Roaming Catholic Unitarian Univeralists: The Carl and Louise Story

Carl and Louise were both looking for a new church. They were in their late 50s, both had been raised Catholic, and had raised their 4 children as Catholic, but after the kids were grown and out of the house, their church attendance had slowly dwindled to nothing.

They used birth control to limit the size of their family after the birth of their last child when Louise was 34 which they knew was against the teachings of the church. And the pedophilia scandal hit and it became embarassing to explain to their non Catholic friends how the church covered it up transferring child abusing priests from parish to parish.

Carl and Louise struggled as parents to explain the virgin birth to their children and the ideas about venial and mortal sins never made much sense to either one of them let alone explain it to their children and now their little grandchildren.

Their children had not continued in their Catholic faith and two of them, now married, had not married in the church and had no intention of having their children baptized.

Carl and Louise though, did miss a faith community, and often, especially around the major holidays like Christmas and Easter, felt the desire to share some sense of religious reverence with a group of like minded people.

When they met Bob and Carol they learned about Unitarian Universalism and they referred them to the Unitarian Universalism: A Way Of Life Blog. Carl and Louise started reading the blog and learned that UU is a covenantal religion which is based on seven principles all of which they deeply appreciated and resonated with. They both experienced a sense of peace and new found joy in their lives and sought out a local congregation which they could visit.

When they visited and learned that these people celebrated love beyond belief and that people need not think alike to love alike, they felt as if this church was too good to be true.

Now when people ask if they have a church and a faith tradition, Carl and Louise laugh and say, “Yes, we’re Roamin Catholic Unitarian Universalists.”