Brief thoughts on my Church

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Many of you know that I'm a practicing Catholic. Once upon a time, I was pleasantly surprised when Pope Benedict's first encyclical turned out far better than I'd hoped. Recent revelations have shown he did far worse than I ever knew, back when some of us followed the career of Cardinal Ratzinger with trepidation. I am horrified and saddened by what he (and far too many others in the Church) knew and allowed, and even covered up.

Yet all is not lost. My pastor preached yesterday against the death penalty. That takes guts—especially in a parish in real financial straits, where it would surely be safer not to risk offending a fairly conservative congregation.

Today I read Nicholas Kristof's column, "Who Can Mock This Church?" (I'm not sure this is a permanent link, but it's what I can find right now; look for the title), and I'm very cheered to find him saying, "overwhelmingly it’s at the grass roots that I find the great soul of the Catholic Church." That's my Church: the one that feeds the hungry, clothes the needy, visits the sick, and works tirelessly for justice. I hope and pray the hierarchy get with the program now.

The Church is not just those robed men in Rome. The Church is my husband and I; my daughter, who has helped feed the hungry every Lent for three years now; my parents, whose work with the poor I cannot begin to catalog; my younger brother, who helps feed the hungry in his area and in other countries, where he has gone to volunteer on vacations; my older brother, with his donations; and my fellow parishioners, who perform all kinds of works of mercy and love.

Comments

[delphia2000.livejournal.com]

Nicely said.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you are involved in a good church, darling - that is rare!! Be proud!

*hugs*

[joonscribble.livejournal.com]

I think you've just highlighted for me that it seems more and more that those who stand as the official world representatives of Catholicism (e.g. the Pope) are moving further away from the actual tenants of Catholicism that people in the world still practice wonderfully.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I agree, the Catholic Church that I grew up with (consisting of the local Parish Priest and the Nuns) had a really good name (our priests kept getting moved into the parishes that needed repair i.e. had the naughty Priest) but the higher up they went the less we related to them. I do recall hearing the Paop John Paul II had a problem with the Australians because we paid no attention the Powers That Be. That's why he made George Pell Cardinal of Australia (Pell is a bit of a hardliner). We still don't listen :D

[or-mabinogi.livejournal.com]

Dan Savage's retort in Mockery Has a Role To Play makes a valid point.

In the meantime the pope and his cardinals and bishops can't be allowed to use good nuns and priests as human shields. If church leaders don't want to be mocked, and if church leaders sense that the mockery is damaging Catholicism, well, then church leaders have an even greater incentive to make the kind of systemic changes that are necessary. And, again, no one is mocking those noble Catholic nuns and priests out there risking their lives in the Sudan. People are mocking those power-hungry, self-aggrandizing bigots in their stupid fucking hats back at the Vatican.

(Emphasis mine.)

Avoid the video at the link. Personally I get a kick out of the song, but I tend to like anything Tim Minchin does. I only tell you to avoid it because it's a string of profanity. NSFW. But it also makes a good point.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Nor should the Pope and the bishops be allowed a free pass; I think Kristof might have emphasized: "Who Can Mock This Church?"—with the other church, as he puts it here and in another column, a valid target for satire. So I think I agree with both Kristof and Savage (ETA: as far as the point about who is a valid target for mockery goes.)

I am disgusted that some of the hierarchy have been shrieking "anti-Catholicism" as a cover. I've seen anti-Catholicism; I've experienced it. Valid criticism is not "anti-Catholic". Indeed, a lot of Catholics are making criticisms (and some are doing satire.)

Might check out the song later, when Small Child is safely asleep. Thanks for the link.

ETA: On thinking further, I must object to part of what Savage says:. "And again, no one is mocking those noble Catholic nuns and priests out there risking their lives in the Sudan. People are mocking those power-hungry, self-aggrandizing bigots in their stupid fucking hats back at the Vatican." That's disingenuous at best, and quite possibly deliberately misleading. I have not heard anyone mock nuns and priests in Sudan specifically—but I have heard jokes about parish priests at departmental meetings, among other places! The mockery takes a cruel and specific form, too: all religious are accused of being sexual abusers, which is not useful satire, and completely unfair. I have also heard mockery of those of us in the pews, because we must be idiots to follow these leaders.

I'd guess that given that I have made no secret that I am a practicing Catholic, people who make jokes like that in front of me, and at a meeting in a public university, probably say worse outside my hearing. Such jokes are anti-Catholic. I have objected publicly to the characterization of all religious as abusers, and that's not a position I should ever be put in—but I'm pretty safe now. What of people without tenure? What of students? If they hear such things at my university, they may not feel free to object.

(I have, by the way, also spoken out against bigotry aimed at Jews, Muslims, Wiccans, and atheists. I don't just defend my own beliefs, nor do I think my religious leaders should be any freer than anyone else's, or than people of no religion, from satire. Indeed, I teach clerical satire on a regular basis.)