"You're a Catholic in Italy when you're born, it's unthinkable to stop being Catholic. You just take the rules a lot more seriously, because it pervades your culture"
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Being “born” Catholic in Italy isn’t framed here as a choice so much as an atmosphere: something you inhale before you can name it. Andrew Greeley, a priest who spent his career reading religion through the lens of sociology and story, is pointing at Catholicism as cultural infrastructure, not just a creed. The line works because it punctures the modern fantasy that belief is primarily an individual, rational selection. In this telling, religion is closer to language or family loyalty: opting out is technically possible, but it comes with the psychic cost of betraying a whole symbolic world.
His phrasing does two things at once. “Unthinkable” isn’t a theological claim about truth; it’s a social claim about plausibility. The boundaries of what feels imaginable are policed less by doctrine than by customs, holidays, school rhythms, neighborhood expectations, and the way guilt and grace get baked into everyday conversation. That’s why “rules” matter: not because Italians are uniquely obedient, but because the rules are everywhere, reinforced by repetition and visibility. Catholicism pervades the culture, so the culture makes Catholicism feel like nature.
There’s a subtle critique tucked inside the pastoral tone. If Catholic identity is inherited like citizenship, then “seriousness” can become less about spiritual depth and more about social compliance - faith practiced as belonging. Coming from a clergyman, it’s also a sober admission: the Church’s power often rests on immersion, not persuasion, and the line quietly asks what happens to belief when the water you’re swimming in finally recedes.
His phrasing does two things at once. “Unthinkable” isn’t a theological claim about truth; it’s a social claim about plausibility. The boundaries of what feels imaginable are policed less by doctrine than by customs, holidays, school rhythms, neighborhood expectations, and the way guilt and grace get baked into everyday conversation. That’s why “rules” matter: not because Italians are uniquely obedient, but because the rules are everywhere, reinforced by repetition and visibility. Catholicism pervades the culture, so the culture makes Catholicism feel like nature.
There’s a subtle critique tucked inside the pastoral tone. If Catholic identity is inherited like citizenship, then “seriousness” can become less about spiritual depth and more about social compliance - faith practiced as belonging. Coming from a clergyman, it’s also a sober admission: the Church’s power often rests on immersion, not persuasion, and the line quietly asks what happens to belief when the water you’re swimming in finally recedes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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