What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life

From Thomas H. Groome comes a spirited, expert account of the distinctive features of Catholic identity, shared across the full spectrum of observance. Even lapsed Catholics have a sense of a distinct Catholic sensibility that forever shapes their view of reality. This book probes that character and invites Catholics of all kinds to connect more deeply and wholeheartedly with their own cultural and spiritual DNA.

What Makes Us Catholic highlights eight key qualities that define a Catholic: a sense of ultimate meaning; sacramentality, or seeing the infinite in the finite; a sense of community; a feeling for tradition; an instinct for risking all for what matters; a concern for justice and the unfortunate; an awareness of human fallibility, yet hope; and a conviction that values need to be lived out in the real world.

Thomas H. Groome, a former Irish priest, is professor of theology and education at Boston College. His Ph.D. is from Columbia University Teacher's College and Union Theological Seminary. He is the author of Christian Religious Education, widely regarded as the most important and influential contemporary work on the subject, and of Sharing Faith, a foundational work on Christian ministry. He is also the principal author of Coming to Faith, the bestselling K-8 religion curriculum in Catholic schools today.

"Tom Groome's celebration of what is beautiful and lasting in the Catholic tradition is a kiss of peace to all 60 million American Catholics, whether liberal, conservative or confused. What could be a better gift?"

- Michael Leach, co-editor, I Like Being Catholic

--Therese Borchard, co-editor, I Like Being Catholic