Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church

[bzkoss236]

I think it can be summed up with misinformation and misdirected personal interests.

There is a lack of education by Catholic parents to educate their children outside of church, and even outside of Catholic school. Just as parents should reinforce what the children learn in school about social sciences, natural sciences, language, etc., they should also be doing in regard to faith. And without this, they fall prey to misinformation about the Church, Her history, what She actually teaches, and why She is a force for good in this world. This can lead people to despise the Church.

This is one of the things I find attractive about the Evangelical community, which helped bring me back to the Catholic Church after years away. I came back to the Catholic Church after coming to further know what the Church actually teaches, and it making more sense in terms of history, tradition, and scripture than the Evangelical community I found myself in.

And apart from bad catechesis, the secular world and the liberal media influence our children so much, that without the proper guidance and formation, leads to misguided personal interests. Without proper formation, curiosity can take over and bring them to conclusions that are not spiritually healthy.

So, that is a summary of why I say misinformation and misguided personal interests.

 

[maryjk]

I’m sorry to hear that. However, one cannot judge the Church by one individual.

Oh, I agree. As did my parents.

BUT, when you are in the hospital, recovering from surgery. Who exactly do you go to? Do you demand that the Bishop come and talk to you? Do you move so you can be under a different priest?

Trust me, it is easy to sit behind a computer and say, I wouldn’t have left the Church over something so trivial. But when it is you, I don’t think you can know.

 

[Boy_Wonder]

If you are not doomed, why do you need to be saved?

Because God made us for heaven, made us to accept his love and mercy and to be in joyful union with us forever. But God is not coercive. He’ll never force us to accept his love. He offers it to us constantly. it’s up to us whether we accept it.

He did not make us “inherently doomed” - that is a terrible misunderstanding of God.

 

[1roman]

many former catholics choose other fellowships – that they can relate to-- that actually teach the bible in a understandable way–

some are just it
disappointing at the lack of spiritual food that the ceremony of the sacraments provide… so become Pentecostal–

but some stay-- because they find comfort in the repartition of the ceremony and the since of right-ness in going to mass-- and don’t need what the other offer–

and it is easy to believe-- the catholic mass is right and every one else is wrong-- and there is comfort in that group belief–

most people are not empowered with the Holy spirit- as a catholic

Trent: Let Me Be Anathema
Post image for Trent: Let Me Be Anathema

The sixth session of the Council of Trent,the Canons Concerning Justification, anathematizes me how many times?

Else where in the meta Dan Phillips mentioned to me that we should have a contest.

“How many Romish anathemas can you rack up?”

I decided to count the number of anathemas that I am under from the 33 canons on justification. My count is 23 anathemas as I understand the canons. I tried to consider any nuances. Keep in mind that this is only 1 of 25 sessions of Trent.

It is a wonder if the doctrines of faith alone and imputed righteousness matter anymore. Trent has not changed so the wondering is of the Protestant side.

It would not be difficult to find evidence that the doctrines are minimized today.

The canons in question are listed below. Also, here are two resources explaining sola fide: 1 – An mp3 from the Issues, Etc. radio show: The Reformation and Its Theology: Faith Alone. 2 – Justification by Faith Alone: The Relation of Faith to Justification by Dr.
Oh Anathema, My Anathema

Canon 4.
If anyone says that man’s free will moved and aroused by God, by assenting to God’s call and action, let him be anathema.

Canon 6.
If anyone says that it is not in man’s power to make his ways evil, but that the works that are evil as well as those that are good God produces, not permissively only but also propria et per se, so that the treason of Judas is no less His own proper work than the vocation of St. Paul, let him be anathema.

Canon 7.
If anyone says that all works done before justification, in whatever manner they may be done, are truly sins, or merit the hatred of God; that the more earnestly one strives to dispose himself for grace, the more grievously he sins, let him be anathema.

Canon 9.
If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema.

Canon 11.
let him be anathema.

Canon 12.
let him be anathema.

Canon 13.
, let him be anathema.

Canon 14.
Id, let him be anathema.

Canon 15.
let him be anathema.

Canon 17.
let him be anathema.

Canon 19.
let him be anathema.

Canon 20.
If anyone says that a man who is justified and however perfect is not bound to observe the commandments of God and the Church, but only to believe, as if the Gospel were a bare and absolute promise of eternal life without the condition of observing the commandments, let him be anathema.

Canon 23.
as the Church holds in regard to the Blessed Virgin, let him be anathema.

Canon 24.
let him be anathema.

Canon 25.
I and that he is not damned for this reason only, because God does not impute these works into damnation, let him be anathema.

Canon 26.
let him be anathema.

Canon 27.
, let him be anathema.

Canon 29.
let him be anathema.

Canon 30.
let him be anathema.

Canon 31.
If anyone says that the one justified sins when he performs good works with a view to an eternal reward, let him be anathema.

Canon 32.
If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified; or that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit an increase of grace, eternal life, and in case he dies in grace, the attainment of eternal life itself and also an increase of glory, let him be anathema.

Canon 33.
If anyone says that the Catholic doctrine of justification as set forth by the holy council in the present decree, derogates in some respect from the glory of God or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, and does not rather illustrate the truth of our faith and no less the glory of God and of Christ Jesus, let him be anathema.

What did I miss? What did I let slip through?

Thoughts?

 

[Lormar]

Long story, short. My parents left the church after my 1st Communion. Mom was a product of Catholic school, Dad went to CCD, as he put it, forever.

Mom had life saving surgery, but was told by our local priest that because she didn’t get permission to have a hysterectomy, she was in mortal sin and had excommunicated herself from the church. (Nice, huh?)

Yes, I know the priest was wrong. Yes, my mother came back. But it was hard, and she left for a long time.

And she didn’t want to do it her way, she just wanted to live long enough to raise her children. She knew her faith as well as anyone. And up until that time she was a good Catholic.

My mother left for a similar reason. She was born in 1918 to an immigrant family which was poor and she had very limited Catholic schooling ( two years and her father pulled her out of the school because he had a disagreement with the pastor) and was very ignorant about the faith. Without going into details, a priest yelled at her in the confessional in the 1950s and she never went back. Then, when my father died fifteen years later, that really got her “mad at God”. Finally, in the mid-1980s, she returned to the Church.

I left in the 1970s to do my own thing. Which is the reason I think most people leave. They don’t want to be told what they can and can’t do. When I think today of the chance I took risking the salvation of my soul had I died a sudden and unprovided death during the time…

 

[johnnyjones]

many former catholics choose other fellowships – that they can relate to-- that actually teach the bible in a understandable way–

Thoughts?

“Understandable way?” More like in the way the particular interpreter wants it to read. Not a good reason to leave the Catholic church although many do develop the skewed view you describe.

 

[aidanbradypop]

Oh, I agree. As did my parents.

BUT, when you are in the hospital, recovering from surgery. Who exactly do you go to? Do you demand that the Bishop come and talk to you? Do you move so you can be under a different priest?

Trust me, it is easy to sit behind a computer and say, I wouldn’t have left the Church over something so trivial. But when it is you, I don’t think you can know.

I agree that it is very tough easy for someone who hasn’t been through it to sit behind the computerand say as much. I also had a problem with a priest in the past. Luckily my town has many different parishes to attend. Some are not as fortunate to switch. I just felt this certain priest was too liberal on church teachings with some and strict with others.

It is a very sticky situation but people must know that they can go to the bishop. I did and that priest eventually left the RCC and is now a priest with an independent old catholic church.

We sometimes think of priest as being perfect. They make mistakes as well. I suggest that if someone feels that they have been wronged by a priest or parish then talk with the local bishop and solve it that way.

 

[maryjk]

I agree that it is very tough easy for someone who hasn’t been through it to sit behind the computer and say as much. I also had a problem with a priest in the past. Luckily my town has many different parishes to attend. Some are not as fortunate to switch. I just felt this certain priest was too liberal on church teachings with some and strict with others.

Part of the problem with my parents was that we were overseas. As hard as it is to contact a bishop now, imagine it 40 years ago AND contacting the bishop for the military.

There was only one priest, there wasn’t anyone else to go to. So they got mad. Got angry. And left.

Mom came back to the Church about 20 years before her death. Dad, not until about 2 weeks before his death, and 6 months after Mom’s death. So at least they both came back.

 

[nicolakirwan]

You know, Gallup should do a poll, as I find the constant refrain that Catholics who leave do so simply to seek their own will to be self-serving on the part of the Church. I’m sorry, but I do. People are quick to recognize that the clergy can and do sin grievously, but somehow don’t take into account the negative affect that will have on their parishioners, as if the people are beyond having their faith scandalized. The sheep are not expected to be wiser and holier than the shepherd. In the Gospels, Jesus always laid the sin of leading other into error at the feet of the leaders. In the Old Testament, Eli’s sons were judged because they were wicked priests who caused the people to sin. The Lord lamented in Isaiah that the leaders of the Israelites caused them to err.

Are there people who leave because they want to sin or because of a different opinion? Sure. But there are plenty of people who left after being at a loss as to how to grow in Christ within the Catholic Church as the spiritual milieu they were in was not healthy. Catholics who have not experienced such can have a judgmental attitude, assuming that the ones who left just must not have done enough or cared enough.

During a discussion in a group at church, one member of the group answered this question very simply “so they can live like they want.” I thought that summed it up pretty well. All the excuses given are just that–excuses.

Was this a group of Catholics who had left and returned?

I was mostly asking why that might turn someone away from the Catholic faith. Instead of rejecting the notion, why wouldn’t they try to learn more about it on their own, or seek the pastoral considerations of a Priest?

Seeking the pastoral considerations of a priest presupposes that the priest is actually a good one and trustworthy. The same goes for bishops. That cannot be taken as a given, however.

---

The comment about Protestants making the most devout Catholics carries a lot of unintentional irony with it, as the Catholics who have been formed all their life by the Catholic Church should be exemplars of the Catholic faith and zeal. Rather, you have Protestant converts whose faith was largely formed outside of the Church coming in and growing with even greater fervor being the exemplary ones. This would say something about the discipleship they received within Protestant circles. That’s kind of like having a strategy of off loading all your weak links that you failed to make stronger and recruiting the MVPs from the other team.

 

[aidanbradypop]

Part of the problem with my parents was that we were overseas. As hard as it is to contact a bishop now, imagine it 40 years ago AND contacting the bishop for the military.

There was only one priest, there wasn’t anyone else to go to. So they got mad. Got angry. And left.

Mom came back to the Church about 20 years before her death. Dad, not until about 2 weeks before his death, and 6 months after Mom’s death. So at least they both came back.

Praise God they came back!

 

[maryjk]

Praise God they came back!

Every day aidanbradypop, every day.

 

[Mike30]

I think many leave due to disillusionment, bitterness and a sense of betrayal… For instance my sister left, not only the Church but faith in God period due to the problems of suffering in the world on the part of innocents and the actions and non action on the part of many in the Church hierachry towards the child and sexual abuse scandals. She could not reconcile these things in her mind and she left.

I know many others who feel that the Church let them down by these same things and departed as well. And in no small part I can see their confusion and their dismay at what has transpired.

 

[Lormar]

I think many leave due to disillusionment, bitterness and a sense of betrayal… For instance my sister left, not only the Church but faith in God period due to the problems of suffering in the world on the part of innocents and the actions and non action on the part of many in the Church hierachry towards the child and sexual abuse scandals. She could not reconcile these things in her mind and she left.

I know many others who feel that the Church let them down by these same things and departed as well. And in no small part I can see their confusion and their dismay at what has transpired.

I’m in bad shape. I didn’t even consider the decades I spent with fringe groups when I read the question “Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church”. I only thought in terms of not going to Mass any more or leaving for a Protestant group.

Your post reminded me why I left for the fringe groups - “disillusionment, bitterness and a sense of betrayal”.

 

[johnnyjones]

I think many leave due to disillusionment, bitterness and a sense of betrayal… For instance my sister left, not only the Church but faith in God period due to the problems of suffering in the world on the part of innocents and the actions and non action on the part of many in the Church hierachry towards the child and sexual abuse scandals. She could not reconcile these things in her mind and she left.

I know many others who feel that the Church let them down by these same things and departed as well. And in no small part I can see their confusion and their dismay at what has transpired.

This is true. Reconciling the actions of the clergy in the church concerning these matters is dishartening.

 

[7_Sorrows]

i think a lot of it is poor catechesis or that people do not see their families setting a role model on being Catholic or stress the importance of going to Mass.

when people leave home and become adults, if they haven’t had a good foundation on what it means to be Catholic or Christian, it is too easy to be swayed from the church and become secular and live according to one’s wants rather than living to please God.

young adults are also leaving the evangelical churches and other denominations from what i read. not just the Catholic church.

 

[nicolakirwan]

FWIW, Interesting survey:

In a 2011 survey of American Catholics, more than three-quarters of respondents said the sexual abuse issue has hurt priests' ability to meet the spiritual-pastoral needs of parishioners.
In an online survey, anger at church leadership for the sexual abuse scandal was the No. 1 reason cited by people who left the church and are not coming back. Nearly two-thirds of respondents who are not even considering returning to the church listed the abuse scandal as a reason for leaving.
The scandal led to a loss of 2 million Catholics, and generated more than3 billion in donations to other faiths from those Catholics who joined other groups, economist Daniel Hungerman of Notre Dame University estimated in a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Negative publicity from the scandal explains about 5 percent of the decline in the number of Catholic schools in the past two decades, researchers Angela K. Dills of Providence College and Rey Hernandez-Julian of the Metropolitan State College of Denver estimated in the journal Economic Inquiry.

The Catholic abuse scandal became a national crisis for the church in 2002 following revelations of widespread wrongdoing in Boston, Cleveland and other areas of the country. By 2005, as the church responded with new rules and safeguards, many Catholics were willing to give bishops the benefit of the doubt, sociologist William D’Antonio of Catholic University of America said.

However, “Six years later, as the scandal continues and becomes worldwide, the laity seem much more distressed by it,” said D’Antonio, who has led five major surveys of American Catholics since 1987. “The laity seems to be losing their patience.”

In the 2011 study of 1,442 adult Catholics, 69 percent of respondents said the Catholic bishops have done a fair or poor job in handling accusations of sexual abuse by priests. More than four in five respondents said the issue has hurt church leaders’ political credibility, reported researchers D’Antonio, Mary Gautier of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and Michele Dillon of the University of New Hampshire.

In an article in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, the Rev. Joseph Guido of Providence College states clergy abuse in the Catholic Church is a unique betrayal because the priest is regarded as an alter Christus, another Christ.

Bishops have even greater responsibility.

“A bishop must act in personae Christi – in the person of Christ – and care for his flock even at a price to himself (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, nos. 894-896). When he fails to do so, his failure constitutes a betrayal of the sacramental meaning of his authority and leaves his flock … spiritual orphans.”

Source: huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/catholic-anger-and-defections-over-abuse-continue_b_1316228.html

 

[Annabelle_Marie]

i think a lot of it is poor catechesis or that people do not see their families setting a role model on being Catholic or stress the importance of going to Mass.

when people leave home and become adults, if they haven’t had a good foundation on what it means to be Catholic or Christian, it is too easy to be swayed from the church and become secular and live according to one’s wants rather than living to please God.

young adults are also leaving the evangelical churches and other denominations from what i read. not just the Catholic church.

In my case…I was a young kid…in an abusive home…my mom left the faith when I was young…and my dad never taught me the faith. My grandma was a VERY strict traditional Catholic but never shared her faith…, All I knew was the thunder and lightening bolt God. So when my now husband came around and talked about the love of Christ…I left for that.

Years later…it was the Eucharist that pulled me back…after I learned what that was…20 years later.

It was NOT to go off and do whatever I wanted…

 

[BobCatholic]

How does one have any statistical information on the depth of people’s spirituality?

Conversion stories.

Ex-catholics ALWAYS bash the Church for something. They were not practicing the faith, believing whatever they want and then one day they just left.

Converts to the faith have a story to tell and it shows a depth of spirituality.

 

[nicolakirwan]

Conversion stories.

Ex-catholics ALWAYS bash the Church for something. They were not practicing the faith, believing whatever they want and then one day they just left.

Converts to the faith have a story to tell and it shows a depth of spirituality.

I’m not sure I see how one concludes that because people leave the Church and have negative things to say that that in itself means they had no depth of spirituality. Perhaps it reflects true experiences that many don’t wish to acknowledge.

 

[CopticChristian]

10326099]You know, Gallup should do a poll, as I find the constant refrain that Catholics who leave do so simply to seek their own will to be self-serving on the part of the Church. I’m sorry, but I do. People are quick to recognize that the clergy can and do sin grievously, but somehow don’t take into account the negative affect that will have on their parishioners, as if the people are beyond having their faith scandalized. The sheep are not expected to be wiser and holier than the shepherd. In the Gospels, Jesus always laid the sin of leading other into error at the feet of the leaders. In the Old Testament, Eli’s sons were judged because they were wicked priests who caused the people to sin. The Lord lamented in Isaiah that the leaders of the Israelites caused them to err.

Are there people who leave because they want to sin or because of a different opinion? Sure. But there are plenty of people who left after being at a loss as to how to grow in Christ within the Catholic Church as the spiritual milieu they were in was not healthy. Catholics who have not experienced such can have a judgmental attitude, assuming that the ones who left just must not have done enough or cared enough.

Was this a group of Catholics who had left and returned?

Seeking the pastoral considerations of a priest presupposes that the priest is actually a good one and trustworthy. The same goes for bishops. That cannot be taken as a given, however.

---

The comment about Protestants making the most devout Catholics carries a lot of unintentional irony with it, as the Catholics who have been formed all their life by the Catholic Church should be exemplars of the Catholic faith and zeal. Rather, you have Protestant converts whose faith was largely formed outside of the Church coming in and growing with even greater fervor being the exemplary ones. **This would say something about the discipleship they received within Protestant circles. That’s kind of like having a strategy of off loading all your weak links that you failed to make stronger and recruiting the MVPs from the other team./**QUOTE]

Nicol,

I disagree. Scott Hahn and people like him worked hard to find the truth. Catholics have the truth and are less inclined to read everything and judge everything to prove themselves right. There are some Catholics, as you might imagine, whose names go unmentioned. While we hear of the likes of Luther, Calvin, etc…I cannot think of any name or names that are responsible for formulating the Doctrines of the Council of Trent and those were some pretty smart fellas…