While undeniable that many Catholics have left the Church for Protestant churches, it does not follow that these churches were actively engaged in "stealing sheep" from the Church. Many of the new adherents to these growing Protestant denominations came from "liberal" and mainline Protestant denominations that were denying fundamental Christian dogmas and moral teachings.
I have been associated with a good number of Protestant churches and ministries, and have never seen any formal attempt to "convert" Catholics.
Truth be told, most of these new "converts" are attracted to growing Protestant churches because they sense a more lively and active expression of the Christian faith. This may be an inadequate reason to leave the Church, and may - as you suggest - be largely for "emotional" reasons, but there is no evidence I know of that those churches actively attempted to "recruit" Catholics or preached against Catholicism from the pulpit.
The daily anti-Mormon diatribes on FR are another good example. Mormonism has some really kooky doctrines, but the Mormon Church has been a fighter for family values for all Americans against gay rights, abortion, etc.
This last statement I found positively astounding. You call Protestants "apostates" without batting an eyelid, and in the next breath defend Mormons, whose religious tenets are "apostate" and "heretical" in the extreme?
You call Protestants “apostates” without batting an eyelid, and in the next breath defend Mormons, whose religious tenets are “apostate” and “heretical” in the extreme?
>>I call Catholics who leave for Protestantism apostates. Those like my family members who were born into Protestantism are as Pope Pius IX said, “Invincibly ignorant” and are not culpable for their schism with the Catholic Church.
Catholics who become Protestants, however, are culpable for their schism and heresy.
I have been associated with a good number of Protestant churches and ministries, and have never seen any formal attempt to “convert” Catholics.
>>Perhaps, yours hasn’t, but there are quite a few that do.
Clearly your experiences are the exception, not the norm.
I have, many times, had Protestant “friends” actively try to convert me. Many times. And some Catholic friends of mine have likewise experiences. One friend, a Catholic female, went to her boyfriend’s Protestant church (why on earth she did this I don’t know) only to find it was a set-up. After everyone was seated, they all surrounded her, basically cornering her, and hammered the Catholic Church with lies & outright distiruons. Thank God she left & never looked back.
I could go on with many examples from my own life & the lives of friends. I’m not sure where you’re coming from, but your experiences are unique.