For my entire life, I have found peace, hope, understanding, and forgiveness in the Catholic Church. Until today. I have never attended parishes that had overt political messages from pulpit. Sure, there were the occasional "we need to support politicians that will stand up for the sanctity of life" and "we are obliged to protect the lives of the unborn" homilies. I never had a problem with these messages, because it is no secret that the Catholic Church opposes abortion. To be honest, I oppose abortion as well, but I would never presume to shame a woman who had one or was thinking of getting one, and certainly do not think that a woman's choice to do what she wishes with her own body should ever be legislated away. I oppose abortion in the sense that men and women should be educated and given the tools to prevent unwanted pregnancy. I oppose abortion in the sense that no girl should be made to decide between an invasive medical procedure and being forced to carry a child that she cannot care for or does not want. No woman sets out with the intention of getting an abortion (or very few anyway). What a woman does with her body is between her and her god, and no 80 year old virgin should have the right to get between them.
Today in his homily, the priest read a gospel passage about the Jewish leaders lieing about Jesus, saying that he was demon possessed etc. I expected the typical "be courageous even when people mock and lie about you" homily. Instead, the priest begins by calling out Senators Reid and Schumer by name, accusing them of lieing about Planned Parenthood and facilitating the murder of babies. The priest parroted all of the republican lies about Planned Parenthood: 98% of their services are abortion, employees have been caught talking women into abortions that didn't want, that the majority of the funding for PP comes from taxpayer dollars, and that PP cooks their books to make it appear that federal money doesn't cover abortions. All lies that have been fully exposed.
So I sat there and listened. I looked around and could not believe that there was noone else in the church being made physically uncomfortable by what was being said. The righteous indignation that began to rise in me finally came to a head when the priest said that any person who calls themself a Catholic should be ashamed to support liars like Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer. No, Father. Catholics should be ashamed to support liars like John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, and Steve King who claim to care so much about blastulas that they are willing to throw the poor, disabled, and elderly under the bus for political points.
So I walked out. The first time in my life that I have ever been so angry at what was being said in a church that I chose to get up and leave. I will never be returning to that parish again. There are plenty of others to choose from where the priests do not make political tirades from the pulpit. I went 2 blocks down and went to Mass at another parish. The priest there talked about our moral responsibility to stand up to injustice. In my small way, walking out of the first parish this morning was my way to stand up to the injustice and outright lies being spewed from the pulpit there.
Jesus said blessed are the poor. Until some in the Catholic Church learn those words and begin to stand up for more than just foetuses, they will continue to lose credibility and moral authority. Luckily, there are more liberal parishes that do focus on Jesus' teachings of social justice. And those are the parishes that I will attend in the future.
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