The New Converts - God Is Rearranging His Garden

[Sojourner]

I love conversion stories too. One of the great things I've started to find at my school (which is Catholic) is other people like me who have converted or are converting. So far, I know of at least two professors who are converts, and there's one student who at the moment is in RCIA. And HSDad comes here for daily Mass sometimes, so that increases our convert population by one for 30 minutes or so.

I might have to start a club!

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1125002' date='Nov 21 2006, 07:42 AM']
I know and I agree...I actually started a long discussion on this with my RCIA teacher (not that I'm in RCIA, but that I'm learning the catechetics behind RCIA). I think it's okay colloquially, but not in a catechetical setting. I just thought it was interesting.
[/quote]
I use the term convert for myself, although I know that the RCIA guidelines are a little stricter on the nomenclature.

But ... I have found in general that the ideals for RCIA are not always implemented well.

One of the things that I have long had issues with is the common practice of receiving former Protestants into full communion at Easter. I mean, I love the service, but the symbolism there is all wrong. Protestants are "separated brethren" and the guidelines state that if possible they should be received at a separate time, as a means of distinguishing reception of people who have been properly baptized and are brethren, but separate, from those who are being baptized.

I suppose from a practical standpoint that it's just simpler to do it all at once, and Easter is definitely an aesthetically pleasing service (my favorite of the year). But I think the distinction is an important one, as it speaks to the relationship between the Catholic Church and Protestant churches, as opposed to that of the Catholic Church with the unchurched.

[N/A Gone]

i have mentioned parts of my story here before, if you want I can PM you. I always feel weird with my story.

[Katholikos]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1126199' date='Nov 22 2006, 04:33 PM']
i have mentioned parts of my story here before, if you want I can PM you. I always feel weird with my story.
[/quote]I recently returned to the House of dUSt after a long absence due to illness, so I prolly missed those earlier posts. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I'd be veeeeeeeery interested. If you ever feel like writing, e-mail me at katholikos@cox.net.

Thanks! Jay

=======================
Blessed Father Damien, pray for us!

[jswranch]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1125994' date='Nov 22 2006, 09:14 AM']
Conversion stories are well-hidden... you can find them here:

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=10382"]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=10382[/url]
[/quote]
Can we keep this under an "important topic" section?

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?s=&showtopic=10382&view=findpost&p=886374"]Here I am.[/url]

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='Katholikos' post='1124390' date='Nov 20 2006, 02:59 PM']
bump. Doesn't anybody have anything to say about this? I thought surely the Protestants on this forum would have a comment or two. Can a thousand Protestant clergy be wrong about the Catholic Church?
[/quote]

600 Protestant minister have become Catholic? That's what, about 0.002% of all the Protestant ministers in America? I have to agree with our Protestant friend here... what's the big deal? I've looked at the trends in religious affiliation and they're virtually unchanged over the past 50 years, even in places like Louisville where you would think more people would be Catholic just because of Hispanic immigration.

So despite all the conversions we see around Easter Vigil, the fact is they only make up for all the people who quietly leave throughout the year. Of course, I am encouraged to hear these stories and I do know a few Protestant friends who are drawn to Orthodoxy or Catholicism due to their interest in the early Church and the Fathers. But let's be clear about one thing: while a true, practicing Catholic is less likely to fall away from the Catholic faith, it definitely isn't impossible. All of us are susceptible to doubts and temptations, which is why God gave us the sacraments.

The way I see it, Catholicism is beneficial only as far as it yields fruit in the form of love for God and a joyful Christian life. I would rather a person be a sincere Baptist than a lukewarm Catholic. Let's just be thankful that these lapsed Catholics remain Christian.

[Mateo el Feo]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' post='1126868' date='Nov 23 2006, 08:52 PM']600 Protestant minister have become Catholic? That's what, about 0.002% of all the Protestant ministers in America? I have to agree with our Protestant friend here... what's the big deal?[/quote]Just for fun, with according to these numbers, there are thirty million Protestant ministers in this country.

[Katholikos]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' post='1126868' date='Nov 23 2006, 08:52 PM']
I have to agree with our Protestant friend here... what's the big deal?

But let's be clear about one thing: while a true, practicing Catholic is less likely to fall away from the Catholic faith, it definitely isn't impossible. All of us are susceptible to doubts and temptations, which is why God gave us the sacraments.[/quote]These conversions are significant because they are seminary-trained, Bible-believing Protestant clergy, who give up everything to become Catholic -- their years of training and experience, their means of making a living for themselves and their families, friends and associates, sometimes their own family relationships. As one Nazarene pastor put it, when his wife left him because of his conversion, 'the Eucharist is enough.' He is now a DRE and has regained custody of his children, whom his wife took away with her when she left. As Alex Jones, a former pastor of a Pentecostal congregation put it in his video and book: No Price Too High.

[quote]The way I see it, Catholicism is beneficial only as far as it yields fruit in the form of love for God and a joyful Christian life.[/quote]The way I see it, Catholicism is beneficial only because it's true.

[quote]I would rather a person be a sincere Baptist than a lukewarm Catholic. Let's just be thankful that these lapsed Catholics remain Christian.[/quote]This assumes that all religions are equally true, a relativistic view which I do not share. One cannot become a "Baptist," but must join one of at least two hundred fifty conflicting and competing kinds of Baptists. 9/10 of all Baptists are in the U.S. "Baptists" are among literally thousands of other Protestant denominations --all teach a different "truth," yet all claim to teach the absolute truth.

All who are saved are saved through the Catholic Church, founded by Christ for the salvation of the world, whether they know it or not. Those who leave the Church place their souls in danger.

"Hence they could not be saved who, knowing the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would either refuse to enter it or to remain in it." CCC 846

Katholikos
Ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, "ex-static" to be Catholic!

[N/A Gone]

ur email addy doesnt work

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='Mateo el Feo' post='1126931' date='Nov 24 2006, 12:35 AM']
Just for fun, with according to these numbers, there are thirty million Protestant ministers in this country.
[/quote]

That sounds about right... 25 million in the South, 5 million everywhere else

[ruso]

[quote name='Mateo el Feo' post='1126931' date='Nov 24 2006, 06:35 AM']
Just for fun, with according to these numbers, there are thirty million Protestant ministers in this country.
[/quote]
Good point Mateo.
I'm sorry be negative, in Hispanoamerica the number of catholics that become in protestants is more great, the things is very bad in Chile(23%), Peru( more of 10%), Brazil(21%) and Guatemala(40%).

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='ruso' post='1130220' date='Nov 28 2006, 08:43 PM']
Good point Mateo.
I'm sorry be negative, in Hispanoamerica the number of catholics that become in protestants is more great, the things is very bad in Chile(23%), Peru( more of 10%), Brazil(21%) and Guatemala(40%).
[/quote]

Does anyone ever question why this trend is occuring?

[N/A Gone]

Bad job educating our people...

[jswranch]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' post='1131782' date='Nov 30 2006, 08:19 AM']
Does anyone ever question why this trend is occuring?
[/quote]
Because contracepting Catholics now can be guilt free contracepting Protestants?


Is the US the only country undergoing the new evangelism?

Is there a catholic.au or a catholic.mx etc. type ministry?

[LouisvilleFan]

Those all have a little to do with it, but I think the core of it has to do with our hearts.

When was the last time you heard a Catholic pastor actually bare his soul before a congregation, confessing his personal struggles? Good Protestant ministers just lay it all out there.

When was the last time you heard anything about our need to convert our hearts to Christ? You hear that all the time in non-denom or Baptist churches.

When do you hear pastors teaching why the Church interprets a passage of Scripture the way we do? Protestants actually learn something when they go to church.

When are we challenged? Because good pastors don't accept the way things are now.

When do we hear something practical and concrete? Because that's why people are attending other churches.

A lot of the homilies I hear are B.S. I could spout off them off the top of my head just from leading Bible studies for three years (I used to do Bible studies with five minutes of preparation just because I knew the pattern). These "Let us try to model this person from the Gospel reading and share Christ with our neighbor" sermons that leave everything so open ended you could drive a Mack truck through it are carp. Last year I went to a mission themed "Why the Hell Am I Catholic?" The speaker told us a lot of entertaining stories, but afterwards I realized that I didn't learn a beaver dam thing. It was a complete waste of time. Well, he did turn and look at the tabernacle when mentioning Jesus, as though the actual person of Jesus was sitting right there (and people laughed, so it's a good sign that they got the joke), but that's about as close to theology as he got.

I've noticed, generally speaking, that Protestants are fed by the Word of God and Catholics are fed by the Eucharist, each at the exclusion of the other. That's a huge problem.