Letter from My Daughter* to: The Pope
*the first of a periodical series of letters from my daughter to various folks. Everyone knows my daughter has an incredibly impressive vocabulary, but she's only 18 months old. So these letters are obviously on behalf of her. What I would hope she would say if she was able to do this herself.
Dear Pope Benedict XVI,
Just wanted to let you know you're letting a lot of good ones get away.
I am Catholic. Bred from a long line decent, good Catholic immigrant families, including the older generations who still go to mass every week; who believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit; who believe in the power of prayer and saints and miracles. I was baptized into the Catholic Church because while they are not really practicing or letter-perfect Catholics, Mommy and Daddy credited their Catholic upbringings with providing moral guidance and respect for tradition and elders. They wanted me to have a similar spiritual compass as I grow up. They had good intentions of at least considering whether or not to actively re-join the faith when I was old enough to sit still during a mass, and start to understand what was going on around me.
I saw a t-shirt last week that said "Christianity isn't for Sissies". I know it isn't supposed to be easy, so I guess that's an OK thing to say... but couldn't you make it even a tiny bit easier for people to be Catholic?
Let's be honest. If there is a God, do you think he is up in Heaven slapping a high five with the saints and angels while you do things like this? Or this? Or this? On the day of judgement will I be judged on whether or not I made it to every Mass, gave money to the Church, and supported all of your whacked Vatican laws?
No thanks. I will take what was good about Catholicism and leave the rest. I will honor my mother and father. I will love freely and openly all of my fellow citizens of the world regardless of race, religion, creed, gender or sexual orientation. I will fight for rights for all human beings everywhere. I will stick up for the little guy, and give generously to those in greater need than myself. And when I choose to have family of my own, I will provide them with this same groundwork.
I know you are only one man in a long line of men to hold this position. And I know that you cannot change thousands of years of church doctrine overnight. But you could have put up a signal that change was possible. Instead you are continuing to foster a powerful religious community that values discrimination over inclusion, hatred for some over love for all, and ignorance over mutual understanding.
I am youth. I was the future of the Catholic Church. And, your Holiness, you just blew it.
-- MRK
Dear Pope Benedict XVI,
Just wanted to let you know you're letting a lot of good ones get away.
I am Catholic. Bred from a long line decent, good Catholic immigrant families, including the older generations who still go to mass every week; who believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit; who believe in the power of prayer and saints and miracles. I was baptized into the Catholic Church because while they are not really practicing or letter-perfect Catholics, Mommy and Daddy credited their Catholic upbringings with providing moral guidance and respect for tradition and elders. They wanted me to have a similar spiritual compass as I grow up. They had good intentions of at least considering whether or not to actively re-join the faith when I was old enough to sit still during a mass, and start to understand what was going on around me.
I saw a t-shirt last week that said "Christianity isn't for Sissies". I know it isn't supposed to be easy, so I guess that's an OK thing to say... but couldn't you make it even a tiny bit easier for people to be Catholic?
Let's be honest. If there is a God, do you think he is up in Heaven slapping a high five with the saints and angels while you do things like this? Or this? Or this? On the day of judgement will I be judged on whether or not I made it to every Mass, gave money to the Church, and supported all of your whacked Vatican laws?
No thanks. I will take what was good about Catholicism and leave the rest. I will honor my mother and father. I will love freely and openly all of my fellow citizens of the world regardless of race, religion, creed, gender or sexual orientation. I will fight for rights for all human beings everywhere. I will stick up for the little guy, and give generously to those in greater need than myself. And when I choose to have family of my own, I will provide them with this same groundwork.
I know you are only one man in a long line of men to hold this position. And I know that you cannot change thousands of years of church doctrine overnight. But you could have put up a signal that change was possible. Instead you are continuing to foster a powerful religious community that values discrimination over inclusion, hatred for some over love for all, and ignorance over mutual understanding.
I am youth. I was the future of the Catholic Church. And, your Holiness, you just blew it.
-- MRK
posted by Martha Who? | 2:29 PM
4 Comments:
Think the Catholic Church blew it a pretty long time ago, say, oh, around the time of the Inquisition...
You write well. It's refreshing.
So am I really the only person in the U.S. who isn't blogging. I mean how many times a day can one man write ennui? Drop me a line, it's been too long.
Craig
Ring-a-ding ding! Your chillun's vocab and mastery of invective rock me like a hurricane (lamp). Would you put that on official letterhead and really send that off to Joey Ratz? 'Twould be trez hot.
Amen.
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