Why did you revert to the Catholic Church?

[Charlemagne_II]

This thread is not designed to be a debate forum on whether anyone who leaves the Church should have returned or returned for the wrong reason. It is therefore requested that non-Catholics, who are free to participate by asking questions,** not get into the debate mode**. Thank you!

Two questions are of the greatest interest to me, though other questions may well surface.

1. Why did you leave the Church and how long were you away?
2. For what reason did you decide to return to the Church?

Please feel free to answer either or both questions, or ask questions of your own about the experience of reversion.

 

[babylonsfalling]

This thread is not designed to be a debate forum on whether anyone who leaves the Church should have returned or returned for the wrong reason. It is therefore requested that non-Catholics, who are free to participate by asking questions,** not get into the debate mode**. Thank you!

Two questions are of the greatest interest to me, though other questions may well surface.

1. Why did you leave the Church and how long were you away?
2. For what reason did you decide to return to the Church?

Please feel free to answer either or both questions, or ask questions of your own about the experience of reversion.

I drifted away as a teenager as my parents lost more and more control over me. Basically I just wanted to be out partying during Sat night mass and sleeping in during Sun morning mass. When my mom got on my case I would always USE theological sounding excuses about confessing to a priest, papal authority etc but the real reason had VERY little to do with that kind of stuff. Years later when I started going back to church I had already been in a few non Catholic and just went back to those types of churches because I had come to consider myself ex catholic.

As far as returning, I started going to a Catholic Church as a secondary Church because I wanted to get back to going twice a week. The extra Church service had to be on a weekday morning because of my schedule and the only Church having that type of schedule was Catholic. I had no chip on my shoulder about the Catholic Church so that’s where I went. Once there, the greater humility of Catholics before God became apparent, greater reverence, etc. The greater awareness of sin was apparent also, juxtaposed against the non Catholic experience…where I heard in reference to sin…“it doesn’t matter because I’m already forgiven.”…something I would never hear from a Catholic.

The penitential prayer is the single thing which impressed me most…a group of people collectively confessing their sin before God is something I’ve never seen in a non Catholic Church.

 

[Gertabelle]

In response to Question 1:

I left the Church slowly, bit by bit, through the encouragement of liberal Catholics to pick and choose what aspects of Catholicism I would agree with and which I would reject. “Cafeteria Catholicism” at its best (by which I mean, its worst).

Add to this a questioning of my sexual orientation – and all those liberal church friends of mine were able to earn the merit badges for helping an actual lesbian come out of the closet with full “love” and “support.” It was, in truth, neither love nor support of me. But I gradually embraced the lesbian lifestyle (for ten years) and left the Church.

In 2001, my father’s death began to wake me up to the recklessness of my choices. I finally had the courage to admit that I was unhappy in my relationship of 8 years, that what I truly wanted was a husband and children. I was 33 at the time and began to realize that I had wasted so much of my life trying to be something that in my heart I wasn’t.

I married an old, old friend in 2002, and in 2003 we had a son. Being a mother of this beautiful little soul challenged my agnosticism (which is where I found myself after all those years).

In response to Question 2:

In the summer of 2006, I had a dream. Before going to bed, I had prayed (if there was a God, which I doubted) for guidance with something that had been troubling me greatly. In the dream I had that night, I was praying the rosary and going to mass.

I told my husband (also an agnostic, ex-Catholic) about my dream. We both chuckled and he said, “Well, what are you going to do?” I answered, “Well, there’s no point in asking for coaching if you’re not going to take the coaching you get.”

That day (it was a Wednesday during my summer break) I went to daily mass, made myself a rosary and prayed it – apologizing first for saying words I didn’t necessarily believe. The church I went into had a small alcove with the tabernacle to one side of the altar, with two small pews. I decided to pray my rosary there.

It was many months before I went to confession, but I never missed Sunday mass, and went to many, many daily masses, and even became the piano accompanist at a parish – from that Wednesday on. It wasn’t until after I went to confession that I really began to have faith again, instead of just going through the motions. Guess the Church is right about that whole being in a state of grace thing

Great questions. It’s difficult to summarize so many years in a few sentences, but the effort was worth it.

Gertie

 

[4Horsemen]

To make a long story short, to answer #1 why I left the Catholic Church:

Professors at the university would be condescending when speaking about religion, and some of the courses they taught sidelined any talk of God or spirituality. I began to think that the spiritual world was non-existent and started to think of myself as a materialist. At the same time, the Church was in the throes of redefining itself, and I felt as though adrift trying to grasp at any new wave of thought that floated by. I tried various forms of spirituality, but nothing was satisfying.

As for an answer to #2, why I came back to the Catholic Church:

First of all, I was apart from the bark of Peter for 12 years which affected me on all levels – spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical or physiological (I had sudden anxiety attacks and psychosomatic issues because of the greatness of my loss, which, of course I didn’t understand at the time). I married in that state of confusion and depression and had two children (for starters). At ages 5 and 3, both asked me more questions than I could answer, especially the 3-year-old, who kept hounding me about where we went when we died. At first, I told the boys, we just get buried in the ground and that’s the end of it. But the younger was persistent and asked about how he was made (I gave him an EZ biological explanation) and how the whole world came to be, but I couldn’t answer his persistent queries. Finally, I decided to read my way back starting with some basic philosophy books and then some theology (for the layman), but, most important of all, I decided to read the four gospels at one sitting. Meeting Jesus, in a personal way, brought me back into his Church with the help of prayer groups. But first I tried a couple different Protestant churches because of the idea of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. However, deep in my heart, I had a longing to be home again. As they say, “Rome is home!”