I have been a Catholic my entire life. When I was in a private, Catholic elementary school, I was taught the stories of the Bible, the Commandments, and the underlying fact that Jesus loves everyone unconditionally to the point where he was willing to die for mankind. In Catholic high school, I learned the lives of the saints, Church doctrine, and applying faith into every aspect of my life. Throughout my life, I have received the spiritual groundwork from my parents, teachers, priests, and community in order to build a strong foundation for my faith. And with every step along the way to my life-time faith journey, there are always bumps in the road, the spiritual lows that plague me every now and then.

But in the past several weeks, my heart repetitively breaks whenever a new scandal collides with the hot, merciless press. With every article I read, a report I watch, or anything I hear, I have realized that this is the most difficult time I have ever experienced to identify myself as a devout Catholic. This does not mean that I do not consider myself a devout Catholic; it just means that at the present moment, I have found it incredibly difficult to do so.

I have spent my whole life in awe of an indescribable, omnipotent God who has created our beautiful world. But maybe I have a hyper-optimistic approach that has made me naive and inconsiderate to the sin that has corrupted men of the Church for centuries. Maybe I forgot the decades of false Popes that resided in Avignon, the corrupt Church officials who sought funds in return for indulgences, or the Church's efforts to silence Galileo's discovery of a heliocentric universe because it did not agree with their teaching. Despite the centuries upon centuries which these events have occurred, it is important to rightfully criticize wrongful action within the man-made and therefore imperfect Church.

I can add the recent scandals of covering decades of sexual abuse to the list of shameful actions which the Catholic Church has submitted itself to. It does not make me more or less of a Catholic to feel enraged about these scandals. Rather, it lets me put my faith into a much more realistic context by realizing that the Church can be unjust, wrong, and hypocritical at times.

While recognizing this, it is also important to distinguish that the Church's teachings, which stem directly from the words of Christ himself or the divine intervention of Church dogma, are infallible even if the men of the Church's hierarchy are deeply flawed.

Additionally, the recent reports that have circulated in the past month or so do not reflect the entirety of the Church or her priests. I have an unexplainable privilege to have met and even befriended amazing priests, religious brothers, and sisters of the Church, and I pray that the stereotypes that falsely label each and every one of them as bad do not discourage them from continuing their teachings that have inspired me and made me into the person I am today.

And also, I pray that the Church can come forward with the utmost honesty and integrity that she, as Christ's teaching authority on Earth, deserves. Otherwise, the Church cannot genuinely grow through following Christ.