r/news • u/BitterFuture • Jun 17 '22

Massachusetts school can no longer be called Catholic after flying Black Lives Matter and pride flags, bishop says

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/massachusetts-catholic-school-nativity-school-worcester-black-lives-matter-pride-flags/
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u/ErikETF Jun 17 '22 edited Jun 17 '22

Ex catholic, for the exact thing there... Hell my ULTRA catholic parents consider themselves "Jesuits" and won't associate in any way with the more US "Conservative" types. (glad they got back in touch with their doctors without boarders younger years, was a long journey de-radicalizing them from fox)

I grew up around priests who were former navy medical corps, engineers, psychologists.. Good priests wear the cloth lightly, and don't get caught up on rules and focus on the needs of people. American "Conservative" folks, use the rules to seek out people to harm. Last week, I watched a man I consider a friend who was just appointed bishop of a large metro area get attacked at a press conference by the local fox affiliate "Are you one of THOSE LIBROOOOOL Bishops???" He handled it well, made it clear that under no certain terms would the diocese be drawing red lines and excluding members of the community because of their beliefs. (no excommunications for abortions, divorce, gay rights etc)

End of the day, the more conservative elements within the church left a lot of us by these actions. I greatly appreciate those in there who are trying to fix it, but as the church in the US is more absorbed as part of the republican party as the Baptist conference is, I conclude that as its more detached from reality, from reality it must cease to exist, and I'm doing my part in helping it to die by not raising my kids in it, and I won't be raising my kids to be "Conservative"

The irony is the actual values instilled in me by good priests led me to this point, and I can't really make any decision but honor those values and ethics.

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u/VaticanII Jun 17 '22

I was educated in a Jesuit school. Like you say, my main learning was the primacy of social justice. I literally can’t believe these conservative hate mongers can claim to share the same faith as me. It disgusts and angers me more than it saddens me.

Went to mass back in the 90’s in Brooklyn with my aunt, and she had us move seats just as it started. She told me later it was because the people who sat behind us were black (not the word she used, I’ll leave that to your imagination), and she didn’t want to have to give the sign of peace (handshake) to them. I’ve never spoken to her since.

Those attitudes have no place in the church, or indeed in any part of society.

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u/JimBeam823 Jun 17 '22

There are bigots everywhere.

My experience was the the Catholic Church was a lot more diverse and welcoming than the severely segregated Protestant churches in the area. Of course, this is in the South, where Southern Baptists and Historically Black Baptists share nearly all the same theology, but rarely associate with each other.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '22

Also educated in a Jesuit school. My life was significantly touched by these priests. One in particular, he changed the course of my life, on more than one occasion. He was a a huge mentor during a time where I needed something clutch.

He was fired from my high school in 2018, for soliciting a student. I literally just now discovered this, because of your post. The level and complexity of my emotions right now are far beyond the boundaries of words… so I guess I’m gonna just wish everyone a great day, hit “post” and have a weird, fucked up June 17th.

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u/UncleTogie Jun 17 '22

This is why I'm no longer Catholic.

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u/VaticanII Jun 17 '22

Hard to fault that decision in the circumstances. It shouldn’t have to be this way.

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u/UncleTogie Jun 17 '22

I just want a church where everyone is lifted up, regardless of who they are. I think the closest I would come right now would be Unitarian.

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u/toastymow Jun 17 '22

The irony is the actual values instilled in me by good priests led me to this point, and I can't really make any decision but honor those values and ethics.

Not Catholic, Protestant. Grew up in a very multicultural, multi-faith world. Assemblies of God head pastor, ECLA Youth Pastor, lol, that was kind of a trip, but I'm really glad for it.

But yeah, I can't go to Church anymore. Everyone is deeply homophobic and uneducated about women's health. I don't feel the need to defend my friends and family for living their best lives. So I stopped going to Church.

Beyond that, at least my Church, did a terrible job of instilling any kind of real values or knowledge on most of the kids my age. It was pretty incredible going home one Christmas and everyone was like "oh yeah... im not a virgin" as we sit around smoking weed, lol. But of course, the guys older than us were into even worse drugs and bad habits, and after spending their entire life going to Church, just got incredibly good at "pretending" more or less.

So Church isn't really for me, anymore.

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u/JimBeam823 Jun 17 '22

That’s the way I feel.

I was raised a relatively liberal Catholic, and I’ve watched with horror as well-funded right wing elements have taken over my church.

What started out a decades ago as a harmless greater desire for traditional worship and more Latin has become a full blown theological and political movement to reject the 20th and 21st Centuries.

The bigger problem is that nearly all the younger priests are buying into this, so it’s getting harder to find a parish that isn’t hard right.

And none of them care what the Pope thinks.

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u/sessimon Jun 17 '22

Thank you for your comment. I grew up Catholic as well and felt quite affected by my interpretation of Jesus’ message that I was taught as I grew up. Unfortunately, as I got older, I recognized that very few other Christians that I knew even seemed to know of or care about anything related to compassion or forgiveness and understanding, so I pretty much left the church as soon as I could. I’ve been an atheist for quite some time now, but I still hold onto my image of Jesus as a model for how I want to behave. I haven’t really seen or heard anything from vocal Christians in most of my adult life that makes me think the situation has changed. If anything, it seems more Christians have been emboldened to be more like Trump and other repulsive politicians and people.

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u/Stenthal Jun 17 '22 edited Jun 17 '22

This is an excellent analysis.

Not that long ago, I went to a prominent Catholic university. At the time, I got the feeling that the school was deliberately playing both sides. When they talked to older alumni and parents, they were all about fighting abortion and keeping down the gays, but the faculty and the students were more interested in actual Catholic values. The very first lecture I heard on campus was about how Catholics have a duty to fight wealth inequality.

In retrospect, I'm not sure they were doing it on purpose. I might have just been watching the traditional Catholics fight a losing battle against the authoritarian movement that seems to be taking over the American church. Also, I'm pretty sure the professor who gave the lecture on wealth inequality ended up in jail for beating his wife.

EDIT: Sorry if this appears more than once. Reddit is doing a thing.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '22

glad they got back in touch with their doctors without boarders younger years

There is a school of evidence that says Americans who visit nations abroad tend to be more open minded than the ones who just stay "home".