Why do some consider themselves Catholic?

Ok, I know reading my blog you may think I am full of myself, but that is not quite true. However, I can honestly say that I hold no one up to a standard that is as high as the standard I hold for myself... yes I do drive myself CRAZY with my imperfections. However, as a member of Catholics United for the Faith I am sworn to up hold and spread the teachings of the Mother Church in Rome! So here I go again on another fit!

I found this on the following website.... http://ncrcafe.org/node/378

Here it is....

Does the Church really need more vocations?Submitted by laudateeum on August 21, 2006 - 10:39am. --- Parish Life <http://ncrcafe.org/forum/12>

We frequently hear and talk about vocations, as if they were a special calling, a direct communication from God. The hierarchy and clergy ask us to pray for priestly vocations as if we could move God to make his voice heard loud and clear in the minds and hearts of gifted men, but of course not of gifted women. So that married and single people do not feel left out, we talk about vocations to the married and single state. Doesn't anyone question this stuff?If I had a vocation, the seeds of it were sown in my family life and in my catholic school education. My parents' respect for priests was unconditional, as was the respect of the nuns and brothers who taught me. To be a priest was the highest calling one could have, they said. Still I had never met a priest who was a role model. As persons they were remote from my life. Yet, I held them in awe. I thought that I had heard a call to the priesthood when I told a chaplain at college that I sometimes thought about becoming a priest and he said to me that I should be encouraging that thought, not discouraging it. Up to that point I had always discouraged the thought of priesthood because I wanted to get married and have a family but from that day forward I became obsessed with the idea of becoming a priest. My girl friend did not like the idea but I put her and her feelings out of mind. I was called by God to leave family and friends.After seven years in the priesthood, I decided after much soul searching that it was not the life for me. Those in authority readily agreed. They made it easy for me to go and never really cared what became of me. They still don't, almost forty years later.I left the active priesthood with the belief that I had to answer to God for the decision to leave. No one in authority, not even the Pope, could make that decision right with God if it were the wrong decision. It was either right or it was wrong and I believed that it was right.Perhaps because there was much that was positive in my life as a priest I soon subscribed to the view of others that there was a legitimate role for temporary vocations in the priesthood. No Christian Community called me to serve it as a priest. I decided that I wanted to become a priest. After doing the requisite studies, prayer, meditation, and observance of the rules I was accepted into the priesthood. Was doing all those things for many years a sign that I was called? I don't know.We can talk about listening to God in prayer and self reflection, discerning his call in the deepest recesses of our being where we evaluate the events and experiences of our life. This call is very imprecise and personal, at times, contradictory. Is it truly a call or simply a decision making process?If I were to pray today for vocations to the priesthood it would not be a sincere prayer. I am not sure that anyone should choose to become a priest nor do I think that there is any such thing as a vocation to the priesthood. Furthermore, I do not sense that priests are very happy, and why would I want someone to choose a life that is not happy. I realize that a recent survey of priests indicates that most of them say that they are happy. The question arises: why don't they show it? I would concede that some may.Joseph Campbell opined that we should follow our bliss. I could easily pray for this that all people would come to understand what their bliss is and that they be given the freedom and the opportunity to follow it. Some may find that their bliss is the priesthood. Then, by all means pursue it, unless, of course, you wear a dress. At this senior stage in my life I wonder why we need priests. Having them may be a blessing if they are true leaders, spiritually oriented, positive forces for good, scholarly in scriptural studies, gifted with a sense of warmth and humor, respectful of the intelligence of the laity, interested in the people of the parish, compassionate, non judgmental, and hospitable.If we do not have enough priests for all the parishes then let the celebration of the liturgy be communal. Parishioners can pray the mass together, responding to the invitation of our Lord to do this in memory of him. If in some mysterious way the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, it happens through the power of God, and God's power can work through the whole community as it did in the early Church.We might just be more vibrant Christian communities if we lived and prayed the mass as co-equals. We might feel that we are the Church.Laudateeum

OK, first of all we do need vocations. There is NO substitute for the priest at mass. The members of the church CANNOT change the wafer into Jesus’ body, the wine into his blood! And anyone who claims to be Catholic and does not believe in the real presents is a LIAR. There is no other term for them. More importantly the Church does care about the priests that abandon their wives and mission (the church is his wife for any who is confused by that statement)! It is a shame that someone could possibly think little lone write that it is just fine to abandon ones wife to the wolves. However, I can say with that total lack of respect for the Church and her teachings… it is good that this wolf did not continue to lead a flock of sheep!