Catholic education began in Grade One and continued into Grade Two when we would make our first communions. By the age of six, I was a missionary in the making. Our souls were like white tablecloths, stained in the corner by Adam and Eve’s original sin, but otherwise pristine at birth. Venial sins were like stains that Tide could remove in the laundry, through confession, penance and absolution. Mortal sins were much harder to scrub out, but salvageable nevertheless by sincere contrition.
Yes, delightful writing, but about a terrible experience. A terrible doctrine, as it was interpreted for you. My own distress, about my Protestant mother, was dispelled within a year or so by a different interpretation: "Outside the Church there is no salvation," BUT not so many people were outside the Church. Three kinds of baptism counted as entering the Church: baptism of water, baptism of blood (martyrs), and baptism of desire: Those who were doing the best as far as they knew, who wanted to do the right thing.
I've also learned that the Baltimore Catechism of our childhood was considered heterodox by the Vatican. The Church is less monolithic than it seems.
Interesting to learn that about the Baltimore Catechism. I was taught as John was—non Catholics wouldn’t make it to heaven. Limbo was for unbapitized babies. Three venial sins added up to a mortal sin. Even as a child I was a lapsed Catholic.
As a 76-year-old Catholic, my own boyhood was in the 1950s with the Baltimore Catechism and under the Vicar of Christ, Pius XII, and the Tridentine Mass, at the end of each Mass, where the First Chapter of the Gospel of the Evangelist John was recited -- In the Beginning was the Word, and without the Word was not anything made that was made, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So, I KNOW about "only-Catholics" and the hope for a few exceptions among people you learn to love. Fortunately, as one gets older, that rubric gets larger and larger. We love more and more, deeper, and more people, and with more insight, and with more delight in diversity.
I attend Mass regularly and take of the Body and Blood of Christ, while my views of the almost 15-billion-year-old cosmos after the Big Bang (der Urknall) and evolution over all that time, these views have much that is compatible with Atheism, which my beliefs resemble far more than they do any literal Christianity, though I believe the Sacrament is the Body and Blood of Christ, that Mary is the Mother of God, but that "God does not exist." (If there is no Time in God, God does not come to be, since that would be past time; nor does God exist for a Moment, since that is time, nor does he continue to Exist or cease to be . . .)
If we can give a definition, it is inevitably a creature of our mind and only that. Period.
If we cannot define, then that sounds more like atheism or agnosticism.
There is no contradiction here.
But your story is very deeply moving and from the heart, and makes you as a child quite lovable, and communicates the mildness and humor of a Dad who seems to have had a lot of love for you in his heart.
I love the child's sense of justice and fair play depicted in this lovely piece. Even as a 10-year -old Catholic, I questioned (although not out loud) why billions of non-Catholics were doomed to Hell.
Absolutely delightful writing. I especially enjoyed the lemonade and cold roast chicken in Heaven. I was stunned when I worked at Hospice that there was so much distance and mistrust between Catholics and Protestants. As a Jew, I thought only I was on the outside.
I’m all smiles reading your piece today. Your story is ours. Our daughter, a gifted athlete on a swimming scholarship was attending Providene College, a very Catholic, liberal arts school. Her time there was joyous with new friends, and all the rest that goes with going away to university. One compulsary course for all students was “Family Religion” taught by a Dominican Friar.
Midway first year we got the call….she was laughing. At her class that day, the priest was lecturing on just your point. She the daughter of an Anglican father and Jewish mother, had been told in no uncertain terms that “there was no room in heaven” for the likes of her, her brother and her parents. Unlike you - this prompted no worries, only laughter. She had already determined she had no interest in heading to his heaven!! Wherever we all do end up - as long as we’re together in the same place - that will be heaven !
Yes, delightful writing, but about a terrible experience. A terrible doctrine, as it was interpreted for you. My own distress, about my Protestant mother, was dispelled within a year or so by a different interpretation: "Outside the Church there is no salvation," BUT not so many people were outside the Church. Three kinds of baptism counted as entering the Church: baptism of water, baptism of blood (martyrs), and baptism of desire: Those who were doing the best as far as they knew, who wanted to do the right thing.
I've also learned that the Baltimore Catechism of our childhood was considered heterodox by the Vatican. The Church is less monolithic than it seems.
Interesting to learn that about the Baltimore Catechism. I was taught as John was—non Catholics wouldn’t make it to heaven. Limbo was for unbapitized babies. Three venial sins added up to a mortal sin. Even as a child I was a lapsed Catholic.
You addressed several eternal conflict wonderfully. Is there a God? And if there is, does he(she?) play favorites. Delightful.
John Aylen: Sorry, very sorry for your losses.
As a 76-year-old Catholic, my own boyhood was in the 1950s with the Baltimore Catechism and under the Vicar of Christ, Pius XII, and the Tridentine Mass, at the end of each Mass, where the First Chapter of the Gospel of the Evangelist John was recited -- In the Beginning was the Word, and without the Word was not anything made that was made, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So, I KNOW about "only-Catholics" and the hope for a few exceptions among people you learn to love. Fortunately, as one gets older, that rubric gets larger and larger. We love more and more, deeper, and more people, and with more insight, and with more delight in diversity.
I attend Mass regularly and take of the Body and Blood of Christ, while my views of the almost 15-billion-year-old cosmos after the Big Bang (der Urknall) and evolution over all that time, these views have much that is compatible with Atheism, which my beliefs resemble far more than they do any literal Christianity, though I believe the Sacrament is the Body and Blood of Christ, that Mary is the Mother of God, but that "God does not exist." (If there is no Time in God, God does not come to be, since that would be past time; nor does God exist for a Moment, since that is time, nor does he continue to Exist or cease to be . . .)
If we can give a definition, it is inevitably a creature of our mind and only that. Period.
If we cannot define, then that sounds more like atheism or agnosticism.
There is no contradiction here.
But your story is very deeply moving and from the heart, and makes you as a child quite lovable, and communicates the mildness and humor of a Dad who seems to have had a lot of love for you in his heart.
I love the child's sense of justice and fair play depicted in this lovely piece. Even as a 10-year -old Catholic, I questioned (although not out loud) why billions of non-Catholics were doomed to Hell.
Dad doing what good dads do best: ceding authority to mom. Loved it.
Ask your mother. Wise words.
Absolutely delightful writing. I especially enjoyed the lemonade and cold roast chicken in Heaven. I was stunned when I worked at Hospice that there was so much distance and mistrust between Catholics and Protestants. As a Jew, I thought only I was on the outside.
I’m all smiles reading your piece today. Your story is ours. Our daughter, a gifted athlete on a swimming scholarship was attending Providene College, a very Catholic, liberal arts school. Her time there was joyous with new friends, and all the rest that goes with going away to university. One compulsary course for all students was “Family Religion” taught by a Dominican Friar.
Midway first year we got the call….she was laughing. At her class that day, the priest was lecturing on just your point. She the daughter of an Anglican father and Jewish mother, had been told in no uncertain terms that “there was no room in heaven” for the likes of her, her brother and her parents. Unlike you - this prompted no worries, only laughter. She had already determined she had no interest in heading to his heaven!! Wherever we all do end up - as long as we’re together in the same place - that will be heaven !
Heaven filled with picnics - love this!