Who in your life is a fallen away/non-practicing Catholic?

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lovecatholic

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My husband is a fallen away Catholic, and it is very painful for me. He joined the Church before we got married, but has since fallen away. I have created a web site to offer hope & support for those practicing Catholics who are dealing with the pain of a fallen away Catholic in their lives. My web site is at lovecatholic.tripod.com . I have also created a Yahoo group where members can correspond with each other for support and prayers, and people can join by going to groups.yahoo.com/group/lovecatholic/ or by sending an email to lovecatholic-subscribe@yahoogroups.com . My challenge is figuring out how to reach people who could benefit from this ministry. If anyone has ideas on how I can get the word out, please email me at lovecatholic@yahoo.com . Please pray for the success of my group as well. Actually someone from the group referred me to this Catholic Answers web site!

I am curious to see the results of this poll as well. I hope I can get the poll to display correctly and work!
 
what a good idea, lovecatholic. There are many in my life who have fallen away from the church, I was raised catholic but seem to be the only out of my family and friends who takes it seriously…anyway, good luck and prayers for you and your ministry. 👍
 
all of the above, (except spouse) please join me in daily prayer for them.
 
My husbands little sister. She never got confirmed. Married a wonderful man, but he’s protestant. She got re-baptized into their church!!!

I pray one day she will come back.
 
My brother and his wife and my sister’s husband—all are near atheists now. It saddens me to no end and I pray for them and offer many masses for them. I definitely will look into your group lovecatholic. It’s a wonderful idea.

God Bless
Giannawannabe
 
There are too many to count. This isn’t always evident at weddings and funerals because many who don’t regulary go to church will go for Holy Communion for such occasions.
Good thing for big weddings and funerals.
 
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Binney:
There are too many to count. This isn’t always evident at weddings and funerals because many who don’t regulary go to church will go for Holy Communion for such occasions.
Good thing for big weddings and funerals.
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Yes, it is true that many who don’t go to Church every Sunday will go to communion when they do go to Church for special occasions. Let us pray for all in this situation as well.
 
I have a sibling who has fallen away from the Church along with other relatives and friends. Like a previous poster said the only time they attend Church is at weddings and furnels.
 
Dear friend

My brother has fallen away from the Church and I pray for him everyday that God will bring him back to Him.

I was once a fallen away Catholic myself and I had not set foot inside a Catholic Church for a good few years until my father died and I went to his funeral. I went to communion and I believe at that communion with Christ Jesus He brought me back home to Himself, so don’t you worry about those going to communion at funerals. To man things are impossible, but for God all things are possible!

Your group is a wonderful inspiration from God that out of your sadness God is bringing good. I am very interested in your site.

Everyone’s family and friends etc who have fallen away will remain in my prayers.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
My dad became Catholic when my parents got married, I don’t think he’s ever really practiced the faith.

My mom goes to church maybe once a month (but lately she’s been sick so she been going more often). She loves St. Anthony and she prays but she’s not very informed about the Faith. (She insists to me that St. Anthony is the only saint that can make miracles.) She’s in her 70’s and she gets mad if I try to explain things because “she’s been Catholic much longer than me.” I would guess she hasn’t been to confession in over 30 years. She says she was raised that go to confession if you do something really bad like kill someone.

My mom’s sister and brother (my aunt and uncle) are Christmas/Easter Catholics. My uncle divorced his wife when he was over the age of 70 to marry another woman.

My mom was raised in an affluent family in Italy (my Grandma was a baroness). I think were culturally Catholic and not well catechized.

A very good friend whom I’m actually godmother to her daughter is a fallen away Catholic.

And I have a few co-workers who are also fallen away Catholics.
 
Who isn’t? My husband is one of the only Catholics that I know who attends Mass on a regular basis(since we got married). My mother was so upset by other Catholics that I was raised Methodist. I didn’t even have a Catholic wedding because my mom didn’t want me forced into THAT.

Thankfully she is happy that I am happy and I think she will even be nice about us wanting to raise our children Catholic, and me planning on converting.

Good Luck
Kat
 
I like the website. I had to be nosy. I hope your group helps many Catholics, after all it is really hard for someone to see their friends and relatives out of the happiness they feel.

I hope that your memebers remember the children of fallen away Catholics who aren’t allowed to find out if it is right for them.
 
🙂 my sister left the Catholic church 12 years ago when she married her husband, in her heart I know she is Catholic but she won’t go against her husband so I pray each and everyday that they will both come to know the Catholic faith as the one true faith, her husband is a great guy but he is misinformed about the Catholic faith so all we can do is pray for them.
 
Wow, thanks to everyone for your support and for sharing your stories!! When my husband joined the Church about 6 years ago, his RCIA sponsor had told us (at some time or other) that he previously was a fallen away Catholic himself, until he came back to the Church. I believe it was a near fatal wreck that brought him back, if I’m not mistaken. I guess sometimes people get “wake up calls” so to speak to bring them back.
 
Both my brothers are enjoying the secular/atheist life. My parents were away for some time, and still grind their teeth about some of the teachings (they are from the 60s). I got them to go back a few years ago and they seem to enjoy it now. As for my brothers, well, I feel it’s my duty to shepard them back.
 
sadly most people i know. my parents go to church, but thats about it, same with the rest of my extended family, esp. on my dad’s side of the family, my grandparents on both sides are religious, but sadly there are few other truly practicing catholics. it hurts sooo bad. im glad to know im not the only one in this position tho.
 
My brother was a fallen away Catholic for years until he got married. Turns out he wasn’t as fallen away as I thought because suddenly it became very important for him to be married in a Catholic Church. His fiance is a non-Catholic but she was brought up with pretty much no denomination, but wanted very much to get married in a church (any church, not necessarily a particular church), so I said to my brother “well, if she doesn’t have a church of her own, why not get married in the Catholic church?”

Little did I know I would start the ball rolling for my brother’s return to the Church. My SIL has such a great need to belong - she comes from a broken family and had a bad childhood, so being with our family and seeing how close we all were made he want to be a part of our family in every sense of the word.

However, she still wasn’t sold on the Church. She takes things very personally and was upset that she had to sign a paper saying that she would raise her children Catholic. Again, her desperate need to belong to something made her feel like an outsider.

When she announced her pregnancy a few months ago, I carefully broached the subject of Baptism. It ended up with a lot of tears and about 2 hours of telling her that Catholics aren’t the horrible monsters that she had grown up believing us to be. I had a very stern talk with my brother about helping her and himself as well become part of the Catholic community again and much to my great delight, they have been going to church almost every Sunday, and she is going to have the baby Baptized.

I find great joy in my brother’s return to the Church. For years he wouldn’t even attend mass with us, even on Christmas or Easter. He wouldn’t even say Grace with us at the table. When my daughters were born, I told him in no uncertain terms that unless he became a practicing Catholic again he was not going to be a Godparent to either of them. That didn’t sway him back either. I seriously thought his return was never going to happen, but it finally has. I thank the Lord for that.
 
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luvthelight:
sadly most people i know. my parents go to church, but thats about it, same with the rest of my extended family, esp. on my dad’s side of the family, my grandparents on both sides are religious, but sadly there are few other truly practicing catholics. it hurts sooo bad. im glad to know im not the only one in this position tho.
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The part of your post that said “it hurts sooo bad” really struck me. That is exactly how I feel, and that is why I started my group - so others in a similar situation do not feel alone. You are not alone. There are many others out there sharing a similar pain from fallen away Catholics in their life, and I am one of them. I am brought to tears from time to time from the pain.

Please consider joining my group at . The group was created for people like YOU and me, people feeling pain and frustration from those fallen away in their lives. You can join by going to the web site at lovecatholic.tripod.com or you can just send an email to lovecatholic-subscribe@yahoogroups.com . We try to offer each other HOPE and encouragement.

Many blessings to you and your family!
 
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jbarkley:
My brother was a fallen away Catholic for years until he got married. Turns out he wasn’t as fallen away as I thought because suddenly it became very important for him to be married in a Catholic Church. His fiance is a non-Catholic but she was brought up with pretty much no denomination, but wanted very much to get married in a church (any church, not necessarily a particular church), so I said to my brother “well, if she doesn’t have a church of her own, why not get married in the Catholic church?”

Little did I know I would start the ball rolling for my brother’s return to the Church. My SIL has such a great need to belong - she comes from a broken family and had a bad childhood, so being with our family and seeing how close we all were made he want to be a part of our family in every sense of the word.

However, she still wasn’t sold on the Church. She takes things very personally and was upset that she had to sign a paper saying that she would raise her children Catholic. Again, her desperate need to belong to something made her feel like an outsider.

When she announced her pregnancy a few months ago, I carefully broached the subject of Baptism. It ended up with a lot of tears and about 2 hours of telling her that Catholics aren’t the horrible monsters that she had grown up believing us to be. I had a very stern talk with my brother about helping her and himself as well become part of the Catholic community again and much to my great delight, they have been going to church almost every Sunday, and she is going to have the baby Baptized.

I find great joy in my brother’s return to the Church. For years he wouldn’t even attend mass with us, even on Christmas or Easter. He wouldn’t even say Grace with us at the table. When my daughters were born, I told him in no uncertain terms that unless he became a practicing Catholic again he was not going to be a Godparent to either of them. That didn’t sway him back either. I seriously thought his return was never going to happen, but it finally has. I thank the Lord for that.
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Thank you for sharing your inspirational story. Some of your brother’s journey sounds similar to where my husband is at now, not saying grace, not attending on Easter, etc. I think what you said, “I seriously thought his return was never going to happen, but it finally has” is true for many of us. It is easy to feel like giving up hope, but your story shows us why we should NEVER give up hope for our loved ones. We never know the time or place when they may be brought back. Thanks again for sharing!
 
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