Why Are the Fervent Catholics usually Converts or Reverts?

[gusano]

Melchior:

I agree to a point. But I would be careful to call the lilves of Baptized Christians wood, hay and stubble. Certainly they are missing much. But if the Church affords virtuous unbelievers the posibility of saving Grace then I would think misguided Christians have much much more. Even the Pope says that Lutheran and Anglican Eucharists are a spiritual participation in Christ. Protestants, if they are seperated, brethren have much of the truth, scripture, baptism, prayer, the Creeds and a spiritual Eucahrist. Far from wood, hnay and stubble. That would describe the unbaptized and their completely false religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Mel

St. Eric Post #40 says it very well.
St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 3: 11**“No one can lay a foundation other than the one that has been laid, namelyJesus Christ.
If different ones build on this foundation with gold, solver, precious stones, wood hay or straw, the work of each will be made clear.”**
“Misguided Christians” are common, but WOE to those who do the misguiding ! Matt 18: 6,7

I realize not all Evangelicals are the same.
I believe they are all Baptized in the Name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit…but the message many of them preach is
“The dismantling of the Church which Christ is Building.”
They are Baptized into One Precious Stone and their Message is
"wood, hay, and straw.
In other words,
The message of dismantling the Catholic Church, which they preach, is NOT the Gospel.
But many of them are trained to think it is.

If they were preaching the “Good News”…they would be preaching that Jesus offers us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink for the Forgiveness of our sins.

Which is more important; The Forgiveness of our sins
or
Proving that The Roman Catholic Church is false ?

Can you see where they spend most of their energy ?
I don’t imagine God looks favorably on this.

In Hope are we saved

gusano

 

[puzzleannie]

I would turn your comment around and observe that converts and reverts are very often fervent Catholics. That is not to say that cradle Catholics may not be fervent, orthodox and evangelical however. What I have observed, since it is my business to observe and discern especially in the matter of catechists, is that those most fervent Catholics have undergone a conversion experience either gradual or dramatic. Since we are all called to continuing conversion, that is as it should be. You can be in need of conversion even if you have outwardly practiced faithfully all your life, not necessarily from sin or vice, but from indifference, spiritual sloth, apathy etc.

 

[puzzleannie]

Melchior:

Because Rome has lost it’s evangelical zeal
Mel

I don’t know how you can say this about a Church that was led for more than 20 years by a great pope who constantly preached a call for a new evangelization. Just because some Catholics, priests and laity alike, have abandoned the practice and doctrine of the faith, and just because some Catholics have not formed a habit of scripture reading, does not mean “Rome”, by which I assume you mean the entire institutional Catholic Church especially the hierarchy, has no evangelical zeal.

 

[BlackKnight]

Melchior:

Also Blacknight,

You really have no business saying that I am full of baloney. Do you really want to defend my Archdiocese and the Bishop who confrimed me, Cardinal Bernie Law? Some folks need to get their head out of the sand. Because what was done on a wide scale to parishoners here in Boston was satanic. I know a guy who died very young two years as the indirect result of the hell that was inflicted upon him by one of the many evil perverts who were “zealous” but not for the gospel. Do you know how many dedicated Catholics left the church after that? How could you trust anyone up here? I just read a sad obituary about a lady who died in our town. And it said she was a dedicated life long Catholic who served the church and the poor her whole life. Well even she stopped going to church as she was so devistated. She di not give up her faith - only she was too disgusted and traumatized to trust any local priest.

When I was 10 we moved from one City to a town 30 miles away. To my mothers great joy the priest who baptized my oldest sister some 30+ years earlier was at our new Parish. Well a week later the headline for local paper was about a 70 year old priest arrested in a local park for engaging in homosexual acts in a local park.

Sometimes people are forced to leave abusive parents even though they ar their legitimate parents. If you grow up surrounded by Catholics who who live like pagans and then you meet other Christians who are completely committed to Christ and who show you the love of Christ and embrace you and teach you would have left too.

I even had a popular priest down South say this in an email to me: “The Archdiocese of Boston is one of the most corrupt and spiritually dead places in the Catholic Church, and this has been true for decades.”

Does that carry more weight with you?

Mel

Nope…because you are not representative of the entire church.

If one part falls then that makes all of us messed up? No way!

Don’t attempt to paint the whole church with the brush of your own experience.

 

[That1Guy]

Sometimes it takes a walk through a dry, hot desert to appreciate a nice cold glass of water. : )

www.threestepstothefountain.com

 

[kateyu]

All I can say is WOW! What a great discussion. I was a convert and then a revert. The great sadness in my life is that my 3 sons left the Church and became: 1) Mormon, 2) Calvary Chapel, & 3) Adventist. All 3 teach that the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon. And why did they leave? Read above, collages and talk of other religions and diversity… nothing about One True Church. And I left it up to the church… Still, if the stories above can be understood - they will seek the Truth and come home - I hope and Pray!
As for my own story - the “wow’s” just keep coming. A year ago our parish started Perpetual Adoration. But then, that’s a whole new story.
God bless!

k~

 

[Sherlock]

Melchior:

Well thanks for engaging my examples. You are living in a fantasy world if you think the average catholic is as committed a christian as the average Evangelical. I honestly believe you have the better doctrine but nominalism is a far bigger problem in the catholic church. I have spent years in both. Have you?

Plus any honest catholic, who knows history anyway, will admit that the Reformation was as much the Churches fault as the Reformers. There were real abuses and even Popes have admitted it. That is why you hads a counter reformation.

Mel

Yes, I have been years in both places.

Most of my non-Catholic friends are of the Evangelical stripe. None of them are fervent; none go to services; none read Scripture. They are, for all practical purposes, atheists, at least in the sense that the existence of God appears to make no difference in their lives. I have a friend who’s a devout Lutheran, but has recently become discouraged by the inroads the progressives in her denomination have made in regards to openly gay clergy and same-sex marriage—it’s just a matter of time, she knows, before the Lutherans will change their “doctrine” to fit the desires of the world.

So no, I won’t admit that one would be “living in a fantasy world if you think the average catholic is as committed a christian as the average Evangelical”. It depends on where you are. The Evangelicals I know are not committed Christians, while most of the Catholics I know are.

Of course the Church had problems that needed fixing at the time of the “Reformation”. She always does. However, I have never heard any Protestant admit to any fault in the matter, though the Catholic Church has (it’s even in the Catechism). I don’t see how splitting Chrisitianity apart fixed anything. If you want to fix something, you fix it, not break it, and looking at the Evangelical televangelists on TV promising salvation if you send them a few bucks, I’d say that the Evangelical world is due for a “Reformation” of its own.

 

[Milliardo]

Figment713:

I think it’s because folks often take for granted things that they have always had.

Folks like me who are in the process of coming to it by choice have studied about it, and prayed about it…and that was before finally making the decision to do the necessary (RCIA) to actually be a part of it. In RCIA (at least where I am taking it) we do more studying and way more praying.

I think you tend to treasure what you have to work for vs. what is simply handed to you.

That’s right: we cradle Catholics often take the Church for granted. It’s because we’re so used to it that we forget about it. As Scott Hahn did say, it takes an immigrant to show the beauty of one’s own home, and that’s very true even in the Church: it takes the immigrants, so o speak, to show those who have been in the Church all along its beauty.

 

[rwoehmke]

I am a cradle Catholic and find these stories of reversion and conversion fascinating and in many ways encouraging. Over the years I have been active in teaching young people, working in the Marriage Encounter Movement, teaching RCIA, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and recently took part in something new to me called Christ Renews His Parish. We have had a series of these CRHP retreats in our parish and I have observed a lot of young rather indifferent Catholics become fervent Catholics interested in growing in their Faith. None of these activities on my part except for teaching ever exceeded 10 or so years(I am now 70). I have never done Cursillo but I believe that based on my own experience that any one of these programs have real potential for re-evangelizing some of the zombies that occupy a fair portion of our pews on Sunday, if they even show up for Mass. The other point I might make is that any one program seems to only catch only so many “fish” in Peter’s net before it dies out. Different “fish” prefer different “baits.” Again many thanks for your stories. Dick

 

[st_julie]

I too am a cradle Catholic who has found the testimony of converts and reverts absolutly wondrous. Media in the form of books,tapes.radio,tv and video have spread their testimony far and wide. Media also hilighted Mother Theresa. We know though that there are many faithful Catholics like her who will never have a media spotlight.
I also have experience with those youth who have heard the message of JPll and lead very fervent catholic lives. They work one soul at a time among their peers.They also help re-evangelize their parents.
st julie

 

[system]

This has been very difficult for me to understand!

I’ve been listening to some wonderful Catholic radio programs, but it turns out, as I learn the stories behind the speakers, they all seem to be converts, or in some cases, reverts to Roman Catholicism. I’m discovering the same thing about the authors of many current excellent books on our Faith.

Additionally, I must look at my own faith journey. I don’t believe I was properly evangelized until I left the Church, and even then, it was through a Protestant.

To make an incredibly long story short, it wasn’t until I spent over a decade in Protestant “Evangelicalism” that I was able to “get” the Mass, long for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, and eventually decide to come back.

Help! Anybody have any insights on this?

Converts are usually more fervent. Remind yourself of st.Paul and others.

Blessings to you and your families this Advent Season.

 

[TimothyH]

Nine year old thread.