Intentionally Catholic

By Gloria Scoyola

Being Catholic.

Are you:

• A cradle Catholic born into the faith and a regular participant in Sunday Worship yet unable to defend your faith?

• A lukewarm, pew Catholic going through the motions?

• An inactive Catholic, believing but barely attending Mass except for Easter and Christmas, weddings and funerals?

• A Fallen Away Catholic, angry at the Church for a slight, real or otherwise? 

• A Catholic who has left the Church to enter into another religious affiliation because Mass was boring?

• A new Catholic, wondering if you fully understand what you have professed?

• Thinking about becoming Catholic but not sure if you can accept or live with what the Church teaches? 

• An intentional Catholic, openly living and sharing the joy, doctrine and dogma of the Church that has endured for centuries.

There are over a billion Catholics in the world. How many Catholics actually live and love their faith may be in question but those who are intentionally Catholic are united every day in the struggle to live and understand the teachings and traditions instilled in this universal identity since Jesus Christ first appeared on the scene. Some have died for the faith and others walk away when called to defend it. Some identify with the crucified Christ and others with the resurrected Christ. Some deem obedience the crucial element needed to be true, while others consider love to be essential in the teachings of the Catholic faith. Many spend their whole lives devoted to the Church answering when called to serve, supporting the Church in all her needs, savoring the joys that can be found therein.

Whoever you are, Ms. Scoyola invites you to enter into her experience of thirty plus years in the service of the Church. She returned to the faith after an absence of twenty years, guilty but repentant and found reconciliation and redemption. In her years of serving in several parishes of the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston in Texas, she directed the formation of hundreds of adults and children asking to be initiated or welcomed into the Catholic Church through the RCIA ministry.  In doing so she learned to become Intentionally Catholic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: May 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781977264923

Gloria Scoyola

Gloria Villanueva Scoyola was born Catholic but walked away from the Church during the chaotic years of the 1960’s. She returned after her mother’s sudden death to find a church coming to terms with the changes made after the Second Vatican Council. She received a call to service and with the help of many pastors, and laity alike, immersed herself on all things Catholic. She earned a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston Texas and served at several parishes during her thirty years in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. She states, “I was away from my faith for twenty years and returned to find a church that had been patiently waiting my return. I am happy to share some of what I have learned, re-learned, and experienced as I endeavor in my collaboration with God to inch my way closer to heaven.”

Book preview

Intentionally Catholic

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2023 Gloria Scoyola

v3.0

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Scripture texts, used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC NABRE New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

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Acknowledgements

With gratitude to the pastors and faithful parishioners of the following Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston: Rev. Don A. Neumann, St. Pius V in Pasadena, Msgr. Dan Scheel, St. Jerome in Spring Branch, Rev. Philip Wilhite, St. Albert of Trapani, in Houston and Sacred Heart, in Conroe, Rev. Paul Procella, St. Mary Magdalene in Humble, Rev. Norbert Maduzia, St. Ignatius of Loyola in Spring, and Rev. James Burkart, Christ the Good Shepherd in Spring. Especial thanks to Rev. Lee Flores, OLG, Rosenberg and Mr. Jim Barrette, Secretariat for Pastoral and Educational Ministries in the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston.

Dedication

With much love and appreciation to my friend and editor, Margaret Chiavone, who helped make this book possible.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: The Love Of God

Chapter 2: Fiat

Chapter 3: The Will Of God

Chapter 4: Knowing And Believing

Chapter 5: When Darkness Prevails

Chapter 6: Let The Children Come To Me

Chapter 7: Forgiveness

Chapter 8: The Last Things

Chapter 9: Prayer

Chapter 10: The Gospel And Evangelization

Chapter 11: Blessings

Chapter 12: Mary

Chapter 13: The People Of God

Chapter 14: Church Councils, Synods And Encylicals

Chapter 15: Liturgy

Chapter 16: Sacraments

Chapter 17: The Mystery Of Evil

Chapter 18: The Priesthood

Chapter 19: The Laity

Appendix

Preface

There is a wonderful something about belonging to the first Christian Church established by Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago. Jesus called Peter and told him, And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.¹ Through-out the past two millennia, forces have come against the one true Church, and yet, true to His Word, the Church continues to survive. The Church has been attacked by armies, scandals, believers, and unbelievers alike. She has suffered greatly at the hands of some that have been unworthy of the trust put upon them such as popes, bishops, priests, and other leaders. God doesn’t make mistakes, but the Church sometimes does. She is governed by men (with a lot of help from women) after all but guided by the infallible hand of God. Many Catholics abandon the Church, for lack of understanding perhaps, but many new Catholics embrace her with a fervor that brings an infusion of life saving grace to the whole. Perhaps She may diminish in numbers, but She will never die. She will live forever.

I was one of the many who abandoned the Church in the days of the Second Vatican Council. Only through God’s grace, was I guided back to the Church after the sudden death of my mother which I now consider a tragic blessing.

I was born in 1946 and raised Catholic. I was a child of the sixties, witness to the Korean war, Vatican II, the first moon landing, the Kennedys and Martin Luther King assassinations, Vietnam, the peace movement, the feminist movement, Black power, Raza Unida, Watergate, and others.

The Second Vatican Council, a time of great and sometimes turbulent change, was initiated by Pope John XXIII when he called for the opening of the windows of the Church to let the Holy Spirit in; for an aggiornamento and renewal in the Church. He opened the windows of the Church to let the Spirit in!

When I was sixteen, rumors were running rampant about the Church, priests, and nuns. I was overcome with the many changes and scandals that were circulating! I did not understand what I perceived as hypocrisy in the Church. I saw only the turmoil, not the grace. So, I stopped attending and stayed away for 20 years. The thought of being part of another evangelical or protestant Christian church never occurred to me. I was just lost. My mother was saddened by my attitude toward our faith. Nothing she said could answer the questions I had, especially since we didn’t speak much about religion at the time. Easter and Christmas yes, but not about how or why those Holy days came about. Nothing about what those days meant and how they changed the world. We had a beautiful bible with lovely art, but we never read it or spoke about it. It was just sitting there on the coffee table, a silent but unfulfilled testimony. The only thing I remember learning in my CCD class was that the bread, once blessed was sacred. I can still see Sister lifting the hem of her skirt and stomping on the unconsecrated host to prove her point.

I felt bad for my mother. She was constantly inviting me to accompany her to Mass but never pressuring or laying guilt on me for my refusals. Sometimes when visiting her in later years, I would throw her a bone and attend Mass with her. This sounds awful, doesn’t it? She was fifty-seven when she died suddenly, shortly after a phone conversation in which we had been planning a visit. An hour after we spoke, my brother called and told me that Mom had become very ill, and I needed to come home immediately. I was at work, and I panicked. I remember the silence that enveloped me as I struggled to contain my emotions. As the noise and chatter of a busy office faded away, I knew that my mother was dead. A voice inside said, your mother is gone. It didn’t say my mother is gone it said, "your mother is gone". That was the day I learned that God speaks to us and even though it took a while to trust his voice, I continue to listen for it. I have often said that if Mom had known her death would bring me back to Christ, she would have died sooner. She lived her faith abundantly and told anyone who