The Reasons Why

I dropped out of the Roman Catholic church when I was a senior in high school. I was at St. Patrick's HS in Chicago and during our senior year we had a weekend retreat to a beautiful country estate owned by the Christian Brothers. It was a period dedicated to reflection on our lives, our faith and our future. We were told that we should try to be silent and engage in introspection about our morality and our behaviors. We were told that we would return from that weekend changed forever. I doubted that somewhat, but in fact it was the cementing of my position that a person could live a good and moral life without benefit of intercession by organized religion. Except for weddings and funerals, I never attended again.

Several years later, in the Air Force, I was in-processing at Randolph AFB near San Antonio. Part of the sequence was a briefing on chaplain programs and religious activities available on the base. A non-denominational overview was followed by individual interviews with a chaplain from the religion you had indicated on your preference card. Mine still said catholic.

The priest asked about my level of involvement. I told him I did not attend church and wasn't interested. He asked me why.

I asked him about eating meat on Friday. I had grown up with the prohibition and been told that a Big Mac on a Friday was a mortal sin and if I died without confessing, I would be condemned to hell for all eternity. Now, the prohibition was gone. "So, if I had died and gone to hell would I have been paroled or would it be simple bad luck?"

I mentioned the similar punishment for the mortal sin of not attending mass on Sunday. Now, I noted, it was possible to go to mass on Saturday and fill the square. What happened to all the souls in torment when that rule got changed?

He wisely gave up on me as a lost cause. Now, that I am getting older I am occasionally given to thoughts of religion much like W. C. Fields reading the bible on his death bed. When asked what he was doing, he replied, "looking for loopholes."

If I ever thought about returning to the Catholic church, this would most assuredly convince me not to:



That a Catholic church would be given over to such a production in honor of a man such as Sen. Kennedy is questionable. Certainly he deserved to be offered a funeral mass given the always available opportunity for redemption. But, should it have become a showcase for such a display?

The scripting of the children to unquestioningly embrace complex policies smacks of partisanship. The ritual of congregation chantings at the end of each prayer is embarrassing at the least and disgusting at the most.

What self-respecting priest or bishop would stand by for such religious effrontery?

"Lord, hear my prayer."