Damn Catholics…

… In case you haven’t noticed, I am Catholic. Not just any kind of Catholic, but damn Catholic. As in being Catholic to the very marrow of my bones, in spite of myself. Damn Catholic.

Earlier this evening I was thinking about that, and how I suppose I’ve always been kind of “catholic”, even during my younger heathen years. Not to say that being “catholic” is the same as being Catholic, but I do think some people are more predisposed to embracing Catholicism — those lovers of beauty who are spiritually fed by their senses.

A few months back, Patheos made a request for the writers here to explain why they were Catholic. Because I believe brevity is the soul of honesty, I answered the question quite plainly.

I am Catholic because Catholicism is Truth and outside of Truth there is nothing else.

This explains why I am Catholic but it doesn’t articulate how I became such a big damn Catholic. That too is easy to summarize… the Eucharist and beauty.

The sacred art, sacred music, and the beautifully rich symbolism found in the liturgy is what finally lured me in. Second only to the very real Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ miraculously contained within the Eucharist.

Those two reasons alone, and nothing else, is why I sought to convert. You wanna know what had absolutely no bearing on my decision to convert … the pope.

Who was pope didn’t matter to me then, so I suppose it really shouldn’t matter now. It helped that Benedict loves the same things about Catholicism as I do, but it really wouldn’t have made any difference to me if he didn’t. And it just so happens, Francis doesn’t. He’s still loves the Church, just for reasons that differ from my own.

So what of it?

The Church is the Church and the pope will always be damn Catholic, and that is just going to have to be good enough for everyone. And if it’s not good enough, what are you going do; because outside of Catholicism there is nothing else.