Why I Choose to REMAIN Catholic

I extended an invite to my readers to write about why they remain Catholic, this is one of the lovely submissions I received. – Sr. Theresa Aletheia

By Christina M. Sorrentino

“Why do YOU remain a Catholic?” is a question that throughout my young adult years I must admit I have been asked more in facial expressions than in words.

Throughout my college years I watched a vast number of my friends wander away from the faith, leaving them in an ultimate state of perplexity as to why I chose to stay with the Church.

When I was in my earlier years of college many of the young adults around me were getting into a “hipper” faith, as they called it, a faith that was more adapted to the modern age and the young adult lifestyle. Catholicism was an out-of-touch, ancient tradition that needed to be modernized and improved, according to so many of the young adults around me.

I remember the looks of utter disgust and disbelief, the pursed lips and uplifted brows from my peers when I would tell them I still attended church on Sundays. They couldn’t wrap their heads around it; why was I such an EXTREME Catholic? “No one even goes to church on Sundays anymore” they would say to me.

I have to admit that being in the minority I have thought about why I remain a Catholic, what is it about my faith that has made me “stick with it” after twenty-something years. I think I have known all along the “why,” but I have never been confronted with asking myself that question on a deeper level. As children we go to church and our religious education classes because that’s what our parents choose for us; isn’t it true that our parents choose how we practice our faith when we are little children? But why is it that as a young adult I still remain a Catholic long after my parents no longer adamantly enforce my attendance at church, and my religious education classes have long ended?

I know exactly why I remain a Catholic; it is because I am making a choice, a choice that every day of my life I am making and will continue to make for the rest of my life. I could tell you it is because I firmly believe in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all of her doctrine, or because I am becoming a religious sister, which is absolutely true, but again I am making a choice. If I were to look at our faith as if it were a bunch of strict rules and regulations first and foremost before anything else, well then it would not be a choice would it?

So I choose to go to Mass on Sundays (and dare I say even throughout the rest of the days of the week). I choose to uphold the values of the Gospel. I choose to believe that a Catholic priest has a gift to be able to transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. I choose to believe that Jesus is present in the tabernacle. I choose to believe in the Most Holy Trinity. I choose to believe in the Sacrament of Confession.

I choose to place God’s love first in my life.

I choose to become a Catholic religious sister.

And I choose to REMAIN Catholic.

Christina M. Sorrentino is an affiliate with the Benedictine Sisters of Elizabeth, NJ