I grew up with a totally wrong view of the Catholic Church. As I learn more about the evangelical world of the 70s and 80s -I understand. But at the time I just thought catholics were not christians and therefore they were wrong.
The beginning of my journey to understand faith and have not only respect - but LOVE for all ways of viewing God began on the grounds of Tarleton State University in August of 1983. The girl that I found to be my college roommate was a Catholic. A devoted one at that.
So - I began the process of recognizing how much Regina loved God and if Regina - a catholic could love God just like I did - then what on earth was I misunderstanding.
Because you know - if you don’t understand someone from a distance - getting to know them is the best way to change that misunderstanding.
Through the years I have grown to love many practices of the Catholic Church. Regina gave me Rosary beads several years ago that she got while in Rome - I have read catholic devotionals - learned about the catholic faith - and followed many of their leaders. Richard Rohr - a Franciscan priest is one of my most favorite authors.
Monday morning I was straightening an area of the kitchen - I had not looked at news notifications and had not watched the news. I picked up a book and went to put it on the shelf. Then read the news ticker at the bottom of the screen.
The foreshadowing of news I would very soon hear is an experience that happens often for me. While foreshadowing is a literary device - a quick google search says that I can realize foreshadowing in real life by …
recognizing patterns and paying attention to your intuition.
It doesn’t really work that way for me - this typically happens with people and most often death. And I am learning to just embrace the weirdness of it all.
But for today - I will just smile and reflect upon a protestant way of life that has grown to love the Catholic Church. I particularly have loved Pope Francis. So many things that he has shared during his leadership are things that I believe - ways that I know we can show LOVE.
Toward the end of his book Hope: The Autobiography, Pope Francis writes:
The Church needs everyone - every man, every woman - and we all need each other.
None of us is an island, an autonomous an independent self, and the future is something we can only build together, excluding no one.
We have the duty to be diligent and mindful, overcoming the temptation of indifference.
True love is restless.
It is commonly said that the opposite of love is hate, and this is true, but in many people there is no conscious hate. The more everyday opposite of God’s love, God’s compassion, God’s mercy, is indifference.
To eliminate a man or a woman, just ignore them. Indifference is aggression.
Indifference can kill. Love doesn’t tolerate indifference.
We cannot remain with our arms folded, indifferent, or shrug our shoulders fatalistically. We Christians hold out our hands. *
The world was a better place with Pope Francis breathing and living. May we continue the world he showed us - may we LOVE all of us - may we never be indifferent to each other.
*Pope Francis. Hope: The Autobiography. Penguin Random House, 2025.