three (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
threeplusfire) wrote2008-12-24 12:30 am
threeplusfire) wrote2008-12-24 12:30 am
(no subject)
I was raised without any sort of real religious background. Partly in rebellion, partly for a boy and partly for myself, I converted to Catholicism several years ago. If I was going to believe in a God, it was going to be the old school God, the church full of ritual and a couple thousand years of history. Truthfully Catholicism was accessible because of the certain physicality of the Mass and prayers. It was something I could grasp as I had no real vocabulary for things like faith and no childhood or memory of its practice.
Perhaps I am a bad Catholic. It has been some time since I went to Confession or Mass. But I should make it clear that it is not because I do not love the Church. It is because I have severe problems with the Church on Earth. One of the things that drew me along when I joined the Catholic Church was Pope John Paul II. There were things I disagreed with, but the Pope was an expressive man who made a tremendous effort to speak and draw others into conversation. He spoke more languages and went more places than any other Pope. I have the feeling John Paul II understood better than a lot of others how to make the Catholic Church a part of the modern world.
When Pope Benedict XVI was elected, I will admit I felt a lot of disappointment. Yes, I do understand there are more conservative elements of the Church who didn't agree with the previous Pope, yes I understand there are papal politics and mysteries that I don't know all of - but still. I felt a sinking because I knew it would lead to things like this.
Quote:
Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
He explained that defending God's creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also about protecting man from self-destruction.
The Pope was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff.
His words, later released to the media, emphasised his rejection of gender theory.
Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI warned that gender theory blurred the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.
It makes me so livid to hear people of speak of variations of sexuality as some kind of disease or babble like fools about the supposed 'destruction' of the human race. As if allowing people to be honest and happy would mean suddenly everyone would become gay, stop having babies, or cause the universe to implode! As if this would suddenly cause people to become barbarians or somehow devalue the marriages of other people. These arguments are so unutterably idiotic, hateful, vile, ignorant and repulsive. I find that any time I hear someone express them I am no longer able to summon any respect for that person or to take anything else they say seriously.
So I find myself in the awkward, terrible position of being deeply ashamed of the man supposed to fill the role of the Voice of the Church. I don't know how to reconcile myself to that fact. I know the Church as an insitution is made my people and people are so often frail and flawed. But one sort of hopes the person chosen to lead is a bit better...
While I am disappointed in the Pope, I am heartened by hundreds of people participating in the Please Don't Divorce Me/MyFriends/MyFamily/Anyone campaign over on Flickr. The photo of the couple of veterans from Korea/Vietnam just broke my heart.
Perhaps I am a bad Catholic. It has been some time since I went to Confession or Mass. But I should make it clear that it is not because I do not love the Church. It is because I have severe problems with the Church on Earth. One of the things that drew me along when I joined the Catholic Church was Pope John Paul II. There were things I disagreed with, but the Pope was an expressive man who made a tremendous effort to speak and draw others into conversation. He spoke more languages and went more places than any other Pope. I have the feeling John Paul II understood better than a lot of others how to make the Catholic Church a part of the modern world.
When Pope Benedict XVI was elected, I will admit I felt a lot of disappointment. Yes, I do understand there are more conservative elements of the Church who didn't agree with the previous Pope, yes I understand there are papal politics and mysteries that I don't know all of - but still. I felt a sinking because I knew it would lead to things like this.
Quote:
Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
He explained that defending God's creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also about protecting man from self-destruction.
The Pope was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff.
His words, later released to the media, emphasised his rejection of gender theory.
Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI warned that gender theory blurred the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.
It makes me so livid to hear people of speak of variations of sexuality as some kind of disease or babble like fools about the supposed 'destruction' of the human race. As if allowing people to be honest and happy would mean suddenly everyone would become gay, stop having babies, or cause the universe to implode! As if this would suddenly cause people to become barbarians or somehow devalue the marriages of other people. These arguments are so unutterably idiotic, hateful, vile, ignorant and repulsive. I find that any time I hear someone express them I am no longer able to summon any respect for that person or to take anything else they say seriously.
So I find myself in the awkward, terrible position of being deeply ashamed of the man supposed to fill the role of the Voice of the Church. I don't know how to reconcile myself to that fact. I know the Church as an insitution is made my people and people are so often frail and flawed. But one sort of hopes the person chosen to lead is a bit better...
While I am disappointed in the Pope, I am heartened by hundreds of people participating in the Please Don't Divorce Me/MyFriends/MyFamily/Anyone campaign over on Flickr. The photo of the couple of veterans from Korea/Vietnam just broke my heart.
no subject
As if allowing people to be honest and happy would mean suddenly everyone would become gay, stop having babies, or cause the universe to implode!
That they think this says a lot. They see only misery somehow in family life and traditional roles that they think everyone would want to run from them.
no subject
I love the photos - I clicked through all of them while having my morning caffienes. There are so many pictures of people so in love - it's overwhelming. I can't fathom how anyone could see those and see something evil in them.
no subject
http://www.flickr.com/photos/couragecampaign/3132462272/in/set-72157611501972510/
no subject
I haven't been able to read the address in English, because it's not yet up at the Vatican website. I'm kind of leery of BBC reporting on anything Catholic. I suspect it would overemphasize parts of the speech that would make the headline sexier/more controversial.
And Benedict is a better communicator than I think he often gets credit for. I think a lot of people didn't give him a chance when he was elected, but really, while he says things differently than John Paul did, remember what his job was before - he was the head of the Vatican office in charge of defending/clarifying Church teaching. His job as pope is quite different. He communicates differently than JPII did, but in essence their beliefs were the same. John Paul was his best friend and the man who gave him his former job.
He has also been less of a hardline pope than some people expected. But on homosexual marriage, like it or not, the Church is pretty much going to say what it's been saying for a long time. Theologically, while male or female is not *all* the Church believes we are, being male or being female is important - you couldn't expect less from any church that believes "male and female he created them." There's a tradition within the Church of what a Catholic sacramental marriage is, based on scripture and theological interpretation of it, and right or wrong/good or bad it is what it has been for 2,000 years and it's not changing any time soon.
I'm not trying to be insensitive or say that shouldn't offend you or anyone else, I'm just trying to explain that things are the way they've been and certain beliefs can't be changed because the Church does not believe it (or any man or woman) has the authority to change it.
There are things I disagree with the Church on, of course. When I do dissent, I do a lot of reading and a lot of soul-searching to figure out why. I know that no church on earth is perfect. It doesn't keep from considering myself Catholic. But it may for you, and that is perfectly okay. You can only embrace what you are comfortable enough with. Just remember, "Catholic" isn't a label the way a lot of other things are. It's supposed to mean "universal," and there's room for people who toe the line, and there's room for people who disagree, and there's room for people who don't understand. There's room for pretty much anybody. We won't really know who was "right" until we meet God. I've determined that I need the sacraments, not to mention the Catholic sacramental view of the physical world, and I believe in Christ and the incarnation and resurrection but absolutely cannot bring myself to accept a Protestant view of the world. I need and want to meet God as a Catholic, so until I do I just take what I can on faith and trust I'll understand everything else when it's time.
But I'm sorry you're disappointed, and I hope you find whatever it is you are searching for. ♥ Merry Christmas.
no subject
That is something that I love most, that Catholic meant universal and that the very name seemed to be a sign that it could be a home for all kinds of people. I think possibly that is what makes me so angry when I hear these sorts of things because they seem to mean to exclude some people from the big shady Catholic umbrella on the beach.
Certainly, one cannot expect the Church to change overnight. There are centuries and the weight of years of tradition and history and religious literature stacked up - I wouldn't imagine they could change much of anything so fast as the world changes with modern technology and communications. I don't expect them to change the ideas of marriage. I suppose that I hope as the years go by, people grow older and new people come along, that there will be a change to be more accepting of the changes the human race has made in the intervening centuries. That people are not just black or white, one thing or another... some acceptance of shades of gray. I like to think we were not made to be static creations, but ones that would grow and become ever more complex and fascinating.
I think of myself as Catholic, for better or worse. A Catholic who has done a lot of things the Church frowns on but I hope someday we'll get that all sorted out.
Merry Christmas Nikki!