Catholic Online Forum

This is something I hear people say all the time. So-and-so is a good Catholic because..., or they are not a good Catholic because... Certainly, I do not claim to be innocent of having thought this at times. What makes someone a good Catholic? I emphasise that, as a good Christian is (arguably?) a different topic. I believe it would be possible to be a good Christian while being a terrible Catholic. Jesus was Jewish after all

Personally, I consider regular attendance and involvement in the mass to be important. I cannot understand people who consider themselves Catholic, yet never attend mass, or even those who only attend once or twice a year. I do not believe merely being there in body, yet not in spirt, has any value either. If you do not involve yourself in the mass (in whatever way `involve' means to the individual), then I feel you were not really there. We are all individuals, so I acknowledge and respect that different people seek different things from the mass, and are involved in their own way, but there are those who attend merely out of a sense of obligation and are more interested in the football score than the liturgy.

Beyond that value, however, I am very undecided. I am the second generation after Vatican II, so I get very mixed messages from people around me. There are those who remember pre-Vatican II and embrace it, those who remember and reject it (or were never educated in it), those who do not remember but grew up during the changes (my parents' generation). All have very different values and tell such conflicting views on what a good Catholic is. Indeed, my personal value judgement around the mass could well be wrong too!

What makes someone a good Catholic?

_________________
Matthew Percival
Sacristan, Sacred Heart Cathedral Bendigo

A question the answer to which, as is "What makes a good Christian"; person, etc is known authoritatively only by God. Any answer given by a fallible human being, any and all of whom are incapable of seeing into one's intent, would be based on what we can know of another based on imperfect observation and intellect.

My answer, with that caveat in mind, would be that a good Catholic, Christian, etc. would the same for all . . . the person whose intent, words and actions are most closely aligned with God's will.

_________________
In Christ,

Jim B

I will consider your position if stated with firm, well-thought-out, quiet reasoning. Hateful diatribe, ad hominem attacks and shouted rhetoric don't impress.

Matthew,

"I see no inconsistency in my being at once a good Catholic and a good Englishman." (Bl John Henry Newman, Letter to the Duke of Norfolk)

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/angli ... index.html

Perhaps a pity he didn't define either term.

_________________
James Daly

"It is the Lord." (Jn 21:7)

I suspect a truly "Good Catholic" would emulate Jesus in all aspects of behavior and demeanor which certainly leaves me out. Some might even say I was a Bad Catholic but a Decent Christian.

_________________
BobA

Archbishop Chaput said, "If they don't believe what the Church teaches, they're not really Catholic."

_________________
Grace

As to the past, let us entrust it to God's mercy, the future to Divine Providence. Our task is to live holy the present moment. - Saint Gianna Molla

One who loves God and neighbor, which is necessarily demonstrated by keeping the precepts of the Church and not being content to remain in mortal sin. That would be the minimum criteria, in my opinion.

_________________
Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

Here's a recent article on labels:

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/ ... d-labeling

_________________
Andrew McAllister

Respect for the dignity of every innocent human being from conception/fertilization, without exception, without compromise, without apology.

The Church teaches an awful lot (how many pages in the CCC?). Knowing it all, believing it, and following it may well be nigh on to impossible. So perhaps "good Catholicism" should be measured by degrees.

_________________
David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx