I swear I have just no luck with reporters. No matter how clear I am during an interview, I always find I am misquoted.
The most recent example is this article by Renee LaReau called Super Catholics? in the latest issue of U.S. Catholic. Renee came across Integrity in the course of some research and contacted me (as she did other bloggers) to ask about my experience with Communion and Liberation. It was a pleasant interview and I had looked forward to seeing the article.
However, If you read the part where she quotes me, you are left with the impression that if it weren't for CL I would be an Evangelical right now. Not true. Not even close. My fault, I suppose, for trying, during a fifteen minute interview, to give over a decade of context to how I came to be involved with CL. For what it is worth, my almost leaving the Catholic Church occurred in 1994, a full decade before I met CL. My discovery of the truth of the Church, and the quick reversal of my thoughts of leaving for evangelicalism, occurred during the summer of '94 and the next year. Plus, I never wanted to leave for evangelicalism. I was just confused about whether the Catholic Church was Christian and whether it would be right to stay a member. (That will happen when you lack a good catechesis and when you are spending your time with Evangelicals who believe that Catholics can be Christians, but only despite their Catholicism.)
So how did the confusion come about? Well, Renee asked me how I came to be involved with CL. When your story doesn't have the easy answer, "My friend John was involved and he invited me to an event," it takes a bit more personal history to clarify things. I sought CL out. I knew next to nothing about it. But in the back of my mind I knew the name and knew I wanted to learn something about it. Why? What was I looking for? I had explained to Renee that my experience during college when I almost left the Church taught me some valuable lessons, including the need for communion in living the Christian life. Ever since, it has been on my radar. I found that type of communion in law school with the Catholic Law Students Association, but outside of that experience I hadn't found it in my experience of the Church until I finally found CL.
My mention of Opus Dei and Regnum Christi is misunderstood by Renee. I think it is fair to say that I was interested in Opus Dei on a serious level -- drawn to it by its teachings regarding the sanctification of work and devotion to St. Joseph -- but I have always been repelled by the way in which Opus Dei lives out the charism, particularly the numeraries. I value what they contribute to the Church, but I have serious doubts as to whether what they practice is really a lay vocation. As for Regnum Christi, I never checked it out seriously at all. I met Regnum Christi when, by a series of events, I found myself at a brainstorming retreat of a seminarian who was trying to found a campus ministry (the seminarian now Fr. Jonathan Morris, LC, and the campus ministry, Compass). There were a number of RC members there, as one would expect at an activity associated with the LC. My point in mentioning Opus Dei and Regnum Christi to Renee wasn't in so much that I had seriously considered becoming members of them (because I haven't), but to highlight how I had encounters with other movements along the way before meeting CL and a bit of irony in that I didn't become involved in them, but was attracted to the one where I knew no members and basically zilch about its charism.
Unfortunately, all that was reduced down to CL saved me from becoming a Protestant. I'm not suggesting anything malicious on Renee's part. It was a short interview and I'm sure she was just taking quick notes on details and not fully absorbing what I was saying. She probably had other quotes for the other themes in her article and I'm sure my emphasis on community made it all the more opportune to pair that with the fact that I had (long ago) considered leaving the Church. (The problem with that is that I considered leaving the Church because of issues of truth, not a lack of an experience of community support.) [I'm also not sure if it's clear in the article what I meant by community, as I was trying to emphasize something beyond just "having friends" and something more like what I best understand of koinonia.]
I'm disappointed that this is what, from experience, I've come to expect from reporters. Just once, I'd love to read an article or book in which I am quoted and think that they got it right on the money.
As for the article, it provides some decent background to some of the more prominent movements in the Church and I have to thank Renee for bringing that to a larger Catholic audience.