June 30, 2008
Being Catholic around other Catholics
I love the Church. I'm faithful to the Magisterium. So I admit I'm completely perplexed and bewildered by people who reject the Church's authority and basically everything that makes Catholics Catholic but want to stay...Catholic. As a convert, I have no familial or cultural connection to Catholicism, so my brain just doesn't compute this stance because it's so terribly inconsistent from a purely logical viewpoint. It's always difficult for me to engage in discussion with such people because I just don't get it, and I find it hard to temper my desire to defend the Church with some semblance of charity and understanding. I think my complete inability to understand them, combined with my general dry and sarcastic personality, causes me to come off as self-righteous and accusatory. I'm working on that.
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3 comments:
When you've worked out a way to talk to them will you tell me your secret?
I know that there are different "shades" of Catholicism, to obey and honour God and His Church, but some "Catholics" who seem to actually be secular or buddhist blow my mind.
Someone on a secular message board I posted on likened Catholicism to Judaism, but I disagree with that. Catholicism is first and foremost a communion. Of course someone who's been baptized into the Church is technically always Catholic, but it isn't a nationality or ethnicity. Being Catholic and atheist isn't the same as being Jewish and atheist!
It's just frustrating to deal with, because I feel like I shouldn't haven to defend the Church against other Catholics. I understand struggling, I do, but the open defiance and the snarky and hatred towards those who are faithful to the Magisterium is just frustrating.
Anyway, if I ever figure it out, I'll let you know!
I understand you're frustration. And I can see where you might not get the familiar and social connections that a cradle Catholic has. When my husband and I got married, I agreed to try to find a compromise church for us to attend but that I would always consider myself Catholic in my heart. Keep in mind I wasn't very well catechized or devout in my beliefs.
The Catholic Church just feels so unique compared to other Christian denominations. Maybe that is why is is attacked the most. It's just a different mindset. The only close thing is Eastern Orthodoxy.
That being said. I have a friend who converted to Catholicism about six years ago, but he is currently non-practicing. I don't know what his particular issues are, but one thing he did say was that even if he didn't completely agree with everything the Church teaches he thinks it has more validity than any Protestant denomination. I think his exact quote was, "If I'm going to associate myself with rubbish, I'm at least going to associate myself with the most logical rubbish."
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