Choosing My Religion

I am a Catholic.

Well… is that a true statement? I was baptized a Catholic. I was brought up as a Catholic. I married my husband through a Catholic ceremony and all three of our children have been baptized as Catholics.

But I struggle with my faith.

That’s also not true. I still have faith that there is a God; a God that created this Universe; a God that will judge us when we meet him one day.

So… I am a spiritual being.

But…

Do I believe He sent His only son? Do I believe that Jesus is “God made Man”? Do I believe in that Jesus’s Mother was a virgin when she gave birth? Do I believe she was the Immaculate Conception, “conceived without the blemish of Original Sin”? Do I believe in the Three-for-One deal of the Holy Trinity? Do I believe that we truly “Eat his body, and drink his blood” every time I receive communion?

No.

So far as I can make out, all of this is nothing more than a load of hocus pocus; concocted by a bunch of men and handed down through generations to their brethren as though they were feeding slops to their sheep.

 So then…, I am not a Catholic.

Recent events have confirmed this for me.

“Pope Benedict XVI has established a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving aspects of their Anglican spiritual and liturgical heritage … Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests …”

“…recent changes within many Anglican provinces with the ordination of women priests and bishops and the acceptance of homosexuality in some areas… The church recognizes and welcomes those Anglicans who fully share the Catholic faith, agree with the Catholic view that only men can be ordained priests…” Catholic News Service, 20th October 2009

Do I think that women are lesser beings than men, just because they were born with a womb and the potential bring life into the world? Damn right I don’t!

Do I think homosexuality is a sin? No way: “each to their own, said the farmer as he kissed the cow”, as the saying goes!

Do I think that a celibate Clergy is a good idea? Absolutely not – it’s inhuman and unnatural and probably led the Catholic Church to the horrible place it currently finds itself in.

I cannot be part of any community that would change its rules to be more welcoming to misogynists and homophobes.

And that’s not even to mention the harbouring of paedophiles…

“In a report issued last year the Church admitted covering up abuse for decades. … Some bishops still in office had been part of the cover-up, the report said. Four out of five bishops named in the report who helped run the Dublin archdiocese during the period have now resigned, … ” BBC News Website

There is a chance you may not have heard of the “Murphy Report” or the “Ryan Report”. Both reports are the result of investigations made into the abuse of children (sexual, physical, mental) by Institutions in Ireland or in the Diocese of Dublin – either by Priests or members of  various Religious Orders in the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict’s mealy-mouthed response:

“Every kind of challenge can become a reason for purification and sanctification as long as it is illuminated by faith,” BBC News Website

“Rome said the Holy Father also pointed to the more general crisis of faith affecting the Church and he linked that to the lack of respect for the human person, and how the weakening of faith has been a significant contributing factor in the phenomenon of the sexual abuse of minors.” Mail Online

He has yet to accept the resignation of those Bishops. And will the perpetrators of these “henious crimes” be handed over to the relevant authorities for prosecution?

I have faith. I believe there is a God.

I struggle with how to give praise to that God.

I am a spiritual being.

I am not a Catholic…

…anymore