Elizabeth Scalia, who blogs as The Anchoress at Patheos, has challenged all Catholics with a publishing platform of any kind to flood the blogosphere with their witness. Here’s her invitation:
Let’s do this! If you’re Catholic and have access to a web-page, a radio program, a Facebook page, whatever, take a few minutes, and tell the world why you are remaining a Catholic in an era where doing so seems not only counter-cultural, but also counter-intuitive and even, perhaps, a bit risky?
Never one to shy away from a challenge, I’m going to chime in.
Before the internet, I entertained the notion that I was a good Catholic. I’m a product of 12 years of Catholic education, I have five kids, I try to be a good person, I’m orthodox in my beliefs.
I quickly found out though that I was WAY less Catholic than I thought I was, compared to so many holy people out there who were taking their faith very seriously indeed. It remains my most fervent aspiration to be a holier person, but sanctity continues to elude me most of the time.
Still, I will never ever leave the Church, or maybe I should say that the Church will never ever leave me. I’m a cradle Catholic, and as far as I am concerned I am Catholic in the same way that I am female. The Church is so intrinsic to my understanding of myself that I cannot fathom ever separating from it.
Whether by education or formation or happy natural inclination, my perception of the world is filtered through a Catholic perspective. Even if I stopped going to Mass, I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t go away. I don’t think I could stop being Catholic even if I wanted to.
I could give you intellectual reasons. I could talk about the great theologians of the Church, about its moral consistency, about the truth of its teachings. I could cite the sacraments and the liturgy. I could write about the sanctity of life and social justice. And all of those would be things I love about the Church, but they aren’t why I remain a Catholic.
I remain a Catholic because I AM a Catholic. Right down to my core. And there’s nothing in this world that can change that.
Thank you for sharing this. I think that it’s important to stand up for your beliefs in a world of moral relativism.
I totally get where you’re coming from. Born and bred Catholic and recently had a sad discussion with Dad about how society is seeking to destroy aspects of our faith. Made me really think hard about who I am and why.
Thank you for this,born and bred catholic ,its not easy to be with so much going on in the world today .love GOD and fear GOD . i have found peace in the lord with out Him i am lost.