Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question [Hardcover]

The popular blogger and publisher of Envoy magazine offers 10 key reasons why he loves being Catholic (and you should too). Drawing heavily on poignant anecdotes from his own experience as a life-long Catholic born in 1960s, Madrid offers readers a way of looking at the Church--its members, teachings, customs, and history--from perspectives many may have never considered.

Growing up Catholic during a time of great social and theological upheaval and transition, a time in which countless Catholics abandoned their religion in search of something else, Patrick Madrid learned a great deal about why people leave Catholicism and why others stay. This experience helped him gain many insights into what it is about the Catholic Church that some people reject, as well as those things that others treasure. Drawing upon Madrid's personal experiences,Why Be Catholic?offers a deeply personal, fact-based, rationale for why everyone should be Catholic or at least consider the Catholic Church in a new light. The Catholic Church is the last place most people would expect to find their intellectual and spiritual home, so they never investigate it. Why should they? How could the Church—with its rules, rigidity, and reputation—possibly be where true happiness is found? How could it, appreciated for its pageantry but disdained for its teachings, have anything to offer the modern world in general or them in particular? It’s this very improbability that Patrick Madrid cuts through in showing that only the Catholic faith can satisfy everyone’s deepest longings. -Karl Keating, President, Catholic Answers

If this book had been available when I was still a Protestant, I may have been convinced to become Catholic without reading any further.  It’s a great resource for dispelling much of the misinformation and ignorance that abounds about the Church and also a reminder to us Catholics as to how blessed we truly are. -Gail Buckley,ló&