It's a shame how the church has relegated most contemplative practices; the only ones who do them are either monks, nuns, or lay saints. Have you heard about the Desert Fathers? They were a bunch of christians who, tired of how popular christianity had become in Rome, and how it had become a religion and not a practice, retreated to the desert, to conduct their spiritual life and practices. Have you heard of Teresa of Avila's The Interior Castle? She basically described, in her language and from her understanding, the stages of absorption one can achieve through meditation. They're comparable to the samatha jhanas (states of absorption through mindfulness of the breath). She's missing one or two, if I remember correctly.

To get to my point, Catholicism does have a contemplative/meditative tradition, and you might want to look into that as well. Search for Ignatian parishes, or maybe Franciscan. I'm not too up-to-date on the exact groups that still practice contemplation.

The reason I mention looking into your own church's "obscure" practices is seemingly subjective: it's possible that once you've started to meditate intensely, you'll see through most of what the church wants you to believe. I'm not saying that their beliefs are silly, or false. I'm saying that their focus, their ways, aren't exactly great.

I feel like I'm rambling, sorry about that. It's just that I've been where you are, and I could go on and on! Anyway, meditation as taught by the Buddha is for everybody, in my opinion. You'll definitely benefit from it, depending on your effort and conviction. Those books you mention are a good first step, but if you want to learn Buddhism, read buddhist authors, lay or monastics. You can also check out your local buddhist groups, called sanghas.

About calling myself a meditator: it's because I meditate. You'll notice that many buddhists don't meditate, and that's alright; we all have different conditions influencing our decisions and goals. Buddhism is, for me, a label that probably does no one any good. When I say buddhism I mean the somewhat organized groups of people. When speaking of the Buddha's teachings, I say Dhamma, or Dharma. I avoid the buddhist label, but I'll use it as a convention.

Again, sorry about the messiness of this response. It must be the caffeine! Hehehe

EDIT: To clarify what I wrote above - There might come a point, after proper meditation, where you'll begin to understand your catholic beliefs differently. When this happens, you'll probably want to let go of your Catholic label. And then there will come another point in which you'll let go of your Buddhist label :)