Sunday 20 December 2020

INSPIRE2020: Why I Am Catholic

I am participating in the six-month #INSPIRE2020 challenge, in which Indian Catholic content creators write about a particular topic every month. This month's topic is 'Why I Am Catholic'. Also, follow Desi Catholics on Insta and FB!

I am Catholic because my parents chose to have me baptized. But I am a faithful, believing Catholic instead of an agnostic or atheist because of a combination of many factors:

A consistent life ethic 
The litany of the saints 
Truth, Beauty, Goodness 
The Eucharistic Jesus 
Adoration chapels 
The grace of Confession 
Theology of the Body 
Mother Teresa 
Saint John Paul II
The call to holiness 
Holy balance 
A place for every culture and nation 
A place for the little ones 
A commitment to social justice 
Redemptive suffering 
A place for the misfits and outcasts 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church 
The Emergency Novena 
Consecration to Jesus through Mary 
Travelling Rosaries 
Mary’s maternal care 
Spiritual warfare and sacramentals 
The St. Michael prayer 
Guardian angels 
Reason and faith 
The Church of Peter 
The promise of Jesus
The early Church Fathers 
Authority given by Jesus to dispense the sacraments 
Faithfulness to the truth entrusted by Jesus 
The Charismatic renewal 
The living saints 
An openness to renewal and re-examining ways of doing things 
Vatican 2 
Catholic communities focussing on discipleship and evangelization 
Catholic Twitter 
The fellowship of wise and holy Catholic brothers and sisters 

I’m Catholic in spite of 

The abuse scandals 
The hypocrisy of many leaders 
The polarised political American Catholic Church 
The lack of clarity and unity in communication and teaching from most Catholic leaders 
A failure to live by the Spirit 
Lack of fellowship and accountability in most Catholic parishes 
Parish politics 
My Catholic convent school 
My parish youth group
My parish culture
Many loud Catholic celebrities and speakers 
A failure to evangelise even our own flock 
The lies and half-truths coming out of many seminaries 
A culture of authoritarianism and clericalism 
Horrible Church music 
Rad-trads
New Ages practices promoted by Indian Catholic priests
Pauline bookstores
Action songs 

“The difficulty of explaining ‘why I am a Catholic’ is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.” (G.K. Chesterton, Why I Am A Catholic)

I wrote a more detailed post here: When I Get Tired of Being Catholic

No comments:

Post a Comment