Sorry, if I have to talk about this here. There's something I'd like to say about this whole issue of RH Bill.
At this point, I think it's immaterial what my thoughts are about the bill, whether I'm pro or con, but what I'd like to comment on is HOW our Church leaders are responding to this issue. It's very un-Christian-like. So, this is for them.
First, if you're trying to win the sympathy of ALL Catholics, my dear fathers and sisters, whatever it is you're doing, it's not working. You're only dividing the faithful. Why not instead of indignant homilies, side comments and scaring people of excommunication, you all go out into your communities. Talk to the people like those in the olden days when Catholic missionaries were working their way to convert indigenous peoples into Christianity. These are not Medieval times. You cannot launch wars against the gentiles anymore. If you want your former believers back, you have to court them to bring them back again to the Church. And being know-it-all pedantic-like won't win you points.
Educate, and not scaring them to hell, is what you should do. Go back to your missionary roots. Replace those leather shoes by rubber boots and immerse yourself in the swamp, so to speak. The amount of non-believers is increasing and some because they're extremely disappointed in you and what you do, sad to say. Make us believe again in the leadership by being more compassionate, kind and by making the effort of doing the right thing all the time. Right now, you are neither compassionate nor kind. Your self-righteousness is a huge turn-off and a huge setback.
Second, the state is doing its job. Do your own. Mocking the people who are for the bill isn't the way. It's not Christian. IT'S BULLYING. See above. Educate and make the faithful understand why the Church chooses that stand. Do it in person, one by one, face to face, if you want things to go your way. It's hard work but that's how it goes with any religion nowadays. You have to work triple hard.
Third, scaring people of Excommunication is the total opposite of what the gift of Free Will is about. This is not the Middle Ages, not even Renaissance. It's not a progressive approach and in a progressive society, it is ridiculed. Understand where people are coming from. Talk to us and not AT us. There's a difference. You don't know everything, even about Salvation. You say it's useless to talk to the supporters of the bill because their minds are set. But so are you.
I am Catholic and I don't think I'll convert to any other religion. I believe in this Church which was built by Jesus Christ upon the rock that was Simon Peter, the First Pope. I learned about our faith, our Christianity, for 11 years in a Catholic School and all of them I kept in my heart and retained in my mind. I am now 39 years old and I want the leaders of this Church that I believe in to be the leaders from whom I could see Jesus in words and in action. Right now, none whom I've heard is being Christ-like. And I am extremely saddened and disappointed about that.
Addendum:
Apparently, the Church hasn't threatened anybody with Excommunication. Yet.
Defined as "the principal and severest censure, is a medicinal, spiritual penalty that deprives the guilty Christian of ALL participation in the common blessings of ecclesiastical society". The guilty "may not participate in public worship nor receive the Body of Christ or any of the sacraments."
So what does it mean when you're asked to walk away during Mass like what happened in Baguio? Isn't that a sampling of deprivation of 'participation in the COMMON blessings' It is a Eucharistic Celebration. It's a Sacrament. Within the Mass, we have the Holy Communion, another Sacrament. Essentially, asking somebody to walk away from two of the Seven Sacraments, what was that priest thinking?
When the time comes and the Church gets really annoyed, I hope and pray that they don't resort to this. It would look more like a petty argument.
Reference:
Excommunication at New Advent's Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org
3 comments:
I agree... I am also born and raised as a Catholic but what the leaders of the Church are doing is really not what I believe in.. hopefully they re-evaluate their values and start thinking on HOW to enlighten people... not WHAT they want people to think...
read this just now, and yes, regardless of your opinion about the RH Bill (i'm PRO, for what it's worth), the church is doing a very very very lousy job with handling themselves and their opinion about it. i think the main problem is something you kindasorta mentioned in your post, about EDUCATION and the church's history of CONVERTING the indigene: i really do believe - and history (and art and lit) supports this - that THIS is how the church went about EDUCATING/CONVERTING the indigene, through fear and threats (and at that time, death). so the issue is also about the church being behind the times, the church needing to redefine their understanding of the word EDUCATION. at any rate, thank you for writing this down.
- adam
Adam, yes, scaring people of fire and hailstorm and all that doom, was very widespread in those days, even our own history can attest to that. All those conquests and wars 'in the name of God' are not lost on me. But it wasn't all that because that's not education. Certainly, there were missionaries who did their work and taught the word of God the way they should. And that's what I mean. I think it's cynicism to believe that they didn't exist. :)
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