Editing Lapsed Catholic (section)

== Interpretations ==

The ''[[Merriam-Webster Dictionary]]'' definition of "lapsed" in relation to "lapsed Catholic" is "no longer believing or following the teachings of a religion".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lapsed|title=Definition of LAPSED|date=23 August 2024|publisher=Merriam-Webster|access-date=12 August 2014|archive-date=25 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825232517/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lapsed|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus'' associates "lapsed Catholic" as one who is [[backsliding]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|isbn=9780199829927|page=513}}</ref> Lapsing is thus not necessarily connected with a lack of belief.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=n4Pmb9ik3GgC&pg=PA378 Leslie John Francis, William K. Kay, William S. Campbell (editors), ''Research in Religious Education''] (Gracewing Publishing 1996 {{ISBN|978-0-85244342-2}}), p. 378.</ref> However, author Daniel Ford links being a lapsed Catholic with rejection of Catholic teaching, either totally or by being an "[[Cafeteria Catholicism|à la carte Catholic]]".<ref>Quotes from Daniel F. Ford, ''The Lapsed Catholic Catechism'': "Lapsees are ''à la carte'' Catholics who pick and choose what suits them, if anything does, from the long menu of past teachings from Rome and/or other religious traditions. Some even continue to participate in orthodox Catholic rituals – e.g., getting married in church and attending the church funeral rites intended to honor the departed and comfort the family and friends left behind. Some Lapsed Catholics are out and out atheists or agnostics. They look at arguments about God's existence as [[W. H. Auden]] did: 'All proofs or disproofs that we tender are returned Unopened to the sender.' The actor [[Martin Sheen]] has described himself as 'one of those cliff-hanging Catholics. I don't believe in God, but I do believe that Mary was his mother.'"</ref>

Other sources associate the term with abandonment of practice of the Catholic religion rather than with rejection of its doctrine. Thus the ''Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary'' defines "lapsed", again in relation to "lapsed Catholic", as "no longer involved in an activity or organization",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/lapsed|title=LAPSED &#124; meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary}}</ref> and the ''Oxford Dictionary'' speaks only of "no longer following the rules and practices of a religion or doctrine".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/lapsed|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507000335/https://www.lexico.com/definition/lapsed|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 May 2021|title=LAPSED &#124; Meaning & Definition for UK English &#124; Lexico.com|website=Lexico Dictionaries &#124; English}}</ref>

[[Richard John Neuhaus]] distinguished between Catholic and Protestant ideas of what it means to be "lapsed" by quoting [[G. K. Chesterton]], who remarked that a Protestant typically says he is a good Protestant, while a Catholic typically says he is a bad Catholic. For many, being a lapsed Catholic is just another way of being a Catholic.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dizLhNmwiBUC&q=Richard+John+Neuhaus+Catholic+Matters Neuhaus, Richard John. ''Catholic Matters''] (Basic Books 2007 {{ISBN|9780465049363}}), p. 10</ref>