Wednesday, April 14, 2010

suffer little children

I’ve been vacillating writing about this; frankly, I don’t want to be the target of religious zealousness.

I went to Easter Sunday mass, one of my two concessions to my mother (the other? Christmas Eve). This year was especially martyr-esque, as I had crawled into bed at 4am and had to be back up for 10am. It was not easy. Anyway, showered and dressed in my Easter Sunday frippery, I went to church. Choir was boring, singing none of the songs that make the ceremony tolerable. I saw a few familiar faces, looking just as dejected as me; I wondered if they were C&E’s too or if they were now judging my conspicuous presence. This is what church has always done to me, made me paranoid without warrant. In reality, those people probably didn’t even notice me.

And then my least favourite part: the sermon. A few caveats:
1) I mostly like the priest in charge: he seems really laid back, he laid off the second pastor and his deacon is part-time in an effort to save money, he went green by replacing light bulbs and turning off the fountain at all times, except for the Blessing of the Water.
2) I find the sermons a real stretch when it comes to real-life application. I mean, what does a celibate old man have anything to do with me?
3) My mom used to be cool: she once told her marriage prep priest that if she wasn’t going to use birth control then he could take care of her dozens of children. I wonder what happened to that chick? Maybe you’re just inherently more rebellious when you’re in your twenties.

...So, the sermon is focussed on forgiveness. But not just forgiving your neighbour from pruning your prized gardenias or your little brother for putting a frog down your shirt in front of that cute boy. It’s not even about the more serious things in life, like rape and murder. No, this entire twelve-minute sermon was all about the specific forgiveness of those priests convicted of molestation under Ratzinger's turn at the helm. What. Maybe I’m a bad person, but I couldn't believe that I was being asked to forgive men of the cloth who had debased their oath to God (both the chastity and moral behaviour therein implied) by molesting young boys. Hello? If I’m a gay man and I participate in consensual sexual behaviour with another man, I’m going to hell; but, if I’m a priest that abuses my position of power to sexually assault children, that’s okay because I’m a priest? What bullshit is that about? The communion wafer stuck in my throat. I get that good Christians are all about turning the other cheek, but the Church has to realise that people will not stand for hypocrisy.

I looked over at my father: he was half asleep. I looked over at my mother and she had a curiously blank look on her face. A couple of years earlier, in a similar Easter sermon, the priest had asked the congregation to fill in protest letters for Dr. Morgentaler being honoured with the Order of Canada. In the parking lot, I blew up, crying foul, stating that Morgentaler did more for women’s rights than the Church ever did. This time, I swallowed my rage.

Is it wrong of me? By attending service, albeit silently and reluctantly, am I condoning the message? Is it worth fighting over, since I only attend twice a year for the appeasement of my parents (you know, honouring them)? And why is it that the intercession of a man is necessary for my communion with God? I just can’t believe that the big JC would have asked for forgiveness for these monsters-in-priests-clothing; I mean, He lost his cool when people sold doves on the steps of the synagogue! What would He have said about men taking innocence in a church rectory?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The Church is a joke. It's just another enterprise looking to make a buck and exploit the ignorant in the name of someone who isn't able to materialize themselves and blast them all to hell.

If one asks us to forgive someone who's robbed a child of their innocence and dignity - priest or otherwise - they should both be blasted to hell.

When I went to go book the Church for my wedding ceremony, I thought the priest was going to damn me for eternity when I said my fiance and I lived together ... telling me I shouldn't wait so long to "make things right" and bla bla bla. I told him we needed time to save money. He said to do something small instead - yeah, so YOU get all the money, I wanted to say.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the religion, the teachings of Jesus: kindness, humility, respect, gratefulness, etc... but The Church, not so much.

AND what is up with laying off a priest to save money? Huh? How much money could they be saving. Isn't there a vow of poverty somewhere? That's dumb ... but whatever. Keeping up with the times and all that, I guess.

Acadian Librarian said...

Oh my. I hear you, I so hear you.

In this case I don't know if you could have done differently, other than maybe talk to said priest afterwards... Don't know if it would help. I do think they are sometimes directed in the topics of their sermons.

I don't know what's worse, the covering up or the suggestion that forgiveness is a Christian act in such a case.

Anonymous said...

The church has a pretty good racket going, no one can forgive but God; therefore, don't dare judge the church or you will burn in the eternal flame of damnation. My mother, who is now bordering on atheism, likes to point out that Christ had 2 commandments, "Love thy neighbour as you love thyself" and "Love God above all others". True "Christ"ians would not do what these priests have done and I think it is only just that these imposters are exposed. I tend to think that irrelevancy is the best weapon - okay, we have no right to judge, but we have to right to choose another path.



DK