I read a recent CNN blog post about Catholics who had "escaped" the clutches of the evil, mean spirited Church and I found the term offensive. Then just a few days ago I listened in as the radio team, known as the Catholics next door, were discussing the term recovering Catholic on their program. The hosts actually had a very well spoken caller who indeed explained his personal journey from Catholic as a youth to no belief in God today. While the conversation was polite, and poignant, the fact remained that something in that individuals experience of Church went awry.
You know at first the term recovering Catholic struck me as well, we have a lapsed Catholic that has returned to the robust practice of his/her faith. Then I thought maybe we have a Catholic that has overcome some great personal medical or psychological life event. Oh no; lets be clear; the term recovering Catholic is meant cleary and distictnly to describe those who have escaped. And let's be even clearer; those who promote the term for whatever ill-gotten gain, don't want poster children like the caller I described earlier; they want those who have fled to another faith tradition and found things all nice and warm and fuzzy and skip-a-long happy.
Lets clarify the 1st thing about being Catholic, one that has been baptized into the faith and perhaps have received some or all the sacraments. Strong chances are YOU ARE STILL CATHOLIC. Doesn't matter that you don't think you are, but unless you have defected with a formal act forwarded to and acknowledged by the Church, you still are Catholic. Shocking ain't it. Let's clarify a 2nd thing, if you have defected from the faith and have joined up with another, you have not invented anything new. This has been happening for over a thousand years, although we all were ONE for a thousand years too. You have run to one of perhaps as many as 30,000 out there break away, splintering over and over again faiths. And you belong to a faith tradition that requires its very theeology, it's tenets or whatever they want to call it to build into their teachings some heresy or at the least anti-Catholic this or that to make it work. Or we can just use the same Bible the Church has put together, preached and promoted for as long as the books have been found and twist it to refute the Catholic Church. Geez.
In no way am I interest in putting down those, who for whatever reason, worship as a Protestant, Evangelical or any other man made institution. However, when your faith tradition has to waste hours on end putting down the only faith the earliest Christians had to practice, you know, the one handed down by Jesus Christ to the Apostles, to the Patriarchs, etc., etc. then ouch; perhaps it may be built on straw.
No doubt, we as an institution entrusted to men, have sent more than our fair share running. Clergy Church abuse, misguided clericalism, individual pastors and others who hurt and offend with some regularity, do give rise to those who leave the Church. To them; shame on you. Your lack of fidelity has caused others to be at risk. And to those of you who ran, because of such things, we are so sorry. We hope, and trust, that despite all things, the truth about the Church, the truth about the Eucharist and the truth about the Bride and the Bridegroom would trump all and encourage, in faithfullness, your staying.
In any event, the term recovering Catholic, used as a pejorative and even spring up a cottage industry with sales of t-shirts, etc. is wrong and offensive. But we remember, don't we, that we are to be hated in every generation by the world because, well, the world hates Jesus first.
Next time somebody tells me about a recovering Catholic, I hope they have a runny nose or a sore throat.
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