“those who were baptized in the Catholic Church, but have left the Catholic Church are almost always the most rude and unpleasant”
Politely look at them and say you’ll pray for them. They are experiencing a common phenomenon. It’s called Catholic guilt. The last thing they want to see is a devout Catholic that loves their faith.
**Politely look at them and say you’ll pray for them. They are experiencing a common phenomenon. It’s called Catholic guilt. The last thing they want to see is a devout Catholic that loves their faith.**
So true.
Actually, we do say that... but often, if the conversation is going the right way, we tell them that we would be so happy to welcome them home.
“It’s called Catholic guilt.”
That brings to my memory of the time I was caring for my aging mother in my home and she was in home hospice. The visiting nurse could plainly see that she was in a Catholic home, so she made a few comments about leaving the Catholic Church because she was “tired of Catholic guilt”. (btw, that was pretty unprofessional of her)
After she had said this a couple of times, I told her:
“My mom is a Presbyterian, so I guess I can truthfully say that she has, for a long time, had Presbyterian Guilt; I went to a high school in an area where about 80% of the kids there were Jewish, and I saw that they talked about Jewish Guilt. So—there’s Presbyterian Guilt and Jewish Guilt and Catholic Guilt, when what we really are experiencing is the problem of humanity: Original Sin”
“Politely look at them and say you’ll pray for them. They are experiencing a common phenomenon. It’s called Catholic guilt. The last thing they want to see is a devout Catholic that loves their faith.”
I suggest you are misdiagnosing their malady.
In all likelihood, they were never spiritually born anew. Instead, they were confronted by a works-based hamster wheel. I do agree that there is mammoth guilt as the motivating force.
Coming back to the constant spin, without a personal saving faith in Christ, has no attraction.
Our FR folks say, "I pity you and am praying for you."