Fundies Converting to Catholicism

[Kitchen Princess]

You shouldn't be offended. Catholics and protestants have fundamentally different views of the Eucharist. Catholics believe that the Eucharist (aka Holy Communion) is truly the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity made present under the appearances of bread and wine. When you present yourself for Communion and the priest says "The Body of Christ", when the communicant responds "Amen" they are affirming that belief.

Protestants celebrate their version of the sacrament but they believe that it is mearly a symbolic rememberance or in some cases, that consubstantiation occurs (that the Body and Blood exist along side the substance of bread and wine.

Excluding non-Catholics is designed to prevent either intended or unintended sacrilege by those who do not share our belief in Transubstantiation.

Most Baptist congregations I've been to exclude non-members of their church from the Lord's Supper. Certainly it is a Southern Baptist thing across the board.

[Kitchen Princess]

I'd have to gently disagree with the ideas that Catholics are tied into strict gender roles. There is no mandate to marry and procreate in order to be holy.....hell, we've even got a system to counteract that idea. Women, professed, single, or married, may do any job to which they feel called with no condemnation. Catholics encourage education for all, including women. Through the centuries, women have been leaders of all kinds, may serve in the highest leadership roles in their communities, and strike out on their own without male 'headship' beyond what every Catholic subscribes to.

Well, except priest or pope.

[kthomp38+]

Most Baptist congregations I've been to exclude non-members of their church from the Lord's Supper. Certainly it is a Southern Baptist thing across the board.

I grew up Southern Baptist and we practiced semi-open table. You had to have accepted Jesus but denomination did not matter.

[Patsy]

You shouldn't be offended. Catholics and protestants have fundamentally different views of the Eucharist. Catholics believe that the Eucharist (aka Holy Communion) is truly the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity made present under the appearances of bread and wine. When you present yourself for Communion and the priest says "The Body of Christ", when the communicant responds "Amen" they are affirming that belief.

Protestants celebrate their version of the sacrament but they believe that it is mearly a symbolic rememberance or in some cases, that consubstantiation occurs (that the Body and Blood exist along side the substance of bread and wine.

Excluding non-Catholics is designed to prevent either intended or unintended sacrilege by those who do not share our belief in Transubstantiation.

I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic pre-school, primary school and high school, most of my friends from school were raised Catholic, and a huge number of our family friends are clergy. None of them, to my knowledge, actually believe in Transubstantiation or even did when they converted or joined the clergy. I've been to Catholic masses where it was tacitly acknowledged that Protestants of an adult age could take Communion to show their membership in the community of believers, rather than membership in the Catholic Church or in that particular belief.

[Patsy]

I will add that I stay seated and do not accept Communion when I go to Catholic services now, not because I do not believe in Transubstantiation but because I do not count myself as being part of the community headed by the Pope. At least for me it has always been about community. I realise the Pope wouldn't agree with that, but as always, I reserve my right to be offended by the bigots on high decreeing what the community really thinks and does.

[stonefruit]

What, no mention of Barbara Curtis on a thread about Protestant fundies converting to Catholicism?

;-)

[fundyfunland]

This is one of my major problems with the RCC. Yes, protestant fundies believe they are the only way to God (as do all fundamentalists really), but the RCC actually denies entry to one of the fundamental gifts of Christianity to non-Catholics. Most mainline protestant churches have opened communion to all who wish to partake. It broke my heart recently to see the husband of my friend refused communion at her funeral because he was not catholic.

I've been to a number of RCC masses, where anyone could receive communion, no matter their background. Does the RCC actually have a policy stating otherwise? I was always under the impression that it was better to learn the catechism surrounding communion, but not required.

I'm all over works over faith-alone. Faith -alone really pisses me off, but I think it's just due to my inability to accept that anyone can go to heaven, no matter what they did or didn't do, so long as they believe Jesus.

[fundifugee]

I flirted with Catholicism when I was trying to find a way out of my fundy upbringing. The two things that attracted me were Liberation Theology, and the syncretism that exists in such an old church. In many places in Latin America, the church as a physical and spiritual institution is unrecognizable from that in North America, and it is a fascination preservation of indigenous cultures. Of course, the reason for that is because the Church basically flayed and massacred everyone into conversion and the only way they had to preserve their culture was within its walls, but still, it was SO much nicer than the happy clappy protestant convert churches that have managed not only to convert folks but turn them into cheap imitation American Baptists, both in South America and East Africa.

In the end I got a clue and realized I was sick of being told what to do by Some Guy (usually with less education and poorer critical thinking skills than I had), and everyone seemed to have the I-hate-women line in some form, so around age 24 I walked out and haven't been back.

[Chrystal-J]

I tried a bunch of different churches in a search for the right fit. Oddly, Catholicism was the most progressive in terms of at least acknowledging a positive place for women (with the high respect for Mary). The rest of them I tried seemed to almost hate women or see them as Jezebels. I also like that Catholic churches put there money where their mouth is by doing a lot of charity work. Like posted here earlier, there are many different types of Catholic churches. I've gone to some that would be considered liberal and others considered very traditional. So, you can find a right fit even with-in the Catholic church itself.