"And I found out the Church was, and is, right."

Teresa Tomeo, radio host and author of the just released book, Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture, talks with ZENIT about her struggles with faith and the challenges of being a woman in a culture filled with false freedoms and attractive lies:

ZENIT: In your book, you described yourself as a liberal feminist who had fallen away from the Church…what made you want to come back?

Tomeo: I fell away gradually and came back gradually. As I discuss in "Extreme Makeover," the Lord had and still has a lot of work to do with me. I was on the fast track with my career for many years and, at one point, my professional goals and personal desires for success and money took over to the point where those desires almost cost me my marriage but, more importantly, my soul. It was a crisis in my marriage and a job loss that finally forced me to look at my life and revisit the Church in which I was raised. Maybe there really was something to the Sacraments and the teachings after all? And I found out the Church was, and is, right.

ZENIT: Secular society seems to hold the view that the Church is unfair to women and suppresses our freedoms; but you show that the Church offers women true freedom and equality among men. Can you expand on this for our readers?

Tomeo: Well, my story is a great example of how, as Blessed John Paul II said, "We don't find ourselves until we lose ourselves in Christ." I also think St. Catherine's saying speaks volumes when it comes to learning that Christ and the Church give us the opposite of what the world says: "When we are whom we are called to be we will set the world ablaze."

The world tells us it's about me, myself, and I. And we don't like to be told "no" even if it might be the best thing for us. When we are told "no" -- whether it has to do with sex outside of marriage, contraception, abortion, or the male priesthood -- we are like those little children in the grocery store who kick and scream and try to force Mom and Dad to give them the candy bar. We want what we want, and we want it now. A good parent will say "no" because they realize the sugar is not good for their child. The child is actually going to be better off in the long run with a healthy balanced diet. So the "no" is actually a big "yes" in the long run.

As I stress in "Extreme Makeover," if we look at the research and the harmful impact -- especially sexual promiscuity, the pill, and abortion have had on women -- it is pretty clear the Church teachings are spot on. And with the male priesthood it is not about breaking through the glass ceiling. It is about the Bridegroom serving the Church, His bride. It is about servanthood, not power. For me, as someone trained as an investigative journalist, once I started to really look at myself and how I almost ruined my life by trying to do it my way -- and once I took an honest look at the research and the fallout in a society that was far from God -- well, I finally realized in the arms of Christ within the Catholic Church is the best place a woman can be.

Read the entire interview.

Here are some of Teresa's upcoming appearances, on radio and in person:

• October 7th
Catholic Answers Live Radio Program, 7pm

• October 9th - 10th
Teresa Hosting from Guadalupe Radio
Dallas, TX
7-9AM CT, 8-10AM ET

• October 9th, 10th
Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Colleyville, Texas
Keynote Speaker
For More Information www.gscc.net
(817) 421-1387

• October 12th-15th
Teresa Tomeo at Catholic Radio Conference
EWTN, Birmingham Alabama
For More Information www.ewtn.com/radio

For more about Teresa's work, including upcoming talks and apperances, visit TeresaTomeo.com.