Leaving Catholicism in the Name of Parenthood
I left Catholicism for the safety of my children because the stained-glass curtain hides too many dark secrets.
A safe haven for her children means finding the right church.
Patch
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For months, I’ve been following one of my favorite authors, Anne Rice, via social media sites. What intrigues me so much about Rice is that she, like most writers, says the things that most people fear to say. And she says them loudly and without regret.
When Rice proclaimed that she left Christianity in the name of Christ, many people balked. Even more judged. Everyone had an interpretation about her proclamation. For me, her announcement had much more meaning than words could convey, because Anne Rice wasn’t just publicly leaving organized religion, she was renouncing her lifelong association with Catholicism.
Like Rice, I was raised a strict Catholic. My parents ensured that I went through every applicable sacrament: Baptism, Penance, Communion, Confirmation. Eventually, I added Holy Matrimony to the list. When my children were born, I had them baptized in the Church. For me, it just felt like the only way.
Catholicism was comforting to me. The rituals of the Church were comforting. The Mass, which I had memorized at a young age, was familiar and all I had ever known. I stayed, because the Church was my home.
However, time changes many things. And as the controversies surrounding the Catholic Church grew, so did my doubts.
I discovered that two priests from my childhood were accused of crimes against children. One of those priests baptized me, the other married me and my husband.
I still sometimes think of those allegations when I look down at my wedding band.
I left the Church when my two boys became old enough to enter Sunday school. I left, because my boys put their faith in me to keep them safe.
As allegation after allegation came forward about childhood sexual abuse within the Church—each one seemingly more horrific than the one before—I knew that the Church’s walls were not my home anymore. Those walls certainly couldn’t be trusted to protect my children. I had no faith left in the Catholic Church.
Leaving behind the stained-glass comfort of my childhood was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. I still pray Catholic prayers. I still say prayers to the Saints. And, in my new life as a Protestant, I still, when receiving communion, have the urge to make the Sign of the Cross.
I am angry with the Catholic Church. I’m angry that secrets were kept and that priests were shuffled to other parishes to prey upon more children.
I'm angry that these abuse cases were known throughout the Church's hierarchy and that these high-powered men allowed the abuses to be covered up.
Most importantly, I’m angry that God’s children were the last priority and that Canon Law took precedent over criminal law.
But unlike Rice, I haven’t completely given up on organized religion.
Raising my children with religion is important to me. After many careful searches, my children have a church home where I feel we can provide a safe and nurturing religious environment.
I am determined for my children to have a childhood rooted in faith—but just not the Catholic faith. For me, the only faith that matters is a strong faith in God.
trevor hudson
1:34 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Thank you Julie for sharing your story-Trevor from South Africa
Genny Hempstead
1:45 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Saw your article shared on Anne Rice's website. Maybe if there was a mass pulling away from Catholicism, a movement of concerned parents, perhaps then the "leadership" within the Catholic Church would take the crimes going on seriously instead of covering them up! Maybe your article will help spur such a movement!
Kay Goodnow
2:02 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Julie, thank you for your article and for sharing your truth. I too walked away, but it was after I was abused at 14 by a priest and before my kids were old enough to go to school... now, I am free and am enjoying watching the towers crumble due to a problem that the authority of the church created itself. Thanks again, and all best wishes.
Michelle
2:32 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Thank's Julie, I posted something very similar on my blog a few months back. (http://mommas-musings-by-momma.blogspot.com/2011/05/lets-start-with-something-heavy-and.html) I am also an Anne Rice fan and follow her on fb. It is nice to know that there are others out there like us. Thanks for the post I will be sure to follow your blog.
Michelle
2:38 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
BTW, you really stated this so eloquently and I can hear the torment it has caused. Thank you for sharing.
Andrew
3:49 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Julie...I believe this church is corrupt to the core, and always has been. I also am a former Catholic who left catholicism but for a wonderful reason...that reason...no longer believing in a church, a man, a pope, a mass, a false mary, and all of their laws of works required for salvation...all renounced because the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ revealed Himself in an extraordinary place...in my heart...through the beautiful revelation of Him found only on the pages of the Holy Bible...as I began to study and believe...the Bible, page after page, simply destroyed any belief I had in all of the lies the Roman Catholic church taught me as a child, and a young man...faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ...He is the sufficiency, the hope, and the joy of the true believer and He and His wonderful truths shattered all of mans lies, and the wicked shameful fruits they produce as wolves in sheeps clothing...please go to this sight and read the article my heart poured our titled The Suppression of the Truth...please share it with every Catholic you can...in His grace...andrew site address = http://www.bereanbeacon.org ... go to articles and sponsored articles to find the article....
Gloria McNamara
4:46 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
I appreciate so much your story.....I was angry at first, as it was in 2001, on our 50th wedding anniversary that we KNEW we HAD to leave. Everything we had heard from the" religious in our family", over many years (that we would Not believe) came true in one fell swoop in the San DiegoTribune..
The anger was there but It got much easier as time went on and we knew that when we left it was exactly what the Lord wanted us to do.
I have for the past 10 yrs, blogged everyday, as to why we should all take a" mighty stand "against this evil, in this particular institution. Thank you God ! It is happening ,that the "sheeple" are getting it and leaving ! Not their Lord Jesus Christ but the Institution of man
Jan Schroeder
6:20 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
i'm a convert to Catholism and plan on staying. How sad to hear all this judging and convicting when all around me are terrible abuses going on. Doctors, teachers, police ,people you should be able to trust. Having gone thru bible timeline and reading about the church history only the truth shall live. History is repeating itself. I will stick by my faith and Jesus Christ!
Ray Dubuque
4:34 pm on Thursday, August 11, 2011
Dear Jan,
I don't doubt that you may have come to Catholicism from something WORST.
But, apart from "using the name of Jesus in vain" (to persuade people who love Jesus to follow THEM), what do R.C. popes and bishops have in common with Jesus?
I was as devout a Catholic as you could be until I became a priest and discovered that the higher one progresses in the R.C. world, the more dishonest and hypocritical one must become (with very rare exceptions).
I don't tell people what to do, lest I be accused of self-interest, but I have created http://JesusWouldBeFurious.Org/ to show people how really mistaken they are to trust much of anything the R.C. leadership promotes.
Go ahead and waste the rest of your life "paying and praying" at the feet of these false prophets, if you like, but you won't be able to say that you weren't warned!
jamieb63
8:32 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
I have explored my belief system since my teenage years.....I am now 48 years old - I have just reconciled in the last year that my place is NOT within this institution. In the last 2-3 years, I've studied church history, read many books on the life of Christ, the origins of the old and new testament,, , I've learned about the political nature of this institution, and the life of a perfect individual.....The demonstration of Christ's life is what we should be emulating.....rather than settling for the political machinery of the hierarchy - which has led to the coverup of evil in our children's lives.
I have chosen to emulate Christ and lead my children to live by day to day example - exhibiting compassion, tolerance, honesty, , ,
A book I've chosen to help lead this family quest is "Invitation to the Jesus LIfe", by Jan Johnson..... I'm choosing to walk the walk....isnt' that what we're supposed to do?
Ray Dubuque
4:17 pm on Thursday, August 11, 2011
As a former extremely devout Catholic and priest, I don't see how intelligent and conscientious people don't all reach the point that Julie reached SOONER, rather than LATER. Why should you waste MORE of your valuable life imagining that the FUTURE will be better than this church's PAST, when the SAME VILLAINS ARE GOING TO BE IN CHARGE ?!?
If you explore the many pages of my http://JesusWouldBeFurious.Org/ you'll see that the public doesn't know even the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to the church's lie that it is God;s "One, Holy church"!
Andrew
7:10 am on Friday, August 12, 2011
Ray,
Thank you for sharing with us. I was wondering if you would help us through some important truths about God? First off, how does God define sin? What the are the attributes of God that are poured out upon sin? What is the most vivid example God gives us regarding His judgement and treatment of sin? What does this reveal to us regarding the day we die and find ourselves standing before the Lord Jesus Christ?
Andrew
7:13 am on Friday, August 12, 2011
Ray....maybe as you answer these for us, we can use this as a open study. Please use Scripture to answer these...if you don't mind. I think this will be very helpful four our readers. My concern is that many are leaving Roman Catholicism not running to the Lord Jesus Christ...thanks in advance. Andy
Ray Dubuque
7:51 am on Friday, August 12, 2011
I am dumb-founded by the number of people who claim to follow and even to TEACH "Christianity" without using Jesus' own words as their basis. They only USE Jesus' words (in the worst sense of the word) to promote THEIR OWN "theology".
You asked me for "scripture". Check out my http://liberalslikechrist.org/challenge.html and you'll find, not MY thinking, but what JESUS viewed as most central or "fundamental" to HIS theology.
Andrew
9:55 pm on Friday, August 12, 2011
Ray...having looked at your web sites and commentaries...did my questions regarding God and His revealed truths regarding sin, no matter how popularized certain sins have become, somehow offend you?
Jean Whitney
2:49 pm on Friday, August 12, 2011
This conversation isn't over: 333 people have shared this article on their Facebook pages, 350 "recommends" and 150 "likes" via novelist Anne Rice's mention of it. It's been posted on other blogs too.
Andrew
9:44 pm on Friday, August 12, 2011
To the readers...I simply want to encourage each of you to heed the constant warnings in scripture. The Lord, and the Apostles were clear and constant to us in their warnings about false teachers and their false doctrines. Jesus tells us in John 12:48 the following strong warning of how we will be judged...John 12:48
48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. As you make your departure from your religion, be careful that you are not simply walking right into another false religion where man has rejected Gods truth, so he could believe his own lies and take many with him...mans church is full of false teachers who take the truth of scripture and use it to justify their won sinful ways...God is exposing them on every front...how...by revealing their teachings, their sins, and the truth of His word that became flesh...their deeds and true desires are clearly seen.the Roman Catholic church is just one of countless churches who teach a false doctrine drop their pulpits. Beware, they are always very close, and always seeking the weak who do not know the truth...to all of you...run from false religions....before you jump any where...go to the only source of truth that will guide you and lead you to the only place of eternal safety...in the Lord Jesus Christ...who is, and always will be one with His Father and the doctrine they teach...seek a faithful church that faithfully exposits the scripture..
Ray Dubuque
4:41 pm on Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Andrew, In response to your LAST post above this one, I though I gave you EXACTLY what you asked for, and your response was to asked "did my questions regarding God and His revealed truths regarding sin, no matter how popularized certain sins have become, somehow offend you?" My response is that I have escaped the R.C. church's obsession with "SIN" but I offer you an exclusive study I did of what JESUS said about sin thanks to which I published at http://jesuswouldbefurious.org/about/clergysins.html .
Andrew
7:21 am on Thursday, December 29, 2011
Ray...again, in reading your material and clearly observing your rejection of the teachings of Christ, particularly on the subject of sin, I find you in complete opposition to the most beautiful and important of prayers from our Lord Himself....may you be convicted by your life of false teaching, repent and follow the Lord in His truth...you live for a perishing world who loves their sin...Their are massive consequences for those who worship God in a way that He does not accept! There are even greater consequences for those that lead them, as you have your entire life...
Read here what our Lord prays about regarding the word (truth) which was given to us through Christ and His Apostles, and the unity of His people who are saved through the believing of "their" word...you are not of these people as you clearly reject His word and their word....John 17:20-23
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Ray Dubuque
7:19 pm on Thursday, December 29, 2011
Andrew,
My answers to you direct you to the TEACHING of JESUS on my site and you show no interest in what he teaches!