Apparently, the University of Notre Dame's new football coach is a pro-choice Irish Catholic. Ironically, earlier this year, many from Notre Dame protested President Obama's commencement speech at the University on the grounds that he is pro-choice.

However, this begs the question, can you be pro-choice and a Catholic? You could argue that you can be anything you want. But one of the Big Rules of the Catholic church is being pro-life. And, I've got to hand it to them, at least they are consistent, they are pro-life when it comes to fetuses, to war and to the death penalty. So at least you can respect them.

I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately on the issue of religion. I was raised Catholic, however, I don't consider myself Catholic anymore and am trying to discover if there is an organized religion for me, or if I should just continue being a good person in the world without a religion to tell me so.

I've been told you can be Catholic and be pro-choice, or think that women should be ordained, or be OK with divorce, or whatever. But if that's the case, why be a Catholic? Is the best solution picking and choosing what you believe in from a religion, and just saying "the heck with it" to everything else? I'm not religious scholar, but it seems pointless to say "I'm a This" but then disagree with some of the big rules that This tells you to believe. Why not be Episcopalian instead? Or join the UCC? Or become a Unitarian? Why not find a religion that actually matched your personal beliefs?

(Because, after so many years being indoctrinated in one faith, it feels "wrong" to attend a service of another religion, so attended no church at all is better than attending one different from how you were raised, even if you don't identify with it anymore.)

However, do you have to be a Catholic to work at Notre Dame? I have no idea, but I'm guessing no. I work for a Catholic company (not Notre Dame), and I'm not Catholic, and there are plenty of people that are also openly not Catholic (not like they are Catholic-church bashers, they just identify with another religion). So, if the new ND football coach, isn't really "Catholic" then big deal. Clearly football is more important to ND than religion. Not that there's anything wrong with that.