I’m Kristine Burneko, third order Franciscan and convert to the Catholic faith.
It wasn’t always this way. It was almost an accident, I swear. Yet here I am, tattooed from toe to neck to fingertip, kneeling in front of the altar with Philippina grandmas in mantillas, old guys in weird sweaters and patchy beards, and eleventy-seven kids in matching getups that smell like ketchup. I’ve been a baptized and confirmed Catholic for almost 20 years, and somehow managed to take Franciscan vows of simplicity, humility, and fidelity along the way. I drank the Kool-Aid(TM) as they say, but I drank a whole lot of whisky first and had to get it out of my system. Then I drank the Blood of Christ and nothing has ever been the same.
I will tell you right now - I’m a shitty Catholic and a piss-poor Franciscan. I’m not even remotely authorized to preach on behalf of the Church (More on that later.) For now, I just want to show you some stuff! Think of me as a crusty ex-punk tour guide, cigarette dangling from my lip, sneaking you in through the side door of the Vatican basement. You can leave whenever you want, but I promise there are amazing things in there.
I want you to know about the revolutionaries, spiral-eyed mystics and hardcore activists we have here: Dorothy Day, Francis of Assisi, Daniel and Philip Berrigan (all the Catonsville 9, really), Maximilian Kolbe, Hildegard of Bingen, Mary of Magdala, Mitch Snyder, Thea Bowman, the Maryknolls, so many others…and Jesus Christ. I want you to catch a whiff of the spiritual rocket-fuel that drove them. I want you to hear the spicy things they have said. I want you to see the incredibly macabre collection of relics.
I want to show you the things the mainstream Church (here in the US, anyway) tends to sweep under the rug.
More than anything, though, I found something warm and healing and I want to share it with you. I want you to help you find some comfort in this cold, hard world. I want to show you something cool, something good so that you can really see…
Pace e Bene (peace and all good, a Franciscan goodbye) -
K
