Growing up Catholic

I tell folks that I am a practicing Catholic because it’s really Catholic-light. What other religion holds church functions where the main revenue maker is the beer stand? It seems the church promotes responsible drunkenness. I say Catholic-light half tongue in cheek and half with a growing sense of "Catholicness." In recent years I have taken my church and faith more seriously and therein is a dilemma for me.

Listen to this. I was born and raised Catholic, but learned in adult life that I am Jew, that’s what my momma said. We lived in the San Juan barrio in south central El Paso, on Dailey Street. I was Baptized, Confirmed, went to catechism, and did my First Holy Communion at San Juan Church located down the street from our home. That takes care of three of the seven Blessed Sacraments of Catholicism. I am in no hurry to get to number 7 – last rites. I will never get to Ordination. But, since I am married, I’ve got the basic sacraments covered.

Back then you were a good Catholic if you remembered to make the sign of the cross every time you walked in front of the church, or heard sirens, or before meals. All you had to do was to make the sign of the cross at the right time, forget that you didn’t go INTO the church regularly, or that you ate that steak on Friday. You could commit mortal sin as long as you confessed and were absolved. And you could have venial sin that did not completely separate you from God. We never learned the way to heaven other than not to commit sin, and if you did as long as you went to confession and took the Eucharist, all was right with the Lord. I never went to Confession and NOT get absolved. I could never remember my penance so I would pray Hail Mary and Our Father as many times as I could handle kneeling down.

In Catechism they taught us very basic things like how to say certain prayers, the Stations of the Cross, just the basics. I remember that to get to heaven we had to free of Mortal Sin, but with Venial Sin we could go to Purgatory and await redemption on Judgment Day. They stopped teaching purgatory somewhere along the way because my daughters, who started out a Catholic School, never learned about it. But they learned the Blessed Sacraments.

Over the years, as a youngster/teen, I would walk to church on Sundays, but not religiously. Eventually I asked Pat to marry me, we were both Catholic, but I was not in the “Catholic mode”, I knew no better. We lived together first, then set a wedding date, made arrangements.  They didn’t ask, and we didn’t offer, that we had been living in sin all this time, 6 months. Nor did we offer that we had committed that awful deed – premarital sex.

In 1969 my mom moved into a neighborhood where the closest Catholic church is St. Joseph’s. That became my church, I still go there today and now I feel that I am a part of the parish, more on that later. I got married at this church without confessing my premarital sex sins. With sex came two daughters who we baptized appropriately. By this time we had discussed our desire to send out daughters to Catholic school so they could get a proper Catholic indoctrination. They learned the right things like their Sacraments and stuff; however, paying for two kids in private school got too expensive so we moved them to public school. We continued their spiritual training by sending them to CCD classes for their Confirmation.

One requirement was that they go to church so we took them. It became a pleasant ritual, church and breakfast, a ritual that I looked forward to, and one that I missed during those weekends when I was away on my Army Reserve training. As I progressed in the ranks, the absent weekends increased in frequency and I missed by Sunday worship and breakfast.

Eventually, I retired from the Army Reserve and now there was no reason NOT to be at Mass EVERY Sunday. Well, being who I am, I started going every Sunday, but I had other visions. As long as I am here, I may as well get involved so I talked to Father Joe and asked if I could volunteer. Of course, he accepted. I started helping with the Sunday collection, then became the main helper, then the head usher. One Sunday, during my duties helping the head usher, or as I learned – Hospitality Minister, lead me to the front of the church standing before the altar in preparation for Communion. Father Joe had taken a liking to me and he motioned to me to come to him. He told me to hold up the Eucharist and say “the body of Christ” and administer the Eucharist, at that moment I got promoted to Eucharistic Minister.

I enjoy my lay ministry duties and my fellow parishioners now. They look forward to me. The viejitas, or senior ladies, are so friendly to me, they hug and kiss me, more accurately, they hold out their cheeks for my kiss. It is with great pride that I tell folks that I run the 10 o’clock service every Sunday. I take care of all the details, the collection baskets, the bulletins, the collection ushers, the host and wine, the offertory.

In keeping with that commitment I decided to take up another ritual, the annual pilgrimage up to Mt. Cristo Rey the last Sunday of October. It is an inspiring tradition watching the faithful throng climbing the mountain, tens of thousands of them. It is not uncommon to see some taking the 3 mile trek bare footed to demonstrate their faith, or request a favor of their favorite Saint. So this is my Catholic faith today. I take my commitment seriously, but every Labor Weekend, I must go the Annual St. Anthony’s Seminary Bazaar and drink too much beer – you know to show my support.

Now, about that Jewish business…it started when I was in Germany. Having been raised Catholic light, I was bowled over when I got a letter from my sister, Maria Estela. This was 1976, she sent a two-page letter, typed, single-spaced, do you know how odd that was when the average letter was one page handwritten? It did not say “Dear Jaime.” Oh noooo, it said “Praise the Lord.” It seems that my sisters and my mom had been saved and they were born again Christians. The letter came in a large yellow envelope with two paper back books, one was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. Never read it, and I don’t remember the name of the other book but it was the same kind of book.

Life was about to take a turn, a good turn, but a sharp turn. My other sister was also in Germany at the time and I visited her a couple of times. One Sunday they were going to church, Southern Baptist, a good ole fashion gospel service, and being a good house guest, I tagged along. Well, the Pastor was preaching and he said “stand and bow your heads,” so we all did. He prayed, then he told the congregation “if any of you need prayer, just raise your head.” I was curious about who might need prayer and my curiosity got the best of me. I looked to the right, then to left and no one was looking up. I looked under my arm to the back and no one was lifting their head. I looked up and he got me, we made eye contact.

At the end of the service he called out to the congregation and said, “all those of you needing prayer come to front,” he looked directly at me, stretched out his arm and pointed at me. Everyone knew he was calling me out. Gotta be a good house guest and it is my sister’s church, so I started out when he calls for “Brother James,” my brother-in-law, to join us. Well, they prayed, we went through the Book of John and they asked me if I accepted Christ as my savior. Well, what could I say, no? Of course I accepted Christ as my savior. At that moment I was saved.

I went back to my old ways, you know, being a G I in a foreign country and all, and was discharged in June, 1977 whereupon I returned home and my comfortable Catholic ways. But my family members were all bible toting Christians and some how they got hooked up with a Rabbi named Sammy, a Messianic Jewish Rabbi. I know that is kind of an oxymoron, but that is what he was.

Once, I went with him to some factories, while doing research for a college paper and heard him pray for hundreds of workers on the factory floor. While driving around we talked, all morning we did this. I didn’t learn anything that changed my life, except that Rabbi Sammy was very much involved in the pro-life movement. I don’t know if that made a lasting impact, but today I am pro-life.

My brother and I were the two hold outs. I remember mom telling me about a dream of hers where she is overlooking a raging sea from a cliff top and her interpretation of the dream was that the sea was raging because me and Javy were not “right with the Lord.” Once, we all went to baptism at a church and saw mom and Stela get baptized.  Then another time, mom got baptized in a backyard swimming pool in water that had lots of leaves in it. That was a Messianic Jewish baptism.

One Friday night I came home kind of early, pretty much under the influence, and there was this party going on. All the men were wearing funny hats, some wearing colorful shawls. They were having a Hava Nagila party that made no sense to me, but it was a party so I stood in the corner of my living room taking in the scene. I learned later that it was a celebration and they were putting a mezuzah on our home.

From that point on, mom took her Jewishness very seriously. She read prolifically, most of the material was Jewish or Holocaust related. Her extensive VHS collection had many movies with those themes. She occasionally did this thing at holiday meals with bread and Manischewitz wine and said things in Hebrew.

One day she told me that she was Jewish and her rationale was based on the Spanish persecution of the Jews. She said that Jews, in an attempt to avoid persecution changed their names or changed the spelling of their names. Her mother’s maiden name was Perez and she said the some Jews whose names were Peres changed the “s” to a “z.” They later fled Spain and many settled in Mexico. Hence, she was Jew, and in accordance with Jewish custom, I am Jewish. That’s what my momma told me. Shalom and mosoltov!

Mom passed away last year. It was her wish that Eleazar Ben Joseph preside at her service. Instead of the customary cross on her casket, we put the Star of David. Eleazar was there and we DID NOT have a Catholic Rosary type of service. Ele spoke, as did all of her children and her oldest brother. Imagine this, Amazing Grace starts (thanks Paul) and every one starts crying. I call the thing to order and introduce Ele. He says some customary Hebrew things that none of us understood. Each of us siblings get a turn at the lectern. I am Catholic, I don’t know what faith Lucy in practicing these days, Carmen is Episcopalian, I think, Javy claims atheism, but he isn’t and my uncle is a dedicated Mormon. What a service that turned out to be. A Jew, a Catholic, and a Mormon walk into a funeral home…I know there is a good joke in there somewhere.

When we cleared out mom’s house, I took the Mezuzah, I put it on the door at my house, and took it with when I bought a new a couple of years ago.  A colleague of mine did some research and we did a little ritual and prayer on the front porch then celebrated.

Back to growing up Catholic…the church is pretty, how shall I say, traditional, old fashion, if I said antiquated, that would sound bad, but I don’t mean it to be bad, nothing wrong with standards and traditions. The older I get, the more a creature of habit I am. Many things I accept without giving them much thought. I am in a pickle right now because something personal is giving me pause, just pause, not reevaluation, but pause for introspection. I won’t elaborate on that, but this certainly gives my Catholicness greater weight and value, just because I pause to think about it, where as in the past I would have made the sign of the cross and been on my merry way. Catholic is not so light after all.

The Morning News

My fellow Americans, I am still under the weather. I don’t know where that saying comes from but it really doesn’t apply to the Sun City, cause the weather here is beautiful, sunny, clear skies, no breeze and 70+ degrees. But I am under it. Yesterday, under the weather, I wrote about the news. However this morning’s newspaper really has an absence of news. It’s kinda like that song by Anne Murray “Sure Could Use a Little Good News Today.” Two articles gave me pause to think. First is that our Senator, Kay Bailey, has decided to remain in office until the great health debate is over. You see, she is also running for Governor of the Great State of Texas while she is serving in the U. S. Senate. If anyone working for me was looking for another job on company time, I would fire them. Not so in politics. Election season is gearing up in my community and things will get interesting soon. Public officials have started announcing their candidacy for other offices. They are not content with what they have, they want something more, better. Of course, their aspiration is always to better serve the community. They remain on the public payroll while they pursue other aspirations, and if they lose their bid for higher office, they still have their jobs. What a deal. I propose that any elected official who is seeking a different elected office be required to resign from their elected office upon announcing their candidacy for another office. I further propose that elected officials not be allowed to actively campaign for reelection to the office they hold. They have had plenty of time of make their case for reelection. I believe that if there were one thing that would change the mood for the better in this country it is eliminating career politicians. The other thing that caught my attention is local businesses shirking their civic duty to pay taxes. Two wealthy guys in town make hefty investments to improve our community and to make themselves wealthier. Fair enough, this is America after all. But then they ask for and receive property tax breaks. However, they aren’t content to walk away with a nice tax break. Nooo, they file suit against the property appraisal district to force the appraisal district to decrease the valuation of their property, thereby netting yet another property tax break. It’s endemic in this country, wealthy seeking to shirk their tax responsibility, just like all those guys that POTUS was nominating for plum jobs in his administration. At least one of those deadbeats, Tim Geithner, got the job. What happens when the wealthy do not pay their share of the tax burden. That burden is borne by me and the other tax payers in the community. It’s all legal in this country. In other countries we consider that kind of collusion between business and government to be corruption. In our country we simply make it legal and put it in the hands of judges who rely on campaign contributions of keep their judgeships. America, don’t you just love her?

The Morning Paper

November 7, 2009: Well, I started sniffling yesterday, then I woke up this morning with a runny nose and sore sinuses so I should stay home, get lots of rest, and drink plenty of fluids, as opposed to the outdoor chores I had planned. This sounds like a great time to catch up on my blogging. Lucky you. One of my favorite things to do first thing in the morning is read the paper and drink coffee and I always get amused by the headlines so here goes, the headlines with my spin. FROM SECTION A: Of course, the main headline is the tragedy in Ft Hood. As a retired Lt Col, this story is particularly hard for me to grasp. The news outlets have already condemned the shooter and assuming everything is as they report, it will be hard to defend him. CNN described him as born to Palestinians parents. (The media continues to perpetrate the myth that there are actually Palestinians, when in fact, they are Arabs who made a claim to Palestine, but there hasn’t been a Palestine, hence no Palestinians. That’s how rumors get started, and if you repeat a lie enough times, it becomes reality.) Anyhow, an Arab officer with a checkered service record on a shooting rampage is hard to accept as anything other than a terrorist. His victims were soldiers engaged in the war on terrorism, was he an enemy combatant, a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Another personal note on this is the hero, Officer Kimberly Munley. She is a civilian federal law enforcement officer assigned to police duties on Ft Hood. That could have been my daughter, Clarissa, who is part of the same police force, but assigned to Ft Bliss. I am proud of my baby girl and I pray she is never in that situation. But, it’s time to go onto other news. A fourth teen is charged in the beating death of a 16 year-old boy in Chicago in a situation that is being repeated with too great a frequency in Chicago. Hey, wait a minute, I thought Chicago’s problems got fixed when community organizer extraordinaire, POTUS Obama cut his teeth there. I pray that he will fare better as President than he did as a community organizer cause it seems all the news coming out of Chicago is bad. Hell, Chicago can’t even get the Olympics when power houses like Michal Jordan, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama are rooting for it. The house is to vote on health care overhaul today and Obama went to capitol hill to close the deal. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my own analysis of the proposed bill finds that it will not save any money. My taxes will not go down, my co pay and deductible payments will not go down, my insurance premiums will not go down. On the contrary, at a cost of $80 billion a year for the next ten years, my taxes will go up. Democrats say that part of the cost of the new health system will paid by fixing Medicaid and Medicare. Can’t government just clean them up regardless of the outcome of the pending reform bill? The USDA is considering settling claims with American Indian farmers. Let’s see if I got this correctly, American invaders stole land from native peoples, sent them to reservations, and just NOW they are CONSIDERING settling claims with them. How white of the USDA. I like this story, it’s really a non story, non news; why was it printed. The story says that someone in the White House told someone in the White House not to appear on the FOX network news shows. What a bunch of crap. What I have found is that there is usually an element of fact behind news stories, but please, don’t me the story without SOME of the facts. Viejas chismosas! FROM THE BUSINESS SECTION: Unemployment tops 10% for the first time since 1983 and consumer borrowing drops, no shit Sherlock. AIG made a profit for two consecutive quarters, wait a cotton picking minute, AIG is owned by us, as represented by the government. Why doesn’t the story say Americans made a profit? Well, because AIG gave IT’s profit to IT’s work force, so there! In your face carbon! King Midas, AKA Warren Buffet triples his profit to $3.2 billion in the midst of the Great Recession. Go back to my Mad as Hell blog where I told you that we are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. Let me explain, Freddie Mac is a quasi government agency that was bailed out BEFORE the hastily drafted TARP legislation was signed. It lost another $6.3 billion last quarter. How can that be so? A quasi government agency loses so much money all the while AIG and Buffet make so much…follow the money. Remember Ross Perot’s famous sucking sound; it’s back, but this time it’s big government and big business sucking our money out of our wallets, back accounts, and retirement accounts. Now for my soap box… We have allowed our government to invest in ideas and systems and institutions rather than invest in people. Our country is literally crumbling. Roads, sewer systems, rail roads, storm water protection, etc., all around the country are in seriously dilapidated condition. Rather that invest in rebuilding our country, our government has invested in GM, AIG, and so forth. How many people did GM or AIG put to work? None! On the contrary, companies showing a profit are ones that lay off workers to save money and the government simply extends unemployment benefits. We need to put people to work rebuilding levees, roads, storm water systems, water and sewer systems, rail roads, the power grid, “greenifying” public and commercial facilities under government mandate. Put people to work, put money in their pockets, let them get health insurance, let them spend their money and let them decide which business they buy goods and services from, and that will decide what businesses survive. If GM wants to survive they need to make a better automobile. I have owned Ford, Chrysler and GM products and I hate to say it but the Nissan performance and reliability all around is much better. So, my advice to hard working Americans is to save money, do not borrow, do not use credit cards, strictly cash and carry. Your money soundly invested in your neighborhood credit union gives them money to lend IN YOUR COMMUNITY. It’s safe until you need to make that big purchase or send you kids to college. Screw VISA and screw Bank of America, lest they screw me. OK ladies, get ready to call me sexist… What if, just what if, during the Great Recession, moms decided to stay home and take care of the hearth. Home cooked meals. Less gasoline. Less dry cleaning. Healthier, happier kids. Dads decided to do their own chores and repairs. No plumbers. No gardeners. No happy hour. What if we saw a return to the nuclear family, would that be good or bad? Less money but less expenses and more family time and Sunday worship. I have heard that three characteristics of stable families are: 1) two parents, 2) meals together, and 3) worship together. What if we did more of that? In support of the war effort during WWII, women entered the workforce in great numbers. When service men returned, women continued to work, hence the women’s right movement. Is there any cause and effect relationship between women working and the degradation of the family unit? In today’s capitalist, commercialized society, families “need” two incomes to keep up with the Joneses, but at what cost to our greater social structure? The business section of the newspaper has grave implications for the future of the American Society. IN OUR LOCAL NEWS The appeals court ruled Melina Castro cannot recover the fees she paid the city. It would seem to me that after she left City Council in disgrace that she would quietly slip out of memory. But noooo, the desgraciada is still disgracing herself. Honey, just go away! What about Ms. Quintana? She wants a pre trial diversion program. Aren’t pretrial programs, by definition, alternatives for guilty people who are simply trying to skirt a guilty verdict? Again, the appeals court ruled that Quintana’s case is being handled appropriately. It doesn’t say that her preference for a pre trial diversion program is synonymous to a guilty plea. Enough already, resign and join Melina, have a beer to drown your misery and slip out of memory. Finally, a word on an editorial column – “Mideast Peace Survives.” Oh really, has peace broken out in the middle east and I’ve not been told. The middle east has been in turmoil since the birth of man. Many track the state of war to Abraham’s two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac being born to Abraham and his wife Sara, and Ishmael being Abraham’s first born with Sara’s servant, an Arab woman. Jews, descendants of Isaac and Arabs, descendants of Ishmael, continue to be mortal enemies and I don’t believe that Americans can bring about peace. It is rather arrogant of any American politician to declare that he will bring peace to the middle east. The absence of combat between Jordan and Israel does not peace make. For 20 years I have been saying that middle easterners are consenting adults and if they want to kill each other, then who are we to meddle? Only they can bring about peace and it is clear that the impasse will survive for another year. Yes, I enjoy the paper and my coffee. Electronic news papers just aren’t the same and I can’t take my desktop into the potty. So I read the paper and capture the news, but always with my own analysis. America, rest today! Tomorrow I will tell you what to think about today’s news. Well, its several hours since I started writing this blog and steadily I have felt worse. My nose keeps dripping, my eyes are watering. I’m sneezing. But I keep on downing those fluids.