You should be one, then, to come to my neighborhood and evangelize. Come to my family and evangelize. I mean evangelize the professing Catholics.
My own Catholic aunts and uncles were never interested in the well-being of my soul. My own Catholic dad, raised under French Catholic nuns in Ottawa, Ontario, never spoke the truth to me about eternal life or about the safety of my eternal soul. . . . until he was born-again at the age of 45 in 1974, and the next morning called me to testify of the grace of God.
My Catholic neighbors in the San Francisco Bay Area never “witnessed” to me when I was growing up. Where I have lived over the years in Kansas City, Jacksonville, FL., Dallas/Ft. Worth, Miami, Louisville, Winston-Salem, never “witnessed” to me-—not one time.
They were Presbyterians, Wesleyans and Four Square Holiness, and Baptists, mostly, who ever deliberately spoke to me about eternity and the things that matter. Then there was the odd J.W. and Seventh Day Adventist that came around. But never once did a Catholic ever try to speak to me or put a piece of Gospel literature in my hand.
And once, when I was distributing Gospel literature in the Philippines (never forcing, only offering, never coercing), it was a Catholic priest who grabbed a stack of tracts from my hands and threw them on the ground. He didn’t try to offer me anything he thought might be more enlightening.
My Catholic family and neighbors could never be distinguished from any heathen in the same general locality, and I have no reason to think their priest(s) are attempting to do anything to help them away from the world. They are simply part of the beer and bar-b-que set around town.
So, I would recommend that Catholics who have been so encouraged as you concerning the faith become missionaries to such neighborhoods as mine, and you could begin with the Catholic populace and their priests.
The neighborhood is also inhabited by members of almost every church who are exactly the same way, who couldn’t tell a soul how to take one step toward a Holy God.
But I must repeat that there are members of the other churches actively involved in evangelism, along with their pastors, and we see them often attempting to fill a void, that, I should say, if not filled by Christians, will be filled by Muslims before very long.
For 10 years I did such work in my parish. Going in pairs we knocked on every door within our parish boundaries. At every door we asked if there were any baptized Catholics at that residence. If the answer was yes, we asked to talk with them about their present situation in practicing their faith. We had a lot of success in talking with those who for some reason or other had become lax or “fallen away”. The results were excellent and helped our pastor to get a realistic concept of the status of Catholics in his parish boundaries.
BTW, if others answered our inquiry saying they were not Catholic but belonged to a Protestant church, we always treated them with respect and didn’t try to “evangelize” them away from their choice of faith practice. If the answer ws “unchurched” we always asked if we could answer any questions they may have ever had about Catholicism and didn’t know who to ask.
Our overall experience in that ten years was very positive, in one way or another.
I’m sorry that your experience with Catholics was as you describe.
In like manner, my (not-church-going) Protestant parents also didn’t speak to me about God as I was growing up.
As is true in my family as well. A recent discussion with a Catholic family member went like this.. A JW came to my door,I usually take time to respond biblically but I was busy so the family member answered the door... They threatened to put my dog on them and slammed the door in her face.
I said i was so sorry to miss the opportunity to share Christ with them..the comment I got back was .".they have a free will if they want to leave they will."
There was absolutely zip concern for that womans eternity...
This is someone that attends week day mass often, is active in the church and and is a "eucharist minister"