Just wanted to say hi to everybody for a moment.
The increasing carpal tunnel symptoms will force surgery someday; meanwhile I try to get by with much more reading and far less writing. So I don't post anywhere very much.
A gratifying thing happened on my FB page, however. I use it mostly as a political news feed from the usual suspects but of course I do interact now and then with people. One of the most interesting I've met is a young man studying for the Catholic priesthood at a diocesan university in a third world country. He loves Pope Francis very much and may eventually become a Jesuit although he's torn between them and the Franciscans because he has such a heart for nature and the poor. Meanwhile he studies philosophy and psychology as well - so he has some interesting points to make. Good grounding in history too, even though he's still an undergraduate. Liberal for his time and location, so we get along fine.
Point being, he's smart and wise beyond his years. Very dedicated. I hope he sticks with his current goals because Mother Church needs all the help we can offer. I'm someone outside his regular circle of acquaintances and so can offer new avenues for him to explore, such as American authors he might not yet be familiar with. Since their country's really poor and books are expensive and hard to come by, I've offered to refer him to my favorite free e-book websites. He would never ask and doesn't know this yet, but I'm thinking of sending him my older android e-reader for everyone there to share.
He's an orphan taken in by the church; since in his culture older women are more respected than some places I could name, he just calls me 'Ma'. It seems likely that someday there will be a racial minority pontiff; and although I'd never tell him this, I rather enjoy imagining what if I'm offering some encouragement at least to a future pope? It could happen! Since it's also likely that he'll be alive and probably ordained when I die, he's promised to say Mass for me and even bless my grave if he's assigned anywhere near it, and if that proves impossible by that time he should be able to send a friend from closer by to do the job.
And the few but rotten nasty people at our local mission who make it completely impossible for me to attend Mass there will just have to live with the fact that I can lead as Catholic a life as possible despite their interference. Well, actually they won't ever know in this life because I won't tell them, and when I'm gone it will be too late. Just between this DU group and me, I like to wonder if by the time this young man earns his spurs so to speak, the church might even allow confession by Skype under extraordinary conditions. What do you think?
No Vested Interest
(5,164 posts)Run it by Francis and he might put it on his long-term to-do list.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)I had no idea how that notion might be received. I like it and it MIGHT benefit someone else besides me, although I don't know that either.
Besides all the other garbage that went on, that last diocesan priest even accused me of lying to him at confession. I never so much as took communion if I couldn't control my reactions to the provokers. I didn't even tell him why I was still angry with someone until he asked me, and I never divulged the name. Well, that would've been unnecessary because he already knew, it was such a big stink.
So while I'm at it, I'll confess here that the very first thing I will have to say next time regardless of the situation: "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been at least 5 years (or 8 or 10 or 15....) since my last confession...." I really miss it. Not to mention I also miss the old-fashioned confessionals where things were conducted in a formal enough manner that you felt more like something had actually happened. This stuff about sitting face to face and just having a normal conversation doesn't suit me at all. If I wanted a regular conversation, I'd call up a friend or visit them for a little face time. Modern casual forms do an injustice to everyone and everything considered.
No Vested Interest
(5,164 posts)incomprehensible some day in the future - we can't really predict where technology will take humanity in the next fifty years or so.
So I'm saying it's possible, with half tongue in cheek.
OTOH , I believe Francis did say, fairly recently, that married clergy was something he'd take a look at sometime in the future, so, who knows, lots of things are possible.
RE confession (or penance) itself - I try for about once a year. I'm too old to have much of consequence to confess, except some bad habits which I'm unlikely to change at this age, and I'm beyond beating myself up on that account. I don't mind the face-to-face; can't kneel in the old-fashioned style confessionals due to knee replacements. I was confessing on an annual retreat for a few years, but now the retreat has been cancelled due to lower attendance. So I'll just fit it in when I can.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)God looks on our hearts and knows our circumstances better than anyone else could.
If anyone had ever told me I'd find such a xenophobic RC congregation anywhere in my life, I'd have laughed at them. Until I moved here anyway. Funny thing is, among the ones who eventually made it impossible for me to remain, they consider me a heretic and therefore not really Catholic at all. But their rejection only steeled my resolve to practice my faith as best I can, when and where I can. Who knows, maybe it was my ultimate test. At the very least, I feel reaffirmed in what I AM, and confidence that it doesn't depend on anyone else's permission.
If they hated my saying good things about Jesuits and Dorothy Day, I seriously doubt they appreciate Pope Francis much either. When the one who considers herself the lay head hen dies, I'll show up again if I'm still able to walk that far. At least for holy days of obligation. The current priest is a sweet guy from Thailand, I think; he might be willing to at least observe old forms of confession for my sake. And not accuse me of lying to him. You know how such a charge hurts even when it's patently false.
No Vested Interest
(5,164 posts)Take comfort in the knowledge that Christ was falsely accused and suffered for it.
Cardinal Bernadin, who was the archbishop of my diocese before being appointed to Chicago, was accused of sexual perversions by a man who later recanted. I always felt extreme sympathy for him.
And, as we have discovered, there have been many false imprisonments, and even executions, of innocent persons under our imperfect judicial system.
So consider yourself in good company, Irish ayes, re the false accusation of lying.