PAGE ONE OF MY BOOK


FALLEN CATHOLIC:
MY SEARCH FOR THE REAL JESUS

Foreward

No one who knows me thinks of me as a Catholic any more.  I still love the Church.  But like many fallen Catholics, I still blame conservative ideologues for its fall from grace.  

I am a typical drinking, cussing, cynical smart-ass northern Catholic.  And I am enormously proud to be so.

My own journey has been a tumultuous one.  From adolescent terror over the issue of masturbation, to the anger we all felt when Vatican II was forsaken.  My life is typical of millions of American Catholics whose spiritual growth was irreparably stunted by the intellectual dishonesty of our clerics and their deviant assault on sexuality.   

Father Joe Breen met with me recently in a Red Lobster close to my home.  I had been attending his church out of a sense of duty to my wonderful wife.  When I told him I was an atheist he ignored the remark.  He was more interested in learning about why I left the church than what I thought I believed.  He is a true Catholic and a staunch reformer.  You will learn more about him in the following chapters.  

This book is a tribute to mainstream Catholics, freethinkers and Jesus of Nazareth, the man.  My most fervent wish is that some day soon, the Catholic Church will find deliverance from its most primitive forces;  the purveyors of fear, exclusivity and ignorance; the conservatives.  I believe this will happen if the Catholic Church divides its theological subgroups into three distinct sects.  If we can somehow learn from the way our Jewish friends have handled this battle, I believe we will greatly enhance the value of Catholicism and expand its reach.

The battle between truth and myth has been repeated millions of times over the past two millennia.  Truth has too often given way to myth and political expediency.  My hope is that you, the reader, will see your own struggle in the pages ahead.  If my book merely validates your journey I will be able to call it a success.  But my most fervent dream is that it may give courage to those who seek to change the Church and rescue it from it’s dubious past.