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As a retired Episcopal priest, I generally agree. It is important to remember that there are many diverse understandings of God that trained theologians cannot support or believe. We are still believers. — David
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As a former atheist and now practicing Catholic, I would suggest that by attending Mass, the writer is allowing the Holy Spirit to work in his life and may find themself brought to a deeper understanding of his faith. I would caution that if they are not in agreement with the Church’s teaching, please abstain from partaking in Holy Communion. — Alexander
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I’m a pastor, and I’ve never served a church yet where someone hasn’t told me they don’t believe. And that’s just the folks who tell me. Attend where you find beauty. Get to know people who, when life is hard, will be your supports. Even engage in Bible or theological studies if they are the sort that let each person state their own faith or lack of faith. Maybe God is the connection between us. Maybe not. — Liz
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The Ethicist’s response is measured and only misses that in Catholic churches, pure nonbelievers who would take up pew space for crowded services at Easter or Christmas risk dissuading those who are actually having trouble with their faith or attendance. That admission about not believing but loving the pageantry is unlikely to work then, but a good time to share that with the faithful is during concerts, even crowded ones! — Ron
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As the story goes, an atheist ballet dancer from New York went to see Thomas Merton and asked him about the Mass, saying that he didn’t get it. Merton simply said, “Well, the Mass is really kind of a ballet.” I would add that the Mass is theater. Theater, poetry, music and metaphor invite us to the inner world of the numinous Spirit that we can never understand, because it exists in “the cloud of unknowing.” — Sal
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I thought the Ethicist’s reply was right on: “A church represents a confluence of practices, beliefs and community, and its congregants will be drawn for all sorts of reasons.” I thoroughly admired the letter-writer’s honesty and insightfulness. I share his convictions about the story of Jesus, the spin-doctoring and the sense of aloneness and apartness from others in a religious setting. I’m writing as a Jew, with quibbles about the supernatural and many other beliefs in my own tradition. I don’t have the writer’s articulateness, but here’s my version of the writer’s story: A decade ago, my family and I visited Italy. The only place I had to visit was St. Peter’s Basilica, for reasons I could not articulate save that I knew something about it through reading and that I wished to see with my own eyes Bernini’s baldacchino, and we did. We were there for perhaps an hour. I got to see Michelangelo’s Pietà (which I saw 50 years earlier at the Flushing Meadows World’s Fair). A tiny woman in black ran left and right, shushing the tourists. A grand organ began to play, sounding as if from a distance but resonating everywhere; an American children’s choir began to pipe in a higher register. The late-day sun streamed in rays through the dust in the air — rays made longer and more glowing by the immensity and ghostly dimness of the indoor space — and I found myself sobbing. Tears streamed down my cheek. A religious experience, or an aesthetic one? No matter. It was wonderful. I can feel it as I write this. — Bill