After more than a year I am returning to writing here on ELECTRON BLUE. Watch out for words. I will be posting commentary and other writing again here. This piece was transplanted from Facebook and will be available indefinitely.
Why I Stay a Catholic after 40 Years
An anniversary with much hesitation to announce here in public. 40 years ago today, May 24, 1979, I was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. This was after eight years of struggle as to whether to join or not. I first found this calling in Rome, yes the real Rome, where I encountered the world of aesthetics, visual splendor, and a paradoxical faith for someone from an atheist-Jewish background. I think it was always the art, the color, and the stories, the rituals and the devotions, and the thousands of years of history that attracted and keeps me there. The aesthetic element is not trivial and not mere "trappings," it is the testimony of a church that believes that the divine entered the material world. I am well aware that for most people the Catholic Church is now revealed to be a place of atrocities rather than piety, and so it is, but the paradox is that I stay although I don't go to church at this time. I also stay because I believe that the Incarnate One, Jesus, is a real entity, not just a name. He is someone I could imagine as a real presence. I have always had wonderful friends and supporters in my faith so thank you, Michael and all the others I would rather not name. I hope this church, the creation of inspired people, can somehow regain its goodness on the planet Earth.
