is there Catholic converts here?

Question

i don't belong in any religion actually, but i am very fascinated with Catholicism, but i've been told that the Catholic Church is a Church that go against the Bible. my question is, what made you convert to Catholicism despite of what other people say?

sorry if i keep on asking, but as i've said, i'm very fascinated with Catholicism that's why i would like to know. thank you.

sorry, let me rephrase the title: ARE there Catholic converts here?

what i meant to say is CATHOLIC-CONVERTS

people who converted to Catholicism, not the other way around. sorry if i confused you.

jennifer, thank you so much for the links! :)

Answer 1

I have been fascinated by the Church for several years. I have read the bible (the whole thing actually), gone to several types of Christian churches, and done a lot of research. I even found a time-line that shows when the Church was founded and when all other denominations branched off of it. Really interesting. Have you checked out any of these websites?

www.catholic.org
www.catholic.net

I am not going to bash any other branch of the faith. They all read (or should read) the bible and hold (or should hold) to its teachings. I believe that they all lead to the same end eventually (as long as one has faith in God and Jesus).

Anyway, I know that there is a lot of heat from other Christians and non-Christians about the Catholic Church. They don't like the "rules" or traditions, or sacraments, or teachings, or other things about it. In my opinion though, it doesn't matter what anyone else says. The only thing that matters is what is in my heart. God has led me on the path that I am on. I believe that one cannot "accept Jesus into their heart" without acting like a Christian, following God's commandments, trying to better themselves, and trying to better the world.

Currently I am in RCIA to enter the Catholic Church at the Easter celebration in 2007.

I hope you find your path.

God Bless
=)

Answer 2

I am a convert to Catholicism. Until my early 20s, I was a generic cultural Protestant, kind of the default religion in the United States. It was just a given that Catholicism was wrong. The more I read the Bible, studied history, and thought about Christianity, however, the less non-Catholic Christianity made sense. I eventually came to the conclusion that if Christianity was real, Catholicism was the One True Faith. Since it was a given that Catholicism was wrong, I rejected Christianity all together and became a Deist (I believed in God, but not in revelation).

About eight years later, I began seriously studying Catholicism for the sole purpose of proving to a Catholic acquaintance that it was false. Much to my horror, however, I was becoming convinced that it was true! I wasn't looking to become Catholic, I didn't want to become Catholic, I prayed to God to please let me be Episcopalian or something, anything but Catholic, so I studied non-Catholic Christianity as well, just to be sure, but it still didn't make sense.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said, "There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church." Virtually all the awful things I had believed about the Church were lies, and the few things that weren't turned out to have good explanations, so, after studying Catholicism day and night for over two years, I was received into the Church. That was almost eight years ago, and I've never regretted it.

One warning: there are many bad people inside the Catholic Church, and I'm not just talking about priests who molest children. I was shocked to find out how many people are trying to destroy the Church from within. Jesus told us the Enemy would sow weeds among the wheat, and that the wheat and the weeds would grow together until the harvest (Matthew 13:24-30). Don't let the weeds discourage you and drive you from God's field.

Please feel free to ask more questions if you wish.

Answer 3

Pastor Billy says: Jennifer, Meg and OPM ya'll brought a tear to my eye I think you've explained it best as a life long Catholic I haven't anything to add except one small observation, the question was made toward those who converted to the faith not those who have fallen away and yet the quickest ones to answer are fallen away Catholics now why is that? Isn't that interesting it's as if they've been transformed into mad dogs foaming at the mouth. Sadly I've noticed Catholics who never really knew the faith are easily lead away from it and also become the worst anti-catholics we must pray for them always

addition: Jo posted this nice little anti-catholic website which at the bottom of the page quotes Eph 2:8-9. I always wonder why they neglect to include Eph2:10 go read it and find out.
Contrary to this website there is no doctrine of works in Catholicism I challenge Jo to present it from the Catechism. The Council of Trent clearly defined any idea of salvation outside of God's grace as heresy. Please go to the vatican website and look up the Joint declaration on justification signed by the Catholic Church and the main Lutheran body. I also understand the United Methodists have just signed up also!
I really which those who think they know the truth about Catholic would actual spend some time studing the real thing.

Answer 4

Although I am a lifelong Catholic I know a lot of people who have joined the Catholic Church. I have been privileged to walk with some of them on their faith journey.

The Catholic Church does not go against the Bible but she does interpret some of the Bible differently from non-Catholic Christians.

If you are interested in joining or just learning more about the Catholic Church, contact your local parish and ask about information about their RCIA Inquiry group.

You can go and ask any questions you want.

This is the first step in RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) but you can stop at any time.

There is no obligation to become a Catholic.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

I'm a convert...and no, Catholics don't go against the Bible. In fact, Cardinals from the first Canon made the Bible that non-Catholics use...The Catholic Bible has 7 more books to it which were added during the second Canon. ; )

What made me convert? The search for knowledge like you...I found more peace being a Catholic than a fundamentalist Christian. Search harder and you'll see why. ; )

Hope this helps

Answer 6

I am a convert. I was nothing in particular growing up, I met a fundamentalist minister and converted, but then realized there was no depth. Their beliefs were religiously hollow. So I started reading the reformers, in particular Luther, but I also read the subsequent history as well. Luther convinced me more than any other to be Catholic. I suspect Luther would have been thrilled to death to see what the Catholic Church has become and in fact, the Evangelical Lutheran Church is seeking formal reunion with Rome.

The Catholic Church is the ultimate in bible based Churches. The scripture infuses its services in ways it does not in any other. Many Protestant communities have started using stripped down versions of the Catholic mass, so much so that if you attend a Methodist service you are seeing a Catholic service without the congregational participation. A Catholic and a Protestant may live the Gospel, but a Catholic lives the Book of Revelations every Sunday and Holy Day by participating in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb through the thanksgiving sacrifice we call eucharist. Further, and as importantly, only Catholic theology is unchnaged since the first century. You can and should read the first, second and third century authors and see if you find a way to remain Protestant. Many of the authors were trained and ordained by specific apostles and comment on what particular passages mean. Not only do we have the bible, we have the services written and used by Peter, Mark and James and they are still in use and form the basis for all the variety of Catholic services in use today.

If you read the bible seriously, then you will likely end up Catholic unless you are simply ignorant of the actual teachings of the Catholic Church. Several noted Protestant scripture scholars recently converted to Catholicism after accidently coming across Catholic writings. They read them because they didn't realize they were Catholic. Once they started reading them, they picked up others and realized that what they are just beginning to learn about scriptural history and meanings are what Catholicism has been teaching for 2000 years. However, when Luther switched to scripture alone he destroyed the context of scripture and in doing so handicapped all Protestants who follow sola scriptura from actually understanding the writings as the authors meant it. Luther's problem and his solution, sola scriptura, was created by the fact that the early Christian writers would have clearly marked him as a heretic. The fact that the Catholic Church was wrong does not make Luther's solutions correct. It is important to remember that Luther excluded James, Jude and Revelations from the bible because they disagreed with his theology.

The word Catholic has two meanings. The first is "all embracing." It holds the meaning of Paul when he speaks of not dividing up by who you will follow he lists names of people that congregations claim to follow. The word denomination means to name --Lutheran, Calvinist etc. You must embrace all in love and are not permitted to start your own Church. The second meaning is "according to the whole." A Catholic belief is a belief held since the first century, handed on by the apostles, and held throughout the Church globally at all times. This is what Paul means by being of one mind. You are free to have your own private theology, but you may not command that others believe it, unless it is of apostolic origin and witnessed throughout the Church. So, Luther could have walked around with his beliefs and as long as he didn't require his beliefs to be the standard of salvation, or Calvin for that matter, they would have been close enough to orthodox to make no difference.

Protestantism is the first attempt by people to critically examine the apostolic message. The problem is each critical reviewer in Protestantism makes the mistake of believing their critical review is the correct one and then creates their own denomination. They remake Christianity in their own images and people who share those world views remark on how clear and right those views are. Those that don't tend to find other denominations with their world view. Catholicism and Orthdoxy are acritical of the apostolic teaching, accepting as is, warts and all. They may use logic to try and understand a teaching, but not to string teachings together to create a belief system.

For example, some women appealed to John Paul II to become ordained as priests. His response was that never have women been ordained to the presbyterate. From a linguistic perspective it would be strange too since presbyteroi literally means "old men." Since it was not done in the apostolic period and has never occured, it is outside his authority to make a change. Only an apostle could do something like that. He simply has no power to change such a thing because we cannot know why the apostles did not ordain women nor why Jesus chose only men to represent him as apostle. We can reason things out, which is what Protestantism does and so you get votes on gay marriage and which books to accept and so forth, but you cannot know why the apostles did what they did. Since reasoning is inherently faulty, reasoning is insufficient. As such, in the absence of a clear statement, it isn't subject to be "fixed." Further, the deaconess seen in scripture is actually clarified quite early in the Church and would probably have the modern equivalent of an abbess or mother superior. The problem is that deacon, deaconess, apostle, and presbyter are not titles in Greek. We see them as titles, but they are not in koine Greek. Catholics do not fix the errors of Jesus and the apostles, we just live with the mystery of why they made the specific choices they did.

Authority solely sits with Jesus and the revelation he provides as transmitted by the apostles.

Answer 7

I've always been Catholic.
I never knew Catholics were veiwed as evil until I met my husband, whose background is Mennonite/Lutheran. His aunts taught him that Catholics are evil. I was 25 and shocked to hear it. So I said to him: "So, I'm evil, eh? Wow, no one ever called me that before." It really boggled my mind. I had to embrace the evilness.
*I've never heard any Catholic sermon dissing any other religion or any off-shoot of the church.*

Answer 8

I understand your fascinated with Catholic Church. I would ask you to read this link and to also do more research regarding the teachings in the Catholic Churches.

http://www.carm.org/catholic/testimonies.htm

Answer 9

Yes, I'm one. I was a catholic for 28yrs, and got gloriously saved after hearing the TRUE Gospel preached for the first time in my life.

(I should say I went to church my whole life but never once did I hear the simple plan of salvation in the RC church)!

Answer 10

I was raised in the cath. church, I left; it`s like going backwards to go there it`s old doctrine from the old roman empire dear.