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Showing posts from February, 2012

Still a Catholic?

We got into a discussion about church-going at my writers group meeting. Like Jean ( scroll down 2 posts ), my writer friends are comfortable calling themselves “cafeteria Catholics” and the Presbyterian-Lutheran talks about “Presbolutheranism.” Another self-description I heard is “free thinkers.” Most of us continue going to church despite having grown past the childhood beliefs taught in church-talk. We do it because we have a spiritual orientation and Catholic services are “home.” Among my closest Catholic friends and acquaintances, what a priest, bishop, or pope says gets the same critical scrutiny as the words of a politician. My son and daughter left the church during their last years in high school, and I never had any qualms about it because I could see that their spiritual journey didn’t require it. In fact, my respect for them and for other young people rises if they ask intelligent questions about religion and leave the Church. But once in a while I meet parents who feel