Poor teaching for children is the problem for the Catholic Church today. They grow up with a second grade understanding of their faith so it’s easy to pull them away from the faith... they don’t understand it! Megachurches prey on the easy pickings of ignorant Catholics and use their weak faith formation against them. Informed, well taught Catholics are impossible to mislead.
I’ve had a cradle Catholic who’s fallen away tell me “Catholics don’t read the Bible.” This was someone who heard the Bible read every Sunday at Mass and attended Catholic school where there were religion classes. How can such a disconnect be possible?
Catholics don’t “spout” the Bible, but we know the Bible. I think the problem is we now spend a lot of time telling the children Jesus loves them, but very little telling them who Catholics are and what we accomplish in this world. We downplay our unique strengths in the name of ecumenism.
It’s a shame because I can’t imagine leaving the Eucharist for any reason whatsoever and I love being Catholic, despite the fashionable Catholic bashing that goes on these days. My heart is wrung when I hear a non-practicing Catholic has thrown away the “pearl of great price.”
I have heard the same tired excuse, too. Perhaps, because the priest "reads" from the Book rather than waving it in the air. they don't recognize it as being scripture. I have also met several catholics who don't have a Bible. To wake up the congregation in my parish, I have been running a weekly series on the Bible (I am the editor of the bulletin). The series began with the history of the Bible and progressed through how the Canon was compiled, how Bibles were hand written, the invention of the printing press, etc. Last week, I introduced them to the Synoptic Gospels, beginning with the first Evangelist, Matthew. It's disheartening when there is no feedback but I am not abandoning this project.
It’s a shame because I can’t imagine leaving the Eucharist for any reason whatsoever and I love being Catholic.
The only explanation here is that those who left did not understand this. Who would walk away from the Presence of Christ?
It's the same everywhere.
Do you REALLY think any of us PROTESTants learned all this stuff in CHURCH?!
We learned it on our OWN (with a little help from a Counselor)
It's not a disconnect. I never knew any Catholics who read the Bible until they were saved.
And there's a difference between hearing snippets of Scripture read once a week in church and sitting down and READING it, studying it, taking notes on it, memorizing it, and meditating on it.