Eight years ago now, I converted to Catholicism, because I found the Truth, and when you find that you don’t need to search any further for lesser truths. Today, I just want to dig deeper and deeper into that Truth – to learn the teachings of the Catholic Church, to read her writers both ancient and new, who each give a glimmer of light from that vast eternal radiance.
I was indeed Lazarus, dead and bound up in myself. The Lord told me to “Come forth. Unwrap him.” I was St. Paul persecuting the Church in my own petty ways every chance I could get, and the Lord knocked me down into the dust and then opened my eyes on Straight Street.
I was like Augustine, or St. Francis, or thousands upon thousands, millions of others, leading a life of sin until God’s grace turned my life around. I still fall on occasion, but now I have Someone who picks me up.
I was the blind man, the cripple, the woman caught in adultery, all who Jesus healed. I was the man who found the treasure hidden in the field – the priceless treasure of all the riches in the world, this other world. And now I just want to explore this rich treasure – the Church – every inch – its art, its cathedrals, its wealth of music through the years all radiating reverence and joy and hope. Its words, its miracles, its saints, its heroes, its stories.
So little time, so many years of Church history.
Why do I remain a Catholic after the scandals, after the messes that we sometimes make of it ever since Christ left us fallible humans to be the middle management of it in 33 AD?
It teaches us a way to live, to imitate Christ who showed us how to be human: to spread the Good News and to sacrifice for others that they might be saved.
Why do I remain a Catholic? Because that’s who I am, more than I’m an American, more than I’m a New Yorker, more than I’m even a man or a human. It’s not only who I am, it’s what I am.
And now I ask myself, how can I remain a Catholic after the Supreme Court has again implied that the Church is wrong after their recent redefinition of marriage?
Well, the Church has been called wrong, persecuted, slandered, called old fashioned and “not with the times”. A maker of impossible rules, gosh there’s only ten of them, since its very beginning. By empires, by kingdoms, by countries, all of which are now dust. And who is still standing after 2000 years?—Holy Mother Church. The oldest institution in the world, but it is far more than an institution, it is Christ’s presence here on earth.
#WhyRemainCatholic
54 thoughts on “Why Do You Remain Catholic?”
thank you
So glad I found this blog, thanks PineCone. It’s a little late to absorb the full goodness of this blog tonight, but I will do so in the next few days.
Ok, I hope this is ok. I brought up an off-topic question for another poster about Catholicism, and it is related to the theme here. To my friend Greg: How long have you been a Catholic? And why are you a Catholic?
PineCone – I was born into the care of two parents who were devoutly Roman Catholic – In my 27th year of life, I entered into a 3 year spiritual journey in which I immersed myself in all of the traditions of the Catholic faith. I always love sharing this journey with others who are interested.
You immersed yourself in all of the traditions of the Catholic faith, and yet every time you decide to write what you think that is, you show yourself to have learned just about nothing, and moreover you’ve gotten a whole lot wrong. Way to go.
Hope all is well – I responded to your questions – was wondering how you were doing.
Thanks for answering and sorry for the delay. I’ve been well! Just not online much…
Jamey, you are are wonderful writer. You managed to capture the mysticism and inner paradise which occurs whenever I allow myself to get lost in the Holy Spirit.( I need to work on that “allowing myself” stuff much more—too easy to be distracted by the world!) The overwhelming power of Jesus Christ through the immeasurable love of our Father—-wow! That’s what keeps me coming back for more!
Thank you for a great read!
Very kind of you, Cynthia. Isn’t it just jaw dropping how our good Lord lights up something in us that we didn’t even know we had? I don’t know how I lived without Him. I was like the walking dead. I don’t know how people make it without Him. We’ve got to tell them about this incalculable joy that we have found.
The only reason I remain Catholic is to uphold spiritual unity in my family. It’s not wise to introduce any sort of disharmony in a marriage. Otherwise, I’d be Orthodox in a heartbeat.
Ben, we’re certainly glad that you and your family are here. We hope that one day the 2 churches will be one. Pope Francis has met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew a number of times and the signs are encouraging. You are doing the noble manly thing and upholding spiritual unity in your family. Thank you.
Ben, may I ask why you would prefer the Orthodox?
Tired of the liturgical and spiritual anarchy that flourishes in the modern Catholic Church. I want to be part of a church that adheres to the faith once delivered unto the saints, not a Church that attempts to constantly update to stay current with the ever-changing times.
Yet the Orthodox Church allows contraception and remarriage after divorce without an annulment (unlike the Catholic Church). Seems to me that equates to constantly updating to stay current with the ever-changing times, does it not?
What is the “liturgical and spiritual anarchy” you are tired of?
Ben, the Catholic Church ‘doesn’t move with the times, it moves the times.” For example, the number of Bishops who spoke or wrote strong disagreements with the Supreme Courts’ ruling on same-sex “marriage.”
The doctrine is the same as it has been from the beginning.
Some might gloss over parts of it, but practicing Catholics follow it.
I don’t know exactly what you mean when you say “Orthodox.” Is it Eastern-Rite Catholic or Greek Orthodox, or something else?
The Catholic Mass is essentially the same as it has been down through the ages to the first centuries. Some customs have changed such as speaking in the vernacular, or more contemporary music.
If you are attending a Novus Ordo Mass (New Order of the Mass), you might try a Traditional Latin Mass in your area. This is the older form of the mass: all, or mostly in Latin and the music is often chant.
Since VaticanII I have asked myself this question many times. Never left the church through all its scandals because I LOVE the Catholic teachings. Failed many times along the way. Confession … a GREAT cleansing of my soul ( many times ). I’m getting to the point now … why support my ‘PARISH’ with money if liberalism (climate change and social issues) are all that are talked about. Moral issues are never mentioned or, if they are, so blended in the homily goes right over the listeners head. Somehow the moral theme in the readings is watered down or changed to the social issue of the moment. I feel like showing up for Mass to hear the Word and receive the Eucharist. The donation will go to another cause: Feed the Poor, etc.
Another interesting Catholic – bless you.
Yes, Phyllis, I LOVE the Catholic teachings also. Sorry if you’re disappointed some of the homilies water down the morality. You can always watch or hear the homilies on http://www.ewtn.com. They’re on YouTube also. Or read Fr. George Rutler’s astounding weekly columns or hear his homilies at: http://www.Stmichaelnyc.com
I listen to many of EWTN’s programs. I thank God for EWTN !!! I will definitely check the homilies out you suggested. I’m still Catholic 🙂 and always on the search for good discussions. I am ‘fed’ and satified :). Just disappointed at my ‘parish’. Truly … I don’t know what I’m supporting. I could share some of the things I hear either during the homily or just before the end of Mass blessing that cause my jaw to drop only to convince myself I heard wrong ( I didn’t ).
Thank you !!!
You lit up my whole day. Yes, EWTN is a font of inspiration from our Source. I sometimes am dissatisfied with the local homilies. After watching EWTN I expect every Priest to be a Doctor of Sacred Theology, but they’re not. You can also get your spiritual food from the many Catholic websites:
National Catholic Register http://www.ncregister.com/ or http://www.bigpulpit.com or http://www.whatshappeningcatholic.com Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, and Fr. Dwight Longenecker both have blogs and they sometimes share in your dissatisfaction with the Masses. But still, isn’t it great to be Catholic?
Agreed–and it is not a way of putting others down. It is a way of lifting ourselves, or rather letting God in His Mercy, do so. Thanks for this.
Richard, you always say it so eloquently. Thank you.
I told a co-worker that I was sure the Supreme Court had been wrong at least since it became clear that it’s nothing but a place where political hacks seeking office place hack lawyers willing to ugnore principle for political expedience. – I remain Catholic because unlike the Holy Father I am willing to say that Kennedy and Sotomayor are both going to Hell because my literary patron Belloc would certainly not shy from saying it.
I agree with you, JayRob, that the Supreme Court got this one wrong. Yes, it’s got me riled up too, although I can’t condemn anyone. We’re supposed to not judge the condition of anyone’s soul, although we can condemn their actions. Yes, Belloc was a fiery guy. He had a big influence on Chesterton, though GK used humor instead of anger.
Great article! I remain and am Catholic because our all powerful God lowered Himself to become one of us, suffered terribly (can you begin to imagine leaving Heaven and coming here? I can’t..) and gave His life for us. He gave us Himself, His mercy, His love completely. He gave us His Church, where else would we go?
I could never leave the Catholic Church!
Thank you, Woodwind, I couldn’t leave the Church either. Isn’t is just unfathomably beautiful?
I like your brevity, Jamey. However, the real question is how is it that what keeps growing is
anything but Catholic ? Or, is this the result of “…Christ’s presence here on earth” too ?.
ministry of Jesus circa 30 A.D.first known use of the phrase “Catholic Church” * 107 A.D.
Coptic Orthodox 451
610 Islam
1054 Veerashaivas (Lingayats)
1150 Sikhism
1469 Anglican Communion
1534 Moravian Church
1727 African Methodist Episcopal Church
1787 Episcopal Church
1789 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1830 Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement
1832 Tenrikyo
1838 Christadelphians
1845 Southern Baptist Convention
1845 Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod
1847 Ch’ondogyo
1860 Community of Christ (RLDS)
1860 Baha’i Faith
1863 Seventh-day Adventist Church
1863 New Apostolic Church
1863 Salvation Army
1865 Jehovah’s Witnesses
1870 Union of American Hebrew Congregations
(Reform Judaism)
1873 Church of Christ, Scientist
1879 The Church of God (Seventh Day)
1884 Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)
1886 Christian and Missionary Alliance
1887 Ahmadiyya
1889 Unity Church / Unity School of Christianity
1889 Church of God in Christ
1897 Aglipayan Church
1902 Stone-Campbell movement formally splits into:Church of Christ / churches of Christ
and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
1906 American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.
1907 Church of the Nazarene
1908 United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
1913 Iglesia ni Cristo
1914 Assemblies of God
1914 National Baptist Convention of America
1915 Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
1919 Kimbanguist Church
1921 International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
1923 United Church of Canada
1925 Cao Dai
1926 Christian Churches and Churches of Christ (CC/CC)
1927 United Free Church of Scotland
1929 Nation of Islam
1931 Worldwide Church of God
1934 Soka Gakkai
1937 Sathya Sai Baba
1940 United Pentecostal Church International
1945 Church of South India
1947 Wicca
1951 Unification Church
1954 Church of Scientology
1954 Aquarian Foundation
1955 United Church of Christ
1957 Unitarian Universalist Association
1961 Secular Humanistic Judaism
1963 Calvary Chapel
1965 ISKCON
1966 Christian Churches and Churches of Christ (CC/CC)
Continues Stone-Campbell movement began in 1832.
Shared a common history with the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) until 1968.
1968 Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar
1968 United Methodist Church
1968 modern GLBT movement began 28 June 1969 at Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, NYC
1969 Church of North India
1973 Vineyard Churches
1974 Uniting Church in Australia
1977 Universal Church of the Kingdom of God
1977 International Churches of Christ
1979 China Christian Counci
l1980 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
1983 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
1992 Falun Gong
And we haven’t even touched upon the 70% of the world that is non Christian
Thank you, james, for commenting. The Catholic Church in the US has
grown from 48.5 million to 76.7 million from 1965 to 2014. In North America from 15 million to 89 million. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tanf/2014/11/06/the-number-of-u-s-catholics-has-grown-so-why-are-there-fewer-parishes/
Worldwide it has tripled since 1910 from 291 million to around 1.1 billion in 2010. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/
“The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it…. This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him…For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained…In fact, “in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church…
“All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians…
“Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to “Catholic unity”…
We strive and pray that they may all be one, “as Christ prayed in his Passion,’That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us,… so that the world may know that you have sent me.'” (John 17:21). Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 816-820. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm?p=17-paragraph18.xhtml%23para816
Thanks again, james, for not listing the 30,000 Protestant denominations. A number of those that you did list are not Christian. Didn’t the good Sisters of Notre Dame teach you all of this stuff? 🙂
It was such an interesting cascade of names and titles that I couldn’t help but include them into a reply. Taking the super conservative Catholic author, George Weigel into
account he has this to say. ” But as a percentage of world population, Christianity has been treading water for a century: Christians were 34.5 percent of world population in 1900, and will be 33.1 percent in 2002.” Catholics make up about 16% of the world but
that isn’t the number participating on a weekly basis. I like to think the other churches are the mortar that holds Christianity together and they provide what is missing from
the one true church which i believe will unite everyone in time – with new dogmas that evolve from the old. Those nuns taught us more how to love than think 🙂 .
That’s an interesting slant that you have, although the other denominations don’t have Apostolic Succession, and some or none of the Sacraments. In the US the surge in the number of Catholics after WWII was inflated because a number of them were just “cultural Catholics” who were born into the Faith but not active. Now less than 10% are enmeshed in the Faith. That’s why the New Evangelization stresses in catechizing those who have been “sacramentalized but not evangelized.” As Al Kresta says, “Build the Church, bless the nation.”
The Church is booming in sub-Saharan Africa where the number has nearly tripled in just the last few years, and in Asia-Pacific where it’s way up also. Cognizant of this fact, Pope Francis has taken a non-Western stance which has rankled some in the US and the West.
Yes, loving is more important than thinking, although we do need both. Fr. George Rutler has said that inspiration is more important than education. We can learn from some of our Protestant brothers and sisters a little about inspiration. Hopefully one day we will all be one.
Amen, brother.
Doctrinal differences don’t matter now. Even Pope Francis said he is not interested in converting Evangelicals to Catholicism. In an address to the John 17 Movement, the Pope made clear that even the Devil doesn’t care whether we are Lutherans, Catholics, or Orthodox. We are all Christians.
So, pointing out when a denomination was started by a normal human figure doesn’t matter any more. Only loving Jesus counts.
What a religion teaches always matters. If the CC taught the doctrine of
reincarnation -purgatory in a practical sense- most people would be alarmed
to believe in coming back to pay every “jot and tittle”. It’s a lot more scary than hell, which is an unfathomable concept to a human mind – as is heaven an unknowable bliss to the human imagination.
james, perhaps I am misunderstanding you – are you saying that the doctrine of purgatory is the same as reincarnation?
The latter was here first; the former is a mere pretender.
Which doesn’t quite answer my question. Do you think they are substantively the same?
Purgatory is a deeply flawed idea thought out by the same folks that
gave us Limbo. What it and reincarnation have in common is the
purgative nature of sin and how it must be removed before we can
enjoy the beatific vision.
Couple misconceptions there, james. First of all, purgatory is actual, official Church doctrine, whereas limbo was and still is theological speculation, not doctrine. Secondly, teachings about reincarnation do not include anything about “sin” or the “beatific vision” as those are purely Christian concepts.
Ok, so lets agree to disagree.
That doesn’t really make sense, because what I’ve said above are actual, demonstrable facts. Why would you prefer to believe a falsehood instead of a fact?
… and have a very good day.
I’m so sorry, james.
Ben, perhaps you should read what Pope Francis actually said as opposed to what the media reported he said. It seems you have been misinformed. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/did-pope-francis-say-it-doesnt-matter-what-kind-of-christian-you-are-9-thin
With all due respect, Ben, doctrinal differences do matter. A great deal. Pope Francis didn’t use the word “even” in his statement. He said,
“Division is the work of the Father of Lies, the Father of Discord, who does everything possible to keep us divided… He doesn’t care if they are Evangelicals, or Orthodox, Lutherans, Catholics or Apostolic…” The article and headline published in Zenit was later corrected.
He also said, “The Holy Spirit brings about unity. Theologians are helpful, but most helpful is the goodwill of us all who are on this journey with our hearts open to the Holy Spirit!”
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/did-pope-francis-say-it-doesnt-matter-what-kind-of-christian-you-are-9-thin/#ixzz3eZuIxg3K
Show me where he supports the conversion of non-Catholics to the Church.
Ben, it has always been one of the basic doctrines of the Catholic Faith from the beginning, taken from Jesus’ own words: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). It’s been our primary mission. It started with the 12 Apostles who were told to spread the Good News to all nations. Pope Francis has always believed this.
There has been no change, whatsoever. Pope Francis says, “We become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being. Here we find the source and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelization. For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?” (Evangelii Gaudium, 8) http://www.vatican.va/evangelii-gaudium/en/
I always admire your convictions and deeply held beliefs. These are traits which are quite uncommon in our world! It never matters that we periodically disagree, we find a common ground in a tenacious hold on our beliefs. Best to you!
Thank you kindly, Phil. It meant a lot to me. Yes, you have strong beliefs also, and we have certainly disagreed, but always as gentlemen. The Church has given me such an anchor, such comfort, such hope, and such joy. I’ll light a candle for you today. (Another one). Bless you and your family.
Thank you for your witness! Very powerful and inspiring!
Thank you, Evan. It’s the least I can do after the Church has given me so much, and inspired me in ways I can’t even begin to describe.
Thank you. Great article. Yes, the Church is still standing after 2000 years of every kind of persecution imaginable, from outside and within. It is our safe haven. God Bless you!!
Thank you, Andrea. When I think of what the first Christians suffered, and in this past century, and today—150,000 are being martyred every year—it makes me shudder. But it’s proof that the Church is good and true and holy, that the bad guys are trying to kill it and silence it. God Bless you!!!
The enemy has been attacking the only opponent that matters, the Catholic church.
The enemy would like us to think that our unity has weakened. But remembering St. Paul…we are strong when we are weak because Jesus is with us when we are weak.
We have to pray for each other and for our clergy, especially if they stumble, for there is only one Lord and One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church.
Very good points, Michael. Yes pray, always, always pray and try to sanctify our own lives.