The Beauty of Conversion to Jesus Christ and His Church

You may have heard—muslim immigrants in Europe are converting to Christianity. Compared to other groups' processes for baptizing immigrants, the Catholic process for reception into the Church is appropriately thorough (see article below*), intended to ensure that converts are truthful about their convictions. Furthermore, the Catholic Church ensures that no compulsion enters into the conversion process. Immigrants enter freely into communion with Jesus Christ and His Church. No material/financial enticements are offered to immigrants to convert. While the corporal and spiritual works of mercy are offered to immigrants, no expectation of conversion exists.

While many Europeans have rejected Christianity and have lost their collective identity, newcomers arrive with fresh eyes and ears and are enthusiastically embracing the hope-filled message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Grateful for the hope and joy the Gospel brings, immigrants are willingly discovering the Gospel that, perhaps to the surprise of only the willfully ignorant, was deliberately kept from them in their former countries.

Recent immigrants who are embracing Catholic Christianity, i.e., the fullness of the Faith, enjoy the advantage of unity with the Church that Jesus Himself founded.

Europe will avoid a complete cultural meltdown when Europeans reclaim their Catholic heritage. Europeans must cease indulging an adolescent rejection of history, and reverse a societal petulancy that whines ignorance and foams at the mouth at the mere mention of Christianity.

Muslims converting in Europe: ‘They’ve found Muslim immigrants to be much more open to the message of Christianity’

For the original and full article, that contains linked reports, click on the link below:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2018/04/muslims-converting-in-europe-theyve-found-muslim-immigrants-to-be-much-more-open-to-the-message-of-christianity/#

EDITED FOR LENGTH

APRIL 3, 2018 by Rev. Deacon Greg Kandra

This development continues a trend that has been building for a couple years:

The refugee crisis played into the hands of the Catholic Church in Austria: the country recorded a significant number of Muslims who converted to Christianity. Three quarters of the 750 baptized adults in 2017 are immigrants from Muslim countries, DW reports citing the agency dpa and the official spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vienna.

Only in the Austrian capital, 260 people representing 15 different nations have been baptized.

Fredericke Dostal, who is responsible for the baptism of adults in the Archdiocese, says the claim that migrants change their religion in order to increase the chances of getting an asylum are groundless.

*“Since the Catholic Church in Austria does not want to receive pseudo-Christians, we are very strict in (the) selection of candidates and authorization of the rite of baptism,” she noted.

More details, from a 2017 report:

A soaring number of Muslims, many of them refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are converting to Christianity, breathing new life into Europe’s once floundering Christian churches.

[...]

“Europeans are wealthy, comfortable, healthy, and powerful,” Kaemingk said. “In short, they don’t think they need God.”

But, he added, Muslim immigrants are quite the opposite – they are intensely spiritual. But they are leaving their own religion for a variety of reasons.

Meanwhile, this story from 2016 helps shed light on why they are attracted to Christianity, with a profile of one Anglican church in England(.)

[...]

(An official of the Anglican parish) concedes that some (immigrants) do convert solely because they believe it will help with their asylum application(.) Others claim they have had the doors closed on them by mosques, who have turned them away in their hour of need, leaving them starving and homeless.

Many if not most European countries have experienced devastating growing pains accompanying the influx of Middle Eastern muslim immigrants, largely due to poorly organized state sponsored immigration policies that include few if any effective screening protocols to 1) facilitate authentic integration and 2) adequate support during transitions, and 3) which weed out criminals by deportation. Catholics working through Church institutions and as individuals have done a far better job of helping immigrants from war torn lands find a peaceful and productive place in their new homes.

Immigrants, and 'strangers in their own land'—shall we call them domestic immigrants?—need the Catholic Faith as taught and lived without compromise by the canonized saints. How else will they come to know fully Jesus Christ and His Church? The primary locus of that Faith is the Holy Eucharist, the Mass. If it is true that the Faith is more caught than taught, then the Mass well celebrated allows the Faith to be more readily caught by those seeking the Truth.

The mission of the Church is not well served if the Faith (and the Mass) is rendered ambiguous by German liberalism, French secularism, Scandinavian socialism and English progressivism. The Catholic Church can do no better than to offer what Christ offers: the Gospel undefiled. Therefore, the Mass must be celebrated in a manner that makes clear that in the Mass heaven and earth are united, that the Sacrifice of Calvary is made present, and that Jesus is entirely present in the Holy Eucharist—Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.