I got a little annoyed in the post way back when, wanting to bow out. I think the thing is, that whether or not someone is a practicing Catholic now-- having been raised a Catholic always seems to leave an impact on a person’s life-- good or bad, and sometimes we try to judge our fellow Catholics when we shouldn’t, sometimes we do it too harshly and often, we shouldn’t pay attention to anyone else’s spiritual journey but our own.
I know for a long time when I was away from the Church, I always identified as Catholic. I never wanted to be another religion (I had plenty of invitations from non-Catholic Christians to come visit their churches,

but I never wanted to go because I knew there was nothing there for me.) Anyway, for me Catholicism ran deep within my culture-- maybe because I’m Hispanic and have always appreciated my culture and my ties to the faith. I always felt the Catholicism deep within me, despite the fact that I wasn’t actively practicing my faith. Now that I’ve been back, I appreciate it all so much more.
I also think there is something special about having been raised Catholic (besides the obvious stuff) and I think we see its influence through music, art, literature, TV/Movies. It’s a blog post I keep wanting to do, but never seem to sit down to actually do it.
And I’ve rambled a bit off topic. Let me see who else I can add to the ever-growing list to stay on point. Ok… I’m drawing a blank.