looking for people who match a very select set of secular specifications and also happen to be Catholic then you may not be able to find such people near you. Not every part of the world is going to have multiple (faithful) Catholics who are in a particular age range *and *work in a particular industry *and *like a particular type of music *and *pursue a particular type of recreation *and *have the same marital/family status as you and *are *a match for your personality.

Sometimes you have to find a particular Catholic activity you like and learn to make that activity a basis for friendships.
 
SMHW said:
You do have to decide what it takes to call someone a friend.

If you are looking for people who match a very select set of secular specifications and also happen to be Catholic then you may not be able to find such people near you. Not every part of the world is going to have multiple (faithful) Catholics who are in a particular age range *and *work in a particular industry *and *like a particular type of music *and *pursue a particular type of recreation *and *have the same marital/family status as you and *are *a match for your personality.

Sometimes you have to find a particular Catholic activity you like and learn to make that activity a basis for friendships.
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Exactly. For me, a friend is someone I can share common interests with. That’s about it. If all of my hobbies/interests could be performed solo, I wouldn’t need any friends.
 
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