Where is it Coming From?

My defenses automatically go up when I hear or see the word "former" in front of anyone's title or description.

Let me explain.

How many times have you heard a "former Catholic" talk about the evils in the Church?  Or a former nun or priest tell their story about why they are no longer what they were?

I would say that 99% of the time these "formers" come from a place of anger towards the Catholic Church as opposed to a place of love for where they are going.  

Converts to Catholicism never or rarely speak about how they bolted from their Protestant or Evangelical church due to their archaic ways, a scandal or because they felt "trapped".  Converts to Catholicism speak about the beauty they found in the Catholic Church.  The fullness of truth.  Of finally being "home".

The same cannot be said for those who go the other direction.  Almost EVERY time, people leave the Church due to anger, disappointment, resentment or a sense of betrayal.

This should throw up numerous red flags when reading their reasons behind their leaving.

Here is an excerpt of a review for the movie "CONSTANTINE'S SWORD".


"Once, I focused on the good the church could do. Now my faith hangs directly on facing the worst the church has done." So says writer James Carroll, a former Roman Catholic priest who eloquently guides viewers through nearly 1,700 years of church doctrine in Oren Jacoby's film, adapted from Carroll's 2001 best-selling book of the same name. Not precisely journalistic, as a personal chronicle writ large it is a stirring, richly intellectual work.

Carroll explores two questions central to his decision to leave the priesthood: How did Christianity come to inspire violence and war? What was the Catholic Church's role in fomenting anti-Semitism? From the time of Rome's first Christian emperor, Constantine, through the Holocaust and to today's "war on terror," these questions are answered in often-horrifying detail.

How sad that we as humans continue to focus on the humanity of man (sins, faults, failings) rather than the divinity of Christ and His teachings.  How sad that so many are stuck in the past.

I can't tell you how many times - when speaking about the Catholic faith - someone bring up "selling of indulgences".

Get over it!  Move on!  It was a mistake.  Ever made one of those?  It was not a teaching of the Church, but an invention of man for selfish means.

God makes no mistakes.  We do.  God does not foster hate.  We do.  God does not create flaws in His Church.  We do.

Let's place the blame where is should be placed (us), and not on His Bride (the Church).  We should all be more forgiving.  We should all be more loving.

"The greatest of these is Love."