Thoughts on Recovering Catholics
I recently had some discussions with a blogger who identifies herself as a "Recovering Catholic." The first time I heard that phrase was when a columnist in our local paper used it to describe herself too. She never said really why she was recovering or what happened to her. When I used to debate on AOL boards, another debator and my comrad-in-arms, Eileen came up with the theory that a majority of Catholics who leave the church, don't know anything or very little about their Catholic Faith. In discussion after discussion the amount of basic knowledge of Catholicism that these people did not know was stunning. They in fact weren't recovering from Catholicism, because in fact they never knew what Catholicism really was, what it really taught, or how it was really to be lived. It may be that they had a run in with a mean nun, or an abusive priest or something. But that's not recovering from Catholicism - that's recovery from physical, emotional, intellectual