Monday, May 11, 2009

More Hypocracy by Catholic Church

Today, two priests visited suspected Nazi Guard John Demjanjuk, who is accused by the German government of assisting in the murder of 29,000 Jews and is being deported by the U.S government.  Yet,  the Catholic Church, represented by Bishop John D'Arcy and the Cardinal Newman Society are protesting the guest speaker appearance of President Obama at Notre Dame University, because of his view on abortion.  Bishop D'Arcy is planning on boycotting the event in protest.  It makes me wonder if the Catholic Church still harbors animosity toward Jews since it is offended by the appearance of  the President of the U.S. because he has a different opinion or belief than that of the church, but consoles and has no problem being in the presence of a likely, mass murderer, of thousands of Jews. 

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Missing Mass, a Mortal Sin....Still? How About A New Inquisition Too!

My son's stepdaughter just had her First Communion on Sunday. My son and his wife don't attend Mass as far as I know, and I began to wonder if the Catholic Church still considered missing Mass a mortal sin. According to the sites I've googled, apparently it does. Now I don't think his stepdaughter will be attending Mass on her own and I seriously doubt her parents will start attending services. Anyway, I began to think, for this one reason alone, I don't know how anyone can seriously follow a Church that is still stuck in the Middle Ages.

I was a Catholic until I began to think for myself and not allow the Church to govern my relationship to God. This was a gradual awakening. One of the things that led to my awakening was the fact that I found myself more compassionate than the "God" of the Catholic church. God "sent" people to Hell because they ate meat on Friday, or missed Sunday Mass, hand in hand with murderers, etc. How could I be more compassionate than God was. God is nothing but compassion and love. We are His creation and our real self embodies all that God is. God is everywhere. The very ground on which we walk is holy. There is no place that God isn't. In reality, we can't be separate from God. We might think we are separate, because we were taught that by the Church, but where ever we are, God is. So, how can attending church on Sunday or not attending have anything to do with sin. I don't know for a fact, but I suspect the Church declared attending Mass a mortal sin in order to "keep the troops in line" and to continue to finance Church operations.

I also found my spiritual beliefs more in line with the teachings of Jesus than that of the Church. A spiritual master once said Jesus was killed twice. First by the Jews, but only his body was destroyed. It did little damage. The second more damaging killing occured in Rome.

P.S. If the church ever finds it's way out of the Middle Ages and decides that missing Mass is no longer a mortal sin, than what happens to all of the souls who went to Hell for it? Do they get a free pass out?