Catholic Pride/Catholic Guilt

I was just busting with pride today watching the Pope come to the White House. I was proud of the Pope, proud of our President, proud of my Catholic Faith and proud of my country. We “do” ceremony very well for such a young country! I very much enjoyed watching all of the official stuff that was in play for the arrival of the Pope.

I wanted my kids to see this too. Izzy took it all in stride, “Mam, I didn’t know the Pope knew Mr. Bush!”

In our homeschool I am very big at taking time out for watching important events as they unfold. This is no exception and maybe this time I even felt a little more urgency about it.

Regular readers know that on my other blog I deal with a lot vicious anger, bigotry and even hatred towards my Catholic Faith. Most of it just rolls of my back now, but there is still a fatigue that seems to permeate the mind and spirit when I have to spend more time than I would like battling these types of lies and misrepresentations.

But it has taken me a long, long time to be able to gird the proverbial loins for these types of discussions. And it occurs to me that perhaps my children won’t have the time or the luxury of learning to defend the faith on their feet, to think fast for quick and relative information. Consequently, I have made sure that apologetical thought is a big part of their religious instruction, and has been for the past few years. Almost daily I have asked the question “If someone says (pick your favorite anti-Catholic topic i.e. Mary, Call no man Father, the Papacy, vain repetition etc.) what are you going to say?” And then I have them work through what they know and understand so that they can come up with a good apologetics answer quickly.

But along with apologetics I want them to feel a pride, and connectedness to their Catholic Faith! Which brings me back to the Popes visit. The arrival of Pope Benedict has reminded me that MOST non-Catholic Christians don’t hate the Pope or the Catholic Church or Catholics to the inordinate agree some “Bible Christians” do. In fact Americans it seems, disagree with him or not, recognize Pope Benedict as a sincere and important man, representing a significant number of people who follow Jesus Christ through the church he leads. And that in my book is worth celebrating.

That’s the part I want my kids to get!! Their Catholic faith is not something they need to hide or be ashamed of! It’s to be celebrated and appreciated. If they can pick up on that during these next few days, then for me personally, Pope Benedict’s visit will have been very successful!

Please browse my eBay items!
Visit my new Amazon Store!