When Catholicism isn’t catholic

Part 1: My personal story

My parish church used to feel more like home to me than my actual home did.

I went to the attached parochial school and made lifelong friends there. Like any student at any school, I had some wonderful teachers and some horrifically bad ones. While I headed off to public high school, most of my friends went to the popular Catholic secondary school instead; but upon walking into my new school at the start of the year, I was greeted by many faces I’d known through my church, and they either became or stayed my friends.

Later in high school, I started to sing at my church. I had discovered a talent and a passion for music which my HS program had brought to the forefront, and I joined several of my friends in becoming a “music minister” or cantor, a vocal soloist at the front of the church.

I loved it. I loved it so much. I was sharing my gift, I was glorifying God, I wasn’t being bullied or forced into it, and I was actually getting paid a small stipend for it as well. Christmas and Easter were rough, sure, but the rest of the year — well, my faith continued to grow, I became more and more Catholic, and I became more committed to my parish.

This continued, with occasional ups and downs, for just shy of 20 years.

That was when my pastor — who could be a pain in the ass, but who also knew his flock and did what he could to keep them happy and engaged — retired. A year later (this past summer) the music…