Reclaiming Christianity

      JD Vance and I actually have a lot in common. We were both born to drug addicted mothers who frankly lived in poverty and we both came from an evangelical background and converted to the Catholic faith by choice… But that’s where the similarities end. We spend a lot of time in this country talking about JD Vance’s strange interpretation of the Catholic faith but I think we’re missing a bigger issue. His interpretation of his own childhood and family is what we should really be talking about.     JD Vance treats his past as an obstacle to overcome, and his mother as a cautionary tale. To be fair it’s not hard to do in these types of situations. It’s the easiest conclusion you can come to to rationalize the life you’ve lived. The problem is though that just because it’s easy to come to that conclusion doesn’t mean it’s right. Sure we can sit here and blame the poor for being poor, blame the addict for being an addict, blame our parents for the crap...

   When I first joined the Catholic faith in 2017 I chose to follow the personal act of donning the mantilla. When I say I had no idea what I was getting into… I mean it. The moment I showed up at the church San Juan Capistrano Mission Basilica wearing a veil and a skirt I immediately found myself ostracized. Everywhere I would go within church people would glare. Even during the communion rites themselves I was glared at from people in the pews. They looked at me with disdain and disgust. And this judgment wasn’t just found in the pews of the church but in the RCIA director herself who treated me very differently than every other person in the class. I was devastated. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong or why the way I dressed bothered them. In fact I didn’t even know the hateful judgementalism that the mantilla had come to symbolize. I was hurt and I felt rejected. I was trying so hard to fit in, but wasn’t. To me donning this veil was simply a way to show my devotion to t...