The Catholic Weirdo

In an article over at CatholicCulture.net, Peter Mirus explains why a Catholic appears so weird to the outsider. Here's an interesting quote:

I was aware at a young age that I had a mindset, due to my Catholic upbringing, that put me at odds with society and made me somewhat of a target to my peers. I can remember days when, at the age of 12, I was making a decent attempt at trying to explain life issues, saints, and the Eucharist to kids in my neighborhood. They, in turn, laughed at my ignorance of all matters relating to human relationships (i.e., sex) and modern culture (i.e., Van Halen) and therefore tried to expose me to as much sex and Van Halen as possible.

So there was a certain cultural exchange here. But due to the round-the-clock efforts of my parents to make sure my fallen nature didn’t get the better of me, I survived with my oddness intact.

I was certainly weird in high school.

Unlike Peter Mirus' appearance to his peers in high school, however, my appearance to you in high school was probably not nearly so odd as my appearance to you now. That's because I wasn't really Catholic in high school. I wasn't well catechized. I didn't know what the Church actually teaches. I did have a general desire to be good, but I wasn't particularly good at denying myself gratification from actions that are objectively evil.

I wish that I had been much weirder in high school.