Hi ericsmom,
Are you by any chance the mother of Eric who has posted here in the past?

1. Were you born/raised catholic?

I was born into a Polish Roman Catholic home and was raised the same. I attended parochial school and a Franciscan Prep school in Wisconsin.

2. How long ago did you leave the catholic church?

I left the Catholic church in 1985 when I was baptized by immersion into the fellowship of Calvary Baptist church in Sturtevant Wisconsin.

3. Why did you leave the catholic church (what made you start questioning your faith)?

I was born again at an evangelistic crusade and after that the doubts about Roman Catholic claims came fast. In reality I questioned the existence of purgatory when I was quite young. I of course did not want to go to hell, but I was being taught by my nuns that the fires of purgatory were just as hot, the only difference you would get out. That was the first time I could remember questioning anything I was taught.

4. Are you criticized by your family for no longer being catholic?

I was criticized incessantly by my younger brother. My parents did not understand my born again experience so their criticism was more along the lines that they brought me up Catholic and why was I doing this to them. My father is now deceased and my mother who is still Catholic does not herself now accept transubstatiation. My wife speaks to her now and then and my mother does listen to her testimony and the gospel.

My brother gave me grief constantly because he claimed that my sister who had been born again before I was and had left the RCC, was blamed by my brother for trying to destroy his faith. Of course I was being charged with the same thing and because of my new found faith he actually became a fanatical Catholic (joined with the charismatics), to the point of one time throwing my pocket New Testament across the room and throwing "holy" water at me. He was devoted to Mary and actually went to Yugoslavia to see what was going on in Medjugorje. He now lives off a woman and does not work a job.

Tim