With all of the attacks on the Catholic Church recently, it has come to my attention, or more accurately, come to the front of my attention, not everyone sharing a pew with me in church shares my faith.
Nancy Pelosi claimed she is standing with her fellow Catholics and supporting the contraception mandate. That says to me, she is sadly mistaken that Catholics agree with the mandate or she is in good company with her support. Kathleen Sebelius, another self proclaimed Catholic, is also fighting in the opposite direction as the leaders of the Catholic Church in regards to the mandate. Obama loves to bring up the exorbitant number of Catholics who use birth control.
My question is, why do people, those in positions of power and regular ol' citizens, profess they are Catholic if they are not truly in their beliefs?
If you choose to be part of a religious group, as opposed to agnostic, it seems you would believe all of the laws/beliefs of that religion. Especially since agnostic is a possibly, and having a religion of any kind is not mandatory, I cannot imagine why you would choose - yes this is in fact a choice - to belong to a religion that had morals you did not agree with, believe or could follow. The issues of contraception and abortion are very huge in the eyes of the Church and really set her apart from other religions. In secular terms, would you belong to an organization that you did not agree completely with or at least, with all the major positions? I could, for example, never label myself a vegan if I could give up all meat but just could not deny myself dairy products.
I use to think that the reason might be that people wanted to have some solidarity to the older members of their family. I know no longer believe this though, because many people of the older generation also don't believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist or are in favor of birth control, so my peers surely feel no pressure to attend church to give the illusion that they believe and follow the Church's correct teachings. No one seems to raise an eyebrow or whisper disapprovingly any more when a couple moves in together, a girl gets pregnant out of wedlock or a guy announces he is gay. These things have become acceptable, normal and just one of the many choices a young person can make in their life. I highly doubt that people are, simultaneously, afraid to no longer attend church or call themselves Catholic because of what their parents or society might think.
So why do they call themselves Catholics and even attend Mass when they whole heartily disagree with many big and important values of the Church? How can they even sit through Mass, thinking the whole time that the priest is making a big deal out of bread and wine? How can they listen to the priest preach on the importance of writing letters, praying, fasting, doing everything we can to help overturn the ridiculous contraception mandate, if they, in fact, are using contraception and find nothing wrong with it? I'm not referring to Catholics who are trying to understand what the Church teaches, and like everyone, fails at times, goes to Confession and tries again. I'm talking about the "Catholics" who think the church is wrong in their teaching, that are expecting her to change her stance.
These people are very confusing to me. They, evidently, are very confusing to Obama, the rest of the government and society. I don't know if requesting those next to us in the pews to shape up or ship out is the right approach - but will the real, true, faithful (though at times failing) Catholics please stand up! We need to know who you are.
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