My father, sentimental Irishman that he was, kept his Royal Air Force paybook from World War II. And he would chuckle as he pointed out the space for Religion, was which filled in “R.C.” (Roman Catholic)… “Retired Catholic, more like it!”
My old Army dog tags were also stamped “R.C.” – to ensure that they would know whether to call a priest or a rabbi if I ever ended up in a body bag…
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As you’d expect, the Catholic Church was a major part of my life in my formative years – I was even an altar boy for a time.
As the Jesuits say: Give us a child for the first seven years of its life and it will be a Catholic for the rest. I was given catechism by Carmelite priests, so who knows?
However, somewhere along the way, I retired.
Perhaps it was because I found it difficult to reconcile some of the Church’s views on issues like abortion and living in sin.
I will never forget a conversation along those lines on a Sunday morning, in bed with my then Irish girlfriend… also raised Catholic.
We were the hat-trick of sinners: Not going to church, “having relations” and, perhaps worst of all, using contraception. I still cannot understand why you should burn in hell for preventing unwanted pregnancy.
Although I personally would not like to have had a child of mine aborted, I respect that it is a woman’s right to decide.
Perhaps because my early years were influenced by Carmelite priests – sometimes referred to as the “hippies” of the Catholic Church – I have always seen it, even with the social taboos imposed by The Vatican, to be a “live-and-let-live” institution, accepting a wide variety of people into its bosom.
Don’t get me wrong, Catholics – especially the Irish ones, who could write the manual on the subject – can be judgmental, but they don’t slavishly interpret and apply the words of the Bible in their most literal sense. That book is more of a guide to living than a set of hard and fast rules.
I was quite intrigued then, to see the inter-action between Donald J Trump – who believes, as do many of his followers, that he is the new Messiah – and Pope Leo.
The Pontiff is an American but if Trump hoped this would soften his approach on the US President’s destructive war in the Middle East, he was mistaken.
Leo didn’t mince his words when he slated all the world’s warmongers – and Trump was instantly offended, promising to investigate the Catholic Church. Trump’s altar boy, JD Vance, advised the pope not to pronounce on matters of theology. You cannot make this up.
Retired Catholic that I may be, I think it is beyond time that Christians started standing up to Trump who has begun another crusade against Iran, which fuels this Islamophobia of his rightwing Evangelical Christian supporters.
Trump and the “Bible punchers” – as my father would call them- who support him need to revisit the Second Commandment: Love thy neighbour as thyself.
And if that doesn’t work, they should look up the tale of Jimmy Swaggart. The Evangelical firebrand had slagged off the Catholic Church in “crusades” across South America in the late ’80s, attempting to lure people away from Rome’s Gospel.
Not long afterwards, he was bust consorting with prostitutes. Hookers and hymns don’t mix and his behaviour eventually torpedoed his ministry.
Pay attention, Donald J: be careful messing with an institution which has powerful friends higher up…