How To Use This Site

When the idea for Intentional Catholic first came to me, I intended to be invisible on this site. I had a vision of combing Church documents for nuggets of guidance on timely and difficult issues, and I wanted them to stand on their own, without commentary.

I still want that, but the longer I spent working on this project, the more I realized that the reading of these documents is, itself, continuing to challenge me. And if I don’t share my own struggles, in addition to the insights I’ve gained, I’m culpable in two ways: one, for failing to offer the benefit of my experience to fellow Christian pilgrims; and two, for failing to make myself vulnerable to others in allowing them to push back and challenge me so that I, too, will continue to grow.

So Intentional Catholic now has two facets: first, the graphics, posted as individual blog posts with minimal commentary and shared to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. And second, a once-a-week post (after this week, at least!) where I’ll blog about the things that are on my heart. Perhaps we can all undertake this journey together.

Whenever you come across a graphic on this site that resonates or challenges, refer to the source. All those source documents (with the exception of saint quotes) are linked from the documents page. Some of these quotes are challenging. In virtually all of them, the context reveals complexities that don’t fit in a social media graphic. I don’t expect you to take my excerpts as the final word. In fact, I beg you not to do so. I want you to go back to the source documents and read them in their entirety.

A note about comments: I want you to discuss, to probe and dig down with me, to challenge yourself and to challenge me. But I reserve the right to moderate—that is to say, delete—if comments deteriorate to ad hominems, name calling, and other violations of human dignity. We should be better than that. Here we’ll be dealing with difficult but important topics, ones that ignite great passions. But thoughtful, open-minded, reasonable conversations are the pathway to conversion.