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« on: October 23, 2018, 06:48:32 PM »
I just finished The Keepers also. My feelings are the same as what AKA wrote: angry that these priests can do what they do to children, and that it is hidden, and the priests are moved around from one parish or school to another but not banished from the priesthood. Maybe it has to do with Catholics believing that you can basically commit any sin, and if you ask forgiveness, you are cleansed of it. I can't recall if it's part of the script of Spotlight, or something I read after watching that film, but some men become priests specifically so they can have access to children, and be above suspicion. And then, in this case as was true in the cases in Boston shown in Spotlight, even the courts and law enforcement were protecting the abusers and the Catholic Church. It's infuriating. Watching this, seeing the District Attorney defending that no charges had been brought against Joseph Maskell, even with all the corroboration and evidence that they had, it's just awful. I really have seen so much over the past five or ten years that's destroyed my faith in our justice system. If you have money and power, you can get away with murder. Literally.
As an adult, I went through the RCIA program to become a Catholic and got along well with the head priest. I enjoyed having deep discussions about religion, faith, lack of faith, and a million other things that are topics that I love discussing, but most people don't. Obviously he enjoyed the conversations too, because he opened up and our conversations were very honest and open. So one of my questions was why can't you get married. Of course, the answer is that priests are married -- they're married to God. So follow up question -- what do you do about sexual drive? The answer "Pray. And if that doesn't work, you take care of business yourself." So that's not a sin then? "No, we ARE human. We do the best we can." Some other interesting tidbits of our conversations: Do you take the whole Bible literally, because I can't get on board with this Jonah living inside the whale bit. It's metaphorical, right? Answer; "No. God wrote the Bible, and every word of it is literal and true." Even Jonah? "Yes! If God wanted him to live inside a whale, he could because all things are possible with God." Okay. And what about communion. We're just pretending to take the body and blood of Christ right? "No! They become the actual body and blood of Christ. There is no pretending." I could never believe these ideas, but I really loved learning about other people do.
A few months later, one of the priests was no longer at the church, and I'll never forget my naivete at the time, because I asked about him leaving, and the same priest actually admitted to me, privately of course, that he was accused of being too close to some of the children of the parish. So, he had to quickly make arrangements to have him moved back to the Philippines. His disgust with the situation wasn't with the priest, it was with the parents making the accusations. Now, looking back, I remember that conversation. I have friends who attend that same church (the head priest is now long gone) and their children go there, and their son who is just about 13 years old wants to be an alter boy and they are so proud that he wants to be more involved in their church. I don't know how anyone could trust a child to be involved in the Catholic church anymore. I'm glad I took the classes, and learned about Catholicism. I do not consider myself a Catholic any longer. Faith has always been an issue, and always will be. But the religion itself seems "unnatural". Nothing about it feels right.
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It's on the schedule. We're gonna stay busy right up to the week of Christmas now.
