Returning to the catholic church

StereoSound

Hi,
I was born and baptised as a catholic, I am wondering If I change my religion to whatever it may be and down the line I decide to come back to the catholic church is it as easy as just attending service again or do I have to be re baptised as a catholic again?

The reason I ask is because my gf is not a catholic and she would like me to attend her church and get baptised but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if I cannot return to the catholic church after being baptised under another religion.

Thanks

Benny_Cake

StereoSound wrote: »

Hi,
I was born and baptised as a catholic, I am wondering If I change my religion to whatever it may be and down the line I decide to come back to the catholic church is it as easy as just attending service again or do I have to be re baptised as a catholic again?

The reason I ask is because my gf is not a catholic and she would like me to attend her church and get baptised but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if I cannot return to the catholic church after being baptised under another religion.

Thanks

The Catholic Church is very big on the idea that once you've been baptised, you're baptised and nothing can change that. Even if you were baptised in a Protestant or Orthodox church, the baptism would be viewed as being completely valid from a Roman Catholic point of view.

StereoSound

Benny_Cake wrote: »

The Catholic Church is very big on the idea that once you've been baptised, you're baptised and nothing can change that. Even if you were baptised in a Protestant or Orthodox church, the baptism would be viewed as being completely valid from a Roman Catholic point of view.

So if I convert to a Buddha or a Muslim or whatever other religion is out there and feel I'd like to return to my roots I can return without having to rebapise or anything? Just go to church on Sunday as usual and that's it?

Manach

I'd not be able to answer the OP's question with exactitude, but the following website ( http://www.catholicscomehome.org/ ) , which seems to be affiliated with EWTN, acts as a form of clearing house for general FAQs on the subject.

Benny_Cake

StereoSound wrote: »

So if I convert to a Buddha or a Muslim or whatever other religion is out there and feel I'd like to return to my roots I can return without having to rebapise or anything? Just go to church on Sunday as usual and that's it?

Yep, anyone can go along to church in any case, even if you were never a Christian or a Roman Catholic.

The one proviso in the case of the RCC is that it would probably be expected that you attend confession before receiving the eucharist, but even lifelong practicing Catholics are expected to attend regular confession (at least that's the idea, anyway!).

P_Cash

Is she making you concert?

Don't understand why some couples feel they need to officially covert one to the others religion.

StereoSound

P_Cash wrote: »

Is she making you concert?

Don't understand why some couples feel they need to officially covert one to the others religion.

Yes because it seems that if we decided to marry one day our religious differences would mean I would have to convert to her religion. How do I know if what we have will leed to marriage so hence my original question.

P_Cash

StereoSound wrote: »

Yes because it seems that if we decided to marry one day our religious differences would mean I would have to convert to her religion. How do I know if what we have will leed to marriage so hence my original question.

But lots of people get married but have different religions.

The only thing i can think your talking about is a religion were u are not welcome, as ur not converted. But then i ask, why not her join you.

I know someone who left ther religion simply cause of rules like this. They joined another religion where she was welcome and had nothing official to do like baptism etc. . I guess she could always walk in to her own church again

StereoSound

P_Cash wrote: »

But lots of people get married but have different religions.

The only thing i can think your talking about is a religion were u are not welcome, as ur not converted. But then i ask, why not her join you.

I know someone who left ther religion simply cause of rules like this. They joined another religion where she was welcome and had nothing official to do like baptism etc. . I guess she could always walk in to her own church again

I asked her and she won't convert to a catholic because it would offend her family and they may wash their hands of her unfortunately. So since I'm the man she says I should be the one to take the initiative. Her whole family are very firm in their beliefs. I wouldn't want to damage her relationship with her own family either.

Peregrinus

You will not need to be baptised again if you return to the Catholic church. Indeed, you cannot be baptised again, in the Catholic view; the spiritual effects of baptism are irreversible so once baptised, always baptised.

But.

If you formally join another church (e.g. by being baptised in that church), this does mean that (in the Catholic view) you have definitely ceased to be a Catholic. And while you are always welcome back, they do want a little bit more than you simply turning up again as if you had never been away. It's called being "reconciled to the church". It doesn't involve baptism, because you're already baptised, but if you want to be reconciled you should speak to a priest, who (as Benny says) will almost certainly suggest that you should make your confession, and will offer to hear it for you.

(There's a separate issue, obviously, over whether you should convert to her religion in the first place under the kind of pressure that is being put on you, and over the impact this might have on your relationship with your girlfriend, but you don't ask for advice about that, so I'll say nothing beyond pointing out that you should think about this.)

P_Cash

Sorry now, but what your doing is not taking a decision as a couple.

How's is this meeting half way.

I suppose they want any future kids in their camp also.

Im hot headed on things like this with families interfering with couples and even their future kids.

Should be letting ye do as ye want, just be happy

j80ezgvc3p92xu

Hi Stereo Sound, you seem like a nice guy but the way you are acting is very childish...

You need to stop for a second and think about what you are doing, bring it back to basic philosophy. Truth is objective, not subjective. There can be one truth. If I say the sky is blue and you say it is orange it follows that one of us is right and the other must be wrong. Similarly with religion. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour than Allah cannot be God and Muhammad his prophet. Religion is concerned with saving the soul, it is not just something you can hop from one to another. Granted if you start reading another religion's holy text and decide this is the way to salvation after much thought and contemplation it would make sense. But just switching faith for the sake of your girlfriend? With a caveat that you might go back if she dumps you? I think you should really try to put things into perspective, I hope I'm not rambling on but all religions are not the same, it is the salvation of your soul you are gambling with and the stakes are extremely high.

GraceyHart

StereoSound wrote: »

Hi,
I was born and baptised as a catholic, I am wondering If I change my religion to whatever it may be and down the line I decide to come back to the catholic church is it as easy as just attending service again or do I have to be re baptised as a catholic again?

The reason I ask is because my gf is not a catholic and she would like me to attend her church and get baptised but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if I cannot return to the catholic church after being baptised under another religion.

Thanks

I left and did not return but the fact you have baptismal and confirmation would keep you a catholic on return for marriage say. It's the other way around notifying a priest and going through an official severance from the church process. Being baptised at another church (sounds evangelical perhaps with adult baptism) is not you leaving Catholism as that's not what that particular baptism means but a declaration before God regarding your personal faith. It's not an act of you entering another church or faith. That can only happen if you decide at the new baptism that's what you want. Really you shouldn't go through with it if you're asking such a question. Why don't you explore your gf faith as it will matter to you as marriage and kids start to happen and faith issues become huge between couples then

GraceyHart

Peregrinus wrote: »

You will not need to be baptised again if you return to the Catholic church. Indeed, you cannot be baptised again, in the Catholic view; the spiritual effects of baptism are irreversible so once baptised, always baptised.

But.

If you formally join another church (e.g. by being baptised in that church), this does mean that (in the Catholic view) you have definitely ceased to be a Catholic. And while you are always welcome back, they do want a little bit more than you simply turning up again as if you had never been away. It's called being "reconciled to the church". It doesn't involve baptism, because you're already baptised, but if you want to be reconciled you should speak to a priest, who (as Benny says) will almost certainly suggest that you should make your confession, and will offer to hear it for you.

(There's a separate issue, obviously, over whether you should convert to her religion in the first place under the kind of pressure that is being put on you, and over the impact this might have on your relationship with your girlfriend, but you don't ask for advice about that, so I'll say nothing beyond pointing out that you should think about this.)

The spiritual effects of baptism are irreversible! That is incorrect. If you walk away from your faith. You have walked away. It's called backsliding in the Christian faith. Baptism is not a lifelong member card. It was a promise by your parents to raise you in the faith until your confirmation when you take over. The correct procedure would be to allow these kids to grow and choose God themselves as is Biblical and be baptised then

katydid

StereoSound wrote: »

Hi,
I was born and baptised as a catholic, I am wondering If I change my religion to whatever it may be and down the line I decide to come back to the catholic church is it as easy as just attending service again or do I have to be re baptised as a catholic again?

The reason I ask is because my gf is not a catholic and she would like me to attend her church and get baptised but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if I cannot return to the catholic church after being baptised under another religion.

Thanks

If you're baptised, you can't be re-baptised. You were baptised a Christian, not a Roman Catholic or a Protestant or whatever. You can leave the Roman Catholic church and come back again any time you want, because you never really leave. There's no official method of leaving (as has been discussed elsewhere).

May I say that in my opinion I would think you should do what YOU want to do as regards religion and not do what other people want just to please them.

hinault

StereoSound wrote: »

Hi,
I was born and baptised as a catholic, I am wondering If I change my religion to whatever it may be and down the line I decide to come back to the catholic church is it as easy as just attending service again or do I have to be re baptised as a catholic again?

The reason I ask is because my gf is not a catholic and she would like me to attend her church and get baptised but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if I cannot return to the catholic church after being baptised under another religion.

Thanks

Once you are baptised as a Catholic that "spiritual mark" remains with you throughout your life whether you are an observant Catholic or not.
You are not required to be rebaptised once you have been baptised.

The issue of attending services non-Catholic services, for a Catholic is problematic.
By rights, only sacraments administered by the Catholic Church have God's grace according to Catholic teaching.

Ideally, you should be attending Catholic sacraments such Mass weekly. If you attend services at your gf's church but you're maintaining you're attending Mass every Sunday too, then I cannot see any real harm.

It is worth remembering though that the services provided outside of the Catholic church do not include God's grace according to Catholic teaching.

Peregrinus

Important to qualify this in two respects, I think.

First, the Catholic church doesn't teach that the sacraments and celebrations of non-Catholic churches are not or cannot be vehicles of God's grace. On the contrary, they may very well be, and the Catholic church explicitly acknowledges this. The Catholic church just doesn't offer any assurance that they are.

Secondly, there's an exception for the sacrament of baptism, which the Catholic church regards as fully sacramental whenever celebrated in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, regardless of who celebrates it or where it is celebrated.

COYVB

Aleena Mammoth Bazooka wrote: »

If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour than Allah cannot be God

Are allah and god not one in the same?

COYVB

Regarding the OP, surely if you believed in the teachings of Catholicism you wouldn't be considering switching religion for anything or anyone? Would the fact that you're asking, considering, and seemingly going to act on the switch not indicate to you that you don't take your Catholicism all that seriously to begin with?

You can't just bounce from one religion to the other based on what suits your living arrangements at any given time...

ScumLord

As long as their Christian I don't see what the difference is, even if they're Muslim it's all the same god ye're worshipping.

If you're worried about upsetting the Catholic sensibilities just keep repeating "mary's a virgin" in your head when they're saying their prayers.

DEFTLEFTHAND

It's like Hotel California once you're Baptised, take Communion and become Confirmed you're a full made member of the Church and you can never leave. You are apart of the one true faith, founded by Christ himself.

A soldier of Christ.

Festus

StereoSound wrote: »

Hi,
I was born and baptised as a catholic, I am wondering If I change my religion to whatever it may be and down the line I decide to come back to the catholic church is it as easy as just attending service again or do I have to be re baptised as a catholic again?

The reason I ask is because my gf is not a catholic and she would like me to attend her church and get baptised but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if I cannot return to the catholic church after being baptised under another religion.

Thanks

You're the man. If you want to change your religion because of your girlfriend that is your choice but it smacks of intolerance on her part. Possibly even sectarianism.
What is wrong with you remaining a Catholic?

You can attend her church but as a Catholic there are restrictions on some activities, especially if the activity is heretical. That said, as a Catholic if you have not been to confession for some time there are restrictions on your activites within the Catholic Church - for example if you have been sexually active outside of marriage, alone or with another, you cannot receive Holy Communion. Many Catholics have no issue with this and quite simply do not go to the altar to receive until they are once again in good standing with the Church.

I don't know if you consider yourself a practising Catholic or not but if you are I would suggest you and your girlfriend sit down and have a very open discussion.

Mrs OBumble

Do you have any idea what you actually believe in? What the links between what you personally believe in and the teachings of either the Catholic or your GF's church are?

Being in a church isn't actually just like a GAA club, where so long as you play the right game, no matter what you think of it, all is OK.

j80ezgvc3p92xu

ScumLord wrote: »

As long as their Christian I don't see what the difference is, even if they're Muslim it's all the same god ye're worshipping.

I honestly do not know whether to laugh or cry when I read comments like this. Are Hinduism and Christianity also the same religions?

Nick Park

StereoSound wrote: »

Yes because it seems that if we decided to marry one day our religious differences would mean I would have to convert to her religion. How do I know if what we have will leed to marriage so hence my original question.

I wouldn't put much hope in a marriage lasting where one partner is pretending to embrace a religion in order to keep a girlfriend happy.

I am not a Catholic, btw, but such shallowness makes me despair.

If you really want to be a Catholic, and are not genuinely convinced that her religion is true, then stay in the Catholic Church. If she cannot really love you for who you are, and if you feel the need to pretend to be something you're not, then your marriage is going to be built on dishonesty. And that will not turn out well.

Peregrinus

Well, you might think so. I might think so. But this may not actually be the right way of looking at matters.

First thing we note is that most people have broadly the same religious beliefs/practices as their nearest and dearest. This, of course, is because they are raised with them, but when they get to adulthood and independent judgment they tend not to make hugely radical changes to their religious stance. Religion is something we do collectively as well as individually, and it is largely expressed in how we form and live our our relationships. All of which suggests that it might be easier to be happy, fulfilled and enriched in our religious life and practice if it something we share with those we love.

This creates a tension for Christians (and perhaps particularly for Protestant Christians) who focus on faith as the foundation of religion. Just because a religious position, or the sharing of a religious position, makes you happy or otherwise fulfilled doesn't make the associated belief true, does it?

Other religious traditions don't experience quite this tension. Jews, as we know, don't particularly encourage conversion to Judaism, and in fact approach potential converts with a degree of reserve, the attitude being "if you're not born a Jew, why on earth would you want to become one?" But of course they will accept your conversion if you are persistent, and one of the reason for convertion that they regard as respectable is "peace in the house" - meaning, I want to become Jewish because my partner is Jewish, and I want to live a Jewish way of life in support of him or her. They understand that, and have no problem with it. They'll want to check that you also think that living a Jewish way of life is good for a Jew and that this is a real commitment and not a passing fancy but, once they tick those boxes, you're good to go.

We live in an age of uncertainty. As Richard Dawkins and others never tire of pointing out, we can't know that the claims of Christianity are true - not, at least, with the same certainty, and through the same methodology, as we can know that, e.g., the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared. Some might respond that they know religious truths with certainty in a different way, as the consequence of internal or mystical experiences that they have had. But of course not everybody has such experiences.

A great many believers choose to believe. That is, they accept that the truths of Christianity (or whatever) may, in fact, not be true at all, but they believe them to be true, they want them to be true and they choose to trust them and to live in accordance with them. They would rather live this way; they consider it worthwhile to live this way. They'll take the risk that they might be wrong.

That seems to me to be real faith, since it involves trust in something desired but unknowable, and it involves building your life around that trust.

Whether we like it or not, such people probably can move from one religious tradition to at least some others in order to share their faith lives with people they love, and it can work. They may not be convinced of the inerrant truth of the tradition they have chosen, but since their faith wasn't grounded in a conviction of inerrant truth in the first place, that need not be a source of tension for them. Just as they previously lived as (say) Catholics, while accepting that Catholic teachings might in fact be incorrect, so they can live as (say) Jehovah's Witnesses, while accepting the same thing. It often works for them.

Lucena

COYVB wrote: »

Are allah and god not one in the same?

They appear to disagree about such issues as the consumption of alcohol and pork, to take the best known examples.

It therefore seems unlikely that it's the same god.

Festus

Lucena wrote: »

They appear to disagree about such issues as the consumption of alcohol and pork, to take the best known examples.

It therefore seems unlikely that it's the same god.

Jews and Christians differ on the issue of food yet worship the same God do they not?

40,000 some Protestant denominations all have disagreements about something - do they all worship a different God?

Lucena

The Jewish God doesn't want His flock to eat pork. The Christian God doesn't mind if His flock eats pork. Either it's two differents Gods, or He keeps changing His mind.

COYVB

Lucena wrote: »

The Jewish God doesn't want His flock to eat pork. The Christian God doesn't mind if His flock eats pork. Either it's two differents Gods, or He keeps changing His mind.

Or one of the flocks is wrong

Gunney

Lucena wrote: »

The Jewish God doesn't want His flock to eat pork. The Christian God doesn't mind if His flock eats pork. Either it's two differents Gods, or He keeps changing His mind.

The same GOd who made a Covenant with the Jews made a new Covenant with the Christians when He became the New Covenant Himself, a new covenant the Jews were expecting but rejected so they must live their lives without bacon on their cheese burgers.
Oh, and, no foreskins either.