Posted on 06/06/2011 3:26:30 PM PDT by NYer
Betrayal -- that's what living a cafeteria lifestyle means, so it's hard to feel too sorry for proud, self-proclaimed "cafeteria Catholic" Maria Shriver who is experiencing the reality of betrayal from her cafeteria husband. In 2008, Shriver told the world, via the Washington Post's religion blog, that she chooses what she wants from Church teaching:
"Even though I consider myself a Catholic in good standing, I disagree with a lot of the teachings of the Church....I don’t believe that if someone’s divorced they shouldn’t get Communion; I don’t believe that people who are gay shouldn’t be accepted into the Church… I’m pro-choice, I believe women should have that right....women should have a larger role in the Catholic Church." - Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger .
In other words, "I do it my way!" God's way be damned!
Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger called herself a cafeteria Catholic at the time and, while claiming to pray every day and to love her parish priest, it's clear she wasn't praying for her conscience to conform to the teachings of Christ articulated through the Church He founded on "the rock" of Peter.
Why has Shriver stayed in the Church? She likes the social justice teachings (and maybe the stained glass windows and the bingo). Among the Church teachings she was willing to throw out are the pesky ones about the indissolubility of marriage. After all, she wanted the divorced who attempt new marriages without a declaration of nullity to receive the Eucharist -- so much for respecting sacramental marriage!
So how can Shriver, the cafeteria Catholic, complain about Arnold Schwarzenegger , the cafeteria husband? Schwarzenegger was also a cafeteria Catholic who promised his faith would never interfere with his decisions as governor of California. It's obvious he also didn't believe in those pesky vows he took on his wedding day -- or he changed his mind along the way when they interfered with his "right to choose" a little whoopy on the side.
Maria and Arnie both betrayed Christ and the Church as cafeteria Catholics by picking and choosing the doctrines they would follow and those they would reject. Arnie just took the betrayal a step farther by being a cafeteria husband who played fast and loose with the vows he made to Maria on their wedding day. But if you don't respect your obligations to Christ and His Church, why would you respect your obligations to another person?
The pain and damage Schwarzenegger has caused his family (His son Patrick changed his name to Shriver on his facebook page.) mirrors the pain sin causes to Jesus Christ. The reality is that the cafeteria lifestyle is a betrayal. Once you accept it, you have no grounds for complaining about the cafeteria choices made by others.
Just as Maria felt she could be a Catholic "in good standing" while she cheated on the faith, Arnie may have felt he could be a husband "in good standing" while he cheated on Maria. Those who live the cafeteria lifestyle need to realize some of the choices available on the food bar are poison. The only healthy response is to close the cafeteria and return to the solid food offered at the banquet table of the Church. Let's pray that Maria and Arnie make that choice, for the sake of their own souls and the example they leave for their children.
A kennedy on the receiving end of someone acting like a kennedy.
Sin effects the entire community. In this instance, one can see how those sins have impacted the immediate and extended community - even those disaffected from the catholic faith.
Ouch. That’s going to leave a mark.
I think they both knew where that train was going when they bought their tickets.
The Catholic Church is not a democratic institution and has never claimed to be democratic. You take it or leave it. A lot of people (including Maria Shriver) have left it. She should go join the Epicopalian church. They will take anybody.
Lol! Love the analogy. Thanks for the post and ping.
kennedy karma ... even the Irish know they're poison ...
Interesting article. It’s also important to choose a partner who has grace, dignity and ethics. My husband had an old-fashioned, 1950s Catholic education - with the nuns yelling at him and the priest glaring at him when he goofed up as an altar boy. He is a lapsed Catholic but he has never shed his Catholic ethics. How could he? Those nuns will come after him in bad dreams!
“Even though I consider myself a Catholic in good standing, I disagree with a lot of the teachings of the Church....”
.
Ex cathedra.
>>”Even though I consider myself a Catholic in good standing, I disagree with a lot of the teachings of the Church....I dont believe that if someones divorced they shouldnt get Communion; I dont believe that people who are gay shouldnt be accepted into the Church Im pro-choice, I believe women should have that right....women should have a larger role in the Catholic Church.” - Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger .<<
IOW, she is a Methodist. Or just a run of the mill 4-square church-ist. Or maybe a scientologist.
By definition in that one statement she rejects the pillars of Catholicism.
I may have left the Church but I defend her right and duty to define herself.
You know, the Irish now blame US for the IRA. You can’t go to an Irish forum without them bringing up “American” support of the IRA (the stupid jerks!) I point out to them that they idolized the Kennedys and Ted Kennedy in particular (and his mini-me Peter King who now, blessedly, is anti-terrorist) who were leaders in IRA sympathy. So, what I’m saying is that the Irish do not know that they are poison - unless you know something I don’t know. I hope you do!
The Irish are an ungrateful, hateful, anti-American bunch (I know what I’m talking about) and now that the Celtic Tiger has imploded, I really resent them showing up in NYC (where I live), working in jobs that I, personally, would rather go to people who love my country.
>>By the time we were done philosophizing, he came to agree that as parishioners we have a duty to talk about the Church to other parishioners and to bring ones who are astray back to the path. I just need to do it a little less “assertively”. LOL. <<
My break with the Church was structural. That “bring ones astray back” sounds a heck of a lot like RINO philosophy — we believe in A, B and C — that is, unless if we give in on B and C you will vote (R).
The Holy See(s) across so many years — this one in particular — are more than clear on the subject. You are all in as a Catholic or you are just something else.
The ELCA would welcome her with open arms.
>>The ELCA would welcome her with open arms<<
You got me. ELCA?
And looking up acronyms on Google is like looking up sex terms... (not that I know about the latter, mind you)
An Episcopalian appealed to Rome to block a Kennedy’s attempt to dump her and remarry. Her petition was granted and her Kennedy husband did not get his annulment.
There are good and bad people in both churches.
Good article. I guess Maria stayed in the Church out of sheer habit, or maybe for her mother. She needs to re-think her commitment to the faith, and if she truly doesn’t wish to follow Catholic teachings, she can join the liberal Anglicans. They seem to be diminishing by the day; I’m sure they’d welcome her and Arnold.
Someday an Angel is going to tell her that what she thinks matters not.
LLS
I watched Arnold at Reagans funeral the other day. He crossed himself backwards.
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