Posted by:
janeeliot
(
)
Date: February 12, 2013 07:44PM
I was rather paying attention when Pope Benedict XVI was appointed -- and I was disappointed. There had been some speculation the choice might be a nod to the Catholic Church moving into an age we might recognize as modern, a nod to reproductive rights (which the majority of Catholics practice no matter what their church says), and a nod to the huge Catholic Church outside the European tradition. Some thought a South American might win the vote. I said at the time, "Couldn't they do better than a former Nazi! Seriously."
Obviously none of that happened, and I thought the world and the CC the poorer for it.
Benedict's reign was marred by scandal -- not just the ongoing problem of a cover-up of the pedophilia, but also some financial irregularity that have not been fully explored.
I know all this, so please do not try to educate me (although thanks so much for thinking of me). All that said, I have found a lot of the response to this pope's resignation not just snarky and snide, but mean spirited and childish. It makes me feel as though I am trapped in some 19th century Know Nothing meeting where rabid anti-Catholicism is running riot and everyone -- but me -- is secretly hoping it will end with us routing the local Catholic out of bed for a good old-fashioned lynching.
I happen to have a lot of Catholic friends. Over nine out of ten have left, and not one of them is unthinkingly uncritical of the religion of her youth -- and not one of them can be less than offended by some of the stuff I have read on Facebook, other post Mormon sites, and here. Someone out there in cyberspace -- not naming any names -- said nothing he said about the pontiff could be disrepectful because there was nothing to respect. In what world is that not disrespectful? It was spoken like someone from small town Utah -- or Idaho -- who had never lived outside of Zion, never had so much as a minute of education after high school, and never actually -- you know -- met anyone Catholic -- an uninformed, closed-minded -- well -- still basically Mormon guy -- no matter for how long -- or how loudly -- he has been gone from the rolls.
My friends who were raised Catholic have much sharper, more cogent criticism of Catholicism than those of anyone I have had the pleasure of reading here. They also -- all of them -- have pieces of their upbringing they respect and value. They value the quality of their Catholic education -- which beats that of Utah's public schools cold. There was something they loved along the way -- the message of charity, the poetry, the music, the ritual, the lessons in symbolism -- but it seems to me, above all, the habit of respect, the large lesson that someone need not be perfect to command your respect, and as none of us are perfect, and we as we all need respect, it's a good human lesson.
If I tried to say what I envy in my Catholic friends, it would be a large humanity and an acceptance, even a pleasure, in the mixed bag of being human, a realization that life really isn't black and white, that no one is perfect and need not even try, you can embrace your failures, you can be a flawed human -- a message sorely lacking in Mormonism.
And sorely lacking in a lot of the disappointing response to the Pope resignation. If it isn't black and white, then you can't say this pope is all black, can you -- unless you are still an immature, black-and-white Mormon thinker. And isn't the rabid anti-Catholicism one of the uglier birthmarks of the Mormon Church? Why would you want to cling to that piece of nastiness? It is not as politically incorrect as keeping alive that hideous anti-colored skin thing?
I have not perused every thread, but has anyone mentioned that there is something very good in the resignation? Of course if Benedict XVI had stayed on growing more gaga by the day you could have made fun of that, too. Wasn't that one of Steve Benson's tip-offs that the Mormon Church was not all it claimed? That it hung his grandfather out to dry while he painfully faltered, failed, and died? Shouldn't we cheer that a guy somewhere had the courage to say "Enough," and maybe, just maybe set a precedent of people -- even heads of churches -- retiring when they can no longer do the job?
I am also posting not just for the sanity and integrity of the thing, but to stand with my Catholic friends, lapsed though they may be. As a pro-choice woman, I value the support of Catholics for Choice. (I also find them intelligent, nuanced thinkers, people with plenty of guts, brains, and soul.) But it has always seemed to me that support is -- or at least should be -- a two-way street. As CfC stood by me when I needed them, I will stand by them. And while they might have their own reasons to quarrel with Benedict XVI, they do it with respect, maturity, and understanding that is sorely lacking in many of these posts.