I blogged the other day about my concerns with the negative publicity the Church hierarchy is attracting recently, about rigid responses to nuns, priests and laity and cover-ups by bishops which are clearly dishonest.
After one has spent pages detailing the failures of Church leaders to live up to the ideals of Christianity, it is necessary to say why I am still Catholic. Every day I run across people who ask “why are you still a Catholic?” The simple answer is Peter’s: “Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life!” But those words are increasingly difficult to distinguish in all the clamor and debate today.
As one realizes that the Church only gives us the principles but we must make our own decisions as to their application, right and wrong are no longer simple obedience to another human, be they bishop or pope. Before God
it is my decision, not theirs. And that is what my faith comes down to: it’s God and me and no one else. Why am I Catholic? Because it's the church I'm familiar with and in which I have encountered Christ all my life, not always in its leaders but in its sacraments and in its members.
There are others who have supporting roles: my parents who shared their faith with me and my brothers as we recited the family rosary each night, my god-parents, my aunt and uncle, and some priests from along my way. And my wife by the love she shows me each day, a tangible image of God’s unconditional love. But my Christian dignity is as an individual for whom Christ died and I am privileged to make the choice to respond to His love in love and trust and faith.
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