Can we have a positive thread about Catholicism?

[PadgettsDream]

There is currently a thread running where there is a lot of criticism of the Catholic Church which is in many cases fair enough and it needs to be discussed but that thread in my opinion often strays into outright anti-Catholic sentiment and even bigotry against Catholics and Catholicism in general.

So I wonder if anyone would like a space to talk about the positives of the Church? I myself was raised Catholic, went to a convent School and it was wonderful really. I did not have any bad experiences and the Church has always been a source of strength and comfort for me. It doesn't dominate my life, I'm not brainwashed by it but its been an important foundation for me and I am thankful for it. In my own family history the Church stepped in and helped when nobody else would.

Any other positive stories?

@Blubbled

As for me not allowing SSA people to fall in love and have children, I don't have that power and I don't try to stop them.

I think what people struggle with is that in your ideal world, you would specifically choose for gay people not to exist, and / or for them not to have intimate relationships and be parents.

Can you see from the outside that having a world without gay people as your ideal does feel hateful, hurtful and harmful to people who don't share your faith?

I'm asking this respectfully as I feel often people of faith are immediately defensive don't seem to be willing or able to try to understand people's reactions to such beliefs.

You don't hate gay people, you just think they're disordered and akin to gangsters and corruption officials. Riiiight.

And some Catholics do try to stop people from being gay. @porridgeisbae had a whole thread about it.

So you are going round threads I'm on to flame me, when you're not even Catholic so have no other reason than that to find this thread.

And some Catholics do try to stop people from being gay.

I am a Christian and so I try and follow the Christian holy book, the Bible. As someone who was bi, obviously I'd love the bible to be more laissez-faire on that. But unfortunately it very clearly isn't.

As someone who was bi

I thought you said you "were" gay? Or does your sexuality change as often as your religion?

Also AFAIK this is the only thread we're both one, other than the goady homophobic one you started that has mysteriously disappeared.

Apparently the answer on MN is "no" we can't have a positive thread on Catholicism. There is never a time when devout Catholics can talk to each other without people who are strongly anti-Catholic coming along and completely upending the thread. I have never witnessed this being acceptable with other world religions on MN.

Well said. I'm a devout Catholic too and agree with you.

You mean a place where people can spot homophobia unchallenged?

I've gone off Catholicism because of the pope. It gives the lie to it all how he's making it up as he likes. For instance the Mary thing, I knew was unbiblical but I overlooked as I thought it's their tradition but that now they'd mostly stopped adding/changing stuff. But with this guy, it's clear they're still doing it. And that highlights the unbiblicalness of some of the rest of it.

You mean a place where people can spot homophobia unchallenged?

So homophobic is the institution, that the Catholic church maybe has more people with same sex attraction in positions of power than any other not explicitly LGB org.

@porridgeisbae
Can I ask why you didn’t start your own thread about this opinion?
What you’ve voiced is your own belief, but it’s not relevant to this thread

I also agree that mumsnet isn’t interested in being fair to Catholics. I complained a while back that someone had made a comment that was rude about the RC Church. Basically mumsnet didn’t see the problem. They couldn’t understand that I was offended and upset as a RC person.

I have enjoyed dipping into this thread from time to time

Yes, this isn't the place to dispute Catholicism or discuss why you're not Catholic. Feel free to start your own thread to do that. The OPs intention and theme was for practicing Catholics to talk to each other. So for that reason I will only be responding to those who are posting in good faith with the intention of this thread.

That's not surprising, you seem to change religion once a year.

Went to a catholic school. One of the real strengths of the Catholic Church is its ritual -missing in so many more modern Christian churches. Ritual is fundamental in society, The Reformation really started squeezing this out of society.

I agree @Kdtym10 and with it a community gathering together. Other than sport and concerts/theatre etc which are pastimes you buy tickets for, its very rare that people even gather regularly with members of their community in any way; especially with people of a range of ages and backgrounds. Catholic congregations are generally diverse.

I agree. Whilst the Catholic doctrine isn’t for me, I think the community at its best something that is missing in society today. There is a lot to be said in the frequent shared ritual, shared understanding and beliefs across generations. Rituals are so important-they’ve been designed over long periods and trigger often imperceptible changes in a person. The art that used to exist in all churches, the music, the communal chanting all positively impacts a person. There’s much I personally disagree with in its exoteric theology. But for me thats most religious doctrine. If religion is your thing, in the Western religious tradition the Catholic Church does this really well and far. Far better than many others.

Source?

I do not know a lot about Catholicism other than that expression of church is headed by the Pope. One of my best friends is a Catholic and we share Jesus and prayer. I do rather like the idea of confession - God already knows, but it must be very powerful to say out loud to another human being about the darkest recesses of our hearts and minds.

Once upon a time I was at the Vatican when the Pope did an appearance in the 'pope-mobile' - at the time I wasn't a Christian but I can remember the wonderful atmosphere and smiling at nuns who were singing with happiness.

Not really, I was a pagan for 10 years, a chaos magickian for a few years, and a Theistic Satanist for 16 years.

I kind of agree with the Pope on that issue now, but he's made me go off the Mary bit, because that's unbiblical too.

I have deconstructed a few of my opinions on the Bible- so far these are women having to virtually always shag their husbands on demand, and vice versa.

Divorce only being for very rare reasons, and unless they get an annulment, and divorcees without an annulment mainly having to be single for life.

The bit about people who are exclusively same sex attracted having to be single for life. That seems a bit harsh to me. I'm attracted to both sexes so I can mostly just decide to focus on the het bit, but they can't do that.

I might go back to Catholicism but I'd have to not do the Mary bits in the Mass etc and ask them not to give me that in Confession :) And they might not like that.

Whilst you can never know how many priests and those in religious orders are attracted to the same sex, it would not surprise me if other than the arts, it does have a higher proportion than average. I think that certainly before the 1980s some men became priests because no-one would question why they did not wish to marry if they did.

For those who are anti-Catholic or would like to debate/discuss/critique the theology, teaching and rituals of the Church please start your own thread.
As frequently mentioned by practicing Catholics on this thread, this thread was not created for that purpose.
Thank you.

I have A Saint A Day book, it's aimed at children, but it's a lovely book to read everyday and find out more about Saints that I didn't know. Today's Saint is St Fabian. One of the things that I want to do this year is read more about people of faith, so this is a great introduction to those people.