Why Are the Fervent Catholics usually Converts or Reverts?

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Photini

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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?

Blessings to you and your families this Advent Season.
 
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Photini:
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?

Blessings to you and your families this Advent Season.
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I will agree with “frequently” but not “usually.” My experience is the opposite. the most fervent catholics I know are all cradle and they are ON FIRE!
 
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Superstar905:
Part of the problem, is the lack of a Catechesis after confirmation. These kids forget tenets of the faith especially if its not being re-inforced at home. They go to mass, often not understanding the origin of the parts of the mass, or exactly what is happening during mass. Then it becomes boring to them. They forget that they get scripture read to them every day at mass, and that the Catholic Church is actually Bible Christianity par excellence.

So along comes the bible thumping Christian showing all the “errors” of the Catholic Church, and the unsuspecting person I mentioned above, gets convinced that he needs to be saved, start a personal relationship, etc.

It’s important, that the learning of the faith starts in the home. That the kids are raised knowledgable, and able to defend the authentic deposit of faith. I have a book, “How NOT to share your faith”, which I haven’t read yet, but I have heard great things about it. I think that the best way to talk to an ex-Catholic, is to let them see God in you, let them see your joy at recieving the Lord in the Eucharist, correct their misconceptions about what the Lord teaches, and invite them to e-mail you any concerns they have so that you can address them properly with some thought and research.

At the end of the day, it’s the Holy Spirit that will do the work.
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I wrote this in another thread, and it somewhat explains why many Catholics turn out the way they do, Cafeteria type Catholics, which is what I was 2 years ago.
 
I think its because converts and reverts will generally have made the choice to join the Church. There had to be a reason for them to join/return, and in a lot of case, that reason came from research. Research and prayer definately made me decide to stay.

As for the cradle Catholics that may not be as “fervent” as some of the converts and reverts, it could be that since they have been Catholic their whole life, they already know what the Church is and don’t really need to spend time “proving it” to themselves in order to stay.

It always seems to me like the converts and reverts know a lot more about history, theology, and the sacrament, and will often attend Mass more than others, but the Cradle Catholics will have a better prayer life.
 
I cannot answer for anyone else. I was properly catechized, received a wonderful Catholic School education and then, because of the disease of alcoholism and my own poor choices in my life, fell away from the teachings of the Holy Mother Church.

When I got sober through AA I rediscovered the need for a God in my life. Never did I not consider myself a Catholic, I just knew I was not a faithful one, and I knew I was not yet mature enough in either my sobriety or my emotions to be a faithful member.

Once I began to learn more about myself and my relationship with God, and had some experiences that shook me up in sobriety I was lead back to the Holy Mother Church. I made a decision to come home and I have been a faithful member since that decision.

Perhaps, and again I can only speak for myself, I am now a fervent Catholic because I know how empty life is without the Church and I don’t ever want to live that kind of empty life again.
 
Great question and Chesterton answers it eloquently when he said that for the most part the Cradle Catholics are too close to the church to realize its significance and on the other spectrum the ones from afar see the church for what it is for they have seen other things and upon happening upon the Catholic Church see the magnitude of it all and have an easier time accepting it.

IMHO, I think every cradle catholic at several points in his/her life need to grow up in the faith equivalent to an atheist turning into a Christian…without this constant conversion, the spiritual growth stagnates. The liturgical year; in its peaks, valleys and plains, if we pay attention to it and take it to heart will assist us in constantly converting ourselves.

Lastly, going to Mass on Sunday as the only practice of Catholicism will not suffice. Our life outside the Mass should be constatly connected to the Mass. What I mean by that is that all of our work, play, interaction etc. should be somewhat tuned in or reflected by the Mass…For the Love of God and man.

Thanks for listening (reading)
in XT.
 
As a convert myself, I was at the end of my rope. I church hopped for years, changing Protenstant denomenations when the pastor would preach an idea I couldn’t agree with. I found myself becoming spiritually dry. Eventually I came to the crossroads where I told myself if I don’t find the real Christian Church, I am going to become and atheist. I then went through RCIA as a last ditch attempt to see if there was anything to the Catholic church. I figured, if I go through RCIA and i don’t “buy”, fine, I don’t have to join and I will turn to the secular world. And, If I think there is soemthing there, then great! I can join. Needless to say I found the true Church that Christ built on Peter. As a former Protest-ant, I was already well versed in the bible and the biblical foundation of the church astounded me. All those years it was staring me in the face and I couldn’t see it. The breadth and depth of the Catholic faith astounded me and continues to do so. That is the main reason I am on fire and can’t seem to learn enough. Here is a for instance. When I found out that as a Protestant the version of the bible that I had beleived in all of these years was incomplete- I was incensed. I could not beleive that Luther had the audacity to remove books from the old testament! These were the same books that Christ himself and the 12 used to teach from! I felt cheated! It has been a great journey. I now realize that the Protestant well of faith is shallow. The river may be a mile wide but is it only an inch deep!
 
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.
 
I think it has to do with making the decision to be Catholic, making the faith your own, as opposed to just continuing in the faith of your parents.

My family was nominally Catholic when I was growing up. I went to CCD and completed all my sacraments etc. I made my confirmation at 16 and really didn’t want to do it. I really felt like my parents forced me to go though with it. To me, it seemed more of a cultural distinction than a religious one.

When I first came back to the Church I felt that I had not been properly taught about the Church/Faith. But now I look back and I see that I was taught properly for my age and I just didn’t seek and grow in my faith. I just didn’t know I was supposed to do that. I didn’t see anybody in my life doing that and it took me awhile to mature to make that realization.

When a person makes a decision to be in the Church, to live for Christ, is when they become fervent. I have a friend who never left the Church (she made that decision in HS) and she is by far more saintly than me! She admires my re-conversion story and I admire her steadfastness. So there are cradle Catholics that are fervent. I think they are more quiet because they live the life so well. So many of the people in our Church that are cradle-Catholics are involved in the physical aspect of outreach (working in soup kitchens, visiting the elderly etc.) and the re-verts & converts are involved in the intellectual aspect of outreach.
 
The short and sweet of it is, I am a revert.

Before I never cared, because I didn’t understand. I went to Mass cause it was just something you had to do.

When I reverted, I educated myself. Knowledge is power. Once I understood, I cared - a lot.

I would suspect converts are the same way. The came to the Church for a reason, they felt it was correct.

Adam
 
Apparently there was once this joke that an extremely ortodox convert catholic once tried to convert a pope - you could here him quietly saying “but please I am already a catholic” 😃

I have thought on this issue, and the best thing I can come up with is that converts have made the decision themselves to become Catholics, however craddles were born into it, and in a sense “forced to accept it”. I also think that when you are a cradle Catholic you have a more established relationship with God, it is older in many cases, and therefore is probably more personal - many people may feel that they do not need these technicalities of religion or any rules, as they are one with God, and have been for life. They do not need the church to express themselves, and to an extent feel as if they know God well enough, and therefore don’t have to be as strict or conform to the church as much - this is all on a subconcious level by the way. 🙂

Anyway thats my :twocents:
 
As a “revert” I can certainly resonate with so much of what has been said here. My Story is here if you wish to read it.

To be honest…I think all these conversions are part of that “springtime” that His Holiness spoke of sometime back and that we are part of the Holy Spirit’s work within the Body of Christ to provide a frontline army against the overtime that the devil has been pounding the church with for so many years. We aren’t just here for our own salvation (though praise God that is part of it!), we are here to serve His church and to “be all we can be” within the church.

We are needed and we need the church as well and we love Our Lord and want to follow Him and be like Him. We are the one-on-one army of souls that can (Please O Lord!) bring forth that 100 fold fruit for the Kingdom of God. SOULS my dearest brothers and sisters; SOULS.

We know what we have found and we are all set to share it. We are (I know I am!) an anti-Catholic’s worst nightmare. Faithful and knowlegeable Catholics who are out to spread the Gospel to all creation and to offer truth instead of misinformation to both Catholics and non-Catholics that we meet. We are the future RCIA teachers and prison ministers and Sunday School teachers and the guy helping the fallen away Catholic to find his way home over a cup of coffee and the Catholics making sure that they of our own household do not get lost or fail in their following of the faith.

We’re the ones reading the Word of God (all 73 books of it) and answering every question that comes along in the context of real New Testament Christianity and the ones praying like mad for all those people that so need our prayers and good counsel.

We’re the ones that the enemy so wants to destroy and who trust in Our Lord to keep us safe from the enemy (as the Anima Christi says, “From the malicious enemy defend me.”) and humbly seek Our Lord because he really is the treasure of our souls and His church is the beautiful bride that we love to dance with.

Then again…maybe this is just me…
Pax vobiscum,
 
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Photini:
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?

Blessings to you and your families this Advent Season.
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Because Rome has lost it’s evangelical zeal and God seems to be using the Evangelical love of the Gospel to “fix” people up and bring them into, or back into the church to inject some life back into it.

This is why Catholics should be grateful for the Protestant Reformation. Catholics, by and large, simply do not know what it is like to be completely committed to Christ the way Evangelicals and traditional Reformed Christians do.

To be even more blunt, the best Christians are outside of the Church, but trickling back in. Why are they better mainly because the read and study the Bible ferevntly and take it very seriously. They also have a personal relationship with Christ. Not many Catholics live this way. I know this because I grew up in the Archdiocese of Boston with over a half dozen nominal Catholic siblings. We have one of the largest Catholic populations in the U.S. so my anecdotal evidence is extremely strong. 😉

Mel
 
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Melchior:
Because Rome has lost it’s evangelical zeal and God seems to be using the Evangelical love of the Gospel to “fix” people up and bring them into, or back into the church to inject some life back into it.

This is why Catholics should be grateful for the Protestant Reformation. Catholics, by and large, simply do not know what it is like to be completely committed to Christ the way Evangelicals and traditional Reformed Christians do.

To be even more blunt, the best Christians are outside of the Church, but trickling back in.

Mel
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Sorry Dude, but this is BALONEY. People may have lost their zeal, but “Rome” meaning the church, has done no such thing. The “reformation” was/is a disaster of errant doctrine that IMO has done grave harm to Christianity for the last 500 years. Most converts and reverts will probably agree with me on that.

The best Christians are within the Catholic Church, because they are not roaming around being their own popes and teaching errors.
 
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BlackKnight:
Sorry Dude, but this is BALONEY. People may have lost their zeal, but “Rome” meaning the church, has done no such thing. The “reformation” was/is a disaster of errant doctrine that IMO has done grave harm to Christianity for the last 500 years. Most converts and reverts will probably agree with me on that.

The best Christians are within the Catholic Church, because they are not roaming around being their own popes and teaching errors.
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My sentiment exactly
 
Of course there are wholesale saints in the Catholics in Poland during the communist regime and the Ukrainian Greek Catholics(loyal to the See of Peter) who survived being clandestine for decades, likewise the Japanese Roman Catholics that didn’t have clergy for a hundred years or something like that yet remained orthodox-that is still a mystery to me. So in conclusion, cradle catholics are not all mamby pambies.

Cradle Catholics come in all shapes and sizes that cannot be simply generalized as lax.

I do see the influx of converts as a reinforcement (forgive me this will get saccharine)like the Riders of Rohan coming to the rescue of Minas Tirith in The Return of the King. And this wave of 150,000 per annum in the US is indeed a breath of fresh air for us entrenched.

in XT.
 
I agree with many of the specifics here but none of the generalizations. I’m a revert who grew up well educated in what the Church taught. My years away from the Church were not some well thought out departure because of what the Church taught. It was because of sin and selfishness, and disobedience.

Once I became disobedient, I then rationalized my attitudes by questioning the Church teaching on many subjects. I never overtly proclaimed the Church was wrong, but secretly I refused to believe it was right. The blinders became thicker. Sin builds upon sin. I still have to deal with the effects of that sin today.

When God humbled me and the effects of sin made me so miserable, I then cried out to Him. Without the parable of the Prodigal Son and the forgiveness Christ showed to Saint Dismas, I would have lost all hope.

Now, through His Grace, I hold precious every word and every teaching of our Church. Without the sacraments and teaching of the Church, its a very rough and dangerous road to travel alone hoping for heaven. Those of us who have lost much value deeply what we have come home to.
 
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BlackKnight:
Sorry Dude, but this is BALONEY. People may have lost their zeal, but “Rome” meaning the church, has done no such thing. The “reformation” was/is a disaster of errant doctrine that IMO has done grave harm to Christianity for the last 500 years. Most converts and reverts will probably agree with me on that.

The best Christians are within the Catholic Church, because they are not roaming around being their own popes and teaching errors.
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I’LL SECOND THAT!!
 
Simple answer - We, for the last 30 to 40 years, were not given the apologetics information about our faith. I went to 12 years of Catholic school and we did not once learn about what non-Catholics believed or why it was wrong. Evangelicals, Protestants and non-Christian faiths are in the business of refuting Catholic doctrine. It is real easy to twist scripture, jumble history, and make false accusations, as most non-Catholic religions do. Its even easier to do it to someone who has no idea what you are talking about. We never were taught how to respond to these people and therefore became easy targets for non-Catholic churches.

Converts and Reverts are knowledgeable about the Church, incredibly so. They have learned the truth. When non-Catholics or cradle catholics really study “why” the Catholic church is the way it is, there really is no other option than to be Catholic. It is the true Christian Church passed down from Jesus.

Thank you Catholic Answers!!!
 
Photini,

I am a revert. I spent 6 years as an evangelical born again Christian, all the while I can now see that I was sent out to be evangelized and returned to evangelize in the Catholic Church.
I am much more devout now, and know a whole bunch more than I used to and that was with 12 years of Catholic schooling.

I think it is because as an evangelical i struggled with many different beliefs, infallibility being the main one although i was living with someone at the time and the denomination i joined didn’t judge that behavior, but the group i hung out with from Opus dei did. And i didn’t want to hear it so i actually blamed them for being too rigid.
So once that all blew up in my face, grace picked me back up, restored me, and God has been ever so good to me.

How could I ever now leave the Church since I now understand the Mass and the Sacraments?
In short, I now have a real living faith. As a Catholic in my early 20’s, it was most certainly a dead faith when i left.
 
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