Why are some Catholics loyal to their faith and some are not?

Answer 1

A:

For many Catholics, there is genuine faith, such that they will always be loyal to the Church. For some Catholics, their faith offers comfort and hope. I listened to an older woman explain how, no matter what her doubts were, she needed to believe, because it was the hope that she would rejoin her husband in heaven that kept her going. In cases like this there is a willing suspension of disbelief.

As with all faiths, some Catholics begin to have doubts. They see the Church as a man-made institution and God as non-existent. In other cases, there is still belief, but the Church has been abandoned because it is seen as a harbour for paedophiles and corrupt clergy, with bishops providing cover for criminals.

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Catholic AnswerVery simple question with a very simple answer. Every human being ever born, saving four: Adam, Eve, Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, and His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, are born into this world with Original Sin on their souls. The effects of Original Sin on the soul are manifold, and covered in the Catechism, but to be brief: there is a difficulty in knowing God, the harmony of the human person has been destroyed and invaded with evil. Man has lost the grace of original holiness, and is subject to concupiscence. Which all adds up to the world and everyone of us in it is held ruled by the power of the evil one - Satan. To overcome concupiscence, and to achieve right judgment is the work of a lifetime and is almost never accomplished in this life; further, it can only be overcome by Grace, which is given by God in the sacraments. The very few who do overcome it, with God's assistance, in this life, are called Saints, and honored by the Church as such. Bottom line, EVERYONE in the Church is a sinner. If you read The Bible, you will quickly find out that, in the Old Testament, God's people (the Israelites) constantly turned from God and sinned. Well, nothing has changed since then, except that God came into the world and gave us the sacraments in order for us to work out our salvation "with fear and trembling", however, we are all sinners as St. Paul points out, everyone of us, but we are not to judge others but to continue to get up each morning and be converted again to the Lord. Some Catholics make the heroic effort with God's help to continue to come back to him to the end of their lives. Most do not, and Our Blessed Lord predicted this two thousand years ago, please read the seventh chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel which covers judging others (Matthew 7:1-5) "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.", and the narrow gate: (Matthew 7:13-14) "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction , and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."