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.
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.
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.