Dear Editor,

In the opinion section of the Feb. 20 edition of the Vermont Cynic, an article was published called ÒGuarding FaithÓ in which the author spoke about her tension between believing some things that her Catholic faith taught, yet also struggling to believe others.

As a cradle Catholic, I also went through a similar struggle when I was in college and I found much of what the Church taught out of date, inconvenient and unreasonable.

However, the reason I thought this way was because I was never taught the beauty of why the Church taught what it did regarding morality and doctrine, and sadly, most of my formation and understanding of the faith was at grade school or at best, junior high school.

Therefore, in facing the more complicated questions that the University setting invites us to ask, in terms of my faith, I was intellectually uninformed and unprepared to actually confront the many questions our culture raises that challenge a religion that is so counter-cultural like that of the Catholic Church.

Due to the gap in my formation between what the Church teaches and the reasons why, I became bitter and resentful towards the Catholic Church, or rather, towards who and what I thought the Catholic Church was.

The Renowned Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, once said, ÒI have never met someone who actually hates the Catholic Church. But I have met thousands of people who hate what they think the Catholic Church is.Ó That was me.

To the author of ÒGuarding Faith,Ó and to anyone else struggling with tension between the faith they were raised with and what their views are now, I encourage you to not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

So often in college I rushed to conclusions that were uninformed and unfounded because I never went any deeper than my 6th grade understanding of God and my faith.

When I was invited to go deeper, to seek out respected authorities who could authentically teach me the why behind the what of the Catholic faith, I was humbled to realize how much I misunderstood the faith my parents, grandparents and great grandparents sacrificed so much to give me.

I wish I had recognized that I did not have the correct understanding of the Catholic faith and how much I needed to learn before I went through my period of tension and confusion.

Before dismissing or disregarding your faith, I encourage you to first seek understanding Ñ discover the why behind the what Ñ so that whatever decision you freely make with regard to religion and faith, the decision may be a rightly informed one.

Ê

Sincerely,

Fr. Jon Schnobrich

UVM Catholic Center