Catholic!.... why are you catholics?....in the face of so much opposition....?

Question

youve heard it all...from non-christians and christians alike.....why do you personally choose to remain a catholic?

to answer my own question....christianity is the only option for me as i do without doubt believe in a one God. was raised a catholic by a father who converted to catholicism as an adult. He was staunchly catholic with evangelical tendencies....if he hadnt converted to catholicism i would most likely have been the daughter of a pastor....I taught me to believe in a LIVING, LOVING and MOST MERCIFUL GOD....taught me to believe that God is REAL. and he was fanatic in his defence of the Catholic Church. i was blessed to have him for a father although for half of my lifetime i couldnt understand his "fanaticism". he would threaten to disown any of his children if they ever turned away from the Church...i believed him so i wud test his patience by attending other christian churches looking for the reverse side of the story so to speak....i did this for many years....

this only strengthened my faith in the Catholic Churches teachings. i have never heard a priest utter a word against another religion during a mass...yet time and again in other christian churches i attended the sermon all too often anti-catholic so i researched as to what my church actually taught and i realised my dad was telling me they truth all along....that is why im catholic today...it defines my christianity. would love to hear your story

oh william! my intention was not to offend...this question is intended for catholics....i believe in the same God you do...there is only One

thanx so much for sharing everyone...thats great. God bless

lilybrie.....no offence intended...this was my experience of the many different churches i attended with other christian friends,...the message i heard preached time and again went against what i believed as a catholic...

if i didnt have the teaching of my father (family prayers every night followed by "lectures" on the faith) i could very well have fallen away from my faith.

God bless

Answer 1

Inspite of all opposition I feel privliged and honored to be on the receiving end of much indifference,persecution and I dare say hatred for the Catholic Church and it's fold.Nothing has changed after a bi-millenia of attacks.
I am very proud of the conduct of many catholics here on R&S,to further confirm the graces bestowed upon her children for fidelity in the heart of tribulations.The virtues and graces are dispensed amongst her children through the sacraments,which is so evident in their conduct, and courtesy of others and never attack but defend what is theirs for it is just.
I have a devotion to the immaculate heart & the rosary
which has granted me the coversions of my :
wife (islam)
brother-in-law (islam) a deathbed baptism but lived after given the last rites.
sister-in-law (atheist)
close friends (1 x agnostic/jew,1 x methodist , 1 x clairvoyant, 2 x atheists) and three of my best friends have now taken vows for the monastic life(traditional rite) and one is set to be a priest(traditional rite).
All these events unfolded in the span of five years of my return to the caholic church.I never had a devotion to the BVM but was recommended by a swiss-german priest so I obliged.

These converts I have just mentioned exceed my feeble efforts in service of God to which I am still ungreatful and show great ingratitude for my lukewarmness.

If there are those that despise the Church,I can only suggest that they spare one moment whether now or before their end to contemplate just for a fleeting moment could it be true...
this is what brought me back just a simple respond to grace that God sends those who earnestly seek truth.
Your test of pride is either to act or not act on what is in your conscience ?

JMJ

Answer 2

I was a Protestant for 50 years and was against what I thought was the teaching of the Catholic church. I embarked on a journey to prove the Catholic Church wrong. Everywhere I turned I found that the Catholic Church is true to the teaching of Christ and historically is the Church that Christ founded.

Later I found that the church I had been a part of my whole life, 25 0f those years as a minister was sliding towards apostasy by considering ordaining homosexual clergy. Because of this I could no longer be a part of a church that had left its conservative and pious theological roots and had become worldly instead.

I came home to the Catholic Church because I realized that it is the ark where the faithful can find refuge from the world as the Church is the bulwark and ground of the truth.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 3

I was born and baptised a Catholic.

My parents and family stopped practicing the faith, but eventually returned. I made my first holy communion when I was 17, and was confirmed when I was 26. I had a strong faith in God, and a belief in the Holiness of the Catholic Church, but I was not truly on fire for the Lord until I lived a Cursillo Weekend. It was then that I was absolutely convinced that the Catholic Church was the Church founded by Jesus Christ. The weekend was so powerful and spirit-filled, that of the 30 men that attended, 4 went on to become Priests, and 5 are now permanent Deacons.

I will never leave the Catholic Church.

Answer 4

The Philippine Catholic Church and all professional-lifers in the market will have to placed their middle wherein their mouth is and the federal government will have to flip the tables on them in the event that they insist on blockading the passage of the invoice. They will have to be requested to undertake and maintain all deserted and homeless kids who're a natural a sight in our towns. The bishops and professional-existence advocates crow and crow approximately the sanctity of existence and all that, however what are they doing approximately the malnourished and emaciated kids within the slums? Many of them could, maybe, near their vehicle home windows, preserve their breath or flip their head away whilst passing via the slums, after which mouth approximately the sanctity of existence whilst eating on Angus steak and artichoke in five-superstar eating places. I project the bishops and those perfumed professional-lifers to stroll the speak. If you'll feed and safe haven the homeless youngsters, then allow us to fail to remember approximately loved ones making plans altogether. Otherwise, BACK OFF. As regards the chance of excomunication for legislators who will aid the invoice, is the Church so determined that it's resorting to blackmail? If I have been a congressman or senator, I would possibly not supply a rattling if I am excommunicated. The Catholic Church has no monopoly of faith; there are different religions which might be extra liberal and attuned to gift-day realities. The Catholic Church would as good excommunicate all folks who want the invoice. It would possibly turn out to be with just a handful of participants, which could be the first-class factor that might occur in our nation. That is finishing the Catholic Church's stranglehold on our political, fiscal and social existence.

Answer 5

Jesus promised, "I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). This means that his Church will never be destroyed and will never fall away from him. His Church will survive until his return.

Among the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots.) Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing.

Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20). For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28). Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it went all the way back to the time of the apostles.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp

Answer 6

I am a Catholic by choice because I love the beauty of the Mass and the closeness I feel to Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist. I haven't spoken with several members of my family in many years because they were opposed to my decision to join the Catholic Church. But I refuse to leave the Faith that has given me so much peace and joy, and I won't give in to what amounts to emotional blackmail on their part.

When members of your own family disown you because of your choice of religion, what're a few hassles from strangers? The bottom line is that I love my Church, and I love the feeling of being a part of something that stretches back through the centuries. Catholicism is a very beautiful and wonderful faith, and I am so glad to be a part of it!

Answer 7

I've never in all my years heard a protestant minister speak against Catholic churches. I usually attend Evangelical Covenant churches though, so I can't speak for all. Didn't the pope just a few months ago tell the world that the Catholic church is the only true church??

Answer 8

It is my dearest hope that if I am one day blessed by God with a wife and children, that I would be the kind of faithful, Catholic father that your father was. I take it he has passed away? If so, I am so sorry, and may he be in God’s infinite peace and glorious happiness.

I became Catholic when I was 30 years old. That was the time when I went through RICA and received the Sacrament of Confirmation. I learned the Faith for the first time in my life during those precious six months, and nothing has been the same since. I thank God everyday for His blessed Church.

Before that, I was being raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. My father grew up as one from infancy; my mother joined when she was 23 after leaving Catholicism. This is how they met (which I have no complaints about or I wouldn’t be here J).

They would live their life this way for the next 14 years until the JW’s began changing fundamental doctrines (the acceptance of organ transplants that was previously forbidden). It was this among other issues that led my father to resign from them. We fell back on my mother’s Catholic roots, and I was baptized when I was 14 or 15. Sadly, I never attended one catechism class, nor did my parents go through RCIA. As far as we knew, we’d been baptized, so now we’re Catholic and we’re going to church.

For a while things were new and exciting, but we had no idea of what the Mass really was, much less what was happening there (the Holy Eucharist). As far as I knew they gave out holy cookies every Sunday.

As expected, we eventually stopped going. It became an occasional thing, most times once a year - Christmas and Easter. We did spend time visiting other churches, mostly on the invitation of friends (most of them ex-Catholics). However, each time we did, they made my father feel like he was a Jehovah’s Witness all over again, which he vehemently hated.

I remember asking him once what made him decide to be Catholic. He told me how one day a friend invited him to Mass. He was instantly defensive and unwilling, but his friend assured him that he had nothing to worry about.

So he went, sat in the very last pew in the farthest corner of the church. It was quiet, people were kneeling in prayer, coming in a few at a time getting ready for the Mass. No one say hi or spoke to him, which he loved. He told me that he didn’t want to be bothered anymore. If he wanted to go to church he’d go, if he didn’t he wouldn’t.

The Mass started, he followed along as best he could but didn’t understand what it was about. When it ended, everyone left, and that was it. The one thing, though, that impressed him the most, that actually made him feel better, was an undeniable sense of peace that seemed to be everywhere in the church. For the first time he felt like he could relax and just be alone with God.

I think it was the start of his heart being healed, and eventually led to us getting baptized.

Well, from the year of my baptism to the point of RCIA, I grew up occasionally going to Mass but taking my “catechism” from my father whose only religious training had been from the JW’s, so you can imagine the conflicts and contradictions. When I finally grew up, I embarked on my own journey to “find religion”. I prayed, read the bible, researched the net, talked with friends, etc. Nothing came together. It always felt like no matter what I’d figured out or learned that there was always something else out there, some missing piece. Finally, one spring in 2004, we decided to go to the Easter Mass. I decided I’d ask the priest if there were classes for adults, since I wanted to know “what the Catholics” knew.

He was quite surprised that I’d never been confirmed, and introduced me to the RCIA director, who greeted me with a hug and a smile instead of a handshake.

When November came, I entered into a six month period of learning that felt like I’d been placed in a protective cocoon for just me and God. I’ll never forget it.

I converted when I learned of the Holy Eucharist. That sacrament is the most blessed, most precious thing to me. I can scarcely imagine myself not being able to receive it now.

Why do I remain Catholic through so much opposition? I guess the answer is pretty simple. I know how your father felt… reborn, alive, that’s what the Church did for me. The darkness of not knowing the faith on the Protestant side is not a pleasant place. The burden of trying to figure everything out for myself is much too heavy. Find Christ’s truth, finding His Church… sometimes there are no words.

The opposition is actually a hidden blessing. Notice how you never see Baptists assailing Lutherans, or Methodists taunting JW’s. It’s always Catholic catholic catholic. If they’re right and we’re wrong, then which one of them is right? If we’re right and they’re wrong (which we are), then it goes to prove that we actually have the truth, but it is rejected. For what reasons I don’t know, which tells me they need my prayers.

Well, hope this helps. God’s peace and blessing be with you. Take care, and write anytime.

Answer 9

I converted to Catholicism about 10 years ago. I only wish I had come into the Church sooner. Once I opened that door, I was amazed to find so much truth.

I thank God for bringing me into the fullness of his grace in the Eucharist and Catholicism.

Answer 10

Because I chose to. Seriously though, I'm raised in it and proud of. Proud of its teachings, customs, and traditions.
Besides leaving the catholic church 4 another faith or atheism just seems to be a trend. Nope I'm never leaving it. It existed before the other christian faiths, and before atheism became a trend. So I'm glad I was born into this and I'll stick with it.

I believe a truely faithful person should not feel the need to live his/her church.