The Gripes of Wrath – World Youth Day
July 15th 2008 04:55
'ZOOM IN! ZOOM IN DAMMIT! WHY WON'T YOU ZOOM!??!'
A lot of my indecision stems from being raised Catholic and then spending a lot of my adolescence hanging around Maronite youth. At high school it was cool to be Catholic. But my all-girls-private-school-Cath olic-upbringing led me to believe that being Catholic was the right way. This way we got the best of both worlds. In touch with the world and reality, our Catholicism was one of social justice. Our founder was a woman who defied the church and was excommunicated as a result. Our Catholicism was wholly feminist and radical. Senior girls handed out Communion to their fellow students. Students read out homilies. Students organised liturgy. In the classrooms we studied women in the Church and women in other religions.
We studied the Bible differently, interpreted things differently so that it made sense to young people today. I watched the most disbelieving come to some sort of compromise in those classrooms. Religion wasn’t mocked or discriminated against. Cynics existed but they debated rationally and there was always room for more debate and questioning. No one had all the answers but that was okay because the overall answer was this hybrid spirituality that embraced other religions and embraced reality.
Enter university. Suddenly, no one gives a toss about your ideologies and beliefs. One professor gives a convincing lecture and the next thing I know I’m telling my radical Christian boyfriend that I’m an Atheist. The shock horror on his face leads me to change this statement to a declaration of Agnosticism.
Three years later. World Youth Day is upon us and I have 20 years of religion behind me. I have lists and lists of friends on Facebook who are excited and eager to meet an old man who is trying to connect with them. I’ve met some foreign pilgrims that I really loved hanging out with. I want to vent my true feelings about why World Youth Day feels like a farce but I can’t bring myself to do so. There are all these people I don’t want to let down, there’s the past gnawing at my conscience and there’s the fact that my ex boyfriend sounded so happy on the phone just now. I could hear people screaming with joy and elation. I told him to have fun.
Not going is my protest and it’s a pretty loud statement too. No one has asked me why I’m not going which is a relief, but I keep expecting someone to pick up on it. Sheree – the greatest defender of religious freedom and practise?
But what I loved most about my Catholic upbringing was the social awareness. Years have passed and little has changed on the social justice front. Condoms and the Catholic Church. Aids in Africa. Women’s rights. Abuse in the Catholic Church. Censorship. These are all important issues that we can’t ignore. The money being poured into World Youth Day could have been used to perform a few Jesus like miracles in the Middle East or in developing nations in Africa and South America. The affluent can celebrate, but who benefits in the long run?
Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way however. What if World Youth Day was the turning point? Isn’t it plausible that things could change? The trick is not to stop the Catholics embracing their faith. It’s to let them be festive and merry in the hope that such fervour will spread and change old mentalities. If the youth can’t do it, then who can?
A girl raised her hand in class and asked my favourite teacher that if things are so bad with the Catholic Church then why don’t we just leave?
My favourite teacher responded ‘but then who will remain to fix the Catholic Church? If you believe strongly in something, it is better to stay and fight’.
I guess it’s time to swallow my pride, put my cynical hat on the rack, get off the fence and admit that maybe World Youth Day isn’t such a bad thing after all.
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Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
Comment by Sheree
Cliche Murder
I guess you could do a google search. But it's when the Pope comes to town and the pilgrims follow. Oh and it's for young people!
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
That might explain why I don't know these things.
~Dianna
Comment by Michaeljustwants to say one thing
As the loudest person I know on facebook, it figures you'd have a blog. Anyway, you're totally soft on religion. Why reform Catholicism - what's wrong with abolishing it? People used to worship Zeus, Osiris (etc etc), and insisted that these primitive superstitions had such an important role in morality (keeping the rabble in line with irrational, unfounded beliefs) - yet somehow the world didn't end with these beliefs.
The sad thing about your selling out your reason, is that you did it for a *guy*. What kind of free thinking - and lets not forget the many feminists who'd weep over this - is that? I'm totally kicking you out of my troublemakers club, and also Bertrand Russell appreciators. Next thing you'll be waving flags being patriotic. shame shame shame.
Michael