Further evidence the Pope is irrelevant

Imagine my surprise when I woke up during a week devoted to the birth of their savior and I get to read the following article.

In comments at the Vatican that are likely to provoke a furious reaction from homosexual groups, Benedict also warned that blurring the distinction between male and female could lead to the “self-destruction” of the human race.

In his address to the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration, he described behaviour beyond traditional heterosexual relations as “a destruction of God’s work” and said that the Roman Catholic Church had a duty to “protect man from the destruction of himself”.

It is not “outmoded metaphysics” to urge respect for the “nature of the human being as man and woman,” he added.

“The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less.”

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official described homosexuality as “a deviation, an irregularity, a wound”.

The Pope said humanity needed to “listen to the language of creation” to understand the intended roles of man and woman.

He also defended the Church’s right to “speak of human nature as man and woman, and ask that this order of creation be respected”.

via Pope: Saving world from homosexuality like saving rainforests – Telegraph.

I was raised Roman Catholic and for some reason I still think it important to look up what the Pope says on occasion – it was drummed into me that he (God forbid it ever be a she!) was the head of the church – God’s mouthpiece on earth, so to speak. And then I read this. Preventing love between two human beings is just as important as saving the rainforests? Oh, so I guess their God is now a god of love only for those that some short-sighted misogynistic little man thinks deserve it.

I recognize my own bias here. I try to be open to the notion that there are multiple paths to spirituality, but I know that my knee-jerk reaction to certain religions is that they are full of shit. Catholicism is high on that list, perhaps because I am the most familiar with it.

Why the anger? Let me tell you a bit about my path.

As I said I was raised Catholic. My mother is a religious education teacher, and has been for as long as I have been alive. Although I went to public school from kindergarten through grade 8 (my parents could not afford to send me to even the relatively cheap Catholic school), I was in religious education classes (CCD we called it – I have no recollection as to what the letters stand for anymore) the entire time. I had my first confession and my first communion. Confession always terrified me because I was sure that I was bad enough to go to hell. Now that I am older I realize that I was just a pretty normal kid, but the fear of God and Hell was definitely a motivator in my moral development. I wish I could say that even as a young boy I had questions about being Catholic, but I didn’t. There was nothing else in my experience – well, I did have a Jewish friend. So those were my choices – Catholic or Jewish – and I was taught that while Jews were accorded respect they had missed the boat on Jesus. In addition, I was a dutiful altarboy through all this. I didn’t know of other religions until high school.

For various social reasons I ended up going to an all-boy Catholic high school. Interestingly enough one of the first books I had to read was “Zen and the Art of Archery.” This had an effect on me many years later, but at the time it was just an interesting book that sort of resonated with me.

My new friends were all Catholic and the girls I dated were Catholic. In fact, I stayed with one girl for three years. Like a good Catholic we did not engage in pre-marital intercourse, but that did not stop us from experimenting in other ways. I digress however.

Once in high school, and surrounded by Catholicism I started to think about this religion I was raised in. I started attending CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) at a church with friends and my girlfriend. While I had been introduced to many priests growing up, it was here I met one that really seemed to embody what I thought a priest should be – Fr. Rich. He was an amazing guy. To be honest I developed a bit of hero worship I believe, and even felt that I wanted to be a priest.

Before you assume too much, this does not end with him molesting me… he truly was a good guy.

Coming up to my junior year in high school I was approaching my Confirmation – the rite of passage where I, as an adult, proclaimed my allegiance to the Catholic faith. Looking back, how can anyone truly make a choice like this when they are never exposed to anything else? What kind of faith is it if you never seriously question or doubt it? The funny thing was is that I had begun questioning anyway.

A side story to tell at sometime is about how, as religious as she was, I credit my mother with developing my mind to the point where I could question things.

I decided that I could not get confirmed. I was not sure I believed, and I did not feel right about going through with it if I doubted. To make my parents happy (something that drove a lot of what I did in high school and into college) I continued with the classes and agreed to meet with the pastor of our church. I am still not sure what exactly occurred during that meeting, but I left it convinced that I had been “visited by the Lord.” Our pastor was a kindly gentleman with an open and caring attitude. We had a great talk, including about my doubts, but as I was leaving I felt like there was a presence with me. I was so excited I shared it with my parents, my friends, my girlfriend and her mother. I felt that my doubts were cleared, and I wholeheartedly agreed to go through with my confirmation.

What happened? I still do not know. It was an experience I still carry with me, although I now see it as a recognition that spirituality is still important, not evidence of a god.

The next part of my life was a wholehearted devotion to Catholicism. Upon getting confirmed I was nominated and voted onto the parish council for my church, as well as joined a retreat team for younger people at my church, and I continued to participate in the CYO at the other church.

I went to a private, yet Catholic, university where I immediately joined their retreat team. I remained Catholic throughout college, although my faith began to be severely shaken. Another priest I had become friends with in high school got forced out of his position by yet another priest. This other priest was commonly known to have a ‘female friend,’ although I admit now that this was only rumor at the time. In addition to my priest friend losing his position, the older brother of one of my best high school friends got caught up in the situation as well and was fired. This other priest, the one responsible for getting rid of my friend and my friend’s brother, was a sleaze. This is based on the several times I met him and the feeling I got every time I did. No evidence again, but I have learned to trust my instinct.

In addition, I had numerous unsavory (again – no molestation!) encounters with priests at my university. Men who, I believed were basically good, but because of their position were drunks or power hungry.

There was no crowning moment when my faith fell away. It just sort of crumbled. My wife and I got married in a Catholic church – my parents church with the pastor who I spoke of before officiating. But it was really the last hurrah. My questions from high school came back, and started asking about why women were excluded from the priesthood – I had met many religious women, nuns and others, who would have made great priests. Why couldn’t priests be married – I thought back to the one priest in college who was actually a really great guy, but drank way too much. I couldn’t help but think he was missing something.

I was becoming exposed to other religions. For the first time I really started to learn about other branches of Christianity as well as Islam, Buddhism, Hindu, and others. And I read a series of books by a priest, Joseph Girzone, which depicted a church the way I thought it should be… but never would be.

Again, my faith in the Catholic church left, not with a bang, but a whimper. If there really was a moment when the door was shut on catholicism it was when my mother told me she felt I was going to hell for becoming Buddhist.

It really is another story, but I eventually became Buddhist, my wife is now a pagan (a witch, if you will), and we raise our children to be present in each moment, and to look at all religions equally (even if we do not always feel that way ourselves).

And I finally have decided that, after 40 years of life, I now know that the Pope is irrelevant.