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Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity

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rug

(82,333 posts)
Sat Dec 31, 2016, 06:37 AM Dec 2016

Why I became a Catholic in spite of everything I heard [View all]

Whatever the Protestants' arguments against becoming a Catholic, the unique and exemplary sinfulness of Catholics was not one



David Mills
December 30, 2016

I had told the story to illustrate some thoughts about mercy, but it was also a story that helped me into the Catholic Church. It’s the story of a small old-fashioned Baptist-y church I got to know as a secular-minded teenager, because friends brought me. (I told it here on Aleteia.)

It was the New England country church out of a fifties movie. A beautiful young woman started coming to the youth group, and because she had been abused by her father, some church members quickly drove her out. No one resisted very hard. People said, “She’s no better than she should be.” They worried that she might be promiscuous and might seduce the boys.

I don’t remember hearing a merciful word said about her or to her. Out she went. It was a wicked thing to do.

Catholics Acting Badly

Soon after I became a serious Christian, Protestant friends must have sensed in me a dangerous Catholic leaning I didn’t know I had. Out of the blue, they would tell me stories of Catholics acting badly. Even people I barely knew would do this. This went on for years, and some kept telling me the stories after my family and I had entered the Church.

http://aleteia.org/2016/12/30/why-i-became-a-catholic-in-spite-of-everything-i-heard/

Mark 2:

13 Once again he went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them.
14 As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
15 While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him.
16 Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 Jesus heard this and said to them (that), “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
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