There were dissidents and skeptics like gato even when Christendom was at its height. Humankind is diverse and we need people with cranky, outsider-y personalities to stress-test our beliefs and social structures in every age. However, we now live in Clown World. Increasingly, the dissidents and skeptics are the Christians..

Every one of us is alive NOW, at this particular moment, for a reason. Like many here I'm a skeptic by nature. Had I been born 1000 years ago I may have developed into a cranky contrarian yelling at the Church from the outside. As it is, I'm a traditionalist Catholic. I believe God caused me to be born when I was, with the personality that I have, in order that I might be drawn into His Church. And I hope and pray that is His plan for el gato malo, too.