Profile in Faith: Andrea Grasso

Andrea Grasso is the sort of Catholic who reflexively stops and says a prayer when she hears an ambulance siren.

She was born on the Feast of St. Andrew, spent eight years in Catholic school, and today works at two Catholic universities, teaching health at Immaculata and coaching field hockey at Villanova.

But Grasso, 26, doesn't agree with the church on certain issues. Like divorce. And homosexuality. And female priests: Surely, she said, the message of God's love would hold no less meaning and power if delivered by a woman instead of a man.

"I love the church," she said. But "I'm not a strict, old-school Catholic. Some things I agree with, and other things I completely disagree with."

She said she strives to live a "do unto others" kind of life - but also a life that recognizes the choices she might make for herself might not be the best choices for others.

Growing up in a Catholic household in Haddon Township, Grasso said, she felt herself lovingly embraced by her church and her God. How, she asks, can she not extend that grace to others - even if those people believe things or do things that the church opposes?

"I have a lot of friends who are homosexual," she said. "I don't think my friends who are gay are evil or wrong. ... They are great, normal people who are moral."

Grasso said that gay people should be allowed to marry, and that divorced Catholics should not be treated so harshly. Certainly, she said, there can be some allowance for human fallibility.

"I just think the church needs to modify itself, and bring itself in with the times," she said. "Obviously the church doesn't agree with me. I'm not saying that they're wrong, or anyone's wrong, but I'm just saying there might be a better way."

- Jeff Gammage