The thoughts contained here have more to do with me and my own perspective of life than the perspective of any one established religious institution, Catholic or otherwise. That is perhaps the goal of all men and women who strive to find themselves and their God while facing the joys and challenges of life, trying to find the faith that keeps them on the path of discovering who they are and what they believe. If we are true to our faith, whatever that faith is, the most important thing is to listen to God, to His revealed message for us personally. God speaks to each of us personally, uniquely, speaking to our own needs. These essays are intended to help open your mind to the possibility of asking questions, not about the veracity of the revealed Word of the Scriptures, but about how we see our relationship with God and how we find our way home. I hope you will find this a useful tool in your own attempt at finding your path.

One day, philosopher Peter Kreeft reads an open letter published by a friend, Nat Whilk. He's Catholic, but he sees the Church as unsteady, outdated, obsessive. As a challenge to the "True Believers", Nat pens a twenty-point manifesto for "cafeteria Catholics", who pass up certain Church teachings and scoop up others like a diner in a buffet line."I find in [Catholicism] both much to accept and even love and also much to refuse and even despise", he asserts. "If you insist on tying God to the Church, you will make me an atheist." Kreeft has an answer for Nat—one that spans over a hundred pages. The result is this book: a sharp, friendly, and funny debate between two honest thinkers trying to understand the Christian life. Nat "is the'cafeteria Catholic', "writes Kreeft,"and I am the 'eat all the food Mommy puts on your plate' Catholic." Taking on Nat's manifesto point by point, the Boston College philosopher builds his case for a full-package Catholicism, addressing the themes of authority, love, freedom, conscience, sex, abortion, social justice, science, and more. "Our hopes differ", he points out to his friend."Your hope is in man; mine is in God." If, like Nat Whilk, you find yourself wondering why the Church asks for so much commitment, Confessions of a Cafeteria Catholic could be the book for you. This debate serves as a fun and accessible introduction to some of the knottiest aspects of Catholic doctrine. Readers of Peter Kreeft's apologetic works and his Socrates Meets dialogues will enjoy the latest venture by one of the most celebrated contemporary Catholic writers.

A celebration of the treasured traditions, rituals, and stories that run through the bloodstream of American Catholics For Andrew Greeley, it is the reverence of Christmas night and the exultation of Easter morn. Martin Scorsese, like many others, remains grateful for the nuns who rapped his knuckles but built his self-esteem. Mary Gordon recalls the sense of lightness that follows confession; Vince Lombardi, the strength he derived from Mass; and Christopher Buckley, the role St. Thomas More plays in his writing. I Like Being Catholic brings together the memories, thought, and hopes of famous Catholics and ordinary parishioners, lapsed and "good-enough" Catholics, and those who have devoted their lives to the faith. It captures their abiding ties to and deep affection for the Church and offers the wide-ranging, sometimes surprising views on the good things that come with being Catholic. This is not a book of theology. It is about the beauty at the heart of Catholicism. It is about what Teilhard de Chardin called "the chosen part of things." It is about family and community, the value of Catholic education, the significance of sacraments and milestones, and the cultural impact of Catholicism—there are lists of the ten best Catholic novels, the ten best Catholic movies, ten Catholic heroes of the twentieth century, ten good reasons to raise your kids Catholic, fifty things Catholics like best about being Catholic, and much more ... I Like Being Catholic is a book for all those who have ever called themselves Catholic. It is a book of warmth, affection, humor, and love.

Confessions is the ; honest and heart-rending ; account of a woman who was born into a Catholic family, ; attended parochial schools and fully embraced the beliefs ; of her faith, but ran into major roadblocks in college. ; Amidst the radical feminist college environment of the ; 1960's, she lost her faith, and her morality, jumping ; aboard the bandwagon of "free love." She indulged ; in a series of love relationships in college, all of which ; crashed and burned. Despite the obvious contradiction ; between feminist teachings and her own experience, Murray ; still believed she had to free herself from the yoke of ; tradition. Attaining a doctorate in philosophy, with ; an emphasis on the feminist writings of Simone de Beauvoir, ; Murray taught philosophy in college. For many years, she ; launched a personal vendetta against God and the Catholic ; Church in the classroom, trying to persuade students that ; God did not exist, mocking values Catholics hold dear, and ; touted feminism as the cure for many social ills. When she ; discovered she was pregnant, Murray followed the route that ; feminists offer as a solution for unmarried women. Much to ; her surprise, her abortion was a shattering emotional ; experience, which she grieved over for years. It was the ; first tragic chink in her feminist armor. After her ; marriage in 1982, she anguished over the decision to have ; children, but became an advocate of the ; "child-free" movement, believing children were ; burdens and life could be happy life without them. Later in ; her forties, Murray experienced a mysterious series of ; events in which it seemed that "someone" was ; inviting her back to God. The mysterious calls came from ; different ports, including nature, books and other people. ; Gradually, she realized that the One seeking her was ; Christ, and the place He was calling her to was the ; Catholic Church. Eventually realizing it was only in the ; Church that she would find what she was seeking - the ; person of Christ and his love and mercy - Murray returned ; to the Church, and finally found healing and forgiveness ; for the abortion. Lorraine Murray's Confessions are ; a revelation. They reveal the nasty truth behind women's ; "liberation". Her experiences, and the lessons she ; learns from them, serve as a timely warning of the folly of ; feminism and the destructive impact that feminism has on ; those who fall under its malignant spell. - ; Joseph Pearce, author The Quest for ; Shakespeare "Confessions of an ; Ex-Feminist is the gripping story of millions of women ; who lost their religious and intellectual anchors during ; the tsunami of the fatal sixties and seventies. It is a ; movingly honest confession of how pride, arrogance, ; immaturity, ambition, craving to be "liberated", ; blinds the female soul. Abortion kills babies and wounds a ; woman's soul to its very core. But a prodigal daughter ; found her way back home, crushed by guilt, driven by ; repentance, and discovers that God's mercy is boundless. ; She is now given the crucial mission of shouting on roof's ; tops: feminism is the arch enemy of women. This book should ; become a vade mecum of young girls". - ; Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, author The Privilege ; of Being a Woman "Lorraine Murray's ; absorbing and poignant book traces her passage from the ; heart of the Catholic Church to the epicenter of the sexual ; revolution and back again. With candor, humor and a knack ; for storytelling, Murray reveals the mysterious ways God ; worked in her soul and leaves readers richer for having ; shared her journey." “/DIV>

Great works and authors of the world are introduced and reviewed artistically, intellectually, and theologically. Persons discussed include Plato, Milton, Dickens, Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, and C. S. Lewis.

Essays in Unruly Catholics explore how renowned Catholic literary figures Dante Alighieri, Oscar Wilde, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Gerard Manley Hopkins dealt with the disparities between their personal beliefs and the Church’s official teachings. Contributors also suggest how controversial entertainers such as Madonna, Kevin Smith, Michael Moore, and Stephen Colbert practice forms of Catholicism perhaps worthy of respect. Most pointedly, Unruly Catholics addresses the recent sex abuse scandals, considers the possibility that the Church might be reformed from within, and presents three iconic figures—Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and C.S. Lewis—as models of compassionate and reformist Christianity.

A case study of the intersection of humor and American Catholicism in contemporary society. For nine years, Stephen Colbert’s persona “Colbert”?a Republican superhero and parody of conservative political pundits?informed audiences on current events, politics, social issues, and religion while lampooning conservative political policy, biblical literalism, and religious hypocrisy. To devout, vocal, and authoritative lay Catholics, religion is central to both the actor and his most famous character. Yet many viewers wonder, “Is Colbert a practicing Catholic in real life or is this part of his act?” This bookexamines the ways in which Colbert challenges perceptions of Catholicism and Catholic mores through his faith and comedy. Religion and the foibles of religious institutions have served as fodder for scores of comedians over the years. What set “Colbert” apart on his show, The Colbert Report, was that his critical observations were made more powerful and harder to ignore because he approached religious material not from the predictable stance of the irreverent secular comedian but from his position as one of the faithful. He is a Catholic celebrity who can bridge critical outsider and participating insider, neither fully reverent nor fully irreverent. Providing a digital media ethnography and rhetorical analysis of Stephen Colbert and his character from 2005 to 2014, author Stephanie N. Brehm examines the intersection between lived religion and mass media, moving from an exploration of how Catholicism shapes Colbert’s life and world towards a conversation about how “Colbert” shapes Catholicism. Brehm provides historical context by discovering how “Colbert” compares to other Catholic figures, such Don Novello, George Carlin, Louis C.K., and Jim Gaffigan, who have each presented their views of Catholicism to Americans through radio, film, and television. The last chapter provides a current glimpse of Colbert on The Late Show, where he continues to be voice for Catholicism on late night, now to an even broader audience. America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself) also explores how Colbert carved space for Americans who currently define their religious lives through absence, ambivalence, and alternatives. Brehm reflects on the complexity of contemporary American Catholicism as it is lived today in the often-ignored form of Catholic multiplicity: thinking Catholics, cultural Catholics, cafeteria Catholics, and lukewarm Catholics, or what others have called Colbert Catholicism, an emphasis on the joy of religion in concert with the suffering. By examining the humor in religion, Brehm allows us to clearly see the religious elements in the work and life of comedian Stephen Colbert. Praise for America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself) “Combining the interpretative skills of an academic with a natural appreciation for pop culture, Brehm offers a lively look at why the 'new evangelization' may be just as much the responsibility of comics as of clerics.” —James Martin, SJ, Jesuit priest and author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life “Anyone interested in religious comedy's recent history in America will enjoy Stephanie Brehm's book . . . If you want to study how humor, social media and entertainment inform and mold our church and public opinion today, this book will be a good choice for you.”?Catholic Philly

How could he be a good boy and a bad boy at the same time? The TRUTH is what is. FICTION is not reality—but it can help us to see the TRUTH through stories, e.g., The Boy Who Cried Wolf. LIES deceive, for evil purposes, and for good purposes. But what happens when what we think is the TRUTH turns out to be a LIE? In his ninth decade, the author, who has spent his life creating FICTION to examine TRUTH, decided to write the story of his life, truthfully. But, in the process of examining his life—his prayers, works, joys and sufferings—he discovers it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish the TRUTH from the LIES. And the chief insights into the reality of a life he thought noble, his FICTION—often in the form of dreams—reveals his true nature as a failure in his professed faith—until a good woman shows him the way out of his dark forest.

A Holy Week murder puts former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian on the trail of an unholy killer—“Haddam plays the mystery game like a master” (Chicago Tribune). In high school, Cheryl was an outcast, tolerated only because the boys considered her easy. But one night at Black Rock Park, the popular kids were strangely kind, and for the first time in her life, Cheryl’s future seemed bright. Twenty heartbreaking years later, Cheryl is dying of cancer, and wants to return to the one place where she ever knew true happiness. But there is something she doesn’t know about that night in Black Rock Park—and the classmates who once pretended to befriend her will kill to keep the secret buried. After Cheryl is found poisoned, the case falls to Gregor Demarkian, a former FBI agent with a knack for solving small-town murders. To discover who killed this terminally ill woman, Demarkian will have to peer into the mysteries of the local Catholic church—and find the killer who is hiding behind a pious facade.

The Dialogue of Love is written from the perspective of an evangelical Catholic Ecumenist. Raised Catholic, but having responded to the Gospel at L'Abri Fellowship in 1970, Eduardo J. Echeverria's journey took the paths of Reformed and then Anglo-Catholic Christianity on his way back to full communion with the Catholic Church in 1992. Engaging in ecumenical conversation as a committed Roman Catholic whose views have been shaped by, among others, Romano Guardini, John Paul II, and Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), the author discusses in an articulate, bracing, and constructive manner, the positions of representative thinkers in the Dutch neo-Calvinist tradition of Reformed Christianity: Herman Bavinck, G. C. Berkouwer, and Herman Dooyeweerd. Fundamental issues of ecclesiology, meaning and truth, sacramental theology, the relation between the Church and the world, nature and grace, and issues on the relation of faith and reason are examined with the aim of achieving clarification and understanding. Readers will experience ecumenical "Dialogue . . . not simply [as] an exchange of ideas," but also as "an 'exchange of gifts'," indeed, "a dialogue of love" (John Paul II).