Sunday, May 17, 2009

Who Is a Real Catholic?

Who Is a Real Catholic?

David Gibson got me with the title. Then he made me nod in the affirmative and think about similar applications and questions of other religious groups as well.

Find below an excellent editorial which serves up religion, politics, sex, value clashes and all in very few words. The quandary of Catholicism in the U.S. is likely relevant to most religious groups though some of the particulars of their system of authority may be somewhat different.

"All you need to know to diagnose the state of the Catholic Church in America today is that Pope Benedict XVI -- who has a knack for ticking off Muslims and Jews -- spent the past week wandering the Middle East, yet Catholics here barely noticed. They were too busy fighting over Barack Obama's appearance as commencement speaker at Notre Dame or arguing about the fate of a popular Miami priest known as 'Father Oprah,' who was caught on camera sharing a seaside embrace with his girlfriend."

If you've been near any electronic media you've likely picked up on the above stories. If you are totally out of the loop it would be worth your time to Google the Notre Dame commencement brouhaha or the story of Father Cutié.

"A tabloid published shots of popular Cuban American priest Alberto Cutié -- a multimedia star among U.S. Hispanics -- in risqué poses on the beach with a woman who turns out to be his girlfriend of two years. Nothing draws media flies like a sex scandal, especially one involving a man of the cloth, but a funny thing happened on the way to Father Cutié's disgrace: He did not slink away in shame but instead proclaimed, with Luther-like dignity, that he wasn't worried what the hierarchy thought. 'What worries me most is how God views me. The institution, the church, is something else.'"

As I read the opinion article I couldn't help but wonder who defines Methodism today-- bishop, agency, clergy, or in fact laity? What are the most important things for religious people to be doing? to be saying? And how does the younger generation of clergy see itself in religious vocation?

Enjoy the article and let me know if you have any answers to my questions, or come up with some questions of your own.

Who Is a Real Catholic?

1 comment:

Randy said...

Hi, I am not a real catholic, but I have it in my head that the real catholics and real christians and real whatevers are the ones that are looking to experience god, know god, as oposed to those seeking to make god be what they think god is.