Sunday, July 15, 2012

RPG Catholic Update


I'll officially start catechism class this Sunday, perhaps leading up to my confirmation sometime this November. I've already met the catechist and some of the other students and they all seem like a nice bunch! I'm thinking of blogging about some of the topics covered in class. We'll see...

For my next post, I'm planning to begin my MLP virtue/vice spotlight series with Fluttershy, the bashful pony of the Main Six, who, in the episode "Putting Your Hoof Down," might have a few things to teach us about the virtue that Aristotle and Aquinas refer to as "friendliness" or "amiability."



3 comments:

  1. I have to say I'm surprised that you aren't confirmed, but of course I'm very excited for you now!

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  2. Didn't know you weren't confirmed, either. Can I ask where you're coming from and what moved you to the Catholic Church?

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  3. Well, Doug and Kuiperbelt, there's probably a tale there somewhere, but in short, I'm a cradle Catholic. So it wouldn't be so much a conversion story (unless you agree with Kyle Cupp that all Catholics are in a process of conversion of some sort), as a reversion story (although I never formally renounced the faith). My parents had me baptized as an infant, but I lapsed sometime in my adolescent years and I stayed away from the Church until my early 20's, living as a practical agnostic. I had been giving serious thought to coming back a few years ago, but it wasn’t until this year that I finally made the commitment once again be received in communion with Church. I’ll definitely be a bit nervous, but still glad, to go to the confessional after so many years!

    Oh, as for why my confirmation came so late, that's another story. It seems the church my mother took me to have me confirmed back when I was a young whelp wasn't in communion with Rome, so my confirmation didn't really count. Unfortunately, I didn't find out this information until a few months ago, when I finally made my choice to come back. Thus, I find myself in catechism class in preparation to receive this sacrament, in much the same manner as my first communion way back in the 20th century.

    [I can't top your conversion story, Doug, for I didn't have a philosophy of religion professor named Dr.Borg who assimilates students to Religious Pluralism.]

    As for the specifics of what moved me back to the Catholic Church, well, that seems like yet another narrative, one that I should perhaps devote more space to than just a mere comment. Well, the obvious answer would be because I actually believe the Catholic Church is what it claims to be (thanks mainly to Dante, GKC, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, etc.). But perhaps the great affinity, moral and intellectual, that I share with its saints and with some its members that I've gotten to know the past few years, draws me closer - I just can't help but want to belong to same tradition! It’s like what GKC said somewhere in his vast corpus about being more convinced by "one book, one battle, one landscape, and one old friend" than simply intellectual arguments, though those are very useful too!

    I hope I at least provided a hint of the reaso I'm swimming the Tiber again (even though I don't exactly know how to swim).

    Thanks for the comments.

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