Father Roger Schmidt

[dsc]

the antidote to the Catholic heirarchy. There have been several threads about the hypocritical Catholic heirarchy as of late, and to more than some extent, they have been deserved. Who is Father Schmidt? He was the parish priest of Laramie Wyoming. In the Laramie Project he is extensively interviewed. There are many things the Catholic faith allows one to say about homosexuals. Love the sin and hate the sinner leaves alot of wiggle room. He could have been like the Baptist minister who "hope Matthew repented and reflected on his sinful lifestyle". But instead he held a candlelight vigil for Matthew and said that everytime a gay man is called a fag or a lesbian is called a dyke it is violence.

My point is that we often forget that the Catholic faith and many Catholic priests far from being the problem are part of the solution. It may strike some of the younger posters as odd but the national organization of Catholic bishops used to be one of the stronger critics of Ronald Reagan. Under the leadership of Bishop Mahony, who was the Bishop of the Youngstown Ohio dioces, routinely excoriated the President for his heartless policies.

The Catholic faith isn't the problem. The current Catholic heirarchy is. We shouldn't forget that. People like Roger Schmidt remind us of that.

[dsc]

1. kick

[dsc]

2. kick

[nemo137]

3. my mom likes to go off on tangents about that.

"The Catholic faith isn't the problem. The current Catholic heirarchy is."

She belives that whole heartedly. Thanks for posting that.

[jpgray]

4. The Catholic faith IS the Catholic hierarchy

The Pope and his officers literally mete out church policy. Now, the CHRISTIAN faith is not the Catholic hierarchy--far from it, actually.

[nini]

6. yes and no

it took me months to find the right parish because of the differences in the approaches and how strictly things such as birth control were pushed. This is an odd thing about the Church -even within itself there are varying degrees of following the heirarchy to a 'T'.


But the point here is the real Catholics who truly get it are the ones trying to fix things.

[jpgray]

7. There are 'good' churches/parishes, yes

But officially, the hierarchy is the church.

[nini]

8. agreed.. but they too are only human

:-) and I use my own heart and soul to interpret things.

When it comes to points of the faith itself I'm with them. When they try to decide what is moral based along those beliefs as they interpret them, and if I don't agree with them I deal with that within myself.

Every Catholic I know is like this, I'm sure the others think I'll burn in hell - maybe but I'm sure they'll be my neighbors :-)

[jpgray]

9. Hell, almost every pope will be down there with us

If the Bible has anything to say about it, that is. I'm a lapsed Catholic myself. :hi: I did have the benefit of a great church with a 'hip priest'.

[nini]

10. I actually returned about 3 years ago.

after about 20 years of not going. I always felt 'spiritual' but got the urge to go back out of the blue. It took me almost a year to find the right parish. Father Jose won! He's a young, funny, liberal priest who has become my friend. He likes tequila shots just like me. :P

So finding this church got me back in. EVerytime I try a different parish I can't stand it. I just sit there and look at how weird I think everyone is - haha. not quite what is expected in that situation

:hi:

[Cleita]

5. I can agree with you on this. There are many good Catholic

clergy, who practice charity and who believe in good works and helping the underclasses including gays. Unfortunately the structure of the political church doesn't allow for the good guys to rise to the top.