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Dec. 24th, 2008 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threeplusfireI 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.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-24 08:20 pm (UTC)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!