Finding the Lost

It happened again. A caller said she was raised in the Catholic Church but now she was a "Born Again Christian" and had shed her Catholic faith. I hear that all too often. "I was Catholic but now I'm Christian". I can understand from someone who has never been Catholic and has all the common misconceptions, but it really bothers me to hear those that have left the church in search of something else. Sometimes I blame the individual for not understanding the faith enough to embrace it. I think maybe they did not have a good teacher or maybe the lure of some emotional reaction to a modern worship service distracted them. How are faithful Catholics to deal with our brothers and sisters who now speak against the faith and in some cases ask us to join them in their abandonment?
The Lord tells us that "For the Son of Man came to came to save what was lost. If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them stray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go in search of the one that has strayed? And if he happens to find it... he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that a single one of these little ones should perish''(Matthew 18:11-14). The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not address the loss of these Catholics. Perhaps it is because the Church must trust in the apostolic spirit of her sons and daughters to catch them again in our nets before they slip away forever. But just how many "faithful Catholics" are left out there? Out of approximately sixty million nominal Catholics only 25% or so actually practice their faith by attending Sunday Mass regularly and confession yearly. The other 45 million Catholics are simply "sacrament" Catholics at key moments of their existence: baptism, marriage, wake, and funeral. Of course, there are probably millions of former Catholics who are not even on the books . Many millions of others, however, have openly and apparently definitively left the Church. They do not profess or live a prayerful sacramental life. They do not behave according to the teachings of the Church or see these teachings as authoritative or divine. Some pay lip service to the Christian creed by worshipping at mainstream liberal Protestant Churches. Millions of others have joined Evangelical and Fundamentalist denominations, or strange sects and cults, or free-standing mega-churches. They have discovered an emptiness in their lives that is filled by various forms of non-Catholic religious enthusiasms. Many have left, as they say, after "twelve years of Catholic education" and appear to have shed their Catholic beliefs as easily as taking off one's shoes. What is particularly troubling is to think of the sacrifices of those generations of faithful Catholics who both lived and handed down their Faith under difficult circumstances only to see it tossed away.
Why have these people left the Church? Ultimately they are responsible before God for their decisions. The Catechism, however, gives us some clues: "Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment... in moral conduct" (CCC 1792). It's is these defects that lead to rationalization and self-justification. Over time, this will lead to a loss of the virtues of faith, hope, and charity necessary for eternal life. God does not call us to judge but rather to understand, call, and welcome back the fallen-away. The Church exists ultimately to forgive sins through the application of Christ's merits through the sacraments. There is no such thing as a "good reason" to leave the Church. Those of us who remain in the true Church must listen, while at the same time be uncompromising in defense of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church. There are many roads to travel, we can only pray the lost find the right one back home.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pardon my nit-pickiness, but could you put more space between your paragraphs. An extra line break or paragraph tags would do the trick. :)

Bill C said...

Powerball,

When I started reading this item, I thought I would be able to answer in a brief manner. After completing it and even re-reading some parts, I realize it will take me longer to coordinate my thoughts and convey them in a lucid manner.

I've mentioned before I was born and raised RC, 8 years of grade school and served into my early 20's before leaving. It does not matter what denomination I have aligned myself with now, as it appears from your writing if I'm no longer Catholic, I'm on the big non-Catholic Cruise Ship to Hell. Your article makes me more certain that I will never entertain thoughts of rejoining the Roman Catholic church.

More later...

Shaun Pierce said...

Bill: I'm sorry you took my words that way. It is not my right nor desire to judge who does/does not get to go to heaven. Besides, not a single one of us is truly worthy. If you are a former Catholic who understands the faith, I'm sure you know the view of the Church of those outside the faith. My heartfelt concern is the abandonment of the Sacraments, history, Eucharist, Biblical interpretation, etc. I could go on and on. It comes down to one thing, I simply pray for everyone to know the truth. Not my truth or your truth but THE TRUTH. I hope you won't fault me for that. I'd be interested in knowing why you choose to leave the Church.

Bill C said...

Powerball,

No need to apologize. You are, and have been, very clear and certain of your faith, and for that I commend you. Your concerns are valid without a doubt. As I try to put a focus to my thoughts, I will expand on my history and reasons for my split from the Roman Catholic Church, although the short version is/was less theological and more practical/worldly (for lack of a better way to put it).

Shaun Pierce said...

Feel free to email me directly if you don't wish to post everything here.
spierce@wordfm.com

Bill C said...

Powerball,

This is taking longer than I expected. Hang in there...I'll respond. It might not be until over the weekend sometime, though. If you're still interested, just keep watching this space.

Anonymous said...

What I don't understand is why people leave the Church for incidental reasons, such as "I couldn't stand this or that."

If someone was really Catholic, how can they turn their back on the Eucharist? If someone believed in the Real Presence, surely they wouldn't leave.

Anonymous said...

I'm referring to the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

Of course God is present in other Churches: "Where two or more are gathered..." But not in the same sense as in the Eucharist.

Bill C said...

How is God not present in the Eucharist in churches other than Catholic? God is actively involved in Creation every day. Everything we see, smell, touch, hear, taste ultimately came from God, including the ingredients used to make the wine and bread (wafers/hosts for the Catholics I know). Please explain how you could have something that didn't have the Real Presence of God in it. "Through Him all things were made..."

Bill C said...

P.S. to Powerball: I was unable to get online over the weekend and I am continuing to write my full-length reply, if you're still interested. I don't know for certain if it will fit here, length-wise. I've been doing a lot of digging (personal) and a bunch of stuff is flooding out of me. I'm mostly trying to organize it into some sort of coherent body, as opposed to random, stream-of-consciousness thing.

Shaun Pierce said...

Ok I think we are confusing some things. "Real Presence" in the Eucharist to a Catholic means that it is not bread and wine but the actual body and blood of Jesus. The reason God is not present in the Eucharist in other churches (outside the Lutheren chruch) is because the denominations themselves do not believe it is so. They consider it nothing more than bread & wine (or grape juice). It's not a judgement on my part it is what they believe. If you believe in the "Real Presence" of the Eucharist, then you are closer to being a Catholic then you think.

Bill C said...

Don't forget (I'm sure you didn't): Luther didn't WANT to be Lutheran. He was and tried to remain Catholic. It was the Catholic "powers that were" that created the "Lutheran" denomination by ostracizing those who saw things differently...hmmm, looking back up the page, it seems the same is still true...

Anonymous said...

A blog entry dealing with something similar:
http://thelookoutone.blogspot.com/2005/02/truth-about-bible.html

Anonymous said...

1400. "Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church, 'have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders.' [UR 22 # 3.] It is for this reason that Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible for the Catholic Church. However these ecclesial communities, 'when they commemorate the Lord's death and resurrection in the Holy Supper . . . profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and await his coming in glory.' [UR 22 # 3.]"