Pope Benedict is smoking something. Part of the reason I left the Church after high school was I couldn’t reconcile the attitude that the pontiff displayed in his celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth yesterday. And I look to the continued vitriol dripping from the purpose-driven pastor, and the legislation by the former special prosecutor, and the actions of my country in the United Nations, and I fear for humanity.
With all the threats to the human species: the destruction of the planet by technological deterioration; the destruction of the planet by military excess; the decimation of the ecosystem by apathy; the depopulation through greed, causing starvation, rampant disease, and the execution of millions which repeats each decade when a new oppressed group seizes weapons and power and takes out their grievances on their oppressors, the head of the Catholic Church decides that he needs to attack those whom the Almighty has blessed with sexuality.
With a smarmy, poorly-written play on words making homosexuality equal to deforestation, Benedict further rode down the path of intolerance, ignorance, hate and division. Merry Christmas. Had global warming been a greater issue fifty years ago, I’m certain that he would have equated saving the rainforest with keeping the races segregated; the same way the Vatican spoke so eloquently about helping persecuted Jews during World War II; and the Holy See spoke up during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which saw Africa pillaged and Africans enslaved and scattered across the globe in a diaspora which still hasn’t been rectified. Why does The Roman Catholic Church, THE institution of God’s love on planet earth, miss the larger points in favor of banning women from preaching the gospel, and forbidding priests to marry?
I believe in God. And I believe in the possibility of people. What I have trouble with, and this is where mega pastors who preach hate, from Farrakhan to Warren, catch hell is that they preach to the small mind, they pick and choose which words of God they want to listen to, they fail to grasp the message and instead cling to the syllables that were written by men just like them.
The Pope is preaching hate, no matter what language and no matter what context. He is preaching division and intolerance. The celebration of Jesus’ birth (“He’s the reason for the season,” as my aunt likes to say) is supposed to be a time of love, understanding, renewal, companionship, and awe at the miracles that each of us as an individual is, and who we have to thank for that gift. It’s not about the toys we can accumulate, or the flat screens we can acquire. And it’s definitely not about raising ourselves up by stepping on and keeping others down. It’s about celebrating the angels, in ourselves and each other, not demonizing others.
Why do people forget that?
Jesus would stand with oppressed
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Why is the only church I’ve ever known (I was raised Catholic as most Latin Americans are) so wrong on just about every issue important to the human race? Sexuality, ecology, social justice, politics, etc.?
I grew up with the idea that sex was “the little bad thing” as instilled in me by a Franciscan priest and teacher during my formative years, while in many parts of the world children were being sexually abused by priests, and while I was a witnessing “make out” sessions between a priest and a friend of my family.
I stopped going to church at 12 because the priests of my church showed obvious favoritism to rich little girls during my first communion prep time and at the ceremony. My leftism was incipient back then when, lacking political arguments, I felt the inner rage over social injustice that I’ve felt many times over in my adult life. Lucky me that my mom did not force me to keep going to church when I ceremoniously announced to my family that I did not like the priests nor my confessions to God represented by these human beings. My arguments were that I was embarrassed to tell them that I had stolen some coins from my mom to buy candy or that I had said the bad word “sh..!” (I have to admit it, it sounds better in Spanish!), after which these priests were telling me that while doing these bad things, my white soul was being marked with dark stains. The graphic image of this sentence was too much to bear!
I must admit though that I still like the smell and serenity of Catholic churches and there have been many times when my need for spirituality has driven me to sit quietly in a church and pray to God and ask for his forgiveness and mercy.
So, this is just to say how many Catholics would have stayed as such if only the inhabitants of the Vatican would have been true to God’s teaching of equality, tolerance and love for ALL.