I am Catholic. Born and raised. God is great and God is good. Those were always the answers to everything. God loves you. I never really understood what those words meant until recently. For years, the Catholic faith has had its weak moments, but like other faiths there is good and there is bad. People often stereotype Catholics as stuck up and snobby. There are the people who are like that and give the Catholic faith a not- so-great name.

Being Catholic to me isn't about just reading the Bible and going to church every week. It's about loving one another, no matter who they are and what they believe. It's about helping those in need. It's about being an all around good person. The Bible tells us that certain things are wrong and that we will never see Heaven. But that was the Old Testament. Jesus said that if you love God and love each other then Heaven is open to us. God is loving and He is good. I believe that no matter what you believe, whether it's Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, or anything else, if you are a good person you will get to Heaven. No one but Jesus is truly perfect and we are denying ourselves joy if we try and live that perfect life.

I went through a rough time awhile back. I did some things that weren't so smart or good. I figured God had turned his back on me. I then found my way back to the church and to my faith. God had never turned his back on me. He was patient and waited for me to realize how stupid I was. I started listening to Christian rock music and was truly inspired. This music speaks to me in a way nothing else can. The ways God inspires these musicians to speak His Word is fantastic. There are such powerful lyrics that lead one to believe that only God could have inspired these words.

There are things in the Church itself that I don't believe are correct but I truly believe in the words that are written in the Bible. I have been ashamed of the scandals in the church but not once has that dampened my spirit. Not too long ago I sent a letter to my Bishop asking why he was closing schools in my area. I had just got a reply. In this reply, it was not the Bishop who replied but one of his workers. He stated a whole bunch of nonsense that truly didn't make sense. Things like this truly frustrate me. Yet, these are things with the church not the Word of God. I will never be ashamed for what I believe. There are things that I don't always agree with but faith isn't a pick and choose kinda deal. Faith is all or nothing.

I am Catholic and I am unashamed.