I’ve had the opposite reaction. I say I go to church and somebody asks me which one, and when I say St. Lawrence, they, say “oh.” And drop the subject. At that point I usually assume somebody has “issues” with the Catholic church, like a divorce, or being pro-choice, or being a bitter Catholic school graduate.
But my husband came into the Church because people at work knew he was looking for a church and one of his coworkers told him about a Catholic inquiry class that was starting up. So there are some people who do a nice job of inviting, after all.
Of course. It's pretty common on FR to have FRoman Catholics presume the worst about why someone left Catholicism. It's never because they disagree with the RCC doctrine, now is it?
Problem is that Catholics have been so indoctrinated that it is simply beyond their comprehension that someone could not be a Catholic simply on the basis of finding differences between what the Bible states and what Catholicism teaches.
Well, newsflash, When I accepted Christ and became a Christian and felt the need to go back to church, I DID start by attending the Catholic church I was raised in. I went for months, and the longer I went, the more discrepancies I saw.
I was invited to attend an Evangelical church and was astounded at the difference in the services and teaching. I vacillated between the two for some months and finally made the break and never looked back.
And contrary to what I've been accused of, it was NOT over an issue of morality or sin in my life, or bitterness. It was a decision made with eyes wide open that I thought through carefully.
Courtesy pinging others who have been in the same boat because I KNOW my story is not so unusual. The people I've met who left the Catholic church have not done it over moral issues, but rather doctrinal, not being able to reconcile the teachings of Catholicism with Scripture.