Reader Response: I Like Being Catholic!

We've had quite a lively discussion on the comments board of my guilt post. It appears I'm not the only one with a guilt complex.

But please let me reiterate this point: I do like being Catholic! I like it so much that I compiled a book with my friend Mike Leach entitled just that: "I Like Being Catholic: Treasured Traditions, Rituals, and Stories."

I firmly believe that if it weren't for my faith, I'd be dead. My religion is my source of hope, so when all else fails (meds, therapy, friends, herbs), I turn to God and, in particular, to the traditions of my faith that have given me so much consolation in the past.

And I think some guilt is good! Even if my guilt is of the neurotic kind (which apparently I should feel guilty about), it keeps me in line and simplifies my life.

For example, it would pretty much kill me to have an affair. I know this because I can't even flirt with the mailman without feeling horrible afterward, confessing to Eric what I did while he was at work. So, unless Eric cheats on me (as long as I keep putting out, the chances of that are slim) or starts treating me like he does the telemarketers who call during dinner (or the scam artists trying to get us to pay $75 for a subscription of "Parenting" magazine), then I don't see any custody battles or stepchildren in my near future.

I simply wish I could read the newspaper without feeling responsible in some way for the crimes against humanity in Darfur, or be able to process the threat of global warming without feeling as though the coffee I drink is evil because it was brewed automatically, which burns carbon into the earth's atmosphere.

But that may not be the nuns' fault or my Catholic upbringing. My sisters don't analyze their every cup of coffee and think way too hard on just about everything, and they had the same teachers. If it weren't about morality and attaining beatification, I'd pick something else to obsess about.

And please know this, too: I so much admire the religious for all their works of compassion throughout the world. The priests and nuns in my life are some of the most selfless and giving people I have ever known, and I have been the recipient of their gifts over and over again. That's why Mike and I devoted a chapter in our book to religious life, in which we quoted celebrities like Woody Herman, Martin Scorsese, and Florence Henderson, who credited certain nuns for their success.

Maybe it's because I like being Catholic so much that I feel so guilty so much of the time: because I want to live up to the high ideal that our tradition inspires.

And that's not such a bad thing.