I Love the Catholic Church, Which is Why I Say, #ChurchToo

True love for Christ is shown by our willingness to lay down our lives — and even our “vocations” — for the truth

Ever since my childhood, I desired to become a Catholic priest. While many of my childhood friends wanted to become police officers, firemen, doctors, or teachers, I felt a deep longing to serve God & the Church as a priest. My earliest memories include accompanying my mother to daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, praying in the morning & at night, and learning more about the faith. Priests were my heroes. They dedicated their entire lives to the service of God and neighbor through preaching, teaching, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, hearing confessions, offering counsel, and more. In the joyful moments of people’s lives (such as baptisms, First Communion, and weddings) the priest was there. In the sorrowful moments of life (illnesses, death, funerals, crises), the priest was there. The priest seemed to truly represent Christ in a world which all too often forgot about Him. But I soon learned that there were priests who forgot about Christ, too.

I was ten years old in 2002 when The Boston Globe published the results of investigations into clergy sex abuse & its subsequent cover-up in the Archdiocese of Boston. Although these…