Tiu cxi artikolo en la loka jxurnalo interesis min hodiaux, cxar temas pri mia lernejo. Mi ne volas komenti pri la afero publike, cxar mi konas la dekinfanan familion; la plej maljuna knabino estas bona amikino de mia fratino. Post iom da sercxado mi trovis la blogon de la patrino. La pagxo, kiu rilatis al Clare Short, nun ne plu ekzistas. Tamen laux mi la blogo vizitindas… fakte tauxgaj vortoj mankas al mi, aparte cxar hodiaux mi estas tre malgxoja pro aliaj kialoj… sed kiam mi rigardis tiun blogon hodiaux posttagmeze, mi sciis sendube ke mi ne plu kapablis esti katolikino. Antaux du-tri jaroj, mi konsentis kun cxiuj tieaj opinioj. Hodiaux la tuta afero sxajnas al mi ridinda, fremda, freneza… Legu gxin kaj estu gxoja se vi neniam estis katolika!

The Goldfish lastatempe verkis interesan artikolon pri moraleco sen Dio. Laŭ mi ĝi certe legindas, ĉar ĝi enhavas bildon de belega blanka anaso Sed ankaŭ la temo estas tre interesa. Kiam mi parolas al katolikoj, tro ofte ŝajnas kvazaŭ ili kredas ke nur katolikoj kapablas esti moralaj - tio estas, eĉ protestantoj ne povas konduti morale, kaj certe nek anoj de pli malsamaj religioj, nek homoj kiuj kredas je nenio. Mi bone memoras ke ankaŭ kelkaj jaroj la ĉefa pastro en mia preĝejo klopodis instrui al ni per ŝerco ke ne nur katolikoj iros ĉielen. (more…)

My GCSE in Catholic RE was divided into two modules. The first module consisted of a detailed study of Mark’s Gospel, and the second was titled more ominously, Catholic Social Teaching. This mostly involved a valiant attempt on behalf of the religious staff to initiate us into “understanding” why we were not permitted to do pretty much anything fun we could think of. Our most infamous essay title ever involved explaining why contraception was a form of abortion. Prolife as I am, I nevertheless find that a virtually impossible argument to make, bearing in mind that this was ten years ago when the Morning After Pill was not really a concept which anyone was familiar with. But one of the things we covered in this course was Catholic feast days, and this obviously entailed a fair bit of time spent studying the feast of Easter; the most important festival in the whole calendar of the Church. One worksheet we were given really stood out for me; it listed alternative theories to the hypothesis that Jesus had risen from the dead. (more…)

Last night I did something I haven’t done for a very long time, and went to Confession. It was less due to a devout urge to confess, and more due to an intense desire not to upset my sister by not attending. I could see that my mother was considerably surprised by my presence which she clearly hadn’t expected, but part of me actually welcomed the opportunity to attend, because it gets me out of an increasingly difficult dilemma with which I have been wrestling; whether or not to go to communion on Sundays. (more…)

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and I ate a creme egg. That seems to me to be the height of secular decadence. The Catholic part of me is trying to convince the heathen part of me that it was just an unfortunate accident. The heathen part of me knows this isn’t strictly true and that halfway through the said crème egg I became consciously aware that it was in fact a day of fast and abstinence and I shouldn’t be eating it. At this point the Catholic part of me should have spat out the rest of the crème egg and put it in the bin. Unfortunately, both parts of me are rather partial to crème eggs, and this didn’t happen (more…)