Over the years my parish changed, and now the masses are dignified and beautiful, so I found a place where I can find God. And I discovered the Latin Mass. So my view on the church changed, as I read further books about the Faith, talked to priests and prayed a lot. When a German Cardinal was elected pope, this pushed my decision trying to follow Christ.
And now I can say, it was not a mistake to re-start my Catholic life. The belief in Jesus Christ enriched my life and helped me in so many difficulties.
When my father died two years ago, it was a hard time, but the Faith helped me. The hope of eternal life makes those sad things much easier to carry. And that’s not only a promise, but reality.
But the most important thing is, that I have a relationship to God. We humans belong to God and it’s great to come home, after a long journey. I found God, and that’s what I was searching for.
I can say, despite the fact that less and less people accept Catholicism in Germany, in a Christian country (what Germany for sure is) living the faith is easy. In the region where I come from there are lots of beautiful churches and chapels. You can find crosses everywhere; we have a lot of priests.
Now, that I’m living in Japan, it is much more difficult. It is not an Christian environment. As only 1% of the Japanese are Christian, you will be lucky if you find ONE Catholic church in a town.
It can be easy to forget the Faith, if you don’t take care. This has taught me the importance of religious symbols.
REGINA: What advice would you offer to someone who has left the Church?
A: Often people are going to leave the church because they had bad experiences and didn’t really know the Catholic faith. That’s the point! Faith!
If someone doesn’t believe in God – and in Germany most young people do NOT – objectively it makes no sense to stay. So, they leave the Church.
But in most cases, the bad experiences (such as guitar masses, a humanistic view of God, etc) – these things are not really Catholic.
If your parish has only these types of things and you are searching for God and the Sacred, my advice is as follows: 1) Read the Bible, 2) Learn the Catechism and 3) Find a good, Catholic parish with a good, Catholic priest. Talk to him and to the parish people. Try to get to know the Church from
another perspective.
REGINA | 152