Anyone ever converted to Catholicism?

[CheerfulYank]

I might.

I have always been religious; was raised as a "sort of" Lutheran. My father is a Lutheran I suppose, my mother is spiritual and vaguely Christian, my brother is an atheist.

I married DH who is strongly Catholic and agreed this summer to have our DC (they are 7 years and 15 months) baptized into the faith.

I'm not sure how to explain my feelings on the Church...I hate things that have been done in its name (the horrible abuse by priests, the Magdalene laundries etc) but when I actually attend Mass (I do with DH and the kids occasionally) or read works by great Catholic thinkers, I think that it is...good. It feels right in a way I'm not sure I can explain.

Any experiences?

I was born and raised Irish catholic and am at a stage where I don't know what I believe now.
But I will say that the atrocities you mention are as much cultural as religious. The atrocities are not the whole of the church. I don't believe that religion can induce an individual or a society to do what they don't want to do anyway, be that positive or negative. Provide framework, guidance or justification, yes - create the desire, no.

If it feels right it must be speaking to you. Perhaps you are as well to give the church the opportunity to create a drop of Goodness in the world by helping you spiritually?

I can sympathise. I have a protestant background but by a fortunate coincidence, I was part of a RC house group a few years ago. At the time I was really struggling with my faith and I found a lot of the catholic teachings and perspective helpful and very supportive. More recently I have come in contact with some orthodox and Coptic teachings and I find that they have provided me with a mental framework that has increased my understanding of Christian teaching and the Bible and, ultimately, deepened my faith.

Although I have never seriously considered converting, I can understand those who do. I am drawn to the older churches. They have in their traditions a wealth of experience that they can draw upon in dealing with the big questions of life, God and the journey of faith. I feel that, in discarding much (most?) of Catholic tradition, the reformists have thrown out a lot of good doctrine as well. By comparison, the protestant churches seem in some ways quite shallow - for lack of a better word - and "rootless". Having said that, the reason I wouldn't consider converting is because I know that there are wonderful and insightful Christians on both sides of the reformed-Catholic dividing line. It is a sadness to me that I can't celebrate Holy Communion with them all. If I were to convert, I would just be excluding one group instead of the other but I believe that we should strive to move closer to each other and to seek to understand and value the good in each other's traditions. After all, Jesus' great prayer was for unity among his followers and there is much we can learn from each other.

Good luck on your journey!

Agreeing with the thoughts of "great Catholic thinkers" doesn't make you religious IMO. Their thoughts will be what any decent person thinks about morality, religious or not.

I wouldn't say I am religious (actually I don't know what I am), but I do enjoy being in church and singing a good hymn or two. I like the community feeling of support, and of everyone trying to be good. I always come away feeling "good".
The rational side of me just won't let me believe there is a God though (I think).

Thank you for your replies!

Middleaged I know that, I am religious regardless of whether I've been reading GK Chesterton or not. :) I've never really succeeded in NOT believing in God. I just meant that I feel a pull when reading some of their work, a feeling that they are onto something.

That's it Ginger...I love tradition and ritual and feeling as though my children can be part of something spanning back centuries. The other churches I've tried do seem "rootless" to me, that's exactly it. Although I appreciate that they don't feel that way for everyone, certainly.

7Days I agree that religion is good in the hands of good people and bad in the hands of bad people.

I don't know that I'll convert, at least not yet, but I will go into it with an open mind.

I converted during uni. My parents raised us vaguely Christian but believed that me and my dsis should choose our own religion when older.

Catholicism spoke to me in a way no other religion did. I think it felt comfortable and, I don't know, right. DH is catholic, our DS is baptised in the Catholic Church as will our future DC. But I would be happy for them to choose their own path when the time comes.

Look into your local RCIA course (for converting to Catholicism). If it's anything like ours, and I hope your local one is, the priest was lovely and it was very much about learning about Catholicism and he was at pains to point out that until later in the course we did not have to commit to being baptised/confirmed (if you are already baptised in a "recognised" Christian tradition then you aren't re-baptised - recognised includes most churches but not Jehovah's I think as they don't use the same form of wording/ritual as the rest)