Though Rodriguez generally condemns the impulse to blend private with public life as vulgar, he seems to grant the Catholic Church special status, celebrating its ability to bridge the personal and the public. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that Rodriguez seems to more openly express pain at the loss of his Catholic community than at his perceived loss of family intimacy. This is connected to the vital role Rodriguez ascribes to the Church in making him feel like a man (by which he seems to mean “human” rather than, specifically, a male human). The deep need Rodriguez expresses in this passage for an institution like the Catholic Church complicates his dismissal of other people’s desire to merge their private and public experiences.