Holy Week

I was born and raised Roman Catholic, and by the time I became a young adult, I grew to love the ritual and tradition of Holy Week, culminating with Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

I am not longer a practicing Catholic, but most years, I am aware of Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter. This year, for some reason, Holy Week snuck up on me and I had no real awareness of it.  It was unsettling when I realized yesterday was Good Friday, and I took no real notice of it until my coworkers pointed it out to me.  I am not sure how I missed that.

I do not do much special for Easter, but I do like to note it.  I will.  Tomorrow. 

Outrage

I was raised Roman Catholic. Due to a series of choices I have made in my life, the Roman Catholic Church does not want me. I have never left God, although I have left the Roman Catholic Church.  Some friends of mine have encouraged me to join their Episcopal Church.  I have thought about it.  I am thrilled with Pope Francis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis, his call to service, and his openness in accepting some of the controversial parts of the Catholic Church. 

I am blessed, though.  I was an employee of the Catholic Family Services, Inc. for years, and had supporters on the board. These supporters convinced the Bishop of the Diocese of Lubbock, Plácido Rodriguez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pl%C3%A1cido_Rodriguez, to allow me to be on the board.  I am thrilled and honored that I have been able to serve this agency since 2011.

So, I think at heart, I am still aligned with the Roman Catholic Church.  So, when I heard of the death of Rev. Jacques Hamel http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/world/europe/jacques-hamel-85-a-beloved-french-priest-killed-in-his-church.html, I was outraged. I was sickened. I was appalled. And I had to wonder how could this happen.  That two men could enter his church during Mass and slit his throat.  I cannot imagine how people in France feel.  I mean, of all places where I would feel safe, it should be a church.  We now know that in today's world, a church is not sacred, as the shooting in the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_church_shooting demonstrated.  But how can this happen?  I cannot fathom this.  I just cannot.

I am saddened, sickened.

Father Hamel is truly a martyr. 

God bless him. God bless us all. And help us.

Christiains and Catholics

I work in a state prison.  Because freedom of religion is a constitutional right, religious services have to be offered in prison.  There is a Chaplaincy program which organizes that, but many of the services are provided by volunteers.

Recently, the Chaplain posted the new schedule for religious services:  They are on Saturday morning (which is not uncommon, because the volunteers who lead the services need to be available to provide Sunday services for their own parishes/congregations.)  The Christian service was first, and then the Catholic Mass. 

We talked about this notice this week in our staff meeting.  The general comment was that Catholics are Christians, aren't they? This reaction surprised me, because many people on our staff are or were Catholics at some time.  The comment was it should have been Protestant and Catholic. 

That is what I would have thought, in 1977 when I moved to West Texas from Western Massachusetts.  Where I grew up, we had Catholics, and we had Protestants.  And, we had Vatican II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vatican_Council, which taught us to think in terms of ecumenism, inclusiveness in religion, and eventually opened the doors for some other religions (Lutherans and Episcopalians, for example) to be invited to share in the bounty of the Mass and Communion with Catholics, and vice versa.

When I moved to West Texas, I quickly learned there was no such thing as a Protestant in West Texas.  There were Catholics, and Christians (it seemed the Episcopalians did not count!)  The Christians included the Baptists, the Assembly of God, the Church of Christ, the Methodists, the Lutherans, even the Episcopalians.  The Catholics seemed to be an entity by themselves.  This was so foreign to me, but became so "normal" to me.

I am so glad my coworkers are so liberal thinking that they do not accept that Catholic and  Christian are mutually exclusive.  Neither do I, but my reality is that as I have dealt with people in my professional and personal life, the general sentiment in West Texas is very much that:  Catholics and Christians are two different categories. That is so sad.