In my previous post, I wrote that I seldom discuss religion. By this I meant I don't evangelize; I try to be a good person by action. As Robert B. Parker's Spenser said in Mortal Stakes (1975), "[A]ll I have is how I act. It's the only system I fit into. Whatever the hell I am is based in part on not doing things I don't think I should do. Or don't want to do."
I happened upon a couple of blog posts today attacking the Catholic Church over the sex abuses that are coming to light. One of them suggests Pope Benedict XVI is a monster, and Catholics who continue to attend Mass while he remains in office are monsters in turn.
I only answer that I'm not Catholic because of who the pope is, who my pastor is, or because of any religious I've ever met. I'm Catholic because my parents were great models of the faith. They showed me, I've shown myself, it is a path to my best self. No argument or experience has convinced me otherwise. I respect all belief systems, including the most skeptical, because of my own.
Granted, I have never been abused, but I have been disappointed with religious teachers, priests, and church officials. I remain bitterly angry with the religious brother principal who rejected me unseen from the high school I hoped to attend. None of this is enough to sour me on Catholicism because my faith has never been in people.
1 comment:
None of this is enough to sour me on Catholicism because my faith has never been in people
This is the very root of it all. People who believe in a higher power need only sustain themselves with that. The fallibility of man shouldn't be mixed in with faith. The system of mores exist to help people find their way but they cannot be the be all and end all since the dogma was created by man.
Post a Comment