And then you will understand why people have left the Catholic Church in the first place. A friend and I were talking over the weekend about whether we know any practicing Catholics who are also really holy people. We couldn’t think of any off the top of our head. We could think of devout Jewish friends and Christian Evangelical friends who were good ambassadors to their faiths. But the devout Catholics we know tend to come off preachy and judgmental.
The priests are even worse. I never met one who I would feel comfortable going to if I was having a crisis. When I was growing up, the priests were not warm and cuddly figures. And you always felt judged and condemend around them. (And I am only 31 years old so this was the 1990s.). Even more recently, the local pastor at my Church couldn’t even bother to talk with my father when my grandmother died. He was too busy. My dad still goes to Mass regularly but my grandpa is currently on hospice and I doubt he would go to his local priest again. The same crabby priests are still there; the joke with my parents is that they haven’t gotten the memo from upper management yet.
If you want to see devout Catholics who are not preachy, I have found some at my local Catholic hospital. Not the doctors so much, because many are not Catholic, but the staff and volunteers often are very devout Catholics, and are very caring. They preach by doing mercy, not by judging or proselytizing.
Perhaps you expected compromise on dogmatic issues and a modernistic theology that assures you that no error or action is of consequence "as long as you are a good person". You should not expect Church teaching to conform to you, but rather you conform to Church teaching.
Peace be with you
Do you attend daily Mass. You will find the kind and caring Catholics there. I know over a 100.
They would all come and help me if I needed them and gave them a call.
My Catholic Church is my home away from home.
I am on the west coast and your name makes it sound like you are in Illinois. I would come and pray with your grandfather in an instant if I could.
Have you sat down with him and prayed a Rosary?
It’s on the Daily Readings thread EVERY day. Copy it off and follow it.
......And I am only 31 years old so this was the 1990s
Here is something from 1980 before you were born. It’s new to me, also, as I just received it today on a distribution list from a catholic classmate of mine from 1st grade through high school.
It’s short but maybe it will give your grandpa some laughs.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0AKvRvL5r3A?rel=0