Joey Rats

Readers respond...

I've been thinking about your old blog posting about Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism, and I've decided that's there's something very wrong with your insistence that the point of the Catholic Church is not to change. I can see your point about it (and Orthodox Jews) representing a conservative strain of a diverse variety of beliefs, but the problem is that Catholicism is not a philosophical set of ideals that you chose, and can renege on, as a mature adult, like Communism or Noe-liberalism or say Kanitism (?). It's a living community, in which people are included into at virtually the moment of birth. A Catholic is brought up in this community, and taught, again from birth, a moral mindset based on the precepts of the teachings of Ratzinger and Wolyita (sic?) and so on. To disagree with Catholicism, to find it too conservative or unresponsive, is not to have a philosophical disagreement with the old white guys in Rome. It's to refuse the act of communion-which, as much as it is a sacrament remembering Christ's sacrifice, is more importantly a communal meal, which demonstrates membership in your community-a community, remember, which you're born into and, if raised "correctly', is all you know. It takes enough courage to reject the world view which you've been taught since birth, it takes much more to refuse communion with your friends, neighbours and family. I know-on the odd occasions when i end up at Mass, I find it difficult to not take communion, even though my conscience is quite clear that I should not be taking part in a sacred right which demonstrates adherence to all sorts of crazy, and dangerous, doctrines. So your point about the Catholic Church being conservative by definition is premised on the idea of the Catholic church as a set of theological beliefs. It's not, it's a community of believers. And the Pope-father, remember, Shepperd of his flock and so on, has a duty to these believers who look to him as spiritual leader. And his duty should not be to condemn them to death by refusing to allow people to use condemns, or to destroy the planet by opposing birth control. And I imagine the same goes for Orthodox Judaism.

The view from the inside, I suppose. I think what I disagreed with so vehemently following JPII's death was the notion, lurking beneath the surface of much of the commentary about the future of the church, that Catholicism was somehow more authentic and closer to God than its competitors. I suppose that notion is defensible, given the huge number of Catholics in every corner of this globe. But the idea that those who had lapsed from the church, either by choice, by drift (like Bruce Springsteen, who compared watching the reports of BXVI to hearing about a blockbuster trade involving a team you no longer root for) or by force (homosexuals, for instance) were kicked out of God's inner circle is really insulting.

If, among mainstream Christianity, Catholicism is supposed to be the stalwart right wing or if it merely happens to be isn't a distinction I'm yet prepared to recognize. The Pope should not be condemning his followers to die; but insisting the church change its ways despite the myriad of viable, attractive spiritual options (many of which having arisen out of the same text) isn't so much admirable as it is sad.