Something old, something new

Firstly, despite the title of this blog, I am not a Pope, not called Joan and no longer a Catholic.   Some people lapse, but I actually converted out.  However, I've always contended that being brought up a Catholic is a bit like being Jewish - it's in your bloodline - in my case on the maternal side since St. Patrick converted Ireland, so I am culturally Catholic, but theologically decidedly Protestant.  I suppose I could classify myself as a "critical friend" of the Church - but I think most Catholics would find me way too critical and not nearly friendly enough!

I have a great deal of sympathy for the Church, and admiration for some of its clergy and a great wish for it to liberalise - which I believe it can do without compromising unduly with the modern world, if it took a little bit more notice of the Gospels, Jesus's words and the spirit within those words, and less notice of it's own fallible human "custom and practice" - or the Magisterium as it likes to call it.  I would personally abolish the Magisterium and start from scratch.   This is obviously a naive and idiotic view, it cannot be done, the Church is the Magisterium - but a quick straw poll around Catholics of my acquaintance reveals that many are not aware that it exists and what they have signed up to or been born into.

Is it possible for the Church to be reformed again as it was after Vatican II?  I wonder. Would I rather see it reformed or disappearing?  It seems idiotic to believe the Bride of Christ could disappear - but this Church seems less the Bride of Christ, more a rather officious usher or best man, trying to keep everyone in line, and not part of the love fest that the wedding is.

I started this blog today - February 24th 2013, because it seemed to me that I was writing way too much about the travails of the Catholic church on my other blog and because I might want to link this blog to other places.  I might even promote this one a little because I would like to discuss things with other Catholics - old and new, assenting and dissenting.

In the last few weeks I have read a lot of Catholic commentary (i.e. about 4 articles - a lot by my standard) all of which have shocked me at their illiberal views.  It is very different from my experience of Catholicism in my teens, and I am wondering whether I was brought up in an heretical parish!

The articles which precede this one are all articles I wrote in my other blog - and are dated with the date they were written, that deals with the "something old" aspect of the blog.   "Something new" will be, I hope, a little bit of discussion...

Maybe I really do hate the Catholic Church

This thought keeps recurring.  Due to people I know and love posting articles about the Church on Facebook, I have found myself reading a great deal of uncomfortable material. These articles and the comments they attract are causing me to wonder (a) just how typical are these people of intelligent Catholics? (b) is there any of the spirit of the Enlightenment in the church at all?

These reflections were sparked by an article in the Washington Post written by one Ashley E Maguire.  Here is the extract that annoyed me, and where I stopped...

"So while most Catholics worldwide heard the news of the pope stepping down and gave him a giant, global air-hug, a few dissenting groups used the news to get attention by banging their pans and loudly rejecting church teaching and disrespecting the head of their faith. It was unkind.

Mr. Kristof and friends are wringing their hands about what we call “irreformable, infallible moral teachings of the ordinary magisterium.”

He might want to look that up."

The writer then goes on to say that the magisterium is a jolly good thing and nothing's going to change. He rightly comments on some of the good things the church does - service to others, the poor, etc. but also says how it upholds marriage etc etc.  Also, he cites things about Catholics that are true of all followers of Christ - "be not conformed to the world" is fine, it's a good thing to try and live by, when the world is wrong - but conforming to an historical worldview that was wrong in its attitudes towards women, homosexuals etc. isn't quite so smart.  It is blatantly untrue to say that nothing has changed for 2,000 years - the Church has changed its mind a fair number of times since then.  Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God by Ute Ranke-Hellman is full of examples of this.   The magisterium is what ties the clergy into some of the more repressive teachings of the church, and effectively tries to deny Catholics freedom of conscience on many subjects.  

It may be because I was brought up in a parish run by a man whose early theological education was Protestant - but I always understood that examining your conscience was where you started... and nobody ever discussed what you did if your conscience came into conflict with the magisterium - because there was a strict "don't mention the magisterium" policy in the parish and in RE lessons at school.  If everyone in the church thinks the magisterium is jolly good and everything it says is right, then really I have nothing in common with them, and my Catholic sentiments are purely an accident of birth and a cultural residue.  A pity, since Catholicism's been in my DNA since St Patrick converted Ireland.   The writer of the article cited seems to have that "Catholics are special" attitude which I've heard more of recently.... I am no longer a Catholic, I was not special, and even though I didn't know about it, I would never have wished to obey the ordinary magisterium.  It's a pity, but there it is.

Dude, where's my church?

30th January 2013

This is the title of the endlessly mulled over internal rant I have about the modern Catholic church... of course there were always darkened incense filled corners, stuffed with statues and unquestioning obedience to the Magisterium - but I was lucky to grow up in one of the sunlit uplands of the Church where we were ecumenical, open and questioning - and more interested in the spirit of the Gospels than the 1,000 years or so of intellectual plaque that had built up on the Church's gnashers... I knew gay priests, ex-nuns, ex-priests, discalced Carmelites, theologians and all sorts of people - and no one ever mentioned the Magisterium....

If I were in the mood I could write a Joni-Mitchell parody about the glories of the post-Vatican 2 church... but it's too much like hard work - I met a very nice priest on my way back from the retreat - and of course there's the famous Marcus - who I haven't met, but basically - apart from the retreat - I haven't found my recent brushes with the church especially edifying.  I should ask Russell about this... perhaps Our Lady of Peace was too extreme and wild - David Woodard used to get tsk-tsk'd at by other priest - but it always seemed to me the right sort of Catholicism... I don't remember getting much of the "we are special because we're Catholics" sort of talk that I've heard in the last year.  I think one or two of the nuns at school might have tried it on, and been slapped on the wrists - after all, not everyone was Catholic.

I don't think it's my imagination - the Morgans agree about this, and John, the irritating school governor, used to say that the liberals had left, and all that remained were the nutters...(and the simple faithful I suppose).  I can't help wondering whether the wave of converts influenced this in some way. There was a wave of high-profile converts in the 80s & 90s, chiefly objecting to the CoE's ordination of women.  I wonder if there were larger numbers of low-profile converts as well - who all "went over to Rome" with great zeal to adopt it at all its most ludicrous levels.  What I think was happening at my church in the 60's and 70's and 80's was an attempt to live a gospel-based version of Catholicism - and strip away a great many of the extraneous ritual bits - now it seems that people just want to wrap themselves in the rituals and snuggle up in them.  I liked this quote by a guy called Roberto Riciardelli:

The practical function of religion is to tell us how to transform our mind and align it with God. Outside of this, religion profits little.

I can't help feeling that the Catholic church goes beyond this. It's funny because although I used to love the idea of Latin masses, now I find them rather grotesque - they are detached from the people, it becomes about the style not the content - you don't hear the words in the same way... depressing, even for someone who does understand the Latin.  I guess I've always been a more questioning person than was comfortable for the Church or myself - most people who ask too many questions usually end up reversing out quietly... or not so quietly.