Over at the blog "Ad Altara Dei" is a post about a tact used by non-Catholic groups in attracting Catholics. The blogger provides a rather balanced discussion of religiosity in general, and this is something close to my heart. In my discussion with some Evangelicals, especially those who used to be Catholics, religiosity and superstition are often ammunitions used to charge the Catholic faith as being a ritualistic, faithless religion. I think the post linked above gives a fairly good distinction between ritual and faith. This is not either/or. Just because you observe rituals, it does not mean that you have no faith. Take that woman with a bleeding problem, who touched the edge of the Lord's clothes and was healed. On the outside, that appears to be superstition, but the Lord goes and speaks of her faith, instead. They are not antithetical: faith and ritual do have a place together, with faith being the foundation of any ritual, which may not be superstitious after all.
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