yahsure--Re: Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church

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#91   Feb 9, '13, 12:48 pm

CopticChristian Regular Member   Join Date: July 26, 2011 Posts: 7,571 Religion: Catholic

Re: Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church Quote: Originally Posted by yahsure Ex-catholics 4 Christ As I journey through my seventh decade, I can and do give thanks to God for the double blessings of health and spiritual wealth, that He has graciously bestowed upon me. So I feel the task of a personal testimonial, must be brief. For fourteen years, I was the Co-ordinator for the Justice and Peace in the Deanery, Vice Chairman of the Deanery Pastoral Council, occasional speaker for the presentation of Papal Encyclicals, regular mass reader, was commissioned by the diocese to author a book about my church, a member of the liturgy committee and was also part of the "Churches Together," which involved ecumenism and inter-faith. Yet, today I am ashamed to think that in all of those years when I performed numerous charitable works, attended mass seven days a week, observed and promoted the teachings of the Catholic church, I never knew Jesus personally. Had I died, I would have perished forever. Only when I repented and trusted in Him alone as my Lord and Saviour, was I truly and eternally saved! How sad and tragic. Jesus just didn't enter into my limited equation. After all, the rich fabric of the church calendar sustained me, or so I thought. Jesus, the Saviour of the World, just didn't get a look in or a mention into my little isolated world. I had never really considered just who Jesus is or why He had to die for my sins. I was cocooned in a church that was very much a surrogate Christ. But only after you have decided to trust Jesus as your personal Saviour, are you starting out on that rewarding road to redemption. You must be born again, warned Jesus to Nicodemus, not once but three times; don't you think He is telling us something? I do! So accept His eternal gift, it's free and it might be the wisest thing you ever do! Refuse it, then you do so at your own peril! Yahsure, I agree. Every Catholic in the world, every Catholic on this forum, recite the following... Lord I am a sinner, Lord come into my heart, Lord be my personal Lord and Savior Ok, now lets get on with it, continue to know and Profess the Faith Live the Sacramental Life Model Christ Pray Continue to go to mass, read the bible, attend the Sacraments, know you are born again, pray the rosary, ask God for help and pray regularly....all is well... Now we can all be one...I am with you.... Last edited by CopticChristian; Feb 9, '13 at 1:00 pm.

#92   Feb 9, '13, 8:24 pm

just came back Junior Member   Join Date: July 18, 2010 Posts: 233 Religion: Catholic

Re: Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church Ahh...the heretical sinners prayer, something never mentioned in Sacred Scripture. If protestants were right, there wouldn't be the need for oh, I don't know, 38,000 different interpretations of scripture and you're talking to a man that left the one true church TWICE before FINALLY realizing Rome was home. You know when you're defending Catholicism in a Lutheran setting, it's time to get right again, but that's my walk. Protestanism is just too confusing. They say Scripture only, yet it was the Catholic Church that gave the scriptures to the world. So who is right? luther, zwigli, calvin, knox, wesley, ellen g. white, billy graham, etc.

#93   Yesterday, 8:56 am

JackieMom Junior Member   Join Date: October 15, 2012 Posts: 200 Religion: Catholic and working on it!

Re: Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church Short story - a lot of people just don't believe a religion should be so fraught with rules and laws. The priest sexual abuse scandal was huge in our area and is still in the papers every day (Los Angeles.) They just released the personnel files out here and the evidence of a massive coverup is damning and heartbreaking. It was not one or two priests or one or two mistakes - it was huge and systemic. A lot of people have a hard time separating their faith from the institution of the Church. Their trust has not been earned back, and they are ashamed to be seen walking into Mass. Even I have to admit that I have a hard time answering people that ask, "How can you be a part of that? They are obviously not Holy, but corrupt?!" I know men fail and God does not, and that our faith has nothing to do with the terrible choices of these abusive priests, but I still feel shame and like I am betraying the victims when I attend Mass. And I know many others who stimply couldn't stand the idea of a bunch of criminal sexual deviants preaching to them, so they left. Especially ones who had personally been subjected to an abusive priest or whose children had. In our area, that's a lot of us.

#94   Yesterday, 9:27 am

cmodrmac New Member   Join Date: November 27, 2008 Posts: 74 Religion: Independent Catholic

Re: Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church The reasons are many and appear in all the Threads -they are personal and some communal -in Europe one almost views it as they are "tired of Christianity" -being a faithful Roman Catholic is not easy- Those who leave are not all looking for lives of debauchery or disobediance-they are not bad people -they have disagreements that no one has answered satisfactorally in their opinion-or they are just tired of the rigors of being a faithful catholic- 1 out of 10 Americans is an ex Catholic-the Church would do well to retain those who still come-instead of intermittently encouraging them to leave which they do in my opinion

#95   Yesterday, 9:33 am

CopticChristian Regular Member   Join Date: July 26, 2011 Posts: 7,571 Religion: Catholic

Re: Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church Quote: Originally Posted by just came back Ahh...the heretical sinners prayer, something never mentioned in Sacred Scripture. If protestants were right, there wouldn't be the need for oh, I don't know, 38,000 different interpretations of scripture and you're talking to a man that left the one true church TWICE before FINALLY realizing Rome was home. You know when you're defending Catholicism in a Lutheran setting, it's time to get right again, but that's my walk. Protestanism is just too confusing. They say Scripture only, yet it was the Catholic Church that gave the scriptures to the world. So who is right? luther, zwigli, calvin, knox, wesley, ellen g. white, billy graham, etc. Just, Does this mean you won't join me in this.. Quote: I agree. Every Catholic in the world, every Catholic on this forum, recite the following... Lord I am a sinner, Lord come into my heart, Lord be my personal Lord and Savior Ok, now lets get on with it, continue to know and Profess the Faith Live the Sacramental Life Model Christ Pray Continue to go to mass, read the bible, attend the Sacraments, know you are born again, pray the rosary, ask God for help and pray regularly....all is well... Now we can all be one...I am with you....

#96   Yesterday, 9:52 am

Gwendolen Junior Member   Join Date: June 13, 2012 Posts: 111 Religion: beginning Catholic converstion

Re: Why do catholics leave the Catholic Church Well, I can tell you why we didn't make it through RICA, I came to the Catholic Church with a full time job, a full time family, and the time commitments of a practicing Christian. I could make time for RICA class, but on top of that, my kids would have had to go to their own classes, and we would have had to go to mass every week, without being allowed to take communion. This meant I was running between Anglican mass, where I could confess, and have communion, and the Catholic mass, where it felt like I was making an appearance. I genuinely could not fit it all in. I tried going without the Eucharist, and that was too hard. Reason two, lack of pastoral care. There are plenty of clergy in the Anglican Church. The Catholic Churches here are huge, and the priests are few and spread very very thin. Many many people in the congregation are not even served the Eucharist by a priest, but by a lay person. The Eucharist itself -- in the Anglican Church, we receive at the alter, on our knees, and again by the priest, with some type of clergy administering the precious blood. The Catholic churches seem to have this huge assembly line with lay people, and for reasons I cannot articulate, it makes me uncomfortable. Also, it is a very long established tradition for young children, and those not receiving to come forward for a blessing, which I pretty much grew up with. They do that now in the Catholic church as well, but there seems to be an odd resentment among some this has been added (the topic of which was a whole 'nother thread here, so no one need repeat the reasons why some feel strongly they don't want this "added", I already know) but the upshot is I would rather any children attending with me be blessed without an animosity towards the blessing. Also, it is awkward and doesn't feel right for the blessing to be administered by a lay person, which is usually the line we end up in. My children: The services (Anglican and Catholic) are actually so similar, so I don't know why they were so uncomfortable, but they were. They had been raised with explanations of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but for some reason the very literal explanation of wine becoming blood from the Catholic Church was disturbing to my son in particular, who didn't want to even approach the alter. I can't completely explain this to you all, it seems like hair splitting to me, but for them one explanation meant "the bread and wine become Christ, you take this in, and He lives in you" and the other made them feel like some sort of cannibal vampire. So we have left the Episcopal Church, and couldn't quite make it to Catholic. We are trying to figure out between a low Anglican church, and a couple of Anglo-Catholic churches. The former makes us feel far more welcome, the latter lines up more with my theology.