this picture makes it too easy. let me just say that so far, 2010 is definitely the year of the priest. but probably not for the reasons the pope and his marketing team wanted.

my mom sent me this (unsolicited) e-mail, yes, on Good Friday. if there’s anything i can’t discuss with my dear, Conservative mother, it’s two things: religion and politics. yet i found this in my inbox.

Today, On Good Friday, Heres Why I Remain Catholic
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125493179&sc=emaf

This message was included:

This article best explains, why I am a practicing Catholic.  I hope this will enlighten you to my faith.  Love you, MOM

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the gist of it is that everything has two sides: America, our families, ourselves, yadda yadda yadda. it glosses over the sex and pedophilia scandals with euphemisms and emphasizes the good the church does and hope for the future blah blah blah. a generic Catholic homily, suited for any occasion at all. whatever. so i sent her this back. (credit goes to Krco for the majority of the info in this e-mail.)

noted. and i hope this will enlighten you as to why i am not a Catholic:

Bishop Camara said “When I fed the poor they called me a saint, when I asked why the poor had no food, they called me a Communist.”

Bishop Camara’s nickname was “The Bishop of the Slums.”  He was really into land redistribution and progressive welfare politics.  He was the head bishop of Brazil when the USA helped the military overthrow the Brazilian democracy and spoke out against the repressive government despite death threats–even when the dictator was sitting in his pews.  The Brazilian military government only allowed two political parties; Camara started his own illegal political party anyway to push the social justice thing.  It didn’t go anywhere because too many potential members got shot, but it was probably worth a try.  He basically kept trying to do stuff like that until democracy was restored two decades after the military coup, when he retired.  He started a bunch of programs to help the poor, improve the slums, and organize against the repression, but when he retired, he was immediately replaced by a conservative papal yes-man who undid all the social justice programs that Camara had started.  Here’s a pretty good biography if you’re interested: http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2009/07/bishop-of-slums-dom-helder-camara-and.html

Some other quotes from him:

How can a Christian collaborate with a communist?

– For me, men are not divided into believers and atheists, but between oppressors and oppressed, between those who want to keep this unjust society and those who want to struggle for justice.

Have you forgotten that Marx considered religion to be the opium of the people?

– It is the bourgeoisie which has turned religion into an opium of the people by preaching a God, lord of the heavens only, while taking possession of the earth for itself.

And, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times, but conservative churchmen like the current pope worked behind the scenes to make sure he never got it.

Now, compare this to a modern day, conservative, American bishop (Morlino, from the church in Madison) who was talking about the association of Catholic Hospitals (which is huge) and all the nuns in the USA:

So, we had a trade organization — the Catholic Health Association — which calls itself “Catholic” and we had religious Sisters who call themselves Catholic, saying, “Sorry, bishops, you got it wrong, here is the teaching of the Church.” The Lord Jesus Christ, unworthy though the bishops are, called the bishops to lead the people in faith; He did not call anybody in the Catholic Health Association and he did not call any of the Sisters in Network.

The bishops are called to teach, sanctify, and govern. But, as I said before, with regard to the Holy Father, if people will not recognize authority, then they cannot lay responsibility at the feet of those to whom they are disobedient. The pope and the bishops are only responsible when their authority is accepted. The then-Cardinal Ratzinger himself has said, in our contemporary world, the word “obedience” has disappeared from our vocabulary and the reality of obedience has been anathematized.

So doubtless, you heard about the priest in Milwaukee who sexually assaulted 200 deaf boys?  And how the bishop, pope, and current pope knew about the situation as it was happening?  This quote from Morlino comes from the exact same day that that story came out.  How can someone from Wisconsin pick a time like now to talk about people being obedient to the bishops?  What a contrast between the conservative syphocants of today and the Latin American badasses of the 60′s.

But seeing as how the Catholic Church is less a religious organization and widely considered to be the world’s largest corporation, it’s no wonder that people like Morlino and Benedict/Ratzinger ended up with leadership positions and people like Camara are suppressed or, like now, don’t even see a connection between the philosophy of social justice and Catholicism. It seems that today’s Catholic leaders would prefer a church made up of rich, obedient lemmings instead of people who are looking to actually find practical ways to apply the ideas in the beatitudes to their lives (not that the ideas in the beatitudes are exclusives to Catholicism or Christianity.)

Anyway, I’m not trying to get into an e-mail debate with you. I just thought i’d tell you why I am not a Catholic since you told me why you are. Hope you had a good day!

Love, .m.

i was as nice as i could be. and i let a lot go unsaid, so i think as far as not being offensive i did a pretty good job (albeit while sacrificing thoroughness.) now i can only hope that she doesn’t shoot me back an e-mail about how she’s still praying for me. fucking christ.

p.s. this is a great blog about how creepy, manipulative, subversive, absurd and ridiculously arrogant the Catholic church is regarding both legislative and cultural issues in America today. it has a point of view, sure, but i do think it’s pretty fair. considering.