Why Catholic?

[Kelfa28]

It’s very cultural.

I live in an area in the Northeast that is steeped in Catholic history. Everyone grew up Catholic.

It’s so common to meet people who identify themselves as Catholic but never attend Church, believe next to nothing that the Church teaches and couldn’t answer even the most basic questions about Christianity to save their lives.

My entire family…all identifies themselves as Catholic. Most are baptized and have received a number of Sacraments within their lives…but stopped attending Church as soon as they could.

My sister and her husband baptized their son Catholic and had a huge Christening party but never attended Church and know nothing about the faith.

My parents will go to the occasional Easter Mass or Christmas Eve Mass with my husband and I. It’s nice that they go and we always welcome them…but they don’t go to Church on Sundays.

My husband’s side of the family mostly fell away and either don’t practice but identify themselves as Catholic…or converted to non-denominationalism and identify themselves as Christians…despite being baptized Catholics.

So…my husband, myself and my kids are it, in terms of practicing Catholics who actually believe in all that the Church teaches.

It’s frustrating…especially when I identify myself to someone who is a practicing Christian that I am Catholic…and I see a weird look cross their face.
No, I’m not a CINO…I actually believe in Catholicism as the one true faith and know enough to surprise them.

 

[Vico]

I dont want to derail the thread, but I do want to say I disagree about them being insignificant, they were Satans first attempt to corrupt the human seed, so Jesus could not be born into our world, I think it is very important, as it gives us some indication how Satan goes about things, and could give us insight to other methods he may use against the human race.

Like I also said, there was other topics he was not aware of (which should be common catholic knowledge), my father also said he had never been taught about all the instances of God instructing people to kill in the OT, in fact, when I first asked him about this, he thought I was joking…he wanted the bible verses to prove this! He was pretty shocked when I showed him all the different OT verses to this effect, This is pretty sad, since he had went to catholic school from 1st to 12 grade…in all that time, they never taught the kids about these verses? IMO, this speaks volumes about the curriculum.

I understand what you are saying, yet is in fact is not emphasized in Catholic teaching; the founding Fathers considered the Nephilim to be the “sons of Seth”. You can read a few sentences on it in Catholic Encyclopedia.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

I can think of a friend of mine who is culturally Jewish, observes the major Jewish holidays, even got married in a Jewish synagogue. But if you ask him what his actual religious beliefs are, he’ll say he is agnostic.

Now, that isn’t exactly the same because the OP is referring to people who still call themselves Catholic. But I think many Catholics (especially those of certain ethnic backgrounds, such as Irish) certainly see “Catholic” as more of a cultural moniker than a religious one.

Others consider themselves “Catholic” because they have been baptized, Confirmed, etc., in the faith, and perhaps show up for Mass once in a while. To them, it is participation in certain rituals that make them “Catholic”, more than actual assent to the beliefs of the Church.

Others (many on CAF) have no disagreements with what they see as the core Church teachings regarding the divinity of Jesus, truly believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, acknowledge that the Eucharist is only available in the Church, etc. ** To them, issues such as abortion, contraception, same sex marriage, etc., are mere peripheral issues, and there’s no conflict at all between dissenting on such issues, and still calling themselves Catholic.**

You brought up some excellent points.

Some Catholics confuse themselves and the world when they preach the highlighted actions above as being acceptable. It places their soul in mortal danger because every Catholic knows that advocating abortion and SSM is unacceptable to the Church.

These sins are not difficult to understand, it’s not rocket science as Cardinal Arinze explains below.

youtube.com/watch?v=EYdMHsq2AuE