I have always considered myself to be agnostic. Even though my mother was baptised an Anglican and my father a Catholic, I grew up in a very secular household with no relationship to the Church or God.
At 19, I met my first Catholic friend, and had my first encounter with the Catholic Church. We went travelling with her family in my early 20s, visiting Florence, Assisi and Paris. I saw the relics of saints and reluctantly bathed in the waters of Lourdes. In truth, the experience was wasted on me. I did not appreciate it and I did not understand it.
