WHY I AM NO LONGER CATHOLIC? This personal account of my conversion from Roman Catholicism has been the first time I will ever talk about it in social media. In my personal testimonials in public, I talked about it lightly, because Id like to give focus on the gospel. But due to its relevance, I think I am indebted to the gospel itself to say why I, a critical, conservative-thinker would leave the Roman Catholic church. My roots and familys spirituality WERE founded in the Roman Catholicism. In fact, my mother named me Maria, because she said she prayed to God and Mary to give her a child, even at her age of 36, having no boyfriend or hubby. (As she was so tomboyish). And she met my father, and they had me. At 8 years old, in my elementary school, the Don Bosco Tondo Parish would send their cathechism teachers to teach us the Catholic catechism. I remember memorizing those stories from all the gospels. We were told that Mary, should be venerated because she was the mother of Jesus. The sacraments, such as the eucharist (holy communion); penitence (every Saturdays); the confessions are al necessary to be accepted by God and by the church. A failure to do those on a regular basis means committing sin, to God. Hence, my first childhood dream: to become a Catholic saint. From second grade to sixth grade, I got the Best in Religion Awards,and this means not only for a bunch of school children, but for the entire Catholic parish every year, for each year level. I attend every Cathechism summer camp religiously every year. I am a member of the liturgical readers from when I was 8-11. I was a member of the church dance group; a Marys Singers choir; was singing in radio stations for the church choir, etc. etc. In fact, the priests, the laymen and the teachers themselves would stop at our house every now and then for my school awards party. My entire upbringing was centered around Catholic religiosity. I was a well-known figure to the parish...until.... In 1998, I started reading Chick Publications, Rebecca Browns He Came to Set the Captives Free, Prepare for War, and other Christian publications exposing the Catholic faith. Around the same time, there was a Baptist pastor who visited my high school to share the gospel. By this time, I found a renewed faith, I realized my need for the gospel and repentance. I considered myself a renewed, born-again Catholic, if there was ever such. But beyond that, there are much darker reasons I left that parish, where I had my spiritual upbringing, where I kneeled on the altar every Saturday and Sunday to pray; where I paid respect to Mary, the Crucifix and the wafer. It was true that my faith was sincere, but as I was growing up, I also saw and heard of the corruption always often mentioned as scandals. I was then a part of the dance group made of teenagers and kids organized by one of the priests. We were sent to Tagaytay, Batangas, to perform a dance number in an international event, which were just part of the adventures I had including summer camps. That summer, after this event, I saw Father so-and so sending a hand signal to the parish priest..which meant Wheres the money? This was after a few hours of dancing hard, of skipping play time, tiredness and ire from our trainer. I felt my world crumble. I put my hope in this church, and I didnt realize what was happening all througout. These spiritual leaders that I looked up to, were using us to pool talent or donation money. I was 11 years old, in sixth grade. To add, there are rumors of secret relationships between a brother and a friend, of teachers who molested kids. And when I read Christian literature at 14, I knew it was time to go. I said goodbye to the Sunday mass, the scholarship I had for three years. And my mother freaked out. I was questioned by my school adviser and teachers, by my catechism teachers, by my friends, by everyone. I was nagged everyday. I was so much persecuted for a conviction I made at such a young age. But I knoew that God empowered me and gave me the boldness. (How I let my parents believe in my new-found faith is another story) At this young age, what would have pushed me to leave the faith, that made me receptive to faith in God, at the expense of being questioned by the whole world. My faith in God was not shattered, in fact it was made stronger--this time by faith in Gods word. The Catholic teaching of the communion teaches that the wafer, turns into the body and blood of Jesus during the mass(Transubstantiation). I embraced this teaching when I was a child, but come to think of it, even a childs mind would find hard to rationalize that. I questioned everything even when I had my first communion when I was 8. I questioned why I had to touch and kiss the statue of the nazarene beside the altar, why I had to look at the statue of Mary and the crucifix when I prayed. I even questioned why Jesus was always there, crucified on that cross. And while they were saying that JESUS is all-powerful, why does he seem so weak? At the back of my young, inquisitive mind, I knew something was wrong with what they were telling me. The doctrine of transubstantiation is actually a repetitive declaration and murder of Christ. It is founded on pagan beliefs. The Christ that they are declaring in the mass is not the LIVING CHRIST, but the dead one. How? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation In the Council of Trent, Catholic doctrine holds condemned those who will not believe this teaching: If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as in a sign, or figure or force, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA. [105] If anyone says that in the sacred and, holy sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denies that wonderful and singular change of the whole substance of the bread into the body and the whole substance of the wine into the blood, the appearances only of bread and wine remaining, which change the Catholic Church most aptly calls transubstantiation, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA. [106] (Council of Trent, 1545-1563, Session 13, Canons on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, Canon 1) By substitution, during the mass, the Christ wafer is repeatedly offered with his body and blood. A symbolic human sacrifice that is satanic in nature. There is no way Christ would transform into a wafer, but the Catholic mass is celebrating this offering, as if Christ dies each time. I profess, likewise, that in the Mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially, the Body and Blood, together with the Soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation. - (Pope Pius IV, The Trentine Creed or The Creed of Pius IV, 1564 A.D.) The Bible says : ...so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:23) I will leave the same challenge to my Catholic friends who are so mesmerized by the Charisma of the Pope, the hype in the media and all the glitter of their so-called religion. Jesus did not come with pomp and glamour. He came to save sinners (such as YOU AND ME) by offering His life, the God-creator, laid aside His deity, to die in your place and mine. He died only ONCE, an offering for the sins of all mankind, and not in a repetitive, agnostic ritual that blasphemes this one-for-all GREAT sacrifice. He was the lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, not a mystic wafer. If at this moment, you would say like I said when I was learning about this But, its the Catholic Church, how could they be wrong? How could hundreds of years and tradition be wrong? Everything that my parents, my grandparents and even my society believes, how could they all be wrong? Let me lead you to the word of God which WILL NEVER be wrong. If you think that what the church is saying is more important than the Bible, go ahead. But if you think that the Bible has the utmost authority, because it is simply Gods word, listen and Come to the true Jesus, who saves you, all-powerfully and greatly, because HE IS GOD, and not religion. Not a false leader, with political and worldly motives.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 03:19:50 +0000
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