LIKE!

Why don't you start your own religion or version of Christianity that gets everything right for once? (Serious question.) There are tons of branches of Christianity that don't do this. Why was it important to you to choose one of the bigoted ones? You say that you like "comin to a sacred table". There are tons of sects that do that and yet somehow don't hate the gays.

The election of Francis 1 is an attempt by the Catholic hierarchy to distact the public from focusing on sex scandals and child abuse. Suddenly we're hearing about the need to focus on "real issues" like poverty. Awwww, that is sooo nice. The church doesn't want to deal with its very real problems and is asking the world to forget about "the bad stuff" because, "Hey, poor kidz!" The same poor kids priests have been taking advantage of since the invention of power differentials. This new old man is just a change in packaging.

Thank you for this. As an de-converted Catholic, now staunch atheist, I spend a lot of time wondering how rational adults can accept the supernatural. Your description of needing wishful thinking in your life seems to explain it. However, I sincerely hope you can remain realistic about the basis of your beliefs -- a psychological need for wishful thinking -- and refrain from imposing those beliefs on anyone else.

"Trying to hope" is so perfect for how I feel too. Thanks for writing this. I'm not in the least religious, but wanting better leaders for those who are? All about that.

@3 Do you have any actual evidence for this, or was that borne from a need to shit on the Church?

No, that's too mean, I take that back. There's probably lots of reasons to believe that Francis will not address the elephant in the room, which absolutely needs to be done as quickly as possible.

Isn't it weird that it now feels kind of transgressively radical to come out as a Catholic?

If I was Francis, I'd beatify you, Ms Brown!

@1: I second that!

If you give a flying fuck about who the Catholics select as pope and you're not already one of the faithful you're trolling.

Just another super-feminist, queer, lefty Catholic named Rebecca popping in to say thanks for this piece. Love your choice of Julian-- mine's Peter.

@11: ...said the troll.

Stop me if I'm missing something:

You voluntarily join an organization whose official policies are that of bigotry, sexism, constant shame and guiltand Mafia-style coverups of child rape, say you're not gonna be "one of THOSE Catholics," compare it to being an American who is opposed to all the shitty things about America, for which we have little say in (I think I would've chosen to be born in Canada, or maybe not, it's hard to say), and then write an article about your hope for this new guy who is So Educated that he believes in all the same nonsense as all the other guys--except he slept outside that one time! He's humbler! He has college degrees and shit!

What makes this guy special again? An institution of old European men got together in some medieval costumery and decided he knows God best? Seriously, stop me if I'm wrong.

This Pope is NOT a liberal. (I was a Catholic Brother, and now worship in the Episcopal Church.) And I certainly don't expect him to go endorsing same-sex marriage! But if he can encourage folks to help others in need, that is all to the good! The Seattle Archdiocese has been one of the most liberal for the last 30 years that will not change. Liberal parishioners can find a home here.

There is an excellent story about an addict that gives a very haunting definition of hope that you might find interesting.

"Hope is a strange thing, a currency for people who know they are losing. The more familiar you are with hope, the less beautiful it becomes." -16 Years of Alcohol

I sometimes get this thing about victim-blaming and forgiveness. Yes, you want to move on with your life. No, you don't want to be pressured to do so by a faith, majority, that finds your grief unseemly. We all struggle with the idealization of perpetrators of violent acts, especially when we percieve that our emotional/physcial survival is dependent upon that goodness. Judgement is something we do all day long. You'd be a very strange person if you couldn't make judgement calls. And it turns out that a main edict of Chrstianity is to let "god" judge, which can really put a damper on justice.

As an aside, I'm always astonished that people continue to let their children near anyone "of the cloth." Priest, minister, preacher, rabbi, whichever, take your pick. Then as soon as their beloved child is molested, they grieve horribly in disbelief. How many Dan Savage "Pastor Watches" do there need to be?

Chiming in to agree with @1/15/16... Having grown up a heathen in Seattle with very dear friends in St. Joseph's parish, the contradictions (and the rewards of ceremony, and community, still) involved in being a liberal Catholic have been slowly revealed to me, starting when I was too little to understand I shouldn't take Communion when a guest at mass (and no one stopped me, bless them).

I am puzzled by the people who are up in arms that this pope is not more liberal. What did they expect? Last time I checked, Dan Savage, or bell hooks, or whoever, wasn't a cardinal, you know? Small steps in the papacy are better than more Prada loafers, especially within an institution as calcified as this one.

@20 I think they're up in arms because the author is a member of the institution in question. They're upset that the institution is horrible and regressive, and they're .. surprised? offended? ... that a smart, liberal person could stand with such an organization.

Consider if someone joined the KKK and wrote a piece talking about hope for the new Klan leaders. Of course comments would focus on the organization's many flaws. "What did they expect?" might still apply, but it wouldn't invalidate the criticism or the sense of offense that the Stranger even ran such a piece.

If you see these two examples as different, its because religion gets special, undeserved, reverence in our society. We've all been trained to give it more credence than it ever deserved. You wouldn't encourage us to be okay with "small steps" from the KKK. The Catholic Church, judged by its actions over millenia, should be held in lower esteem than the KKK. No kid gloves for those kid-fuckers.

@19 and @21 -- the latest stats are that 4% of Catholic priests have committed pedophilia. While it's still sad and shameful, it's more or less in line with other professions. It's doubtful there'll ever be a day when priests, rabbis, ministers, teachers, lawyers, janitors, etc. finally stop taking advantage of children, so the relentless onslaught of vitriol is a little displaced. The ACTUAL problem is the cover up perpetrated by church leaders and the ongoing lack of accountability for priest-abusers. This is an institutional failure and calls for reexamination of institutional safeguards. To claim the whole institution or the entire profession is inherently evil is a huge stretch.

What in the hell is a "Super-Femenist?"

@21, Yeah, I think the KKK analogy is a good one. By becoming a member, Rebecca does approve of the Church overall, at least enough to presumably tithe and act with deference towards collars. And from the sound of it, mostly just for the feel-goodery of Heaven and fiction and stuff.

@22, did I just hear you apologize for Catholic priest child rapists? You are one out of touch human being if you think the vitriol is displaced. No one leaves their child alone with a janitor or expects that a teacher has only good will and is spiritually aligned with God. The trust that is given to these men is higher than that of any other profession, and it does make the betrayal significantly worse. The child believes God is totally cool with how they are violated, and they often feel they deserve it. Those children are fundamentally more vulnerable because the fear of God is within them. Their entire view of spirituality is sickly warped, along with everything else they endure.

Organized religion was a necessary sham back before people had rights and secular organizations and shit, but fuck if I can figure out why people feel they need to perpetuate the cyclical jerkoff of power and suffering in order to feel right with Jesus.

As someone who is a life long Catholic and a gay man, there are some points missed. Hope is not something should not come and go with the wind. Its needs to me nurtured not just by someone else but from within ones very own heart. Its our individual hopes that keep us going amd promote a stronger community. It is not His Holiness's job to promote individual wants or meet individual expectations as is his job to promote the teachings of a long line of teachings by The Christ and his disciples. Right now importance needs to be placed on the the greater issue of global wealth divisions that affect so many people across gender and lifestyles, such as education for all, a healthy life for all, and common respect for everyone which the new pontiff is promoting. By promoting one group over another is to create greater divisions that already exist. Another thing most people forget is that the Church is a non-governmental organization. They have no weapons of mass destruction nor do the economics of the Vatican resemble those of wealthy nations. Their finances are used to promote the faith where it does not exist. Many Catholics, both "cradle" and new, get lost and become disappointed with the faith. They have expectations that they can change 2000 years of history and teachings by forcing what they want and what they expect instead of taking the faith an extra step and speaking and acting for those who cant readily speak for themselves due to poverty, lack of educational opportunities and more concisely, lack of freedom both physically and mentally. I recommend not listening to past outliers that are not fully disclosed by the media to illicit a knee-jerk response and read some of the encyclicals of past popes and writings by Catholic philosophers and proests, such as St. Thomas Aquinas and theologian nuns, such as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Sister Katherine Drexel. We lay faithful can't begin to know everything about 2000 years of history as indepth as Catholic leadership, but these starts can give those who are both Catholic and not, religious and not and idea of the true wisdom that is the faith of so many who have so little else to count on in a world spinning out of control.

@22, I find different numbers from what you're claiming. This is typical:

NEW STATS: 10% of Catholic Priests Were Pedophiles and Still Counting, 20 to 200 Times More Than General Population

http://blogs.alternet.org/cityofangelson…

@21 I agree completely.

@20: Hey BJC:
The issue is one of the undiscussed alternatives. Why didn't the author join a liberal church? Nothing in her essay answers this question. Why didn't the author adopt some spiritual beliefs that otherwise don't support the authority of some of the world's biggest bigots?

@21: I don't think religion deserves special reverence or kid gloves, not at all, ESPECIALLY when terrible crimes against the most innocent of all are involved. I do think people trying to affect change from inside an extremely retrograde institution—actively so, like Rebecca Brown here, or by being a member in a parish like Saint Joseph's in Seattle that departs (again, actively) from Rome on every major issue—deserve respect.

@20: I, too, am very curious to find out more about Rebecca Brown's choice to become a Catholic, out of all the options out there for "coming to a sacred table with human beings and getting nourishment" and for approaching what she calls the Mystery—and especially at what many people would consider to be (in modern times, anyway) a low point politically for the Catholic church. I'm hoping maybe she'll write something about this for us.

@29: Thanks for this very reasonable reply. I wasn't expecting it.

Why be a member of a group that doesn't want you? The catholic church is not going to change. Too many people give religious heirachy a bye because they believe in the idea that is never a reality.

Wow I am blown away by your article in the Stranger. I am constantly compartmentalizing my faith in a small little corner hidden away from my social justice activism, my friends, even my boyfriend who knows my secret but is not entirely okay with it. I even suspect my choice of demoniation is kind of a cop-out of the more demanding religions like that of evangicals or Catholics (I'm what most reffer to as Catholic light) To see a person in the Stranger wrestle with an important event, for all Christians, even protestants, like the choosing of the pope with their own faith practices much inline with the rest of Seattle was awesome. Please Share more!!!

Rebecca, I was surprised and taken aback by your reasoning for become a Catholic what with your views and sentiments towards the church. I had doubts and similar views as yours many years ago (having been raised Catholic) and I found solace and comfort in the words of Bertrand Russell, "Religion is based...mainly on fear...fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand...My own view on religion is that of Lucretious. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race" My point is you need wake up. The Catholic church is not going to embrace any of the things you hope and believe in ever! Get over it and move on to a more grounded belief. You do not need an organized religion to find the spirituality you need in your life.

I ddd

Organized religion still getting in your way of creating a central banker monopoly-friendly world religion of Gaya/Luciferianism?

Gays and Lesbians seem to be thriving just fine, despite their purported "enemies." In fact, it's amazing what infinite central banker fiat money will do to create and support a socially engineered movement.

You expect us to believe that all of a sudden, mankind suddenly realized that gays and lesbians are necessary to the survival of the community, society, and the species? I call SOCIAL ENGINEERING BULLZHIT.

"Rebecca Brown's choice to become a Catholic..."

Wouldn't it be ever-so-useful for Rebecca to CLAIM she is a Catholic so that you, the reader, will believe she has something important to say about Catholicism? That then gives her the "right" to bash Catholicism with greater impact on you, the reader.

QUITE MANIPULATIVE, don't you think?

Fabian socialists really are that slimey, people. Anything for the end goal.

@37 I'm always surprised when "I like the stories and sense of community" is given as a reason to believe. I got that from a college friend who just got baptized.

That kind of justification is good for why you like to go play Magic the Gathering at the card store, why you go to the midnight showings of Harry Potter, or why you arrange Game of Thrones viewing parties.

That kind of justification is wildly insufficient for ACTUALLY BELIEVING the nonsense stories, or joining an organization that has hurt a lot of people over the years in a lot of different ways.

Of course, if a religious person understood the concept of "sufficient justification for belief" then they wouldn't be religious.

#25
It's only fair that the Catholic Church cares about 'the poor' because it creates so many of them by denying women autonomy over their own reproduction. Abstract edicts without concern for the brutal human consequences that ensue shows more concern for an abstraction than for the human lives they apply to. The Church as an institution has caused some of the greatest savagery the world has seen, yet claims infallibility for its pope.

Rebecca Brown is catholic. An adult convert no less.

Very very depressing.

Now she gets to bend her writing into the same intellectual yoga positions that fellow catholic and (bonus!) "conservative" Andrew Sullivan submits himself to. A tragic use of gifted minds.

I still read Andrew (as long as I don't have to *listen* to him) and will still read Rebecca, but this is just sad.

refreshing and powerful thinking article - i do not know why there is anti-gay theology in Roman Catholicism - but the core beliefs of the church as far as celibacy or abortion - i respect and abide by as i was raised a Roman Catholic - maybe there is 'hope' for homosexuals in Pope Francis - let us pray - p.s. like all your writing -

As a Catholic recently returned to the church, I believe Pope Francis a hope for fresh air and light into the Church. I don't think he will address the sexism in the church but I think he will kick corruption, child abuse, and abuse of the poor squarely in the butt. In the meantime couldn't we all just back off from the negative and pray for positive change?