The one thing they say about Catholics is: They'll take you as soon as you're warm

Religion, and my own personal belief history, are not something that will come up often on this blog (except when it interferes in politics) but the final impetus for me to get back into blogging was wanting to say something about the Resignation d'Ratzinger.

I was raised Catholic, but probably not in the way you think.  The church I attended was exceedingly liberal, openly welcoming LGBT members, it was light on guilt and heavy on social justice.  We learned about the Jesus who despised and pitied the rich, the Pharisees and Hypocrites for their temporal power/reward.  The Jesus I was taught cared for the poor, the outcast, the sick and the different.  To this day I can't understand those Christians who thump the Bible without seeming to have read it (well the New Testament anyway, the Old Testament is chock-full of their brand of small-minded hate).

In my waning years of the last Millennium, when I was young, I felt the same way about the Church as I did about the Democratic Party, if all the good people (people like me of course) left, then these institutions wouldn't change and become what they should be.  So, I stayed for long after I knew the Church wasn't for me.  I stayed because of Cardinal Newman and Helder Camara.   I stayed because I wanted the whole Church to be like that Community I had.

The Pedophilia scandals were the last straw for my mother.  A life-long Catholic who had been front and center in our community helping run the church and giving homilies.  For me, the last step was Cardinal Joesph Ratzinger, the embodiment of all I hated about the Church becoming Pope.  Now, he is leaving and all the worst criticisms and complaints about the Church have only been reinforced.

I have grown immeasurably in my own spirituality since I left the church, but seeing how far it's fallen is sad.  It's like returning to your hometown and finding your first love to be a complete mess.  The Catholic Church has become that trailer-park-meth-addict-ex.  You can't believe they've fallen so far and you feel saddened by the transformation.  Now, in the blush of first romance I missed many of the warning signs of what was to come and even seeing her break up with that abusive dealer boyfriend isn't enough to staunch the pity of what might have been.  I've moved on and you've moved back, become twisted and bitter about a world that is leaving you behind.  I'm glad I dodged that bullet, but I'll always have feelings for you.  It's not me, it's you.