My hiatus in this blog has been equally bewildering, and no I haven’t been on vacation. It’s just that my priorities were piling up themselves–in a confusing way, of course–last October and there had also been some notable events in my life which I shall deign not elaborate here as they are too personal

I came across Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s blog today; and although I have not checked his website in eons, something equally satisfying caught my attention: a post on an atheist considering attending a Catholic church soon. Nothing can get more exciting than that, and one would ever more feel the thrill while reading the said blog entry. And… I’d like to likewise copy the said atheist’s missives here

Ahm, of course it has Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s comments inserted within some lines every now and then.

The whole article can be accessed via this link.

I am probably in the very smallest of small minorities reading your blog—I’m an atheist. However, for some reason I happen to be a bit of a social conservative, and really enjoy reading your discussions of tradition and Catholic rites. For the last few weeks I’ve had a lot of fun reading your articles as they come in through Google Reader.

For some time, I’ve been toying with the idea of finding a Church to attend. Mainly because the people that I respect tend to be religious.  [See what a good example can provoke?]

I think that abortion is obviously something evil, sex outside of marriage prevents a fulfilling life, that it’s hard work to be a moral human being, and that Good isn’t relative. Fellow atheists generally don’t feel this way, and they also tend to have silly ideas about the perfectibility of human nature. Besides, I was impressed by the Christian congregation I attended in my youth, and haven’t felt the same sort of sense of community for many years.

I tried to attend a Lutheran church a couple of years ago. I didn’t really feel like I got a great deal from it. Part of it was that I tried to be serious about what I was doing and checked out a book from the library that consisted of several arguments between Erasmus and Luther. I was much more impressed by Erasmus’ writings, and still am. [Good choice.]

I’m interested in finding out more about the Catholic Church, but am a bit worried about walking around the block to meet the pastor at local church … I did a quick Google search for his name and don’t know anything about him beyond the fact that he’s a big fan of Andrew Greeley books, has been quoted in the newspaper saying that abortion is just one issue among a spectrum of “life issues” like capital punishment (not a particularly convincing statement to me), and has also been quoted saying that some Cardinal’s recent statement about evolution was overdoing things. I’m not sure how to put it best, but while I’m attracted to the Catholic Church’s stand on certain issues, I’m not particularly interested in half-baked 1960’s anything-goes theology (the Unitarians are better at that, and wouldn’t even mind the atheism bit).  [Well said!]

I’d appreciate your advice on what I should do, if you have the time.

Enrapturing. God’s grace indeed works wonders.