On Being Catholic

I haven’t blogged in a long time, what to blog about?  So many things have me in a tizzy and some things really get my dander up.  Of course the most touchy subjects are within the usual realm: family troubles, politics, religion, the economy, that sort of thing. I have purposely steered clear of family topics because anything I say can cause ill feelings among those that I love the most.  The other stuff is fair game.  One particular thing has caused me a great deal of personal grief and has caused me to introspect a lot lately.  I wrote a blog about "Growing Up Catholic," this one is about BEING Catholic. 

I went with my girlfriend for a short getaway trip, the fact that I said “girlfriend” is significant.  You see, we are Catholic and by church doctrine we committed a sin because we “roomed” together, but that’s another story altogether.  During this trip to Santa Fe, NM we visited the local museums and saw exhibits that recount the regional history.

Integral to New Mexico history is the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in the region, conquistadores is a Spanish word that means conquerors.  The conquerors brought with them missionaries whose purpose was to help conquer, or Christianize, the local peoples, the native American Indians, savages, heathens.  The problem with the mission of the missionaries is that to Christianize them they had to be brutal.  Exhibits in the museum attest to violent atrocities that befell the indigenous population at the "point of the cross."  As we viewed the exhibits I recalled the horror of history in the name of the Catholic church.  They used the point of the sword, but since it was wielded by a Christian conqueror in the name of Christianity, the cross brings to mind the image of a Catholic sword

I blurted out, well maybe it wasn’t really a “blurt,” more of calculated comment, that the Catholic church has been perpetrating this kind of shit since the beginning.  I began to recount the efforts of the holy crusades commissioned by the Holy See, supposedly to protect its interests.  As much as anything else, the Catholic church was attempting to cleanse the holy land of infidel Muslims.  There were many crusades beginning circa 1096 and ending in 1272.

Before 1100, the Catholic church began to suppress heresy.  This was the beginning of the period of inquisitions, and there were many.  The inquisitor was the church.  Its basic aim was to eliminate non Catholics.  Historians break down the inquisitions into four periods, regardless of the periods, the Catholic purges on heretics extended from approximately 1184 to 1860. 

From 1096 to 1860 the Pope waged war against non Catholics and during that time frame he did some of it on this continent, as we witnessed while viewing those museum exhibits in Santa Fe.  That isn’t bad enough.  Today Catholic priests are waging war on boys around the globe, and it must be a church-sanctioned assault because the Holy See has yet to cooperate with any criminal prosecutions.  When was the last time you heard a church leader witnessed his own crimes or reported the crimes of a fellow clergyman, or testified against a priest in a criminal proceeding?  Its been nearly a millenia of brutality bathed in self righteousness perpetrated by Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes.  In this midst of this violence, the Pope has the audacity to tell me that my getaway trip with my girlfriend is sinful.  He decries homosexuality but not the sodomy committed by priests.  He denounces abortion but not the church’s murderous legacy.  What a crock.

So…why do I continue to be a Lector and Usher at my Catholic church every Sunday?  The truth is that I’m too lazy to find another church of a different persuasion.  I like my parishioners and I look forward to talking with them after church and the occasional party.  I enjoy church bazaars where I can drink beer to support the church, the beer booth at church bazaars are the top attraction and the best seller, how ironic!  But I feel so hypocritical!  Damn!