Anyone is welcome to submit a Guest Blog Entry to torontomike.com. I received the following submission earlier today.
I think it is a feeble excuse to blame a pope for not practicing one's faith. It is true that the Pope is indeed the head of the Roman Catholic church but to have faith and not to practice a religion bc of conflict in interest with this leader is an injustice to oneself. There are very few Catholics who listen to all the teachings of the Pope. 1.1 billion people must make choices in their faith that impact them. Birth control is an example of this. We are intelligent beings who sometimes must diregard aspects of a religion bc we do know what is best in some situations for our lives. This makes us higher intelligent beings with thought processes that are very developed. We often alter some aspects of the Catholic religion. Taking all this into account if the Pope's teachings are still not for you then find another religion (of which there are many) not controlled by a Pope. If one has no belief or religious conviction that is one thing. But if one believes and does have faith then leaving the Catholic Church for this confuses me?
This entry is in response to my Lapsed Catholic entry from earlier in the month. It's a good entry and I'm more than happy to respond.
You state there are very few Catholics who listen to all the teachings of the Pope. You're absolutely right. In Catholic elementary school, we learned about safe sex, despite the fact the Church views birth control as a sin. We learned about birth control because our school system exists in the real world and realizes that teens will have sex for reasons other than a will to reproduce. If we merely pick and choose which Catholic beliefs to share, doesn't that tarnish the integrity of the practice? If few Catholics are listening to the Church, why is the Church continuing to preach these archaic values? I believe it's because many do follow the word of the Pope and that's the problem. Parts of the world are dangerously overpopulated and the AIDs epidemic in Africa is entirely devastating. Partially at fault for this is the Catholic Church. Should we turn a blind eye because there are other, positive attributes of this religion?
I'll close by clarifying the difference between one's faith and one's religion. I continue to retain many of the values intertwined with Catholicism. Unlike many in my circle, I believe in God and speak with him often. I continue to have faith, it's the organized aspect of religion that I've all but abandoned. Religion is man made whereas faith is divine. Faith and religion are not one and the same.
