Confirmations
Last week was an interesting week for me, with my two very close and personal encounters with Catholicism. Two family friends had their kids confirmation this week.
The first one had the Cardinal presiding over the ceremony. It was bad. He was a perfect example of how irrelevant the Catholic church is making itself to the youth. He mumbled through the ceremony, making a few unwise cracks, that no one could hear or find funny. The whole ceremony was not centered around the kids, it was around him. How important he was, and how lucky we all were to be in his presence. But that wasn't what bothered me about the ceremony. I sat there and saw the glorious multi-cultural Toronto - and what I saw were Catholics. I'm sorry, but Catholicism was never native of Asia or Africa. I got angry, when I saw the different non-European faces, kneeling, and praying, and declaring how they've sinned to Cardinal and the Pastor. No. That's just wrong. There's nothing to kneel for. The Catholic church didn't travel to Asia and Africa and debated the merits of Christianity with the locals and tried to get them to convert. It never happened like that. The Asians and Africans had to have a little convincing. Sins. It's the Catholic church that needs to beg forgiveness for sinning. The Apostles didn't get the gifts of tongues so they could go out and brutalize the world into conversion. The methods used by the Church was certainly not what Jesus intended. If you're a Christian and you believe in Jesus, you've got to wonder, what he would have thought of the whole thing. He came, wasted his time, because people never learned. So, Mister Cardinal, you can take your Catholicism and put it where ... and take that message to his Holiness as well.
My second encounter was better. I wasn't distracted by the multi-cultural Toronto. In fact, there was nothing multi-cultural about the parishioners - although they would think of themselves as either Italian-Canadians or Latin-Canadians. Regardless, their fate was something they always had - it wasn't something that they had to convert to ... by force. The pastor was different from the first encounter. He interpreted teachings for the bible in order to make it relevant for the kids who were being confirmed. I actually liked his speech. He was more down to earth - he took the mumbo-jumbo out of the sermon. However ... (yes, there was something wrong here too) ... the parishioners were most disrespectful. I'm not a Christian (in case you didn't figure that out yet). Yet, I found it disturbing. The people wouldn't shut the hell up. They yapped through the entire ceremony. They waved at each other. I couldn't figure it out. The women were all dressed in clothes way too tight for them. I swear ... asses and boobs were screaming bloody murder, and wanted relief from the bondage they were suffering. Most disturbing was that some of the women, were not - they were little girls. The men - the young men ... well, there was a cloud of testosterone hanging in the air like the noxious fumes of an agent orange attack. If you were protected, the skin would peel off your body in response. They strutted around like peacocks - mostly on display to each other rather than to the women. The whole thing was a spectacle. I could think of many things that I could have better spent my time at.
In case you're wondering - I'm Hindu (and they're no better either).
Last week was an interesting week for me, with my two very close and personal encounters with Catholicism. Two family friends had their kids confirmation this week.
The first one had the Cardinal presiding over the ceremony. It was bad. He was a perfect example of how irrelevant the Catholic church is making itself to the youth. He mumbled through the ceremony, making a few unwise cracks, that no one could hear or find funny. The whole ceremony was not centered around the kids, it was around him. How important he was, and how lucky we all were to be in his presence. But that wasn't what bothered me about the ceremony. I sat there and saw the glorious multi-cultural Toronto - and what I saw were Catholics. I'm sorry, but Catholicism was never native of Asia or Africa. I got angry, when I saw the different non-European faces, kneeling, and praying, and declaring how they've sinned to Cardinal and the Pastor. No. That's just wrong. There's nothing to kneel for. The Catholic church didn't travel to Asia and Africa and debated the merits of Christianity with the locals and tried to get them to convert. It never happened like that. The Asians and Africans had to have a little convincing. Sins. It's the Catholic church that needs to beg forgiveness for sinning. The Apostles didn't get the gifts of tongues so they could go out and brutalize the world into conversion. The methods used by the Church was certainly not what Jesus intended. If you're a Christian and you believe in Jesus, you've got to wonder, what he would have thought of the whole thing. He came, wasted his time, because people never learned. So, Mister Cardinal, you can take your Catholicism and put it where ... and take that message to his Holiness as well.
My second encounter was better. I wasn't distracted by the multi-cultural Toronto. In fact, there was nothing multi-cultural about the parishioners - although they would think of themselves as either Italian-Canadians or Latin-Canadians. Regardless, their fate was something they always had - it wasn't something that they had to convert to ... by force. The pastor was different from the first encounter. He interpreted teachings for the bible in order to make it relevant for the kids who were being confirmed. I actually liked his speech. He was more down to earth - he took the mumbo-jumbo out of the sermon. However ... (yes, there was something wrong here too) ... the parishioners were most disrespectful. I'm not a Christian (in case you didn't figure that out yet). Yet, I found it disturbing. The people wouldn't shut the hell up. They yapped through the entire ceremony. They waved at each other. I couldn't figure it out. The women were all dressed in clothes way too tight for them. I swear ... asses and boobs were screaming bloody murder, and wanted relief from the bondage they were suffering. Most disturbing was that some of the women, were not - they were little girls. The men - the young men ... well, there was a cloud of testosterone hanging in the air like the noxious fumes of an agent orange attack. If you were protected, the skin would peel off your body in response. They strutted around like peacocks - mostly on display to each other rather than to the women. The whole thing was a spectacle. I could think of many things that I could have better spent my time at.
In case you're wondering - I'm Hindu (and they're no better either).
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