Catholic In Spite of Myself - Cattolica Mio Malgrado

This was going to be my next post anyway, but Heather beat me to it.

You know, with the Pope's death and being raised Catholic, IN ITALY, and all, I've been giving this entire topic a whole lot of thoughts recently, and I have to say I disagree with Heather. In the end, I have found myself catholic in spite of myself. Let me elaborate.

My entire value system, my entire ethic, is based on catholic values. Whether I pretty much disagree with the church in every possible way imaginable, I have found that I am a catholic. I act like a catholic. My belief system is based on the catholic teachings.

Now, now, let's not get carried away: God is One, no matter whether they tell me it's three, I just can't buy it (and I believe I could be officially labeled heretic just for this!). I don't buy the Bible, I think it's a great religious tool, full of good intentions, but its historic truthfulness... c'mon, we're talking about a document elaborated in times when barely one millionth of the population knew how to read, and it hasn't been updated in the past 2000 years! The infallibility of the Pope is BS, the policy on contraception is medieval- gosh, the entire policy toward sex is counter-nature: if God didn't want us to enjoy it, He wouldn't have made it fun! Of course, I believe my kids should really mean the love they make to other people. But they shouldn't have sex only after marriage, that's ridiculous!!

What I mean is, I believe in the power of charity, in all being the same in front of God, I believe in a loving God, and I believe that I will have to pay my dues in front of him for my behaviors. I still haven't decided whether that's just my conscience I need to report to, or is there really some after life deal. I guess you can say I'm a discriminating catholic. I have built my own system of belief, but it's deeply rooted and founded on the religion I have been taught. The person I am, the things I believe are right or wrong, my moral, my values- all have a lot of catholic in it.

So, when I raise my kids, I think I will raise them catholic because I want them to share the same system of values. In the process, I will also teach them that nothing that they learn in Sunday school should be taken as unquestionable truth, and that they need to look critically at the things that are fed to them, and decide for themselves what they want to with it. I will teach them to be as discriminating as I am, but I want them to have that set of value to guide them through life. After that, whether they decide to elaborate their own belief system, or be church zealots, I will love them anyway. I will for sure fight the teaching of a terrorizing God that looks down at your faults and is willing to punish every single move!

You can say I'm not in that much disagreement in the end. It's all about the tools to reach the same goal: love our children and hope they learn only the best stuff!