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Page 9a: Revised 09/10/1999

On this page: | Sylvia H. | Tommy H. | Alan B. |

Sylvia H.

Early Catholic Training

My name is Sylvia.⁽¹⁾

I attended several years of Catholic grammar school before transferring to a public school. While in public school I attended weekly religious education classes by the Church. I remember that my Catholic teachers emphasized how serious it was to miss mass, or to take communion without first going to confession if needed, and being disobedient.

My Decision to Leave

I am, by nature, an inquisitive person. I need to know the reasons for things. I asked a lot of questions of my Roman Catholic teachers, and did not feel comfortable with the answers I got. Too many things didn't seem to make sense to me. The answers I did get were always pretty vague.

I tried to resolve the problems I was beginning to have with the Church. When I asked my mother, she suggested I see the CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) teacher. I did that. I also went to see the priest with my concerns. I think that I did not handle things the best way. I was looking for something they could not give me, but they did the best they could. Basically, they stayed with official church doctrine. When they didn't have an answer, it became "That's the way it is." This was not the kind of answers I was looking for!

Some of the questions I needed answers for were, "If God is a God of love, why do only Catholics go to heaven?" "Why is the pope infallible?" I had many questions about the confessional box too. "Why is it that saying 'hail mary's' and 'our father's' never made me feel any better." "How do you know when you've crossed the line from a venial sin to a mortal sin?"

I usually ended up frustrating the people I was asking. One night a priest asked me to leave the CCD class! He was not happy with me. That's how he dealt with my unanswerable questions he threw me out.

How My Family Reacted

When I finally left the church, my father was the only one in the immediate family who was upset. I was that last in my family to leave besides him. We were more or less blackballed by some of our relatives, and they would have nothing to do with us. That was painful. They still struggle with it, but have at least come to accept us. My friends didn't understand, but they were a lot more tolerant!

I am lucky that my father still loved me, despite being very upset. But leaving the Church totally disrupted my relationship with my cousin. She stopped talking to me unless the situation demanded it, in which cases she was just polite. We went to high school together, but didn't hang out together. My action also put a great strain on my relationship with my godmother. We had arguments in the beginning. Then the Lord helped me to release things and just love them. Things are much better now, but they still don't like to discuss it, or talk about religious beliefs.

Transition from Rome to Christ

Before I actually left the Church I became involved with witchcraft and occult practices. I was searching for something interesting, to experience the use of power. I had several bad experiences at that time. I believe that God allowed them for a reason, perhaps to get me out of the wrong path.

For some time I attended both the Roman Catholic Church and a Pentecostal Church at the same time. Leaving the church of Rome was not an easy thing for me to do. So I sort of transitioned out of one and into the other gradually. My sister was the one who first brought me to an Assemblies of God church.

In June of 1978 I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was alone in my bedroom. I simply said to God, "If you are real, just show yourself to me!" I didn't need a church setting, or music, or a heart-rending sermon. Neither did Jesus. He met me right there! I didn't really understand what had happened, but I knew it was real. He has been with me ever since.

My View of Rome Today

While I am certain that the Roman Catholic Church is an un-Biblical religion, I am also certain that some Roman Catholic people are born-again believers in Jesus Christ. Some, but not all. Most Catholics don't have a clue. They just blindly believe what the Church tells them to believe.

Solid Bible-based doctrine is important. But I think it can easily become legalistic or pharisaical. We have to be very careful about that. The emphasis needs to be on the relationship we need to have with Jesus. That's missing in the Roman Catholic Church because they teach instead a relationship with itself. Once you realize that it is Jesus and not the Church that saves you, the doctrine will come.

I think there are still major differences between the Roman Catholic Church and bible-centered Protestant Churches. The worship of Mary for example. I think she should be respected for who she was and what she did, but only God should be worshiped. Also, the question of Papal infallibility cannot be overcome. The pope, like all of us, is just a human being, just as prone to failure and error as anyone else. I don't see anything in the Bible that guarantees anyone, including a pope, that they will be free from error in matters of doctrine or any other matters.

Tommy H.

My name is Tom. I left the Roman Catholic Church when I was 32 years old. I had been a very active, practicing Catholic most of my life. It was about a year from the time I first began to wonder about some of the teachings of my church until I finally left it. The decision was a very painful one too - mostly because that was the way I was brought up and I knew that my parents only were trying to do the best for me.

Mentally and emotionally it was a roller coaster ride, Mostly I think because I know that the rest of my family would not agree with the decision. intellectually it came down to scripture.

The question that bothered me the most was about baptism. After reading about it in the Bible, I could see there was a difference between what the Bible said and what my church said. A big difference!

I did not attend Catholic schools, but I did attend weekly religion classes run by the Church. I don't remember ever attending any Bible studies at the Church. In fact, I don't remember ever hearing of such a thing. I knew about weekly religion classes and CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine), and that's about all.

Today there is no problem with my family about my decision to leave the church. I did try to get my family to think about joining the Baptist Church, which I now attend, but they refused, and still refuse. Other than asking them to join us for service, not much else has been said about it. I have not personally asked them to accept Christ into their lives, but I have tried to be a silent witness to my whole family by sharing what has transpired for me and my family since making my decision whenever possible.

When I left the Catholic Church I joined a nearby Baptist Church. My wife was already going there, so it was pretty easy for me. Several years earlier my sister-in-law invited me to a Pentecostal Church to attend the dedication of her son. I was really put-off by all the excitement and speaking in tongues. At that particular time I did not realize that there were different denominations of Christian believers.

I remember the day I was saved, or should I say the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. I had gone to the Baptist Church with my wife, Lori. She had been witnessing to me for a long time, and that day I had made up my mind that I would answer the altar call that's when the preacher asks if anyone wants to be born again. Wouldn't you know it? There was no altar call that morning! I had to go chase the pastor down the aisle and ask him if I could accept Jesus Christ!

I remember the day I was saved, or should I say the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord? I had gone to the Baptist Church with my wife, Lori. She had been witnesseing to me for a long time, and that day I had made up my mind that I would answer the altar call - that's when the preacher asks if anyone wants to be born again. Wouldn't you know it? There was no altar call that morning! I had to go chase the pastor down the aisle and ask him if I could accept Jesus Christ! The pastor was a bit embarrassed, but quickly got me in touch with the senior deacon. We then went and prayed together. The feeling afterwards was one of relief. I did not know why at the time, but since then I am starting to learn.

When I decided to leave the Catholic Church, I wasn't thinking much about dogmas and doctrines. I really didn't know a lot about those things. But the baptism issue really bothered me, and I doubted the church's position on evolution. The church told me I could believe the theory as long as I slipped God in there somehow or other.

I'm not a scholar or anything, but you don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out that the theory of evolution is just that a theory. Just look around and there's enough evidence in this world to convince me it was not a big accident or a big bang. If I could see the work of God all around me, why couldn't the Church see it? Didn't they believe the Bible when it says that God created everything? Like, I mean, God created both the monkeys and the humans at the same time! There's nothing in the Bible about man being a descendent of the ape. And if evolution were true, how come we don't still see all kinds of it still going on? I mean, why don't we see apes and monkeys in various stages as they 'evolve' into men? We don't. There's no such evidence. So I thing the Roman Catholic Church is very wrong about including evolution in its thinking.

I don't think the Church has change very much since I was a kid. Except for the mass being in English, and there now being several ways to go to confession, everything else seems to be pretty much the same as ever. Rome doesn't really change much at all.

I believe that we need to be as close to biblical in everything we do as we possibly can be. The Catholic church claims to be doing that, but the evidence proves otherwise. We really need to tell Roman Catholics about real faith in Christ, because that is one thing that the Church never talks about. Instead, the Church always talks about the sacraments being the way to heaven. I don't think that Jesus knew much about the sacraments, except maybe for baptism and communion.

I don't think that the Church has much in common with the Christian churches at all. All the talk about eccuminical stuff is a lot of fluff on the part of Rome. Rome already admits that the Catholic Church never, never changes. And you don't have to look any farther than evolution and how the Church deals with it, and baptism beliefs. The Church says we are born again by baptism. But in the Bible, children, especially infants, were not baptized because they were not old enough to make that choice for themselves. Baptism is an act of faith by which an adult makes a public declaration of faith.

Alan B.

Early Catholic Training

My name is Alan. I a thirty-nine years old, divorced, with three wonderful children. I am also a Recovering Catholic man. I did not attend any Catholic schools, but I did attend weekly religion classes held by the Church. My family has been staunchly Roman Catholic as far back as I know.

As a young man, I attended Catholic Bible studies. People did bring their Bibles, but every meeting seemed more concerned with Catholic dogma and doctrine than with the simple Word of God. I once visited a Catholic seminary in Waltham, Massachusetts. I was surprised that while there, I sensed the presence of some kind of evil. It was upsetting.

The Homosexual Priest

A priest from our church befriended me in my late teens. When I was nineteen, he took me to movies and dinners. My parents were happy that I had such a friend. Then came the time for the payoff. The priest had invited me to spend a weekend with him at the rectory. He told me I would use the housekeeper's room as she was away at the time.

When we arrived, the housekeeper was there. The priest apologized for making a mistake, and said that we could share his room instead. At the moment I didn't think much about it. That was one of the most frightening and miserable nights of my life. He was all over me! That priest sexually molested me right there in the rectory. I couldn't wait to get out of there. The next morning he put on his priestly robes and went over to the church to say mass. How can a priest perform evil that God condemns one minute, and play the role of a holy man then next is beyond my understanding. Anyhow, I took that as my chance to run, and run I did!

My Decision to Leave the Church

One evening I was sitting in the Catholic Church at a Charismatic Renewal meeting. I sensed the presence of God, and asked Jesus to be my Lord. I can't exactly explain it, but I knew something wonderful had happened. My whole life began to change for the better, from that moment on. I also began to realize that I had to get out of the Roman Catholic Church because it was false. I don't recall anyone telling this to me; it was as if God revealed it to me as I accepted Jesus. I also need to say that for a long time I had sensed, or felt, a big lack of love in the Catholic Church. I was just a pew-sitter, a number to them.

My parents were very upset when I decided to leave the Church. They wouldn't believe what the priest had done to me. I guess I a lucky to have loving parents because after a while, they more or less accepted what I had done. I am thankful they did not just throw me out of the house.

One Sunday afternoon, sitting in my parent's living room, I looked out the window to see a man and woman going from house to house. I wondered if they were Jehovah's Witnesses. As a new and very enthusiastic Christian, I couldn't resist the opportunity to go and speak with them, and tell them about Jesus Christ. I was surprised to find that they were born-again Christians! They belonged to a new church in the neighborhood, and were inviting the neighbors to a free movie that night. I decided to go. I have been there ever since. It is a wonderful, Christ-centered Pentecostal church. The pastors and the people there really care about you. If you are absent for a while, someone calls to see if all is well. The people really love each other and help each other in many ways. What a difference between this and the Catholic Church!

My View of Rome Today

Looking back, I can see that the Catholic Church hasn't changed much in the twenty years since I left. Sure, they now say the mass in English. And the Church seems to be working hard to get control over the Christian churches. But all the really important differences between the Catholic Church and the Bible remain the same as always.

I hear talk today that the Catholic Church has some kind of agreement with a lot of Protestant Churches in which they all agree to not witness to each other. I can't believe this is happening! I know what the Catholic Church is and what it teaches, so I know that it is not a real Christian church. Any Catholics that come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior do it in spite of the Church, not because of it. Most of the ones I know usually leave the Church once they learn the truth and how they have been deceived. So I think it is very important to witness to Catholic people and tell them the truth of the Gospel.

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End Notes

1. Name withheld by author's request.