"Just" Catholic

 

I was presenting today at a professional conference. I keep my religion fairly private, as I don't have the benefit of working amongst people of faith. I suppose as a "religious person" I could technically fall under the umbrella of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and be welcomed as one thread in the beautiful tapestry of what makes us all different. 

But in my industry, if you are a believing Christian, it's best practice to be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove when talking openly about the faith, lest the specter of cancel culture overshadow you. That doesn't mean I shy away from it should the topic of personal faith or religion come up; I just don't throw my pearls before swine injudiciously. 

I have, however, thought a lot about the nomenclature one uses to describe themselves and their religious affiliation in a secular or professional environment. This is one of the struggles in our current fractured Church as well, but that is a different arena altogether. In the faith circles, it's no longer enough to just refer to yourself as "Catholic." What kind of Catholic are you, you might wonder? Are you a 'traditional' Catholic? A 'conservative' Catholic? An 'orthodox' Catholic? A 'progressive' Catholic? An Eastern Catholic? A JP2 Catholic? A LGBT Catholic? For better or worse, we resort to these qualifiers because, it seems, being "just Catholic" is no longer enough. 

Then you have those--both in and outside of those faith circles, but also in the world at large--who will refer to themselves as 'Catholic' because it was the faith they were raised in, or what they mark on a census form under 'religion', or because they were baptized, or perhaps because it is part of their culture. It all these instances it is accurate to call oneself Catholic, but it doesn't tell us much. Do you go to Mass on Sundays? Do you believe what the Church teaches? Do you live it out? 

So it is relatively safe to refer to yourself as I'm Catholic in the workplace or social circles because that could hide you under the accepted cloak of Catholic apostates who do not believe at all, 'wink-wink/nod-nod' Catholics who disregard Church teaching, cultural heritages ("Irish/Italian/Mexican Catholic", etc). 

But if you are an intentional Catholic willing to live by faith and die for it, that categorization seems...inadequate.

When you get marched into the HR office because you used the wrong pronoun at work, I could see one answering why they did that with "I'm Catholic" and the HR Director saying, "Well, I know lots of Catholics and they don't have a problem calling Sam a she." You get the idea.  

When I look at the evangelical world, I associate those who take a stand for something and proclaim "I am a Christian" as the reason for their particular actions with a degree of intentionality that is lacking in the 'Catholic' label. While the Baptists and other fundamentalists would vehemently disagree, Catholics are, in fact, Christians. We are the O.G. disciples, after all. 

That is one potential and appropriate way of referring to ourselves, if we do in fact hold to what the Church, the Bride of Christ, teaches and live out our faith: I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple is a follower, one who has left everything to put himself under the tutelage of a master. It does not imply passivity and is unconcerned with a label, for his actions of subjugation speak for themselves. 

But it seems awkward, and overly distracting. You're a what now? I just meant what is your religion? We could use the intentional term 'I am a Christian'  and that would be accurate in the umbrella sense or world religions. Or we could resort to saying 'I am a Catholic' and leave it at that.

But what I've finally settled on for myself personally, should the topic of my religion ever come up in a secular environment, is that I am a "Catholic Christian." The "Catholic" qualifies the "Christian," and the "Christian" underscores the intentionality of the "Catholic." That it is more than a census category or a cultural identifier, but a matter of true belief and a willingness to live it out which doesn't concern itself with insider-baseball ("Traditional Catholic," "Conservative Catholic," etc) or political affiliation ("Right-wing Catholic," "Catholic Republican," etc). 

It's a shame we can't all be "just" Catholic as a unified body, and that be enough. But this is nothing new. The heresies of today aren't Christological (Arianism, Modalism, etc) or matters of discipline or rigor (Jansenism, Donatism); no, the heresies of today are the iron fist we all live under: Relativism, Wokeism, Indifferentism, and we need a more nuanced religious nomenclature that is both intentional and succinctly communicative to account for this.

So, while it may not be perfect, Catholic Christian I am. No trademark necessary--borrow at will if you have the same struggles I do in this sphere.