I converted to Roman Catholicism AMA

[lightsandmirrors]

I was recieved into the Roman Catholic Church a few years ago, having previously been an atheist. Ask me anything and I will try to answer!

What is your view of the visions/apparitions at Lourdes and Fatima. I just simply don't believe on them and am disappointed the church has endorsed them on the say so of a few young children,

Hello LightsandMirrors. Can't work out how to quote on my new phone but I agree the Marian beliefs aren't morally reprehensible or anything. They're not a stumbling block to me in that sense although I know they might be to a more hardline Protestant. It's more the fact that you have to accept them. In fact isn't it a mortal sin not to? Which brings me to the other side of Catholicism which ultimately made me decide I couldn't accept it. The doctrine of mortal sin - commit one and just hope you don't get run over by a bus before you make it to confession. And so many things are mortal sins. I just don't feel that kind of teaching is conducive to a relationship with a loving God. It made me very anxious over time.

@Viviennemary

What is your view of the visions/apparitions at Lourdes and Fatima. I just simply don't believe on them and am disappointed the church has endorsed them on the say so of a few young children,

I find that apparitions thing fascinating, not because I believe they actually happened but just the sociological human behaviour around it - did they plan together to claim there had been an apparition, was there some kind of natural phenomenon that people became convinced was an apparition, did they sort of convince each other because of their faith or did they know it was fake?

Knock was a tiny non-descript village in the middle of rural Western Ireland. It became a world famous place for Catholics with hundreds of thousands of people visiting and bringing in revenue, even an airport built there and named after the place to serve the West of Ireland.

I have been there loads of times (used to love going there as a kid and being given money to spend on religious tat in the shops! ) and there is something about the place that I can't quite describe. But it's not a spiritual thing, I don't know, it's sort of amazement at how the whole thing came about.

I have been to Lourdes once and it was like Knock on steroids - the basilica kind of reminded me of a Disney castle!

I remember an iterview I saw somewhere of the last living survivor of Medjugorje. Apparently there were 3 secrets revealed to the children or something. But she couldn't/wouldn't tell the last of the three (or maybe I saw it in a film). I love all that mystery and suspense.

I think they were Catholic too but I can't remember what they saw/

I was fascinated by the third secret of Fatima. It wasn't revealed for years although successive popes were allowed to read it. Then it was revealed. And it was something and nothing. Some say that it wasn't the true secret as that would be too shocking. I love a mystery.

@Dancingwithdaftness

I remember an iterview I saw somewhere of the last living survivor of Medjugorje. Apparently there were 3 secrets revealed to the children or something. But she couldn't/wouldn't tell the last of the three (or maybe I saw it in a film). I love all that mystery and suspense.

The medjugorje apparitions are ongoing, have not been approved by the church and all of the Visionaries are still alive.

I think you must be getting mixed up with Fatima as all three of the visionaries are long now dead (Lucia was the last to pass, in this century) and there were indeed 3 secrets.

Just checked, Jacinta and Francisco died shortly after in the Spanish Flu pandemic so died as children. Lucia became a nun and died in 2005. That’s who you must have seen in the interview.

I found the interview I watched. It was medjugorge but it was the third secret that she knew but there were 10 secrets but she had nine - yes, as confused as I was.
It's a weird interview. She keeps smiling which is unnerving. My cousin sent this to me years ago as he's religious (lives in Ireland). I've also heard all about Knock from my grandfather who used to go there when he was alive and send us a religious prayer or something in the post from there.

Oh sorry, I meant to include the interview link

Thanks @Dancingwithdaftness I was confused as you said one of the “last living survivors” and, as they only allegedly first happened in 1981 when they were between 10 and 16, they are all very much alive! www.irishcatholic.com/the-six-original-visionaries/

I can see why you are unnerved. Thankfully the church has never officially approved these apparitions so for me that means I can choose to pay no attention. Some of the alleged visionaries still have apparitions and some people say there is money involved etc which makes it untrustworthy.

[quote RaspberryToupee]@Dancingwithdaftness yes I’m aware of that but it doesn’t stop it being less inclusionary. Actually the idea that Catholic’s believe that only holy acts can occur within the walls of their churches also annoys the hell out of me. It’s why BIL, who got married in a CofE church and divorced, is free to marry in the Catholic Church next time because it’s CofE - it never happened [/quote]
Are you sure? My friend wasn't allowed to marry in a Catholic church because her husband-to-be was divorced but non-Catholic.

OMG, yes at being obsessed with the 3rd secret of Fatima. Something about the end of the world, I seem to remember. What was it?

I went to Lourdes as a child and found it really quite weird. There were crutches hanging over the grotto (or something like that) to represent how many people had been "cured". So many people placing all of their hope in a miracle. Such gibberish. So hard to get my head around it even then that people genuinely believed this.

How did you realise that you suddenly believed in God? That must surely be the cornerstone of a conversion. And then you looked around to see which religion fitted your needs best, correct?

Not the most interesting thread really, is it? I keep hoping for enlightenment.

@RiaOverTheRainbow

So what drew you to Catholicism was the lack of personal responsibility? It doesn't matter what you're told to do so long as someone else is calling the shots, so nothing is ever your fault?

That's complete anathema to what I consider a moral life, but I guess it's easier

Not quite I wouldn't have blindly signed up to a load of rules if I hadn't looked into them first and found that in general I could accept them. I then had to make that free choice to submit to that. I suppose you could say that instead of making lots of tiny moral decisions everyday I made one 'bulk' decision instead.

@AgeLikeWine

I made the opposite journey, OP. Practicing Catholic to atheist, but oddly enough I see where you are coming from. If you’re going to see a band, go and see the Rolling Stones, not some rubbish tribute act. If you’re going to do Christianity, join the proper church, rather than some rubbish watered-down tribute act like the C of E which doesn’t appear to actually believe in anything.

Anyway, two questions:
Catholicism teaches that babies are born with ‘original sin’, which can only be removed by baptism. Do you agree? Are new-born babies really sinners?

Secondly, as a teenager attending a Catholic school, I was taught that “selfish sexual orgasm” , ie masturbation, was sinful. Do you agree? Does having a wank make you a sinner, and if so would you ask for absolution at confession?

I think newborn babies are born with a propensity to sin. They cannot be 'sinners' in the active sense because to sin you have to be aware that what you are doing is wrong and do it anyway and no baby can do that. Yes I think that masturbation is a sin, not a very grave one but a sin none the less. It makes the sexual act all about you when it should be shared with your spouse. You are in a sense cheating on them with yourself. The couple of times I myself have slipped up I have confessed this to a priest and recieved absolution.

Yikes!

You confessed to a priest that you had had a wank?!

I bet that made his day!

@KnightsofColumbusThatHurt

So you don't believe that a woman should be able to have autonomy over her own body, and should essentially just become nothing more than an incubator, forced to go through things that she has not consented to, because 'sanctity of life'?

But child rape being covered up on a massive scale is OK because 'we are human, we all make errors'?

WTF?

And it was the institution that was at fault. It was rife throughout the Catholic Church and they knew it all the way at the top. The whole reasons that the Catholic Church was so attractive to predators was because they knew the would be covered for, that whatever they did the church would cover it up.

As I said, I am a cultural catholic, I was bought up Catholic as were all my friends and extended family, and I have some very comforting memories of my childhood church, primary school and all the rituals. I always thought I would like to raise my own kids the same way.

But as I reached adulthood and had my own kids and also realised what the fuck was going on with the church, I was becoming increasingly torn and I had to back away. I can't condone that stuff.

I think your 'we are human, we all make errors' comment as a way of seemingly justify turning a blind eye to child rape is really quite upsetting.

I am sorry that was a poor way to put it and I did not intend to trivialise the issue. My apologies if it offended anyone.

In terms of abortion I believe that everytime we have consensual sex we do it with the knowledge that it could end in pregnancy. Those odds are very slim but they are there. In most circumstances we choose to have sex anyway. That, I would say is consent.
In cases of rape ofcourse that is not the case and it would be truly truly horrible but the answer would be that there are two innocent parties the woman and the unborn child. Why should the child die because of the crimes of the father? I know that is very easy for me to say and I could never understand the lived reality of someone who had to go through that. But that is my answer to your question.

@Puffalicious

there is something very comforting in knowing I don't have to go out there and try to do mental and ethical gymnastics on things. I just follow the churches teachings

Very worrying. So you like being s sheep? You remind me of all.the devout, wee women in my Catholic childhood who had no opinions of their own: whatever the priest said went.

Luckily I got out aged 16, my anger about it all has dissipated in the main but I still regard anyone who believes in the propaganda as somewhat lacking in intelligence or ability to think for themselves: you've proved my point.

I think most people are sheep, they blindly follow whatever society tells them is morally acceptable. Surely not everyone is equally equipped to moral decisions as others? I am happy to delegate these specific decisions to a tradition which has developed over a thousands years of study and thought. Why is that so wrong? We all trust experts to give us advice all the time.

I think of it as a bit like voting for an MP to send to Westminster and then they make decisions based on what they think best for me as their constituent. I trust in their supposedly greater political knowledge. When we are allowed to make our own mind we end up in messes like Brexit (controversial). Of course that isn't how it always works in reality!

What was missing in you, in your life, that you went looking for something to fill it?

@honeybeedream

I was raised Catholic and Catholicism permeated my whole childhood, family life, schooling.

How does it feel to be a convert amongst dyed in the wool Catholics like myself? Do you feel fully accepted? Do you regret not having that formative family and childhood experience?

Very much so, I get quite jealous! I feel very lonely in my faith because no one in my family is Catholic. Tbh I have moved city twice since I converted so unless it comes up naturally other people in my congregation do not know I am a convert so I generally just get treated the same as everyone else. But I do think there is a bit of an attitude that converts are weird, because who would choose this.

@Runningdownthathill

I find it very worrying when anyone wants to hand over their ability to make decisions and think independently to an organisation, particularly one run by and dominated by men. Men who do not marry, so they have no experience of living with women, having daughters or dealing with the reality of providing for very large families ( no contraception). Men who do not see the effects first hand of women who are exhausted by childbirth or whose life choices are limited because their only real role is to be subservient to men. Things have changed a bit in the last fifty years, but the CC is still deeply misogynistic and fixated on power and control. There is a deep institutionalised fear of sexuality, particularly that of women. The worship of Mary is the worship of an idealised , non sexual woman . This where the Madonna/Whore idea originated, which has done such damage across the board in relationships, in society and within families.

You say you accept the Church’s views on the Bible and their interpretation. The Bible has been twisted and rewritten partially to suit the purposes of the CC in particular. To suit the male power base and keep the poor ordinary people in their place. Christ was a champion of the poor and needy. He wasn’t interested in power, wealth or greed. Covering up malpractice and deviant sexual abuse would have been something he abhorred. What do you think he would have made of the Vatican with its obscene accumulation of treasures ( often stolen)? The men who strut around dressed up to the nines, smug in their superiority to the ordinary man and woman? Listening to confessions when they themselves are often the greatest sinners, or excusing and covering up the sins of their colleagues.

Look beyond the gloss and the liturgies to the ugliness below the thin veneer.

I think Jesus would have hated sin where he found it, clearly covering up child sexual abuse was sinful. However whether someone wearing liturgical dress or having beautiful things is a sin seems a bit less clear cut and I guess is for God to decide.

@Toddlerteaplease

FYI, I believe that Abortion is murder. But I wouldn't judge anyone who had been raped or had a TFMR.

Contraception is fine by me. As is sex before marriage. As art if a long term serious relationship.

Gay Marriage, fine but not in a church. But they should offer a blessing.

Papal infallibility, no.

Aren't you a nurse? How nice to hear that you believe women are murdering babies - oh sorry, unless they have been raped or are TFMR - you don't judge those women.

Fucking hell. There are quite a few WTF comments on this thread and this is near the top.