Posted on 10/08/2014 11:39:09 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
Why would intelligent, successful people give up their careers, alienate their friends, and cause havoc in their families...to become Catholic? Indeed, why would anyone become Catholic?
As an evangelist and author who recently threw my own life into some turmoil by deciding to enter the Catholic Church, I've faced this question a lot lately. That is one reason I decided to make this documentary; it's part of my attempt to try to explain to those closest to me why I would do such a crazy thing.
Convinced isn't just about me, though. The film is built around interviews with some of the most articulate and compelling Catholic converts in our culture today, including Scott Hahn, Francis Beckwith, Taylor Marshall, Holly Ordway, Abby Johnson, Jeff Cavins, Devin Rose, Matthew Leonard, Mark Regnerus, Jason Stellman, John Bergsma, Christian Smith, Kevin Vost, David Currie, Richard Cole, and Kenneth Howell. It also contains special appearances by experts in the field of conversion such as Patrick Madrid and Donald Asci.
Ultimately, this is a story about finding truth, beauty, and fulfillment in an unexpected place, and then sacrificing to grab on to it. I think it will entertain and inspire you, and perhaps even give you a fresh perspective on an old faith.
(Excerpt) Read more at indiegogo.com ...
You are wrong.
Now if you define the word church to mean those who follow Christ then I agree. But it doesn't mean the catholic church as it is presently constituted.
OTOH-
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Top Five Reasons You Should Leave The Catholic Church
by Ben Kritikos
Many people don’t realise that when the Vatican boasts of its one billion believers, many non-believers are included in that figure by virtue of their baptism. I reckon a good chunk of that billion don’t believe in religion at all; they may even be atheists. Nonetheless, a decision made for them before their birth will continue to empower what is decidedly a nasty, parasitic institution.
It’s unfortunate, but true: unless you actively leave the Catholic Church by issuing the diocese where you were baptised and confirmed with an Actus Formalis Defectionis ab Ecclesia Catholica, you will still be counted among its members. I’m guessing you haven’t done that.
Here’s the good news: an Actus Formalis Defectionis ab Ecclesia Catholica is nothing more than a formal act of defection from the Catholic Church. You can basically write one yourself, or use the help of this website if you live in Ireland, and this one if you live anywhere else. It takes a whole ten minutes to write the Actus, find your diocese’s address, and be done with it. These are my top five reasons you should actively do so.
Paedophilia
Reading the Wikipedia page about the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse of children, I came across this line that Catholic supporters use in defense: [...] only 4% of Catholic priests have had a sexual experience with a minor, half the rate for the adult male population.
Only 4%! That’s rich. I suppose it’s all a bit overblown then, eh? I mean, Catholics priests are still at least twice as good as the average man when it comes to raping children.
Priests are people, too. Normal people know this. It’s the Pope and the College of Bishops that can’t seem to get that fact into their heads. Normal people have minds composed of a delicate mental balance, complete with hopes, fears, dreams and desires. If you go messing with them, ignoring some and sublimating others, you get unbalanced individuals. Unbalanced individuals usually have a hard time adapting to social norms; they can be known to do unhealthy, even horrible things to others — like raping children, for example.
The Catholic Church as an institution has repeatedly attempted to deflect blame, cover up revelations, intimidate and discredit detractors, and otherwise abdicate responsibility for their actions.
Misogyny
Women are ineligible to become priests — but let’s not hold that against the Catholic Church, because they’re only doing half the population a favour. That said, Catholic belief basically blames Woman for the sins of humankind.
The Catholic Church has played a vital role in the oppression and manipulation of women throughout the years. Some countries have had little or no choice but to send their children to Catholic schools, where children’s sex education was distorted and sick at worst, and non-existent at best. Teenage girls who have become pregnant, even those who were raped, were treated as vile or corrupted by their Catholic “shepherds”. I have friends who were raped, and were told by representatives of the Catholic Church that they brought it on themselves.
In Ireland, the government’s Ryan Report (2000) discovered Catholic-run institutions imprisoning girls and women against their will — sometimes for their whole lives — in places such as the Magdalene Asylums for “fallen women”. The last “Magdalene Laundry”, in Dublin, closed in 1996.
Catholicism’s unhealthy obsession with sex contributes to women’s sexual vulnerability to this day, as Pope Benedict XVI — like his cross-dressing loony brethren before him — bemoans the use of contraception.
Politics
The Catholic Church’s defining political character is that of burning people at the stake. Any other political entity with such a past is issued quickly to the dustbin of history, where it belongs. Nietzsche warned of the Catholic Church that it is not their love for us that prevents them from burning us alive to save our souls, but the impotence of their love.
The Catholic Church is a significant lobby group in most developed countries. If they could, they would deprive women the right to choose to have safe, legal abortions (if they haven’t already); they would prevent the already limited sex education provided in public schools; and they would reduce the role of teachers, carers and other public servants based on their sexual orientation.
While Nazi Germany systematically slaughtered six million Jews (as well as millions of others) the Catholic Church said nothing. In Rwanda, which is primarily Catholic, the Church helped foment one of the worst genocides in recent history. Right now, in 2010, instead of offering unequivocal cooperation and transparency to those who seek to address the international scandal of the Church’s abuse of children — which has already completely humiliated and discredited the Catholic Church — Pope Benedict XVI has the audacity to appear in public aloof and defiant. His Holiness has recently gone so far as to dismiss the whole child abuse scandal as “petty gossip”.
That such an institution, with such leadership, is still considered a viable, legitimate lobby group whom anyone would lend an ear to is unconscionable.
Homosexuality
In response to the number of priests raping children, and the fact that most cases of abuse were priests raping adolescent boys, the Church prohibits the ordination of men with “homosexual tendencies”. I’m not quite sure what, besides homosexuality, constitutes “homosexual tendencies”; but I’m hardly surprised that the Catholic Church can’t tell the difference between a gay man and a paedophile. After all, homosexuality is an abomination according to Catholic dogma.
While priests who rape children still have a chance at salvation by repenting before death, a homosexual — inasmuch as the person is homosexual, a fact of one’s being that one cannot simply alter — is basically doomed to eternal hell-fire. Fancy that.
The appropriate method for dealing with “homosexual tendencies” is presumably to understand that it is a sin, suppress it, and pray to God to help you “get better”. I beseech my readers to help me understand how a person’s sexuality can lead them to damnation, but being a really bad person who before they die admit that they were bad gets you straight into Heaven.
The Developing World
Not only does the Catholic Church refuse to endorse safe sex in sub-Saharan Africa — home to almost 70% of the world’s population living with AIDS –they even go so far as to claim that condoms don’t work to protect you from HIV!
The general scientific consensus on the matter is that condoms are the only real useful preventative measure against the AIDS pandemic.
No-one is arguing against the Catholic Church’s claim that abstinence is effective; of course it is. However, promoting abstinence at the exclusion of any further sex education is not an effective method to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS — safe-sex education and increased access to prophylactics is.
The Catholic Church’s ideological obtuseness , and its stubborn refusal to simply keep its mouth shut in order to potentially save millions of lives is nothing short of shameful, ludicrous and criminal.
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http://heronstheband.com/2010/04/12/this-week-top-five-reasons-you-should-leave-the-catholic-church/
**Or as Hillary asked, “what does it matter?!”**
I guess eternal life in heaven is not on her horizon or even in her thoughts.
I have read your catechism.
Doesn’t help.
Who is your faith in? Jesus or someone/thing? The answer determines who you follow.
Other Catholic posters seem to think it’s so they can gamble.
“To have my sins forgiven.” ~ G.K. Chesterton
Catholics trust in Jesus, who gave us the Catholic Church, guided by the Holy Spirit in all truth.
BINGO!
“Why do hundreds of millions of Catholics abandon their faith and no longer practice it”
The Catholic Church is bigger now than it’s ever been. You must stay off the Huffington Post.
Oh, you mean the SSPX, sede vacantist and “RadTrad” crowd that’s ever so much more Catholic than the Pope?
...Bishop Fellay is not sedevancantist, nor is 90% of those you flippantly call ‘rad trads’...
...the true number of people who deny the legitimacy of the papacy since VatII is quite miniscule...
...which is something you woud know if you did proper study of the subject...
Alex which post #s to the links you provided can I find those definitions?
I only have the commentary here on FR as a guide, so I suppose the sample is skewed, then. I've seen Pope Francis called demonic by FReepers before. Vatican II is routinely decried on an ongoing basis, as is Pope Francis.
So, pardon this outsider for not being too overly impressed by claims of unity. Those making the claim here are verging upon schism themselves.
“Why do hundreds of millions of Catholics abandon their faith and no longer practice it””
“The Catholic Church is bigger now than it’s ever been. You must stay off the Huffington Post.”
.............
As long as you count the hundreds of millions who don’t practice, you are correct.
Try reading the Catechism.Start with whatever teaching strikes you as the strangest. You might be surprised at what you find.
...when talking to some, it is sometimes better to save your breath...
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Top Five Reasons You Should Leave The Catholic Church
That's what some people would call an interesting piece. What do you think of it?
Answer: Lack of spiritual discernment
...I see...you are somehow magically aware of everybody else’s levels of theological devotion...care to share that little trick with the rest of us...?
In both cases, you’ll find the definitions reproduced in post #1 of the thread.
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