Has Catholica changed or is it just me? (Main Forum)

by James, Australia, Monday, May 24, 2010, 07:44 (1121 days ago) @ CathyT

Yes, Cathy, I think it has. Contributors have become a lot more critical, but I think that is for understandable reasons. As Brian has pointed out, Benedict's letter to the Irish was a real shocker. It is one thing to be pushing the usual conservative doctrine or trying to turn the clock back to the old liturgical forms, but it is quite another thing when the leader of the whole organization will not take responsibility for his own actions over the pedophile cover ups.

I suppose the big difference between me and most people who contribute to the forum is that I gave up expecting the pachyderm would ever get out of its mudhole some 40 years ago. For me, it was not just a question of reforming decaying human structures, it went to the very basis of the faith itself.

I regret to have to say that the activities of the likes of Benedict and Pell have only convinced me even more that my decision was right - I cannot accept that with all their prayer and liturgy and spiritual exercises, there really can be any connection between the Church and the Almighty, assuming that there is one. And in that, I am paying God, assuming He is listening, a compliment.

So, why do I hang around on Catholica? Well, I am not on an evangelising mission. I have no wish for people to give up their faith and I respect those who see things differently to me. But when I first joined, I was intrigued by what seemed to me to be a concern that the Church was "losing" so many of its young people. It was put down to a fault of catechesis, but I always thought it went much deeper than that because the drift had started before JPII and Pell came into power. It probably dates back to Humanae Vitae when the real drift started.

It wasn't just that Humanae Vitae seemed bizarre, (which it was), but it raised important issues about infallibility, the magisterium, the continuing of divine inspiration through the Church, indeed, things that went to the very basis of Catholic belief.

If Catholica were only about arguments on liturgical changes, or the minutiae of Church politics, I wouldn't be here - and I tend not to comment on things like that. But Catholica does raise important fundamental and stimulating issues for everyone, believers and non believers alike. And it gives me an opportunity to question what I thought were my own certitudes.

I think as a result of being involved here, I have become more tolerant of people for whom faith, even the Catholic faith is important (although that might surprise some...but you should have seen me before). And likewise, I hope my contribution has given others some understanding of why I became a lapsi and still am one.