I'm a lapsed Catholic Christian. No matter what anyone says, I'm a Christian. I'm not a Papist, I don't follow Romanism. I'm a Roman Catholic Christian. Even so, I'm what they called lapsed.
Why am I lapsed? Because the hierarchy of the Church let me down. It has done everything it can to protect its institution, many times at the expense of the very faith it's supposed to represent. For centuries, it turned against the people to protect its position in the socio-political order, condemning people to slavery at the hands of peoples it didn't choose to represent it. It's taken ridiculously hypocritical positions, engaging in rhetorical gymnastics to promote its version of reality.
One thing non-Catholics believe is that Catholics, because we are baptized shortly after birth, do not come willingly into the Church. Our decision is reaffirmed with confirmation, but even then, many non-Catholics regard us as brainwashed. I can think for myself.
Historically, what many critics of the Church point to is the Inquisition. It was, without doubt, misguided at best and horrific at worst. It was un-Christian, when you get right down to it.
But there are other historical facts that many critics miss. The Church in Ireland sided with the English invasion and helped subjugate a people who never wanted foreign rule. Once English rule ended, the Church held sway over the Irish, committing atrocities no less horrible on them than Nazi atrocities elsewhere in Europe. So too in Spain, the Church sided with the fascist Franco and helped keep a country under the yoke of a dictatorship to preserve its unnatural place in the social order. All the while, the Church in both countries touted its efforts to protect the common man which, in retrospect, was just a huge lie.
The Church's reliance on Jesuitical reasoning (not ironically, Ignacio de Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, was a Spaniard) to support its doctrine required a suspension of disbelief. To present just one element with which I am personally and painfully aware, the Church's position on in vitro fertilization rests on the nebulous Law of Nature which, to simplify it, says that if something isn't in accord with nature, it must be wrong. Since in vitro fertilization requires the assistance of medical science to bring forth new life, it is against Church doctrine. Yet, the Church has seen ways of justifying other acts against nature, to wit:
The Sixth Commandment says Thou shalt not murder. Yet because the doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, declared that there is such a thing as a just war, man is allowed to use weapons, brought into being with the genius God gave him, to murder his fellow man, all in the name of a just war. Yet man, with the genius that God gave him, may not bring life into being via in vitro fertilization, despite the fact that to do so breaks no Commandment and in fact keeps up with the dictum be fruitful and multiply. So long as man is not using this for nefarious means, what's the problem with this?
The other horribly inappropriate matter confronting the Church was the pedophilia scandal in the American Church wherein the Church protected pedophilic priests. While giving the public lip-service, the Church protected untold thousands of criminals within its ranks and then, when faced with lawsuits from aggrieved victims, declared bankruptcy. Thankfully, under the bankruptcy laws, such lawsuits are immune from discharge. Even so, the worst case of self-protecting hypocrisy involved the Vatican bringing Bernard Cardinal Law to Vatican City to put him beyond the reach of American justice, so he wouldn't have to testify to his role in transferring known pedophiles from parish to parish.
We can dispute matters of doctrine between the various Christian faiths, but the Church has acted dishonorably for far too long for me to remain a communicant. There are plenty of good Catholics, and not just the visible ones like Mother Teresa. Consider, for a moment, Father Maximilian Kolbe, whose story can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe
Irrespective of faith, Father Kolbe's self-sacrifice is in keeping with the Christian tradition.
The Church will not change in my lifetime. It elevated to the Papacy a few years ago a former member of the Hitler Youth, for heaven's sake. I can no longer defend its actions and will not support it either directly or indirectly.
(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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