As a practicing Catholic, I really dont understand how Catholics can be happy switching to a Protestant church. I’ve been to 100’s of Protestant services and they just dont compare to what is experienced at Catholic Mass. I know it’s just me and my experience but I’ve logically tried to compare and I just dont understand it. I can better understand those who leave the Church and dont join any Christian affiliated church.
As a now understanding Christian of Penal Substitutionary Atonement and non Mary worshiper, former Catholic, I can say it’s because after 12 years of Catholic school education, I didn’t know anything about Jesus or what He did for me. My Christian Biblical church preaches the truth from the Bible and believes in the Bible.
I am certainaly not a liberal. I sought the truth and the truth has set me free.
i am one of those former Catholics who has become Protestant... and my experience in the Catholic church did not compare to my experience in the Protestant churches... now i've been to numerous Protestant churches... they are not all the same... i've belonged to a mega church, a large church... and now a small church (all in the last 25 years)... in the last ten years as a homeschooling mother, i have been giving my kids a classical Christian education... we are doing Latin and Greek, Roman history and literature... and from this, i have come to appreciate the Catholic church more than when i was a practicing Catholic...
i just didn't come across a lot of Catholics who practiced their faith to the extent that the Protestants i met did... i know not all Protestants practice their faith... but in my experience, more of them seemed to have a personal relationship with Christ than the Catholics i knew... but i have since gotten to know Catholics who do have that personal relationship... i don't know that i will ever come back to the Catholic faith, but i am finding myself more drawn to a liturgical church...
i am grateful for my Catholic upbringing... i have always known of God's existence because of it...
To figure this out, you need to make a distinction between protestant churches (think of the large mainline denominations) and evangelical churchs (Baptist, independent, and fundamentalist denominations).
The truth is mainline protestant churches are also losing members at a huge rate. Evangelcal chruches, on the other hand, have been growing at a rapid pace. The serious churches are gowing, while the lukewarm churches are shrinking.
I suspect if you apply that same logic to the Catholic church, you'll find that the churches that are preaching a lukewarm message are shrinking, while those that are standing firm on doctrine are growing.
In other words, this isn't a protestant vs. Catholic issue, it is a liberal vs. conservative issue. The liberal wings of both protestants and Catholics is shrinking, while the conservative wing of both is growing.
Given that assumption, it's easy to see how someone attending a liberal (lukewarm) Catholic church could be attracted to a conservative evangelical church, or that someone attending a liberal (lukewarm) protestant church could be attracted to a conservative Catholic church.
Anglo-catholic, Lutheran are very similar to the catholic mass.
I am an Anglican, it is the best of both in my lil ol opinion.