The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #149850 Message #3489008
Posted By: Bonnie Shaljean
11-Mar-13 - 04:21 AM
Thread Name: BS: Catholic religion response to 'today'
Subject: RE: BS: Catholic religion response to 'today'
Joe, the reason folks don't go to church in Ireland is not because of the quality of the masses. You're missing the point. It's because the Church is out of touch with the daily lives and needs of its people. And that's because they have paid too much attention to running their own agenda and not enough to the realities and problems their followers have to live through and grapple with.
Their authority and wealth have protected them so much that they have not had to listen to anyone outside their own power base, thus they can't see from any perspective but their own highly insulated one. But life ain't like that for most of us. Hence the growing disconnect. (Someone above made the excellent point that having the internet means everyone can now communicate freely and in secret - and that's something they can't control. But the internet is only a medium. It would not cause problems if there were nothing to tell.) In the words of Don McLean:
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
> Let me tell you why I think Catholic teachings on birth control and homosexuality are mostly in "benign neglect" - they're hardly ever talked about, and hardly ever written about.
"Hardly ever talked about and hardly ever written about" is another way of saying they're shoved under the carpet. The. Ban. Is. Still. There. Can't you see how hypocritical that is?
If the fiat against contraception has not been explicitly revoked, then it's still a policy of the Church. Are followers supposed to decide which instructions to abide by and which they may break? If so, either the Church's directives are not binding but subject to individual choice (in which case, why make them?) or the powers that be are decreeing one thing but countenancing another, while looking in the opposite direction so they can claim "we didn't know". (Where have I heard that line before?) How is this approach not hypocritical, cowardly, and self-serving?
If the invisible subtext is that it's OK to break certain rules, how can one trust or respect ANY of them, if some are not meant to be upheld?
If the Church is going to impose external controls on human behaviour (or try to), they must say what they mean and mean what they say. Not pay lip-service while turning their eyes away. But it will require honesty and courage.