You’re right about one thing: some dioceses here in America suck. And I don’t mean the generic “OK on TV” G-rated “suck.” (Self-censored) I mean “suck” from back when it was a *really* dirty word.
I really don’t think there is a single intellectual in the diocese I find myself stuck in at present. I’m not sure there is anyone of normal intelligence. I’m sitting here trying to think of a single good thing to say about this diocese, but I can’t. I was going to mention the music at Easter, but I went to congratulate one of the trumpet players and he snubbed me with an extra helping of scorn, so that kind of spoiled it.
I’ve been trying to get my two youngest in catechism classes. They were supposed to start today. We were at the appointed place at the appointed time, but no one else was. Just about the time I was giving up on looking and asking people, the teen life mass or whatever was ending. I hung back until no one was waiting to shake hands with the priest (a protestant custom that I heartily detest), then I went up and said, “I’ve been trying to get these two into catechism classes, but there is nothing on your web site that gives the dates and times. I called, and was apparently told the wrong time, because I can’t find anyone here. This is a bad, *bad* place to be a Catholic.”
He is a young fellow, a new priest, and looked a little shocked, but I’m willing to bet that no one calls me back, that the only thing that comes of this is that they will try to stop taking my calls. This is the last straw, though. It’s been five years of torture in this diocese, and nastygrams are going to fly in all directions—even Romeward.
Our bishop is a genuine protector of sodomites, almost as bad as the Catholic-haters think Catholic bishops are. He was a protégé of Phony Mahoney of Los Angeles. Our first couple of weeks here, we discovered that it is a “Catholic tradition” that confessions are not heard for the week before Easter, then went to Mass and were treated to gross liturgical abuse and outright heresy. These Stepford parishioners just sat there with glazed expressions and let it all wash over them. I really think the priest could deflower little girls on the altar and they’d just sit there. Intellectuals? They’re *morons.*
But that is not the Catholic Church at work. That is the result of generations of bad seminaries, bad bishops, and bad priests. That bad stuff is not the Church, nor is it a fruit of the Church. It is the toxic fruit of Satan’s attacks on the Church, and I believe the corner has been turned.
I don’t know what His Holiness wrote about Genesis, but back in 1917 my mother was taught by the Priests and Sisters that there is a good deal of allegory in Genesis, so that idea is nothing new. Further, I believe that the Bible contains both historical truth and theological truth, the latter presented through allegory and parable. I’m betting that His Holiness wrote something similar to that, and I have no problem with it.
I can easily believe what you say about your mother, and should you want to hire anyone to slap those people in the face, I volunteer. Still, they are not the Church. They are asshats who have wormed their way into positions of authority because good men don’t do it.
“The only way I managed to join the Catholic Church was by taking the initiative myself.”
I like it that way. I will talk to anyone who wants to talk, but if they don’t, I don’t nag them.
“The Catholic Church doesn’t really go to any effort to attract or convert anyone, and most Catholics ridicule those denominations that go door to door and try to convert people. I’ve never understood why; at least those other churches care about ordinary people.”
I don’t favor going from door to door or haranguing people. I do think ordinary people should be able to go down the street to the Church and find a priest to talk to.
“Joining the Catholic Church is like joining the Masonic lodge; the “seeker” has to petition to enter.”
I’m fine with that.
I found something very interesting on the Internet last night: a very long (nineteen pages, I believe) detailed examination of the decay and rot in Catholicism during the past four hundred years by a conservative Catholic named Paula Haigh. You may read it (or at least skim it) here. The story she tells isn't pretty. It didn't start with Vatican II and it didn't end with Benedict XVI. She indicts Popes and "conservative Catholics" of the past century, some of them heroes to so-called "conservative Catholics." How anyone could write such a thing and still be loyal to this allegedly "unchanged and unchanging" religion is absolutely beyond me.
I don’t know what His Holiness wrote about Genesis,
Google In the Beginning by Cardinal Ratzinger, or perhaps by Pope Benedict XVI.
but back in 1917 my mother was taught by the Priests and Sisters that there is a good deal of allegory in Genesis, so that idea is nothing new.
I know it's nothing new. See Haigh's article which details how the Catholic Church has been going to hell in a handbasket for four hundred years.
Further, I believe that the Bible contains both historical truth and theological truth, the latter presented through allegory and parable.
Oh you do, do you? Let me ask you: exactly what do you think is parable? Do you regard the idea of a baby being born of a virgin as a parable (since such a thing can't possibly actually happen)? Or perhaps the angels announcing this baby's birth to shepherds? How about the multiplication of loaves and fishes? That certainly couldn't have actually happened, could it? I mean, something like that doesn't happen every day, does it? And isn't that what you're going by? Or perhaps it's the resurrection of the dead you're dismissing as a parable. Or transubstantiation? None of these things can happen within the laws of nature. So do you reject them as parables conveying only theological meaning?
Now let me take a great big guess here and posit that you in fact interpret each and every episode I have just mentioned literally. Let me further posit that the one and only thing in the entire Bible you dismiss as "theological parables" are the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Why? Because stuff like that doesn't happen every day???
Let me tell you why I dislike the Catholic Church so intensely. It's because the Catholic Church hypocritically accepts some miracles (which "just can't happen") while rejecting the first eleven chapters of Genesis which are not one bit more impossible than any "new testament miracle." So why are the first eleven chapters of Genesis singled out for "parable" by the Catholic Church? Because the first eleven chapters of Genesis are accepted literally by white trash and the Catholic Church has no use for white trash. Do you want me to tell you why I believe they refused to speak to my mother? Do I really have to tell you that???
This is your "universal church" that allegedly "has room for everybody." That's a lie! It's an illusion, just as the idea of Catholicism being "unchanged and unchangeable" is also an illusion. The Catholic Church is nothing but chaos and liberalism, and it destests people like me and my mother and everything we believe in. It even rejects parts of "its own" Bible because "the wrong kind of people" believe in them!
Read--or at least skim--the Paula Haigh article and get back with me.
I’m betting that His Holiness wrote something similar to that, and I have no problem with it.
Since you and the Pope don't believe in "original sin," why are you Catholics? Why don't you become Noachides? Or if the "unchanging church" no longer believes in original sin, what is its justification for existence???