Customer Reviews

Far from Rome Near to God:

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book is probally the best I have yet to read regarding the RCC. I was looking for something that my brother would be able to read that was too loaded with all the technical RCC doctrines. This gives testimony's of priests who studied and studied and still did not find salvation. The more they seeked God, the more they turned away from the RCC and to the one and only Saviour Jesus Christ. The testimonies also provide scriptures which is wonderful. This is the perfect book to give a Catholic person in search for the truth. I have not given it to my brother yet because I can't put it down! What a great book. It really helps me because I was born and raised Catholic and it confirms that when you are far from Rome you are surely nearer to God.

As a way introduction, I have not yet completely read the entire book. I purchased the book from amazon several weeks ago, and when I am not reading any of the other 13 books I'm presently reading in addition to the material for my classes, I read the stories from this book.

Conversion stories have always interested me. Over the past several years, I have read several books on conversion from one Christian faith to another. _Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic_, was probably the first of many conversion stories/books that grabbed my attention. In the beginning, I read mostly stories of conversion to Catholicism (the Surprised by Truth series, Hahn's Home Sweet Rome, and so on). Eventually, as I struggled with my own faith, I began reading the Reformers. Their writings opened me up to new possibilities, and I became interested in to what they were "converting," if that's the best word. At one point I started watching the 700 Club and comparing the conversion stories on there with the conversion stories on The Journey Home (a Catholic program).

Needless to say, when I discovered that there existed a book that contains the stories of fifty former priests who converted to a certain kind of evangelical Protestantism, I was delighted. I already had read and heard of accounts of drug dealers, drug-addicts, pimps etc. becoming Christian; but this was something new, something that sounded as though it would reverberate with the original Protestant Reformers, many of whom were Catholic priests/monks.

Enough of the digressions. Thus far, from what I have read, I feel as though I have received my money's worth from the book. Many stories are uncannily repetetitive. Some may fault this in the book, but I find it interesting that so many priests converted for similar reasons. I find it especially interesting that, contrary to many stories of Protestants converting to Catholicism in which the conversion approached almost academically, noetically, the priests' stories suggest that it was something or someone beyond reason that moved them to the path on which they now walk.

I give the book four stars and not five for several reasons. Firstly, like many evangelical Protestant books written in challenge of Catholicism, the descriptions of Catholic beliefs are sometimes brief, abbreviated, and not too infrequently, unfair. Secondly, the books concerns mostly priests who converted to radical (anabaptist) forms of Protestant Christianity. I remember a story that mentions the Dutch Reformed Church, but overall it seems that conversions to confessional Protestantism might be under-represented. For example, numerous former priests in the book comment on their rejection of transubstantiation and wittingly or unwittingly tie this in with rejection of the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Eucharist (something confessional Lutherans and to a lesser degree, Anglicans, would not approve).

I ordered this book from Amazon. Even though I live in Canada, I had it within a week. Great service. Keep up the good work.

I am enjoying this book very much. This book provides a condensed version of life stories of former priests. Although I was never a priest, I did find that I could identify with many stories, having personally undergone a similiar spiritual transformation.

I am particularly moved by the courage and risk that these men took after studying for the priesthood for 10+ years, and found no other alternative than to leave all that they had come to know. They didn't know what they would do for a living, but God provided for them.

These men didn't just decide to leave the Roman church, but after honest soul searching were convicted even after growing up in the Roman church. But each and every testimony had this in common- these priests encountered True faith from witnesses who were not afraid to speak the Truth.

This book contains a small sample of testimonies of people that felt the need to know their Creator but did not find it within the church with its elaborate rituals, dogmatic belief system, and authoritative hierarchial power structure. I read that nearly all of the priests that left either were directed by a small voice within themselves as they carried out their assigned duties or were drawn away from it after reading the Bible which they found to conflict with the unique doctrines of the Roman Church. The book points out the failure of the Roman Church in teaching their leaders the Scripture who are to feed the flock. It is a book that also make one sad in that the spiritual needs of people are not met or the feed that they receive is not at adequate for ones daily spiritual life. As in all critiques, one can gain an understanding of the beliefs of the Roman Church by examining the views of those that left. This book is indeed adequate for that.

This book puts a human face on the number of those who eventually had to leave the Roman Church priesthood because they could no longer reconcile their changing beliefs with those that they were required to practice...and it does this via fifty testimonies of the over 100,000 men who have left the Roman Catholic priesthood since 1970

As these priest tell their stories, we are educated in a number of ways.

One, we learn a great deal about Roman Catholic Church theology, including the Mass, confession, justification, etc.

Two, we are provided fascinating insights into the various trainings, practices, duties and obligations of priestly and monastic orders. Some of these practices seem barbaric by our contemporary sense of spiritual awareness. It is appalling, for instance, to think we have Roman Catholic orders of monks who still practice medieval, physical forms of cruelty upon themselves (like flagellation) and their fellows (blows to the face) in an attempt to be right with and pleasing to God.

Since the spiritual journeys of these priests are internationally and ethnically diversified, we are also educated in terms of the Roman Catholic Church's role in various countries and cultures. In some countries, it is apparent that the RCC has a power that is every bit as dominant politically as it is religiously. Many of these priests feared for their personal safety as well as their future careers when they entertained notions of leaving the priesthood, because of the Roman Church's vindictive representatives in government, in the police forces and in the business community. Some of these priests, after having left the priesthood, were forced to leave their countries to find hospitable refuge elsewhere. Evidently, in some parts of the world, leaving the priesthood is not like quitting a job.

For these reasons, and the fact that many faced the potential of a cultural stigma as well as intense disappointment of friends and family, we learn that leaving the priesthood required a good amount of courage. The fact that all the ex-priests in this book left because of a crisis of conscience or belief, as opposed to yearnings for worldly or physical desires, make their stories even more compelling and credible.

We also learn the extent to which the Roman Catholic Church, despite calling Protestants "brothers," in actual practice in various locales considers Protestantism its number one enemy. Many of these testimonial conversions are remarkable considering the fact that the priests relating them were raised and educated to hate Protestants. Many actually were led to believe that Protestant Bibles were radically different than Catholic Bibles. Protestant literature, in one man's story, was kept in a forbidden, locked closet in a church library.

When reading this book, anyone who considers himself a serious Christian will be shocked by how little the theological training of Roman Catholic priests involves the study of scripture. One man testifies in this book that in thirteen years of training to be a priest, he had twelve hours of studying the Bible. Another stated that he was not allowed to even read a Bible until after he had turned 21, despite the fact that he had been trained to be a priest since he was a ten. One is left with the impression that since so many Roman Catholic Church dogmas (like the sacrifice of the Mass, the Marian dogmas, confession, transubstantiation, purgatory, the priesthood itself) have questionable or no scriptural basis, the Roman Catholic Church prefers to train its future priests with literature on what they say about the Bible, rather than risk having seminarians question Church teaching by reading the Bible itself.

Despite this effort, the constant thread throughout many of the narratives is how God brought the truth to anguished, confused, and troubled souls in spite of Roman Catholic "brainwashing" as one ex-priest phrases it. Many times the seed of God's truth was sown as priests were required to perform actions that in their hearts they knew only God was capable of, such as absolution. Many more times conversion occurred as a result of studying the Word of God and learning that the Gospel message of God's love and forgiveness, and Christ's one time perfect sacrifice blatantly contradicts the Roman Catholic view.

We cannot simply dismiss the conversions of these brave and intelligent men as being a result of ignorance. In some cases, these men experienced decades of training and learning in Roman Catholic teaching. An objective reader, regardless of denominational affilliation, must conclude that there is something wrong with a Christian church that shields not only its laity, but its clergy from the Bible...but when one sees how a thorough grounding in the Word of God can lead to exodus from that church, we can at least understand why.

A quick read: informative and surprisingly entertaining as well.

I have always had a fascination for why people believe the way they do. I could not put this book down. It is interesting that all of the priests kept thinking that the next event (entering seminary, becoming a priest, saying the first Mass, becoming a missionary, etc.) would provide them with peace with God. Yet, at each turn, they found no answers to their questions, no peace. Each of them stumbled across the Bible under differing circumstances, but had trouble justifying Catholic dogmas with what they read in the Bible. Most of them had to sacrifice everything in order to leave the priesthood. Some testimonies were very insightful, others repetitious, but all provided me with an insight into the difficulties many priests must be faced with. Anyone opposed to Catholicism should first read this book to gain a greater sense of compassion for the person on the other side. The author should focus on organization of the testimonies (perhaps chronilogically), add dates where missing, and add transitions where it seems to jump.

I never understood what the Catholics really believed. God's Word, the Bible, was instumental in the lives of these men, so that they could see the lies of the Catholic religion, which pulled them away from Truth. I believe this is the same in the Protestant religions, especially today. People are being pulled away from God's Word by believing institutional doctrine rather than God's Word. The Bible is where the truth will be found.

Everytime someone finds the Word of God more enlightening than a man-made doctrine.....Catholics denounce them as negative and hateful. This book shows how enlightening and freeing the Word of God and the truth can and will be. This book was very open and honest. All open-minded people should read it.....if you're a close minded Catholic....don't bother.

This is a great book and I recomend it to both Protestant and Catholic alike.It is a book for the open minded only!!!I am sorry to say that I havent run into to many open minded when it comes to religon.This book gives you a good look at the brainwashing involved in not just Catholics but any religion that requires its people to study church doctorine only and not the Bible itself.Out of each story in this book not one of these men came to know God until they picked up and read a Bible.That is amazing to me!!!!

I'm a former Roman Catholic. I got this book as a recent Christmas gift from a friend. I must admit, the evidence in this book is very compelling. If you're a Catholic struggling with your faith, you need to read this book. Or if you're thinking about becoming a Catholic, you need to read this book. God is found in the Bible and in its teachings. I must warn you-you'll find a lot of differences between the Catholic Church and the Bible if you read this book. As you read it, I'd suggest keeping a Bible close by. You'll find that all of the information these former priests give is 100% accurate. Excellent book!!!