Catholic Resources

UnApologetic Catholic Sites

  • Pat Mulcahey's Caritas Christi Urget Nos
    a Deacon discerns the priesthood and shares his journey with us. God bless him! May Christ's love impel us all to answer His Call.
  • Cafeteria Catholic
    Demostrating yet again that the Catholic Cafeteria is as spiritually filling as the othodox deli.
  • Bad Catholic
    A "Bad in Name Only" Catholic voices strong opinions
  • Dappled Things
    Priests are busy. Thankfully, some blog, unapologetically
  • Disputations
    Criticial thinking of the highest order from a Venn Master, demonstrating that reason is the most effective apologetics
  • Journey to Vatican III
    Rebecca Nappi, Theologian and Newpaper Columnist with rare insights
  • Flos Carmeli
    Discussions in a Carmelite Tradition
  • The Lesser of Two Weevils
    A zen Catholic studying Hebrew and finding God in quantum physics is sure to have interesting things to say!
  • Built on a Rock
    Commentary on ecumenical issues is unsurpassed.
  • Noli Irritare Leones
    Yet another thoughtful calm commentary on religion, Catholics, politics and the world written by a non-Catholic.
  • Catholic Sensibility
    A "peace"ful website by a sensible Catholic liturgist usually avoiding the Catholic blog fratricide
  • Real Live Preacher
    OK, OK, He's not even Catholic--But he's a model for the unapologetic Christian who evangelizes with the lure of a Cristian life well lived and observed, not the hammer of screaming apologetics hellfire and brimstone.
  • Open Book
    Most unapologetic site by a true apologetic Catholic in the best sense of the word
  • Catholicism, Spirituality and Holiness
    Thoughtful Catholic man combines family, career and faith.

Noteworthy Catholic and Religious Blogs

  • A Cautious Man
    Pointing out that we could all be a little more cautious in forming our instant internet opinions. Heed his advice.
  • Beanbag Central
    Capital "C" equals Catholic Chaos at aptly named site.
  • Catholic and Enjoying It!
    Intentionally apologetic, can be over the top outrageous, provocative, but freqently informative, thoughtful and spirtitual
  • Fath Based Politiics
    Politics informed by faith--backwards from the usual. Maybe two ii's are better after all.
  • Musings of An Ordinary Catholic
    Not so ordinary musings
  • Ragamuffin Ramblings
    Words of wisdom from the Windy City
  • Sancta Sanctis
    You cannot miss Chesterton Thursdays! Comprehensive list of Catholic websites and a beatiful site that lives up to its name.
  • St. Blog's Parish Hall
    Graciously maintained by a holy person, whose virtue must be patience, a lengthy list of Catholic blogs, both apologetic and unapologetic.
  • The Squire
    Running from the thought police, and he's got a long way to go.
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Comments

penni

I do know that the most effective evangelization is the way we live our lives and the way we treat others. If we live according to the Gospel, no matter what happens to us--rich, poor, healthy or nont, fortunate or suffering from misfortunes--there is a light of goodness and peace that shines through. So much so that other people want some of that. That light is often missing on all those Catholic Blogs who emphasize "apologetics" over charity.

outstanding. thank you for the insightful post.

Bad Catholic

Great post. I did sort of choose to ignore what I knew about Ratzinger's actual comments regarding voting for pro-choice politicians in favor of what I thought was "righteous indignation." I just wanted to be mad. Turned out that wasn't doing anybody much good, least of all me. But I think sometimes God lets us go through that stuff for a while just so we can see how much better off we are doing things His way.

Unapologetic Catholic

To Bad Catholic;

I actually burst out laughing when I saw your original post! Still, I can only applaud your integrity in dealign with your own thoughts and the addressing fairly the comments made. Of all the discusions on the Papal election, you multiple post discussion is really the best! I was hopingthe link would send soem curious people your way.

Steven Riddle

Dear Unapologetic,

Unusually affecting and timely. I had a rough time over at another place where people were trying to tell me the only proper way to form my conscience. My strike-back was to declare my freedom from the tyranny of reason claque. Probably not one of my smarter moves, but definitely heart-felt. One reason so many people leave is that there are so many willing to inform them of their sins and the "reasoning" behind them in order to move them back into the faith. This is simply alienating. The way to move someone back into the faith is to love them, unconditionally--no matter what you may think of the ideas they may hold. An idea is not a person, nor does it have the value of person, a child of God. The entire world of ideas is not worth a single, living, breathing human being. Period. And that's what we have to remember when we're talking to people who are hurting--not Catholic doctrine, not who's right and who's wrong, but rather there is a person who needs to be heard. Thank you for this poignant reminder.

shalom,

Steven

Elena

Nobody left the Church because of doctrinal issues. Almost every single case could have been prevented. What do we do about this?

Oh, I'm not so sure about that. The Catholics I have seen leave the church may have had an incident or an event that was the "last straw" or just the excuse to leave... but there was a doctrinal issue of some sort or other, usually birth control.

And sometimes it's neither doctrinal or a bad experience. My sister-in-law left because she says she got one letter too many from the parish asking for money - so she was out of there. Well that's hardly mistreatment, but it was a good excuse to leave.

My sister left because the local Evangelical church was friendlier, more welcoming and the Catholic church seemed colder to her and she didn't know anyone. Not really mistreatment either and in fact it is the study of the doctrines that brought her back!

Another sister-in-law and brother-in-law simply left because they didn't know their Catholic faith and the spouses they chose were more enthusiastic about the churches they went to, so these two left just to be compliant I guess.

Talmida

The way to move someone back into the faith is to love them, unconditionally--no matter what you may think of the ideas they may hold.

Steven, well said. I think the Church is like a family - you can get mad at them and fight with them and disagree with them and even stay away for years, but they're still there. And they're still your family!!

And if they are worthy of the name family, they still love you and want you back, warts and all. No matter how angry you get at family, they're still the ones who forgive and welcome you back to the table.

I guess what is hard for some people to accept is that all families have black sheep, malcontents, crazy uncles and weird cousins. No family is perfect, and yet the idea of family is. Just like the CHurch.

Jocelyne

I am very selective about the Catholic and other Christian blogs I read precisely for the reasons you mention. The mean-spiritedness I have encountered is absolutely mind-boggling.

I am reminded of two quotes:

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
-Mohandas Gandhi


Choose being kind over being right, and you'll be right every time.
- Richard Carlson

Claude Muncey

Your quote by Gandhi, Jocelyne, reminded me of another favorite -- when asked about Western civilization he replied "I think it would be a good idea."

Also Anne Lamott: "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."


Joanne

Glad I stopped by. This was an insightful post, and a prompt to examine my conscience and behavior.

I have a 20 year old son who has left his practice of the faith, although I believe he is still somewhat Catholic in his views and morality. He cites two reasons: lack of a warm personal connection from anyone once he started attending Mass on his own. And an influx of foreign priests whose English is especially difficult to understand.

On the first point, he is a young man with depression and severe social anxiety, and his facial expression and body language can often put people off if they don't see the fear behind it. For young people, the church only seems to warmly welcome the clean-cut preppy, cheerful sort who toes the line.

We must do a better job of reaching the young people at the margins. Youth programs that target the sheltered, pious sort of young adult are going to just alienate more kids.

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