Why should I return to the Church

[tygerlilly84]

With appreciation for this forum, I want to ask a question to which, to date, I have not found an answer.

I was raised Catholic. Shortly after my confirmation, I made the decision to leave the Church. One of my key reasons is the hypocrisy I saw on a daily basis from so-called fellow Catholics. Several girls I knew attended CYM summer camps only to return pregnant and still singin’ loud and proud in the folk choir come fall, pregnant to the nines. I was confused and pretty disgusted.

As an adult, I encounter women and men all the time who profess their strong Catholic faith, yet are having sex with their boyfriends/girlfriends a few hours after Mass and a nice Sunday brunch. One of my colleagues waited for her husband to go through the prolonged process of an annulment so they could be married in the Church, because their “Catholic faith was strong” yet they were cohabitating (and worried about being pregnant before their vows) throughout that whole process.

I am tired of hearing people talk about how important Catholicism is to them, yet they violate the basic tenets of the faith all the time. I understand forgiveness, but I don’t understand why people want to claim to be something that is counter to the way they live. I often want to ask people, “So, why be Catholic if don’t want to live as a Catholic?” but I stop short of actually doing it.

So, as someone struggling to find her right place within Christianity, but unwilling to re-enter a community with so much daily hypocrisy, what do you advise? And what do you think about folks who claim to be SO Catholic yet throw their lack of Catholic morals in folks’ faces? Shouldn’t they just move to a Protestant faith in which their behavior is tolerated?

Many thanks,

Just sign me, more Catholic than most Catholics I know…

 

[Jan_Wakelin]

Would you get out of the boat that Jesus was in because Judas was in the boat too? Of course not.
You should remain in the Church for one reason – because it is where you find the fullness of truth regarding the teaching of faith and morals.
Yes, there are saints and there are sinners. You have spent alot of energy focusing on the sinners. It would be better that you turn your attention to the saints that throughout the centuries this Church of ours has produced, defending the faith.
The Church’s doctrines regarding faith and morals are true. Not everyone lives them out, but they are true nonetheless.
We are a family of faith. Come home and help your brothers and sisters who have gone morally astray embrace the truth that their Church teaches. When someone in the family strays, we don’t leave the family and change our name. We defend our family’s honor and show by example the virtues that our family holds dear. We can only change it from within, by being a part of the Church. We may have to lay down our life for the Church, as Christ did. Yes, it is embarrassing when people call themselves Catholic and yet don’t live the faith. And it is frustrating when, time after time, we have to defend the Church’s teaching against Catholics who dispute her wisdom. But none of this is new. Again, I recommend to you the saints. Read about St. Catherine of Sienna, or St. Thomas More, or St. Therese of Lisieux or St. Maria Goretti or Blessed Gianna. They are your role models. It will be hard to delve into their lives and then feel more Catholic than they are!