In my journey of accepting who I am, one of my biggest hurdles I had to contend with was my religion. Mind you, I said religion, not faith. Because I have no problem with my faith. I do have a problem with my Church.
I disagree with the Catholic Church on their views regarding sex and sexuality. It’s appalling how medieval and out of touch the friars, er, I mean, the priests are with what’s really happening in the world right now. If the Philippine Catholic Church wants to remain out of touch with the rest of the world, as Bishop Bacani proudly stated in a BBC interview, then all the more I’m skipping out of the fold.
I first heard of the phrase, “Love the sinner, hate the sin” back in high school. At that time, our first-year homeroom teacher told us that’s how the Church viewed homosexuals--so long as we don’t commit homosexual acts, then homosexuals are okay. Took me almost four years to shake that idea off. Nowadays I do not see having sex with a man as a sin, and I most certainly do not hate it. In fact, I fucking love it. And so do certain priests, given the numerous sex scandals that rocked the Church in recent years.
For the longest time I’ve stopped going to Mass. But I still identify myself as “Roman Catholic,” especially in official documentation. It’s time I put a stop to that.
4 comments:
In the wake of such scandals, it's difficult not to be disillusioned with some of the members of our clergy. Self-righteousness is usually a red flag for the guilt and bigotry.
I have long been agnostic, and firmly believe that spirituality and religiosity are quite disparately different, and that the latter means more than the former when it comes down to the eyes of the almighty.
Religion should never be a canonical, obsolescent, claustrophobic condition. Humanity and society evolves, and so must it (being a human construct, and a social contract) to remain relevant.
just like you, i would rather be called a pagan! however, i do not wish to throw out the window the things that i have learned from the faith because i believe that it has helped me to be a better (judgmental, hahaha!) person. we can also come up with the phrase "love the faith, hate the self-righteous practitioner?!!?" hehehe!!!
as i mentioned in another post, the church, governed by people, will always make their stand known. and each of the faithful is given a chance to choose whether to follow or not. that does not mean we are condemned if we do not follow, we just don't agree with the prevalent mentality. all the faithfuls (tama ba ang grammage ko!?!), whether heterosexual or homosexual, only try their best to live their catholic lives with the grace given from God through the Holy Spirit (ayan ha, theologically sound ang statement). so God will be the only one to know the real intentions we have; and if the others don't see it that way, they can take it up with God in the final judgement!
a comment though...i felt uncomfortable that you mentioned the priest with sex scandals. i have no love for them as priest per se; i actual pity them because they are most likely closeted homosexuals who believed that they would be happy by suppressing their true selves-thus churning out more perversions. so i guess what i'm trying to say is that we should try to understand them because they did not have the opportunity to experience love and acceptance, and decided that the only way that they would be saved was to crush their spirit and live a life of service to an institution. not to say that there are no exemplary real vocations to the priesthood, but i would classify them as "forced" vocations. that being said, if they are truly homosexuals, let us not add to their sufferings... :-)
@CHINK: Re. priests with sex scandals: I don't see them as "forced vocations;" instead, I see them as examples of people who, perhaps out of youthful immaturity and ignorance, chose a particular path when they still lacked experience and exposure. No one "forced" them to go into priesthood, and no one can really "force" them to stay as priests if they really want to leave.
Yes, I can pity them for "suppressing their true selves." But I don't condone them having sex.
You see, when they made a commitment to the priesthood, they made a vow of celibacy. This applies not just to closeted homosexual priests, but also to heterosexual priests who have had babies with women. If these priests cannot honor their vows and commitments, if they cannot keep themselves celibate, then I'm sorry but they should suffer the consequences, hetero AND homo alike.
I'm not going to give special treatment to closeted homosexual priests because their sin has nothing to do with their sexual orientation. Rather, their sin is breaking the vow of celibacy.
@MCVIE: i do see your point and i agree with you. teh, ang taray lang but i like it :-) hahaha!
Post a Comment