From Catholic is Wonderful! by Mitch Finley (Resurrection Press/Catholic Book Publishing):
A Catholic is one who can say, in all honesty, "I'm not perfect and neither is the church." A Catholic is one who is baptized, wants to belong to the Catholic Church, finds God in the Catholic community of faith, and finds there forgiveness, spiritual nourishment, courage, healing, and light to live by.
A Catholic is likely to find much wisdom and goodness in many,perhaps most, of the church's laws, but a good Catholic may also find some church rules that, before God, he or she simply cannot accept. To do so would be to violate his or her own conscience. St. Augustine, in the 5th century, said that even if an angel of God should order you to disobey your conscience you should not do so. This does not make you a bad Catholic, and anyone who says it does is a Pharisee in the classic mold.
I recall a wry remark of G. K Chesterton, a convert to Catholicism and probably the most quotable English-speaking Catholic of the 20th century: "Catholics know the two or three transcendental truths on which they do agree; and take rather a pleasure in disagreeing on everything else."
And how.
If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: Catholic is Wonderful!
