As a child, religion and spiritual beliefs were quite confusing in my household. My father was a born- again teenager, exploding into tantrums so many Sunday mornings that after a while, my mother just shook her head, muttered how she’d pray for his soul, and kissed him goodbye.

But my mother’s Sunday round-up and schlep to Catholic church wasn’t as Catholic as it seemed. In the basement of our house there was a private room that actually wasn’t very private at [...]