How Many Here Are Going To Start Attending Mosque?

[Budge]

[quote][size=4]The Muslims should stop being mad at the Pope

...cause the Catholics are providing them with so many leaders.

Terrence Berres points to the new director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee: convert from Catholicism[/size]

Which follows up on last week's buzz about the new head of the Islamic Society of North America, another convert.

A short, trim woman with a quiet manner that belies her authority, Ms. Mattson grew up, by her own description, as a good, middle-class Roman Catholic school girl in Kitchener, Canada, a suburban community about 60 miles southwest of Toronto. She attended a Catholic girls high school and took piano lessons at the convent, spending hours in church praying or contemplating the art. It was a peaceful asylum removed from the raucous household where she was the sixth of seven children.

At 16, though, she stopped attending Mass. “I believe I made a very serious attempt to understand my faith,” she said, repeatedly sitting with her religion teacher to ask questions about Catholicism and spirituality. She found the answers wanting, she said, less and less relevant to her teenage life.

Ms. Mattson enrolled in the nearby University of Waterloo to study philosophy and fine arts, a determined agnostic. In 1986, while studying in Paris, she met her first Muslims, mostly West African students, and was struck by their warmth, dignity and generosity[/quote]

[url="http://terrenceberres.com/2006/09/familiar-face-new-name.html"]LINK ONE[/url]

[url="http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/nyregion/20mattson.html&OQ=_rQ3D3Q26orefQ3DsloginQ26orefQ3Dslogin&OP=185fac6dQ2FQ2BQ7BK8Q2BTsQ5B5!ssv-Q2B-mmqQ2Bm7Q2B-mQ2BQ22Q7D!KfQ3FsQ22Q2B-mjQ5Evv5sQ223Rvjp"]LINK TWO[/url]

[url="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6133579"]LATINAS CHOOSING ISLAM OVER CATHOLICISM[/url]

Edited September 26, 2006 by Budge

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Wow. Thanks for the heads up, Budge. I will really need to stay more on top of things as a catechist if there are so many who are teaching the faith so poorly that Catholics are becoming Muslims.

[Mateo el Feo]

Sadly, the past decades have seen an alarming number of Christians leave their faith for a number of false religions: atheism, agnosticism, paganism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.

We Catholics can't take credit for [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminah_Assilmi"]Aminah Assilmi[/url] or [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_McElwain"]Thomas McElwain[/url], prominent Muslims who converted from the Baptist religion. What does this say about the Baptist religion? Maybe you insulate yourself by thinking that they don't count because they weren't "independent Baptists."

Just curious, Budge. When you ask a patronizing question like, "How many here are going to start attending a Mosque?", what response are you hoping to elicit? It sounds like you take joy in "sticking it" to us Catholics. Once again, not a Christian way to act. See [url="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/1corinthians/1corinthians13.htm#v5"]1 Cor 14:5[/url]:[quote](Love) is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury.[/quote]
As Our Lord said ([url="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/mark/mark8.htm#v17"]Mark 8:18ff[/url]), "Is your heart hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?"

Harden not your heart, Budge.

[Mary-Kathryn]

Well, since I have converted to Catholicism, I should ask when you are going to attend Mass!

God Bless [and yes, I do know you are coming back home...God is calling you]

Mary-Kathryn

[Groo the Wanderer]

"At 16, though, she stopped attending Mass. “I believe I made a very serious attempt to understand my faith,” she said, repeatedly sitting with her religion teacher to ask questions about Catholicism and spirituality. She found the answers wanting, she said, less and less relevant to her teenage life."


I see a trend here, that sadly is repeated too many times in the Church.

1. stopped attending Mass - this is a clear indication she did not believe in the Real presence. I have yet to see ANYONE who fell away from Catholicism that did...

2. sitting with her religion teacher...she found the answers wanting - I am a catechist. I am a very good one, based on the feedback I get. Yet...I do not consider myself the authority to go to for those deep deep teen issues. If I am confronted by an issue I cannot fully explain to the kiddo's satisfaction, I send her/him to speak ot one of the priests. As for myself, if I was not happy with the answer I got as a teen, I would seek out a better authority on the subject matter.

Do not continue to make the mistake, Budge, of lumping all billion+ of us into the same situation as one isolated person. Because this precious child strayed does not mean that all of us will or would even be tempted to do so.

[EcceNovaFacioOmni]

The truth of a religion cannot be determined by how many people are converting from/to it. Islam is not true because people are converting to it, neither is Catholicism false because some people leave it.
If this story proves Catholicism is to some degree false, then it must follow that Islam is in some sense more true or fulfilling.

[Aloysius]

I'm confused... I thought where the latinos converted out of the Catholic Church into was the sign of the correct church (i.e. latinos converting to protestantism proved that protestantism was the true church before)... is Budge telling us that Islam is true? I mean, latino conversions are obviously the gauge for where the true religion is, right?

[Laudate_Dominum]

[i]What wrong with that anyway? We all worship the same God, who cares if you're a muslim, a christian, a jew, or whatever? And who are you to judge? I have a right to determine for myself what's right and wrong. And no one goes to hell, people just have to be true to themselves and since we can't help how we were born God doesn't send anyone to hell, we're all saved.

Jesus was just saying that we should do what makes us happy and not hurt anyone. We also shouldn't eat meat since this hurts animals. Although I guess it's ok to eat fish since they don't have any feelings. This is why fish on Fridays makes sense for Catholics.

Some people around here need to be more tolerant and open-minded.[/i]

- My tongue-in-cheek impression of someone I used to know. Performed for no particular reason other than slight boredom.

[melporcristo]

What about those converting from Islam to Catholicism?
The largest St. Therese of Lisieux shrine is actually in Kyro, Egypt where Islam is the biggest religion.
Also, check out the book, "Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail" a true story by Malika Oufkir, who was the daughter of Islam General Oufkir. Her and her brothers where trapped in the desert and began to remember Catholic hymns about the faith taught to them by a Catholic friend of theirs. They believe they were saved by Christ and His Blessed Mother's intercession and converted as soon as they were free.

Thank you for letting us know about those who have left the faith so we can continue to pray for them. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop me as a Catholic from believing in my faith where we believe in taking up our Cross each day and uniting our sufferings with the Lord. The Islam faith does NOT have a solution to pain and suffering.

Edited September 26, 2006 by melporcristo

[Lil Red]

[quote name='melporcristo' post='1075861' date='Sep 26 2006, 02:58 PM'] Also, check out the book, "Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail" a true story by Malika Oufkir, who was the daughter of Islam General Oufkir. Her and her brothers where trapped in the desert and began to remember Catholic hymns about the faith taught to them by a Catholic friend of theirs. They believe they were saved by Christ and His Blessed Mother's intercession and converted as soon as they were free.[/quote]great book! :

[homeschoolmom]

Moves this book to the top of my "must read" list...

[Ash Wednesday]

If popularity = truth, then what are we waiting for? Sex, drugs and rock and roll await us.

[Winchester]

Isn't there a news section on this site?

[avemaria40]

I'm a Catholic and I will never become a Muslim because that would mean leaving Jesus.

If I went to mosque, it would be once, as an observer, to learn about their religion so that I could teach them about mine and understand where they are coming from in their belief.

For me, it would be like going to a Protestant church with my boyfriend's family, that is, I would go simply to learn about what he believes and how his faith impacts his life. I would not neglect going to Mass or forget my Catholic faith just by going to a worship service of another religion.

And just because people leave the Church doesn't make it not true. Jesus said there would be those who didn't believe in Him, that doesn't mean He's made up.

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Lil Red' post='1075901' date='Sep 26 2006, 05:37 PM']
great book! :
[/quote]
I hope so, lol --- I'm buying a copy
you both have sold me on it

[quote name='Mateo el Feo' post='1075739' date='Sep 26 2006, 01:54 PM']
Sadly, the past decades have seen an alarming number of Christians leave their faith for a number of false religions: atheism, agnosticism, paganism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.
[/quote]

this thread really IS a good "heads up" ---Whether or not it was intended that way

Too many Catholics are lost to other faiths as it is, mostly to poor education, instruction… and then lack of example by knowledgeable Catholics around them.
We know this... and now this is being taken advantage of, not by anti-Catholic Christians, not by "The Watchtower People," ...but by Islam