Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church

[Kush]

Hey Clem,

That is exactly how I live now today as well. I pretty much gave up on the church (for way more reasons that listed below). It had to do with descovering how much hate lived in my chuch (hatered towards jewish people, hatred towards gays, etc). The whole satan thing was morbid. It did not feel “like the place Jesus would have wanted to hang out in”.

However, here is where I am today. I am still a Christian - as I totally have given up listening to the teachings of man (our prists), and now only try to live my life the way Christ did. I study his teachings, and try to mirror my life as he did. I truly belive that is my way to enlighnement. I belive he was the best teacher we could have asked for… I do not feel I need anyone or anything else… and his message is way easier to understand without the human intervention. Love everyone. period.

not sure if that makes sence

Peace

I’m sorry you experienced the gospel of fear.
I would just say that I find the ultimate good news in the sacrifice of Christ. Imitating that sacrifice in my own life just plain works for me, and for everyone for that matter. If people would not live sacrificially, the world would stop working.

As far as believing what cannot be true, the Church does not take the scriptures as literalist history. This is a long discussion, but the Church does not believe the world is 4000 years old or that people lived to 900 years old.

The next time your family gathers, think about the stories that are told around the table. Does everyone have the same exact historical recollection of events? No. Similar with scripture. But the spiritual truth in those stories is the real truth, not the verifiable facts. The real truth is that, for instance, dad was a generous man, or that mom had a nasty temper and punished us severely for whatever…

Or the scene of an accident or crime. No two witness will tell the same factual story. But that’s not the point whether someone was murdered with a gun or run over by a car. The point is that a man died and no one helped him,etc…,.

 

[clem456]

Hey Clem,

That is exactly how I live now today as well. I pretty much gave up on the church (for way more reasons that listed below). It had to do with descovering how much hate lived in my chuch (hatered towards jewish people, hatred towards gays, etc). The whole satan thing was morbid. It did not feel “like the place Jesus would have wanted to hang out in”.

However, here is where I am today. I am still a Christian - as I totally have given up listening to the teachings of man (our prists), and now only try to live my life the way Christ did. I study his teachings, and try to mirror my life as he did. I truly belive that is my way to enlighnement. I belive he was the best teacher we could have asked for… I do not feel I need anyone or anything else… and his message is way easier to understand without the human intervention. Love everyone. period.

not sure if that makes sence

Peace

I understand what you are saying.
I am sorry you had experiences of unChristian behavior in the Church. We are all bad disciples at times. I hope you will not let our shortcomings detract from your experience of God’s goodness, which does not change or falter.

 

[Parisian]

My guess would be so they can find a church that will justify their sins.

I know some leave because of the pedophile scandal, but if they only realized those priest just became priest to cover up their pedophile tendancy. What better cover than becoming a catholic priest? These people who leave should have more faith in the church.

 

[Kush]

Oh for sure Clem,

As I said, once I gave up trying to listen to what “man” though, and just stuck with the lessons of Christ, the whole world starts to make sence. I kinda feel that is my path. Live the way he lived - and once I made that comitment to him, life just began to make sense.

Jesus is the way to enligtenment… To me the past is the past, and I do not live by it…

I understand what you are saying.
I am sorry you had experiences of unChristian behavior in the Church. We are all bad disciples at times. I hope you will not let our shortcomings detract from your experience of God’s goodness, which does not change or falter.

 

[clem456]

Oh for sure Clem,

As I said, once I gave up trying to listen to what “man” though, and just stuck with the lessons of Christ, the whole world starts to make sence. I kinda feel that is my path. Live the way he lived - and once I made that comitment to him, life just began to make sense.

Jesus is the way to enligtenment… To me the past is the past, and I do not live by it…

I had a similar but different course. I was not well grounded in Christian living, so my own attempts to grab life proved to be deadly.
Only when I realized that my own experience of life would be grossly insufficient, did I realize we stand on the experience of others we live with, and others that came before us. There was no other way for me to "know’ Christ, really, other than through the lives of others and through those who came before, “Tradition”. If I rely solely on my own experience of who God is, I could be the next David Koresh or Jim Jones, because I do not have the relfection of Christ’s life lived with a community of believers. So for me, rejecting my own individualistic path was crucial to living a life truly in communion with Christ and others.
God bless

 

[Tampa_Dave]

As an adult, I studiously researched my Catholic faith. It was only then I discovered the truth and beauty of Catholicism. I was too casual in my beliefs and practices during my Catholic school years. Thank God for my enlightenment!

 

[Peebo]

Many Catholics are lured away by Evangelical Protestants who want to “save” Catholics from the fires of hell…but for those people…was their Catholic faith really strong in the first place…if they truly believed that the Catholic Church is the one true church founded by Jesus Christ …how could they knowingly turn away from him and follow a false sect.

 

[Annabelle_Marie]

Oh for sure Clem,

As I said, once I gave up trying to listen to what “man” though, and just stuck with the lessons of Christ, the whole world starts to make sence. I kinda feel that is my path. Live the way he lived - and once I made that comitment to him, life just began to make sense.

Jesus is the way to enligtenment… To me the past is the past, and I do not live by it…

So when you say Christ is a good teacher…does that mean you believe He died for your sins?

If you do…then how can you leave the Church He founded?

If not…

Then sorry but you are not really a Christian…

 

[Kush]

Hi Annabelle,

Sorry for this one, but it is one of the few questions I have never had answered in an acceptable way. How did Christ die for us? He was a teacher, he taught us so many lessons which I live by. His death however should have no barring on what he taught us. I belive if he returned today, he would go back to spreading his message of “love, tollerance, and accpetance of all” He would not get so hung up on his death. It happend, but it happend to many people back then. He died, but we should not get focsed on his crusifiction, this does nothing for us. We need to get back to his lessons. Unfortuanly, I see the church getting so hung up over the crusifiction, that they miss the point of what he was trying to teach us.

Second of all, in no way did Jesus start this religon. He never in his existance tried to start a church or a religon. I can remember one time (and the only time) Jesus ever visited a church. Lets just say, things didn’t work out as planned.

Today, religons do nothing more than divide people. Jesus tried to bring people together. I know that if you truly thought about it, if Christ returned today, and saw what was happening in the catholic church and how much money the Vadican has, do you really think he would be pleased… do you think he would say… “yes, that is exacly how I wanted you guys to behave after I left”.

Please, never forget, the lessons of Christ are of an enlighend man… the lessons from the church, are simply lessons by man… who do you follow?

I follow Jesus, you follow man (men from the pope, priests, and others)… I follow Christ… so who is the real christian?

So when you say Christ is a good teacher…does that mean you believe He died for your sins?

If you do…then how can you leave the Church He founded?

If not…

Then sorry but you are not really a Christian…

 

[clem456]

Then sorry but you are not really a Christian…

Hmmmmmm

 

[Ceil-1]

Dear Kush,

Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but, you are probably young. Young 'uns today are fed a lot of propaganda and not taught things like metaphors, and metaphysics and cannot discern nuances, high-level concepts, etc. Superficial, image-driven stuff only. What is more, logic is not taught, and consequently, the ability to think deeply and contemplate that which is not under thier nose. Not that you are not smart, or anything like that. More that you have been formed by a sinister culture.

Completely not your fault. You have been indoctrinated to mistrust the Church, and everyone who came before you, especially if they were virtuous or well thought-of. This is no accident. It is the result of very careful cultivation of how you were to be formed. You are told half-truths about the “bad guys” without exposure to good and holy people. I don’t blame you for being cynical

There was a visionary in the early 1800’s Germany. Her name was Anne Katherine Emmerich. In her visions, she described Jerusalem and the Holy Land in exquisite detail and was accurate down to the location of the caves. This was given to her to describe details of the Lord’s life and relatives. It was a great gift. She also prophesied, which, were you to actually have met other holy people you would understand that this is not all that unusual…

She talked about how approximately 50-60 years prior to the year 2000, Jesus would allow the devil, whom He has been holding back by virtue of His Grace bought for us by His blood, to be unloosed in the world. This is also predicted in the Bible when it talks about the great apostacy, and how many would be led astray.

If you were able to understand the subtle differences in things, and have access to accurate information, you would be able to look back to the world before 1966, which happens to be the year of my birth. It was different. People at least knew what was right versus what was wrong and chose accordingly. Since then, all has been jumbled up and our young people are confused. They have been taught that everything that came before was bad. Bad things happened, but, compared to today, it was paradise. One could not realize this unless they have seen it for themselves, or at least met people from “back then”.

In May of 1966 a satan worshipper (that entity you choose to ignore), I think his name was Simon LeVey, declared that the age of satan had arrived. This age had been carefully cultivated for centuries by the enemies of Jesus Christ and His Church. Sr. Katherine stated that the world had been going in this direction before even she came along.

Oh, if only you knew the half of it. You would not allow yourself to be so easily led away from the truth. As it is, what can those of us in the know do but pray for illumination? My advice to you is to make no conclusions, but, to continue to try to understand and try not to be such easy prey. If you want to look with suspicion on something, look with suspicion anything you see or hear by anyone but the horse’s mouth. Go to original sources. Ignore TV, You Tube, the Internet and go every avenue. Your soul depends on it.

 

[PRmerger]

Hey Clem,

That is exactly how I live now today as well. I pretty much gave up on the church (for way more reasons that listed below). It had to do with descovering how much hate lived in my chuch (hatered towards jewish people, hatred towards gays, etc).

I think you left a pornographied version of Catholicism. Not true Catholicism.

For there is no Catholic teaching that espouses hatred towards gays or the Jewish people.

 

[PRmerger]

I guess for me the church just stopped making sense. One day you just wake up, and re-evaluate what you have been told to belive in. jelous angry gods, demons, devils, angels, nohas arc, Johnnas whale, people living to be 900,… and it hits you…

It stops being what you belive in.

now, here is the good news. You don’t nessisarily become a pure athiest when you stop beliving… you start searching for god in your own way… and you find what works best for you. The church may work for others, but for those of us who left… were still spiritual… we just don’t live by the “fear” taught to us by this organization keeping us beliving in what we just know cannot be true.

Words of advice as you pursue your spiritual journey:

Make sure you are conforming your views to God’s, rather than creating a god that happens to conform to your own image.

For it there is indeed a God, then it stands to reason that He is going to proclaim some truths that make you squirm a bit. Some doctrines/morals that are not quite exactly what you believe…

Makes sense, right?

 

[Kush]

Hey PRmerger,

You know, your actually talking to an ex alterboy. I was actualy considering pristhood when I was a child. I know the catholic religon well, and I know how it works behind closed doors. Our church was a polish curch. women would gather ouside after mass and do nothing but talk about what other people in chuch did, what they wore, what thier kids do. it was quite ugly. Being raised by a family of catholics, with a lot of catholic friends… I have heard the worse things about jewish people, gay people, people with long hair. it was nothing spiritual what so ever.

For that reason, I left the church a long time ago. the quesion of this thread was “why do kids leave”. I simply gave the ops my answer.

When I made it to first year of undergrad school, I got a good taste of what the church did way before my time. it just closed the doors on this instituntion for me permenently.

I found Jesus because of that, and all I’m saying is life is great. I do not think I ever knew Jesus while I was a catholic. I knew the bible inside and out, but I never really “knew Jesus”… does that make sence?

I think you left a pornographied version of Catholicism. Not true Catholicism.

For there is no Catholic teaching that espouses hatred towards gays or the Jewish people.

 

[Annabelle_Marie]

Hmmmmmm

Please do not take one sentence of my post out of context.

If one does not believe that Christ died for our sins…then they are not a Christian…it’s not enough to think he was simply a good teacher…simple as that.

 

[crazzeto]

Hey PRmerger,

You know, your actually talking to an ex alterboy. I was actualy considering pristhood when I was a child. I know the catholic religon well, and I know how it works behind closed doors. Our church was a polish curch. women would gather ouside after mass and do nothing but talk about what other people in chuch did, what they wore, what thier kids do. it was quite ugly. Being raised by a family of catholics, with a lot of catholic friends… I have heard the worse things about jewish people, gay people, people with long hair. it was nothing spiritual what so ever.

For that reason, I left the church a long time ago. the quesion of this thread was “why do kids leave”. I simply gave the ops my answer.

When I made it to first year of undergrad school, I got a good taste of what the church did way before my time. it just closed the doors on this instituntion for me permenently.

I found Jesus because of that, and all I’m saying is life is great. I do not think I ever knew Jesus while I was a catholic. I knew the bible inside and out, but I never really “knew Jesus”… does that make sence?

How sad that this is what your image of the Catholic Church,those poor sinful women do not represent the true teaching of the church anymore than this poor sinful soul writing this post does. The church is greater than us individually, though thankfully it’s big enough to take sinners like those women, and my self under its wing.

The church is nothing less than and authentic encounter with Christ, I’m sorry those women didn’t witness to that. But let me suggest this, if you haven’t bothered looking further then your selling your self, and the church short. I’d like to invite you to take some time tonstidy the faith. Not only do I think you will see the churc is all she claims to me, but I also think you will drop Buddhist and any other faith from your list of faiths, and leave only Catholic Christian.

 

[Annabelle_Marie]

Hi Annabelle,

Sorry for this one, but it is one of the few questions I have never had answered in an acceptable way. How did Christ die for us? He was a teacher, he taught us so many lessons which I live by. His death however should have no barring on what he taught us. I belive if he returned today, he would go back to spreading his message of “love, tollerance, and accpetance of all” He would not get so hung up on his death. It happend, but it happend to many people back then. He died, but we should not get focsed on his crusifiction, this does nothing for us. We need to get back to his lessons. Unfortuanly, I see the church getting so hung up over the crusifiction, that they miss the point of what he was trying to teach us.

Second of all, in no way did Jesus start this religon. He never in his existance tried to start a church or a religon. I can remember one time (and the only time) Jesus ever visited a church. Lets just say, things didn’t work out as planned.

Today, religons do nothing more than divide people. Jesus tried to bring people together. I know that if you truly thought about it, if Christ returned today, and saw what was happening in the catholic church and how much money the Vadican has, do you really think he would be pleased… do you think he would say… “yes, that is exacly how I wanted you guys to behave after I left”.

Please, never forget, the lessons of Christ are of an enlighend man… the lessons from the church, are simply lessons by man… who do you follow?

I follow Jesus, you follow man (men from the pope, priests, and others)… I follow Christ… so who is the real christian?

No…you answered my question.

Sorry to tell you but I follow more then man…the pope, the priests…they teach…I listen. But what do they teach about? Christ…and that he died for our sins. If you don’t believe that Christ dies for your sins…that you don’t want to get “hung up” on his death and resurrection…then you are not truly a christian.

Since when did Christ teach about tolerance and acceptance for all. Christ was very much against sin. So…yes in your example about the women in your church…they were wrong in showing hatered against gay people. But they were not wrong in saying a practicing homesexual lifestyle is wrong…just as wrong as two hetrosexuals “hooking” up outside of marriage. Jesus said that he was the narrow gate. “If you love me, you will keep the commandments” Does that sound like tolerance and acceptance of all?

I find your statements to be in violation of each other. If you truly have love, tolerance, and acceptance of all…then you would have that for the Church…but you do not. At the same time you are looking down your nose at the Church and the (name removed by moderator)erfect people in it…you are not practicing love, tolerance, and acceptance for all. Which is it???

I do not think Jesus would be happy for us to let people live in their sins…for us to live in our sins. That is not true love. True love is wanting everyone to get through the narrow gate as much as they can. Now…being (name removed by moderator)erfect…sometimes we don’t deliver that message as lovingly as we should…that is what reconciliation is all about.

Who is the Christian? The one who follows Christ and his teachings…who believes that Christ died and rose again for our sins…and tries to follow his commandments. It is not those who think Christ is a “good teacher” but don’t want to get hung up on his death.

I will pray for you tonight at Mass…that you get true “enlightment” and not just what you pick and choose.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

Those who have left are blaming the Priests, inflexible Doctrines, catechists, parents etc. A convenient excuse.

Your salvation is YOUR responsibility. It’s not rocket science, the Church equips us with the tools, there is nothing stopping people from receiving the Sacraments, studying the CCC, read the thousands of book on Church history, go online to vatican.va There is no excuse for not being better informed with the amount of online tools available to Catholics worldwide, it is convenient for the lazy Catholic to lay the blame elsewhere.

All that is required is co-operation and participation. I don’t find it surprising that we may be decreasing in numbers as it has been predicted by Popes that we will end up with a much smaller Church.

 

[ljwahn]

For their own personal will. Many many many many lol Catholics that leave the Church do so for social reasons. Some leave the Church due to marriage to a non Catholic. I know a lady who left the Church for “family unity.” Her husband was Protestant and she simply left to keep the household in one church and faith. I asked her is family unity worth your salvation? She did not like that question lol.

But many people leave because of not being informed of correct Catholic doctrine or social issues. Some people just desire their will over God’s. Earthly things take charge and God gets pushed to the backseat.

A few left during the abuse era. For some reason they become disconnected from the Church rather than disapproving of the individual.

A guy told me once that Hilter was an altar boy and faithful Catholic. He stated that “look what the Church produced.” Now he knows that is completely unfair and that Hitler is NOT the Church nor the Church is Hitler.

 

[ljwahn]

Words of advice as you pursue your spiritual journey:

Make sure you are conforming your views to God’s, rather than creating a god that happens to conform to your own image.

For it there is indeed a God, then it stands to reason that He is going to proclaim some truths that make you squirm a bit. Some doctrines/morals that are not quite exactly what you believe…

Makes sense, right?

Life is a process of saying no to you and yes to God. The more you say yes to you the farther away you can get from God and the easier it is to justify the yes to yourselves.