Why Be Catholic? Understanding Our Experience & Tradition

"'Why be Catholic?' is a question Catholics never asked a generation ago. If you were born Catholic, you simply accepted the faith, its traditions and beliefs. Today the Catholic Church is different from the way it was a generation ago. It is not so easy to say what makes Roman Catholicism so different from other forms of Christianity." —from the Introduction

Today many Catholics wonder about their role in the Church. What does it mean to be Catholic in a world of numerous, competing and contradictory beliefs? What qualities does Catholic Christianity share with other traditions? What qualities and beliefs are unique to the Catholic tradition?

Based on a taped version of teachings by Richard Rohr, this written form is in collaboration with Joseph Martos. They answer the above-mentioned questions fairly and truthfully, showing a deep appreciation for what is good in Catholicism and a penetrating honesty about the Church's shortcomings, realizing that we must live in this necessary and creative tension. They also examine what it means to be Catholic in the United States today. Finally, to answer the title question in a more personal way, they present portraits of some outstanding Catholics, especially those we call saints, who have found personal fulfillment by living their faith to the utmost. This book is good for younger Catholics searching for religious identity and older Catholics who have lost it.

Paperback, 147 pages