There are the faithful, and there are the parsites.
Back in Mexico, the Catholic Church provides schooling, medical care and food to the poor. Thus, they need the Catholic Church.
Here in the USA, the US Gov’t provides schools, medical care and food; and unlike the Church, has no demands for tithing, morality or support.
So, why would someone feel the need to identify themselves as Catholic (or any other church)? The faithful will always align with the teachings of Christ; the parasites need to be bribed.
I’m not trying to be adversarial here.
I AM having a little cognitive dissonance here. I have on reason to doubt what you are saying baout the services the Church provides in Mexico. But I know that ten years ago or so when I was involved in a little informal migrant ministry with our pastor, a lot of them were unmarried and some of their kids were unbaptized because their perception was that they would be charged fees for these sacraments.
At first they resisted our suggestion that we would celebrate Mass in their camps. We couldn’t figure out why. Finally our pastor pressed one of them to find out what the problem was. He asked how much it would cost!
When we said, “Gratis! But we will take a collection,” their attitude was one of astonished gratitude.
So I’m having trouble reconciling these two views. Is it religious v. secular or geographical differences or what?
An excellent summation! Thank you for the post and ping.