My Catholic Christian faith is an important part of my self identity, and this page will hopefully provide an introduction to the reasons that I profess the Catholic faith. First of all I will give a brief summary statement of the main reasons I am Catholic, and then I enter in to a discussion of my own journey of faith and experiences with religion. Please note that you might find it easier to read the content on this page by making your browser window smaller. Thanks for your interest in my faith journey!

A Summary Statement of Why I'm Catholic
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I am Catholic because I am a religious, human, being that believes in the divinity and teachings of Jesus Christ, and based on my own judgment of the accumulation of many historical facts and my own critique of ecclesial history, I perceive and now believe the Catholic Church to be the most valid and authoritative congregation of believers in Jesus Christ on Earth.
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The Importance of Balance in Academic Studies
Friends and Colleagues are often quite intrigued when I tell them that in addition to an M.B.A., I also completed ½ of the coursework for an M.A. in Theological Studies at Loyola. "Theology?" they say. "Hmmm. Interesting! So tell me, what do you want to do with a degree in theology and an M.B.A (or Ph.D in Finance)?" I'm telling you I've been asked that question 100 times. It's quite a fair question, I suppose. I mean, after all, Financial Theology or Theological Financial Analysis are not exactly fields that have been pioneered yet, and I sincerely doubt that any such fields will come to exist, say, in the next 2 millennia.

The question remains: Why are all of my degrees important, and what does it have to do with why I'm Catholic? Well first of all, I will probably never realize any financial gain from my theological work. I have always considered myself most naturally a theologian. In the last semester of my work at Purdue University, I took a course in Basic Catholic Theology at my local parish through a University of Notre Dame extension program. For me, the course was substantial and provided me with a significant beginning in life: It opened me up to a field of study that was about 10 times more fulfilling than my own field at that time, Political Science, and began the process of demystifying Catholic doctrine to me. Unfortunately, though, theology is not always practical for people to study. It is often difficult to get funding for doctoral work in theology, and it's just not for all people.

What is the strength that I perceive in having a balanced background in a technical field like finance and a more artsy field like theology or political science? The strength of cultivating a healthy interest in numerous fields of different content is in the coming about of an intangible realization of the beauty of all reality; an all-encompassing reality that I believe is created and is not accidental. It means appreciating the inherent mathematical beauty, as the famed nuclear physicist Polkinghorne notes, that pervades complex mathematical systems in finance, but at the same time not marginalizing the fact that an all-powerful God exists which may indeed underpin the entire system.

In my personal life, as well, I recognize that it is important to know not only how and when to lead, but also how and when to follow. If I am to follow, I must know, based on my personal desires, that the person I follow is a good leader. A necessary quality of a leader is that he/she be willing to make unpopular decisions for the good of those being led, if the need arises.

But what does this have to do with why I am Catholic?

The Presence of all Reality, Rooted in a Truth We are Capable of Knowing
I am Catholic for many reasons. First of all, I acknowledge that reality exists. (This is a major philosophical statement.) Secondly, I believe in the existence of an all powerful, creator God. Thirdly, and most importantly for our specific question, I believe strongly that the all powerful creator would not create us and then leave us here on Earth to decide for ourselves what was reality and what was not. It makes sense to me naturally that God would give us some way of determining for ourselves what is true and what is false. (note: Some may say talking about God has nothing to do with nature. Catholic teaching, however, holds that all reality, including natural law and scientific truths, is sacred, because all reality is created by God.) What I'm saying here is I believe that God would leave for us some authoritative way of determining what is good and evil.

This notion of authority is extremely important for why I'm Catholic. I believe that it is true not only that truth exists, but also that we can come to an absolute knowledge of that truth, where there is no room for error, and where what is, simply is, without question. Did not God say to Abraham "I am… that I AM," and did not Christ teach his followers, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life?"

Many religions, including Protestant Christianity and Islam, form their rules of faith from their sacred scriptures, but in my humble opinion I view that there are problems with structuring any system of faith exclusively around a written document. Too many valid questions arise concerning interpretation of the document, additions and subtractions over time to the document, authentic authorship of the document, and in the case of Christianity, the simple fact that the document did not exist in its present form until 3 centuries after the life of the main person it talks about. This is not to say that what these books say is not valid. It's to say that evidence exists that scriptures are not always necessarily intended, or were not intended, to form the sole rule of faith for a religion. Concerning the case of Christianity, I side with Paul in his instruction that "[the Church] is the pillar and bulwark of the truth."

Here again arises this notion of "the truth." Christ says, "I am the truth." Paul teaches us that the Church is the "bulwark of the truth." But what do these statements imply? These statements imply that not only is it possible for us to imagine or posit the existence of truth, but in addition we may come to know what "the truth" is. In my opinion, this idea is crucial. We can come to know what truth is… we can have knowledge of truth, which is knowledge of what is. We are not meant to flounder around here on Earth in a continual search for reality. We can know it, and God has provided for our knowledge of it. For me, something about this idea appeals to my sense of the nature of reality. This idea is appreciated by the Church, which considers itself the guardian of the deposit of faith, the fidei depositum, the guardian of the truth of what is…. Thus, one reason I am Catholic is because the Catholic worldview coincides with my own view, not so much of how the world ought to be, but rather how the world is.

Lessons from My Personal Experience
In my personal life, I have always considered myself a person striving for a better position in life, seeking education, opportunity, working hard to promote my future and the future of my family. To this end, I have forced myself to take the lead in working out my own destiny and position in life, so to speak, financially, spiritually, physically, and socially. At the same time, however, I realize that I do not have all the answers inside me. Where I am a leader for myself (and sometimes for other people as well), there is an instinct in me also to follow another way… a religious way… it is an instinct to cultivate an appreciation for what we cannot know based on empirical observation. This idea resonates with the Catholic notion that our human souls are pre-inclined towards God… This Catholic idea has always appealed to me.

As Richard McBrien tells us in his summa, Catholicism, being Catholic is a way of being Christian, which is in turn a way of being religious, which in turn is a way of being human. When I say, "I am Catholic," I am at least making an affirmation of my own humanity.

From Non-Belief to Realization, From Realization to Joy
Yet I have not always been Catholic. Throughout my high school years I bordered on agnosticism, even though I had always been raised Catholic and had positive Protestant influence in my life through my mother, who is Pentecostal. I knew my Church's fundamental teachings, but they were never too alive to me. Although I was not convinced of the explicit validity of Catholic teaching, I always kept an open mind and an open heart about the Catholic Church. In a sense, I always wanted to have explicit faith even though I did not have it, but even though I did not have explicit faith, I always had faith in God that if I were patient enough, God would give me that gift.

On the side of my studies during my undergrad at Purdue in political science, I became interested in alternative religions in general. I studied many belief systems and asked myself if I felt they could have some validity for me. Inside Christianity, I started looking at history and doctrines of Protestant congregations and fundamentalist churches. I took a course in basic Catholic theology at my local church, and I was fascinated. I realized quickly how much I did not know about my own church. I realized that there was a gold mine of ecclesiological, scriptural, and catechetical (teaching) tradition that had been right in front of me for my whole life. It was an encouraging thing to me to be able to come to this realization of beauty in my church. Yet faith did not accompany the realization I came to. I still did not have faith in the teachings of the Catholic Church. I continued, however, to keep an open heart and an open mind, and I entered in to a graduate program in theology at Loyola University Chicago to learn more about theology and how historical thinkers, believers, scientists, and non-believers have thought about God.

I was not so naïve as to think that I would gain faith from my studies in the field of theology. Anselm's classical definition of theology served as a bit of a warning to me: Theology is faith seeking understanding. I knew that the goal was not to understand in order to believe. Faith is a gift from God. I was simply interested in learning more about the history and philosophy of the Christian Church. Concerning faith, I held on to the belief that if I were patient, God would grant me the gift of faith. In a sense, I had to have one kind of faith in God in order to receive another kind of faith in God. I earnestly prayed to God the creator daily to give me faith. I would say a prayer like, "God, I do not know everything about you, but I believe that you exist, and that you can hear me praying to you. I ask you to grant me the gift of faith, so that I can know the truth that I believe is in you and you alone." This prayer is the prayer of an open heart, yearning to know God and His truth.

Finally, after many years of prayer and much patience, I was granted the gift of faith in Jesus Christ in late April, 2002. There was an instance where I felt that the Holy Spirit came upon me and brought to me the gift of faith. This was a distinct action that occurred when I was not expecting it. I experienced a deep joy within my body, and I was nearly moved to tears when I realized what had happened. I have never had a similar experience in my life. I do not mean to make the experience something that it was not. No amazing light came upon me. I didn't have any vision or see any spectacular site. It was just as if all at once, I was overwhelmed with the joy that the Holy Spirit was working within me. I could not have proved it to you if you asked me, but I knew what had happened. God had granted to me the faith I had been praying for for the last 3 years. Suddenly, when I didn't expect it at all, all of my struggles and efforts in my regular life were marginalized and brought into perspective with the struggles of other people in the world. I actually became sad soon after my I received my new gift, because along with having faith came a profound and constant realization of the staggering amount of human suffering in the world. I was made more aware, I believe, of the way lack of justice in so many places in the world. In a way, I feel that with this faith has come a tremendous amount of responsibility to work for the betterment of people who are suffering in the world.

To this day, I know that the faith I have within me must be cared for and nourished, and I believe I will continue to grow in faith as time progresses, God-willing.

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