Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church

[crenfro]

Hello.

Hope I’m not repeating anything already said, but I think some Catholics leave the Catholic Church because of other Catholics who aren’t living their faith and/or because they prefer doing things their way instead of God’s way. Some people just don’t know enough to know any better.

Some people put a relationship with another person before that of God - seen it with women who are desperate to get married.

Abusive Catholic parents can cause their kids to leave the church. I’ve seen this too.

What I think is the most insidious cause is overly liberal Catholics who confuse others with their spin on what the Catholic Faith is. They always sound so caring and certain of things. Scares me.

My two cents. Please ignore it if it’s of no help.

 

[Fairwinds]

I left the church for reasons that seemed valid at the time, but in retrospect weren’t entirely so. the more interesting question is why did it take so long to return.

over the years, I’d occasionally check Catholic forums on line and see a lot of petty bickering and holier than thou stake holding, smugness, hardcases trying to out-Catholic each other, criticisms of ecclesiastical authorities over pet peeves (very protestant-like), questions about sin that had me wondering if the inquirer had any experience in real life … I’d ask myself, why on earth would I want to associate with people like that?

then I realized that most of online personas don’t represent the actual people in the pews. and so I returned.

 

[Elizabeth502]

People leave for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are logical and rational; others are emotional; still others are for opportunistic reasons. The reason I can say that, is that my three previous leavings all reflected those categories.

However, I will say that what the three categories had in common was my own lack of Faith, especially in God. In one case, I was putting too much “faith” in more than one priest who were disappointments as human beings; in another case, I had assumed too much that clergy sexual abuse should not have happened; that disillusionment caused me to leave, even though it never happened to me personally; in a third case (earliest) I was approaching my faith so rationally that I could not see the forest for the trees.

I was fortunate. My upbriinging and my Catholic education were so strong that eventually I was led back. Leaving is far too difficult. Leaving the Church is like what it must be to get divorced: excruciatingly painful when you don’t want it to happen. And then coming back (after “divorce”) is also really hard. Been there, done that. I’ve been back for good, for some time now and have no plans ever to leave again, whatever happens.

Unfortunately, so many people have a poor foundation for their faith, both in the theological virtue sense and in the intellectual knowledge sense. I’m quite sure that had my background been different, I would stiil be away.

Just being honest here.

Do not put your faith in human beings. All human beings, including those in habits and collars, are flawed. Eventually you will come to know their failings after you discover their virtues. Once you “get it” that it’s about a God who is greater than humanity and who is capable of transforming humanity, including oneself, then you can live with whatever church disappointments you encounter. It’s important to keep one’s vision beyond the immediate, and to see with the eyes of faith.

Every faith tradition eventually disappoints, on a human/earthly level. People can eulogize all they want about Pentecostals, Evangelicals, and Anglicans, but all of those traditions and members are as deeply flawed as Catholics are. It’s the ideals, the truths, the sacraments, and the comprehensive Catholic spirituality from the early Church through all the saints and blessed ones which cannot be duplicated by another religion.

Many people who leave the Church never stay in an alternate tradition long enough to discover those disappointments. Rather, they often hop from church to church in an elusive quest for “the perfect religion” (according to flawed human judgment). The perfect religion originates from the perfect Trinity and none other.

That said, I have been uplifted by the practice of the Judaeo-Christian spirituality of others (for example, the virtues) in some other religoins, through brief encounters. (Methodists, Presbyterians, definitely Jews, and some evangelicals) Nothing wrong with that. God provides us with role models and wake-up calls all the time. We should be grateful for such contrasts with our own behavior when we encounter those, but we should also understand that those experiences are not necessarily signs that we should leave the Catholic Church! They are signs that we need a transformation. God is not limited in how he reaches us.

 

[ConstantineTG]

There are certainly a lot of reasons why people leave the Catholic Church, or any church or religious group for that matter. I guess it would be better if this thread was in the non-Catholic forum and people who actually have left the Catholic Church share their experience. People speculating on the reasons usually doesn’t fairly represent the real-life circumstances.

 

[Fairwinds]

There are certainly a lot of reasons why people leave the Catholic Church, or any church or religious group for that matter. I guess it would be better if this thread was in the non-Catholic forum and people who actually have left the Catholic Church share their experience. People speculating on the reasons usually doesn’t fairly represent the real-life circumstances.

speculation allows for conformation bias, its much more comforting to posit strawmen.

 

[MHT32]

Some people leave for legitimate reasons (think they found truth in another faith, etc.) some leave over the most pointless things. I know people who have left because of an organ playing in the hymns, because they didnt like Pope Benedict or Pope Francis, because they didnt like certain people at their parish, etc. I guarantee most people leave for a really meaningless reason.

 

[Fairwinds]

and how do you presume to speak for most people?

 

[latingirl]

Pope Francis is not a legitimate reason to leave the church! Seriously? He is a good guy.

I agree. Granted I struggled with his simple style and spontaneity but still, I wouldn’t leave the Church over it. The pope comes and goes. It’s the office that counts.

 

[Brendan_64]

Pope Francis is not a legitimate reason to leave the church!

That would be a ridiculous reason to leave the Church. Pope Francis has not changed any doctrine, so how could this be a reason to leave the Church?

Leaving the Church because of a Pope’s particular style, or because you don’t like the way he dresses (when it is not even stipulated by Church discipline, let alone dogma, that he ought to dress as ‘formally’ as some others have done) is just ridiculous.

 

[Classicist]

I left the Church because I could not find the vaunted “unanimous consent of the Fathers” in the actual writings of the Church Fathers. Much of what they said contradict modern Roman theology, and they often contradict each other. I encountered this without enough backing or support in my spiritual life, had a crisis, and left.

I came back to the Church because I realized that if we take the “everything goes” attitude (which we can see in the plethora of private writings of the early Fathers), everything false apart. I had to discount and discard mere opinion, and find a real source of authority. Rome alone claims, and is, that authority.

Thanks be to God, I never had a moral qualm with Rome, and all this was extremely serious and meaningful to me. Not many people had an answer for my problems, because they were only used to lapsed-Catholics leaving for morality reasons. I don’t think you hear fallen-away Catholics protest on the basis of actual history, authority, or theology.

 

[MaryT777]

I left the Church because I could not find the vaunted “unanimous consent of the Fathers” in the actual writings of the Church Fathers. Much of what they said contradict modern Roman theology, and they often contradict each other. I encountered this without enough backing or support in my spiritual life, had a crisis, and left.

I came back to the Church because I realized that if we take the “everything goes” attitude (which we can see in the plethora of private writings of the early Fathers), everything false apart. I had to discount and discard mere opinion, and find a real source of authority. Rome alone claims, and is, that authority.

Thanks be to God, I never had a moral qualm with Rome, and all this was extremely serious and meaningful to me. Not many people had an answer for my problems, because they were only used to lapsed-Catholics leaving for morality reasons. I don’t think you hear fallen-away Catholics protest on the basis of actual history, authority, or theology.

I’m glad you came back and I enjoyed your eloquent post.

 

[PJM]

=Seeking_Him;10739704]I’m in the process of leaving for one reason–Pope Francis. I really, really can’t stand this guy, and there’s no way I’m going to subjugate myself to his style of leading. Francis needs to stop with all of the phony humility and start acting like a pope should. Until then, I’m out of the Church. I’m done. I’m back to being a Methodist.

Because there is One God

There can ONLY be One set of Faith beliefs

And Christ Founded ONLY the Catholic Church

READ Heb 6:4-8 it STILL Applies

Ecclesiasticus 15:18
Before man is life and death, good and evil, that which he shall choose shall be given him

God ALLOWS you to choose; but NOT with impunity:shrug:

I’ll pray for you.

Pope Francis is NO MORE humble than Sain Francis

 

[SaintFrancis333]

I’m in the process of leaving for one reason–Pope Francis. I really, really can’t stand this guy, and there’s no way I’m going to subjugate myself to his style of leading. Francis needs to stop with all of the phony humility and start acting like a pope should. Until then, I’m out of the Church. I’m done. I’m back to being a Methodist.

Lol what a cowardly excuse. The reality is it is “hard” being a Catholic compared to the devilishly simplicity of protestantism. There you get to pick and choose what you believe. You can create your own Christ around how you choose to live your life, so that you can justify everything with your interpretation of Christian doctrine. I am sorry you don’t care for His Holiness. You don’t have too. You have to respect His God given authority as the leader of all Christians everywhere (whether they’re sinful pride will allow them to accept this reality or not). I encourage you to deny yourself and come back to reality. Should you choose to leave the fullness of Truth found solely in Christ’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church for a man made ecclesiastic community, you invite eternal death upon yourself. You are “not” ignorant of Catholicism. Your leaving will be turning your back on Christ. There is hell to pay for that (literally). I shall pray for your afflicted soul, that you might overcome this sin of pride that has enveloped you. God be with you.

 

[Brendan_64]

I’m in the process of leaving for one reason–Pope Francis. I really, really can’t stand this guy, and there’s no way I’m going to subjugate myself to his style of leading. Francis needs to stop with all of the phony humility and start acting like a pope should. Until then, I’m out of the Church. I’m done. I’m back to being a Methodist.

So you’ll leave the Church because you don’t like the personality and style of the Pope? Nothing to do with doctrine, just because you don’t like the way the Bishop of Rome presents himself?

And you’d become a Methodist because of that? Do the doctrines of our Faith matter so little to you that you’d ditch them and go to a Church that doesn’t believe in the Transubstantiation, or in the Sacrament of Confession? Don’t you think that’s a bit shallow?

So what are you going to do if you don’t like a new Methodist minister that you happen to get in your Church? Join the Quakers?

 

[MHT32]

and how do you presume to speak for most people?

Because the only people I know who leave the Church are the ones that come back. Otherwise, I probably wouldnt notice. One of the reasons why I left is because of how some catholics that I know act. Thats probably why Im gonna delay on coming back even when Im ready to return to the faith.

 

[PRmerger]

Because the only people I know who leave the Church are the ones that come back. Otherwise, I probably wouldnt notice. One of the reasons why I left is because of how some catholics that I know act. Thats probably why Im gonna delay on coming back even when Im ready to return to the faith.

While it is understandable to be bemused by the faith when you see how Catholics act, it does not seem to be a reasonable impetus for leaving.

If you want to judge the faith, look at the people who take the medicine, not the ones who scorn it.

Why not judge it by Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, Pope JPII, Pope Francis?

 

[PJM]

=MHT32;10740389]Some people leave for legitimate reasons (think they found truth in another faith, etc.) some leave over the most pointless things. I know people who have left because of an organ playing in the hymns, because they didnt like Pope Benedict or Pope Francis, because they didnt like certain people at their parish, etc. I guarantee most people leave for a really meaningless reason.

There simply is NO valid reason to leave the CC!

Doing so Is abandonment of God!

God is Singular

Therefore God’s Truth’s too have to be singular

And Christ Founded; guides and protects only One Church: today Catholic churches. Only the CC was granted :The VERY Key’s to Heaven.

 

[PJM]

=PRmerger;10743541]While it is understandable to be bemused by the faith when you see how Catholics act, it does not seem to be a reasonable impetus for leaving.

If you want to judge the faith, look at the people who take the medicine, not the ones who scorn it.

Why not judge it by Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, Pope JPII, Pope Francis?

EXCELLENT!

Well done:thumbsup:

 

[ConstantineTG]

While it is understandable to be bemused by the faith when you see how Catholics act, it does not seem to be a reasonable impetus for leaving.

If you want to judge the faith, look at the people who take the medicine, not the ones who scorn it.

Why not judge it by Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, Pope JPII, Pope Francis?

That is the ideal, but the fact is we need that person we directly interact with to show us. There is value in discipleship, that is why Christ himself lived among men. God could have said, “look at me, I’m good and holy. Now do it.” But he has to come down and show us. After he showed the Apostles, the Apostles did it for others, and those others to other, and so on. It is a huge different reading about someone from a book, and actually knowing someone who lives the faith. That played a huge role in my conversion.

Besides, if we get into the discussion of leaving the Catholic Church for the Orthodox Church, who are we to say that Mother Teresa is more holy than St. John Maximovitch? Or if St. Maximilan Kolbe is holier than any of the Russian martyrs who died in the Soviet gulags? Unless we’re saying that our Church has a monopoly on holiness.

I wouldn’t doubt that there are holy people outside of Apostolic Churches. I have a cousin who is Evangelical and left a comfortable life here in North America to run an orphanage in a third world country. I don’t want to be a judge of someone’s holiness, but from what I can see that is better than what I see from most Catholics and Orthodox I know.

 

[PRmerger]

That is the ideal, but the fact is we need that person we directly interact with to show us. There is value in discipleship, that is why Christ himself lived among men. God could have said, “look at me, I’m good and holy. Now do it.” But he has to come down and show us. After he showed the Apostles, the Apostles did it for others, and those others to other, and so on. It is a huge different reading about someone from a book, and actually knowing someone who lives the faith. That played a huge role in my conversion.

That is a model for attracting people to the Faith, but not the only model.

Some have studied their way into the CC. Despite what they saw in the pews and in the church parking lots, they knew that the CC was the Church established by Christ and thus followed Truth.

I suggest that even if one sees poor discipleship in the pews and parking lots, one should study the Faith and conform to that. Not to those in the pews and parking lots.