Analysis of a Conversion - Why I left the Catholic Church, other Catholics

Yes, other Catholics.

I've heard this one before from Protestants. Many of us don't give a very good example of Christian living.

Look at the Kennedys. Our beloved President, John F. Kennedy, flaunted his affairs before the whole world.

Our Supreme Court is mostly Catholic. Have they overturned Rowe vs Wade? No. If anything, they've solidified it.

Look at Mardi Gras. That spectacle of debauchery was originally a Catholic holiday. The same with St. Patrick's day, a day when people use a Saint's name as an excuse to get publically intoxicated.

And, I know that many people who are not truly Catholic, still call themselves Catholic, myself, for example. I was an atheist for many years. But who wants anyone to know that they are atheist? I didn't. I certainly wanted it to be kept secret from my mother. So, I told no one. But I didn't believe in God and I hated the Church. Yet if anyone were to ask me, "What are you?" My reflex response would be, "Catholic."

And this was true for me, as well. In the last article, I revealed that part of the reason I didn't like to attend the Mass was because there were very few Catholic men in the pews. I was a boy who, like all other boys, yearned for the day that I would be a man. And I wanted to do manly things. From my point of view, men did not go to Church.

And this is related to that. As a child, I noticed that lots of Catholics got drunk and happily committed and boasted about all the sins that the Priest preached against on Sundays.

What a joke!

So, at that age, my question to Catholics was, "Do you think I'm stupid? You forbid me the things which you boast about and enjoy. Do as I say, not as I do", seemed the motto of the day. No sir, I wasn't going to be left out. I was going to get mine.

What's the solution?

This is a tricky one, folks. To tell you the truth, they're all tricky. In the past articles, I said that "I was determined to give good example and I was determined to give reasons for my faith, etc." But I can do nothing without God's grace. Unless God builds it, the house can not be built.

There's only one solution to all our problems - God.

Before my conversion, I tried many times to quit many bad habits and I always failed. But when I felt the grace of God coursing through me, I didn't even have to try. The bad habits were taken away from me.

But folks, no matter what Protestants say, we are not saved by grace alone. If I had not accepted that grace and cooperated with it, there were many times when I could have fallen back into the same hole.

Ora et Labora

Prayer and work. We have to pray and we have to work to accomplish that for which we pray. And by the grace of God, if we are single minded in seeking Him and His grace, He will reward us and grant us success.