Archives for November 2006

My husband Chris comes from a very religious family, a catholic family, whereas I come from a mixed religion family. My mother was born a protestant, and my father was born into a Catholic family. The mixing of the two religions caused strife in the family on both sides, but as an observer I’d have to say that it was probably harder for my father to mix with my mothers family as her brothers treated him as an outcast. Heck, I witnessed them gang up on him and beat him up once when I was young. In my mothers case she was pretty much accepted into my fathers family but his oldest sister snubbed her in several ways and I think that might have gone back to the differences in their religious upbringing.

As children we were raised as Catholics. Well I should say the first four children were raised in a Catholic manner. I being the last, was not. My parents had become disillusioned by the ways the Catholic separate school system educated the kids, and perhaps attempting to balance the two religions between the families took it’s toll and my parents had given up by the time I came around. As a result I’m the only child in the family to have attended public school throughout the course of my education.

Oh my parents did take me to church as a child but it wasn’t a “we must go every Sunday” type of thing. I was baptized, and confirmed in the Catholic Church just as anyone else who was raised as a Catholic has been.

My husband Chris was raised in the way my siblings were raised but even more so since both of his parents are Catholic. He attended Church every Sunday, was an alter boy, sang in the choir and played the organ for the occasional church service- all while being a bad boy rock ‘n roll teenager in a cover band touring North America. How he did all of that I’ll never know.

Chris was, as a matter of fact, raised right across the street from the church his family attended – and still attends. His mother also works in another Catholic Church as the church secretary.

I’ve found a site that is probably aimed more at the kind of Catholic that I am, as opposed to the type that my in-laws are. I wouldn’t say I’m a lapsed Catholic, more of a relaxed catholic. It seems that my in-laws don’t believe that you can be truly religious unless you attend church at least every Sunday, if not every single day (as my mother in law and my father in laws’ sister do). Whereas I tend to believe that you do not necessarily have to worship in the house of God (a Church) in order to be a good Catholic or a good person, as God is supposed to be all around us at all times. I’m certain that he sees me and hears my prayers in my home just as well as in my church.

All this rambling and I’m trying to tell you about the Catholic Show . A site that I’m very certain my in-laws would love. In fact I plan on emailing them a link to the site when I’m done writing this post. The Catholic show does weekly podcasts that seek to inspire Catholics to build their religion back up, to make it strong again. Not just strong as in for their own beliefs, but to make the Catholic religion as a whole a strong religion again. Their mission is to invite former Catholics back to the church and to support a Church vibrant and growing as never before. I’ll likely visit the site and listen to a few podcasts over the next few weeks in order to see if I think the goals of the Catholic Show will be successful.