That's so brutal. And unnecessary - in fact counter-productive.
I had a Catholic education in the Fifties and Sixties. There was certainly a fair amount of indoctrination in my primary years, but the nuns who taught me and priests who put up with me as an altar boy all had my best interests at heart. In fact (embarrassing), my first cru…
That's so brutal. And unnecessary - in fact counter-productive.
I had a Catholic education in the Fifties and Sixties. There was certainly a fair amount of indoctrination in my primary years, but the nuns who taught me and priests who put up with me as an altar boy all had my best interests at heart. In fact (embarrassing), my first crush (age 10) was on my Grade 8 teacher - Sister Josephine. She herself was 21 at the time I found out later and went on to become Mother Superior.
Secondary school coincided with the volatile part of the Sixties. I had numerous teachers who encouraged us to think for ourselves. Catholicism was never questioned, but neither did I ever feel it was rammed down my throat.
Twenty years later I found out some of the horrors committed by Catholic priests and nuns in indigenous residential schools - a chamber of horrors in Canada - as well as in parishes. It stunned me. I had shifted away from Catholicism as it didn't seem rational to believe in God. But because I had enjoyed a happy childhood, I was left deeply at odds with the incongruities I now faced. I think it's where I first really internalized how human beings can be so deeply repugnant and evil and at the same time can rise to the noblest heights. Sometimes it can be embodied in a single individual.
The Church has so much to answer for. Yet I still wish I had the stirrings of belief in me. I'd go back.
I lived in and around a Catholic nunnery (Missionaries of Charity) for 6 months as a full time AIDS volunteer. The sisters had opened up their house/convent as an HIV/AIDS hospice.
I came to love the dedication to service that I saw embodied not just by the nuns, but by the congregation who gave of their time to support the work.
At the same time, I saw firsthand the terrible price that their strict belief system/personal unfinished childhood trauma unleashed on deserving men who didn't deserve to die. It was a stark contrast in opposites and has left indelible memories with me.
Most 'service' organizations do more harm than good, the Catholic Church is among them.
The world reaction to AIDS was unconscionable. We are always a hair’s breadth away from lapsing into the comfort of a morality play. Group think is so safe and so devastating for those the group turns on. The AIDS crisis was, in the truest sense of the word, a shaming period for humanity.
As for the Catholic Church, it has represented both the excesses of sin and the shining example of redemption with equal favor over the centuries. Rarely within the same person unfortunately.
That's so brutal. And unnecessary - in fact counter-productive.
I had a Catholic education in the Fifties and Sixties. There was certainly a fair amount of indoctrination in my primary years, but the nuns who taught me and priests who put up with me as an altar boy all had my best interests at heart. In fact (embarrassing), my first crush (age 10) was on my Grade 8 teacher - Sister Josephine. She herself was 21 at the time I found out later and went on to become Mother Superior.
Secondary school coincided with the volatile part of the Sixties. I had numerous teachers who encouraged us to think for ourselves. Catholicism was never questioned, but neither did I ever feel it was rammed down my throat.
Twenty years later I found out some of the horrors committed by Catholic priests and nuns in indigenous residential schools - a chamber of horrors in Canada - as well as in parishes. It stunned me. I had shifted away from Catholicism as it didn't seem rational to believe in God. But because I had enjoyed a happy childhood, I was left deeply at odds with the incongruities I now faced. I think it's where I first really internalized how human beings can be so deeply repugnant and evil and at the same time can rise to the noblest heights. Sometimes it can be embodied in a single individual.
The Church has so much to answer for. Yet I still wish I had the stirrings of belief in me. I'd go back.
I lived in and around a Catholic nunnery (Missionaries of Charity) for 6 months as a full time AIDS volunteer. The sisters had opened up their house/convent as an HIV/AIDS hospice.
I came to love the dedication to service that I saw embodied not just by the nuns, but by the congregation who gave of their time to support the work.
At the same time, I saw firsthand the terrible price that their strict belief system/personal unfinished childhood trauma unleashed on deserving men who didn't deserve to die. It was a stark contrast in opposites and has left indelible memories with me.
Most 'service' organizations do more harm than good, the Catholic Church is among them.
Your experience was a mixture of empathy and enmity, Stephen. Hard to reconcile, for sure.
The world reaction to AIDS was unconscionable. We are always a hair’s breadth away from lapsing into the comfort of a morality play. Group think is so safe and so devastating for those the group turns on. The AIDS crisis was, in the truest sense of the word, a shaming period for humanity.
As for the Catholic Church, it has represented both the excesses of sin and the shining example of redemption with equal favor over the centuries. Rarely within the same person unfortunately.
I would say that the excesses of sin and the shining morality exist in all of us. It takes a saint to allow predominance of one over the other.
Eric, 20 years later notwithstanding, it sounds like yours was a more balanced experience, which is good!