10 Reasons to become Catholic

Michie

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*You are in the Catholic forum*

"The difficulty of explaining 'why I am a Catholic' is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true."- G.K. Chesterton

1- The Faith is true

2- The Faith is beautiful

3-The Faith is good

4- A cloud of witnesses

5-The Sacraments

6-It's filled with sinners

7-A Faith for everyone

8- The Catholic Faith is a fighting Faith

9-The Catholic Church is truly universal

10-The Church is ancient

Continued below.
All Roads Lead to Rome: 10 Reasons to Become Catholic
 

Arcangl86

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*You are in the Catholic forum*

"The difficulty of explaining 'why I am a Catholic' is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true."- G.K. Chesterton

1- The Faith is true

2- The Faith is beautiful

3-The Faith is good

4- A cloud of witnesses

5-The Sacraments

6-It's filled with sinners

7-A Faith for everyone

8- The Catholic Faith is a fighting Faith

9-The Catholic Church is truly universal

10-The Church is ancient

Continued below.
All Roads Lead to Rome: 10 Reasons to Become Catholic
I found the following paragraph interesting.

And so the real proof of the truth and reality of the Catholic faith is not her universities or scholastic philosophers, but the lives of the saints. They bear witness to a higher law, a higher order, and ultimately to the living person of Christ. The burned with an almost insane love for Christ, a love that inspired them to things that seem to the world plain crazy. They were consumed by a vision of the eternal that transcends, but does not contradict, all human reason and rationality. Their transformation, their lives, their works, the witness of their love—these are the real proofs that the Catholic faith is absolutely true.
How does that account for other Churches such as the Orthodox Church which share many of the same saints and have more besides, or even other ecclesial communities that have their own holy martyrs and confessors to look up to?
 
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anna ~ grace

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I found the following paragraph interesting.


How does that account for other Churches such as the Orthodox Church which share many of the same saints and have more besides, or even other ecclesial communities that have their own holy martyrs and confessors to look up to?
The Orthodox are awesome, too, and very close to us. But they are not in union with Rome, simply in union with all of or some of each other. It's a very different ecclesiology. They do have some great Saints, thinkers, and very holy men and women, though.
 
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thecolorsblend

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*You are in the Catholic forum*

"The difficulty of explaining 'why I am a Catholic' is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true."- G.K. Chesterton

1- The Faith is true

2- The Faith is beautiful

3-The Faith is good

4- A cloud of witnesses

5-The Sacraments

6-It's filled with sinners

7-A Faith for everyone

8- The Catholic Faith is a fighting Faith

9-The Catholic Church is truly universal

10-The Church is ancient

Continued below.
All Roads Lead to Rome: 10 Reasons to Become Catholic
I'm really glad that everybody here is commenting on this affirmation of Catholicism with their own affirmations of the Church rather than asking inane questions that put Catholics in the position of having to justify our faith on our forum.

Sarcasm aside, I don't see how all ten of those items are true of non-Catholic groups. I have some respect for the Orthodox Church but the older I get, the harder it becomes to respect Protestantism, evangelicalism, "reformed" theology and so forth.
 
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dzheremi

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I think what that shows is maybe a kind of invisible unity. We would probably have to look at it situation by situation.

I hope this won't come across as snarky or argumentative, as that's not ever my intent here on OBOB, but I can't help but notice how the post two posts above yours makes the clear dividing line between the Orthodox and the Catholics that the latter are in communion with Rome, while the former are not. This is, then, a very public, visibly-manifested -- i.e., not invisible -- unity, right? Sorry, but I just found it strange to read this idea on OBOB of all places, since the Catholic communion has probably the most 'visible' ecclesiastical unity you'll find in Christendom, in the sense that I don't recall ever hearing or seeing an Eastern Orthodox person define their unity as being "in union with Constantinople" specifically, even though they certainly are, just as no Oriental Orthodox person defines our unity as being "in union with Etchmiadzin" specifically, though we certainly are.

So...no wider point to make, I guess, I just found it odd and wondered if you or any other Catholic person could comment on it. How do you have 'invisible' unity with people who are clearly not in visible unity with you, and don't share your ecclesiology?
 
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Michie

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Wouldn't that be the foundation of Christianity. Our belief in Christ? We may practice differently but isn't the fact that we all believe Jesus Christ is our Savior be the foundational the unity we have?
I hope this won't come across as snarky or argumentative, as that's not ever my intent here on OBOB, but I can't help but notice how the post two posts above yours makes the clear dividing line between the Orthodox and the Catholics that the latter are in communion with Rome, while the former are not. This is, then, a very public, visibly-manifested -- i.e., not invisible -- unity, right? Sorry, but I just found it strange to read this idea on OBOB of all places, since the Catholic communion has probably the most 'visible' ecclesiastical unity you'll find in Christendom, in the sense that I don't recall ever hearing or seeing an Eastern Orthodox person define their unity as being "in union with Constantinople" specifically, even though they certainly are, just as no Oriental Orthodox person defines our unity as being "in union with Etchmiadzin" specifically, though we certainly are.

So...no wider point to make, I guess, I just found it odd and wondered if you or any other Catholic person could comment on it. How do you have 'invisible' unity with people who are clearly not in visible unity with you, and don't share your ecclesiology?
 
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dzheremi

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Sure. Just for clarification's sake, I was just curious if the idea of 'invisible unity' had some kind of special meaning in Catholicism that it doesn't have outside of it, like when some Protestants make the 'invisible Church' argument. Usually Catholics are quick to reject that, and rightly so.

(NB: I don't mean to even slightly suggest that Davidnic was arguing that way, but that's why I asked the question. I don't really know what to make of it in a Catholic context.)
 
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Davidnic

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When the Catholic Church says invisible unity it is we don't know who may be saved by God outside of the Church.

Since there are centuries of built-up and calcified confusion and conflict, we do not know outside of visible unity what God is doing.

Occasionally we get glimpses that we are not as far apart as It seems. This does not change what we believe as far as the place of the Catholic Church in salvation, and the need to evangelize.

So we don't mean it in the same way our Protestant brothers and sisters do. But rather it is, there are many historical hurdles as well as the Church's own faults from its human members... These things may prevent someone from entering into visible unity.

We trust God is still working on salvation despite our faults and other human issues that get in the way.
 
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chevyontheriver

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I found the following paragraph interesting.


How does that account for other Churches such as the Orthodox Church which share many of the same saints and have more besides, or even other ecclesial communities that have their own holy martyrs and confessors to look up to?
We're not playing a zero sum game with the Orthodox.
 
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chevyontheriver

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Wouldn't that be the foundation of Christianity. Our belief in Christ? We may practice differently but isn't the fact that we all believe Jesus Christ is our Savior be the foundational the unity we have?
As in a common baptism. We DO recognize all Orthodox baptisms and almost all of Protestant baptisms, except for those rare few who have abandoned Trinitarian baptism.
 
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