Religion

by annemariedemyen, posted in life

I grew up in a French Catholic home.  Religion was a big part of our heritage and a big part of our daily life.   I left the church many years ago because I could no longer be a part of it.  At first I put my religion in the background, as my husband at the time had become  negative and disrespectful towards it.  I felt he was doing our children more harm than I was doing them good, by having religion in our lives.  Then, when I left my husband, I left the church completely because the powers that be frowned on divorce and I refused to be frowned upon for getting myself and my children out of a terrible and dangerous situation. I did the right thing, and to this day, I know what I did was the right thing.

I am hardly the only person who had  legitimate reasons for leaving the church.   There has been every type of abuse by clergy in the church and many who used their authority to support it and conceal it.    There is no denying this and there is no excusing it.   Victims need to be compensated and supported and abusers and their supporters need to be held accountable. 

It would seem that organized religion, especially the Catholic Church is a floundering institution which, at some point, will permanently drift into obscurity.  A lot of people would like to see this happen.  I am not one of them. Although I do wonder if it is beyond saving, I do feel that it is an institution that has always been worth saving and it grieves me that it probably will not happen.

Growing up, the Catholic Church was an important institution. I didn’t believe that it was ever infallible but I felt it was important in my life.

– We were fortunate to have dedicated priests and nuns serving our parish. I remember many of them today. They were a valued and respected part of our community and our lives.

– We were fortunate that we were taught basic morals and values – that we were taught rules that have helped us live good lives, rules that we could pass on to our children so they can live good lives.

– We were fortunate to have a strong sense of community. We celebrated births and we mourned deaths, together. We made time to gather every Sunday and many times in between. Our priest opened the church hall up to all of the teenagers in our small town (and surrounding areas). During the week we shot pool, played shuffleboard or table tennis, and practiced singing for our glee club. On weekends, we had dances which featured local aspiring bands. Father L’Heureux was our sole chaperone. I can only remember one incident. One young guy thought he would sneak in a mickey of alcohol. Father L’Heureux stepped in to escort him out and took a punch to the face. There was no blood but the good priest was not happy about having his cigar crushed. 😂

– We were fortunate to have many women (nuns) who devoted their lives to taking care of the sick and the elderly in homes and hospitals. These facilities were anticeptic, brilliantly, CLEAN. The food was nourishing and healing. The nursing was strict but compassionate . I spent a month in a public hospital a few years ago. I could not believe how we now treat our sick and suffering. The place was disgustingly dirty. The food was just plain disgusting. It was in no way edible, much less nourishing. Other than my cardiac specialist, who was amazing in every way, care and compassion was pretty much non-existent.

– We were fortunate to have a place to gather with others to experience a living faith. It was a moving and uplifting experience.

There were, and are, many positive contributions that religion, and specifically the Catholic Church made to society. There were a lot of truly dedicated and devoted clergy in the church who spent their lives serving others. I am so sorry that their lives and good deeds have been lost in the noise of the corruption that has rocked the church over the past few years. I am sorry for all that we have lost, especially since we have nothing of comparable value with which to replace it with.

14 thoughts on “Religion”

  1. Wow, this is powerful. I’ve never felt that the Catholic Church was for me and am Baptist. I’m sure many have left because of the scandals but I suspect the same thing goes on in other churches… I’ve not been a church member for about four years now though. Not good right? Great post!

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  3. The church is going nowhere-Jesus promised. Pedophiles will go to jail(why on earth did PARENTS protect them?)Lucky my mom was prod. No matter what I will never leave the church,or turn my back on God.

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  4. I can’t imagine why parents protected the pedophiles instead of their children. The church really pushed the absolute authority thing. Some people were really intimidated by that I guess. My family was never like that.

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  5. Your welcome. It’s such a complicated subject, one I won’t usually discuss unless in person. My belief is that we both have the same core beliefs in the Holy Trinity. I’m just an average guy with zero schooling in Theology…

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  6. It isn’t a subject I usually discuss at all. I was just thinking about it today because my husband was sick yesterday and I made him real chicken soup with real homemade broth. It reminded me of my Mom’s cooking. She was taught by nuns in a hospital kitchen. Her cooking was amazing and very healthy and nutritious. Not like today’s hospital food for sure. (My soup worked – my husband went golfing today😊)
    Yes, Catholics believe in the Holy Trinity

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  7. I never was convinced by gods or religion. Even as a small child the whole concept seemed false, both religions and gods all 3000 odd. Left alone with my lack of belief I would have probably been less hostile towards religion. For me looking at history and the world today religion does far more harm that good. By its very nature it is divisive, Regarding the Trinity I suggest you have a look at Isaac Newton’s work on the subject as discussed by John Maynard Keynes in his lecture on the Portsmouth Papers.

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  8. I will have to check out that paper. The Trinity makes sense to me because we are all mental, physical and spiritual.
    I think corruption is inevitable for any institution where there is absolute authority with zero accountability – law enforcement, politics, education, Canada Revenue Service, social services. Just don’t know if we can have a society without them or if we have to make them accountable for abusing their authority.

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  9. I was raised in the Catholic church, too, and went to Catholic schools growing up. Like you, I eventually left, with more a feeling of disappointment than anything else.

    I always thought the Sacrament of Reconciliation was a wonderful thing. Every religion preaches that you can heal a severed relationship with God, but (as far as I know) only the Catholics have built a little ritual for it, with elements of contemplation and penance.

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  10. I thought it was a good feeling to clear one’s conscience but I don’t know if it actually made me a better person. Seem to me I said the same thing every week or so. Maybe they had more effective penance for major sins. Mine were always “I swore at my sister” type. In my defence she was a b—ch 😂. We are still best friends and each other’s favourite sister. And the priest knew my sister so he always went easy on me. 🤣

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  11. When Newton had completed his research he felt unable to take holy orders, which meant he had to leave his job at Cambridge. Many people feel that religion is the basis of morality, the best dismissal of this was by a French woman in her reply to her son. Her son asked her, “If we are non believers, what do we believe in mother?” She replied, “Helping people.” I try to live by that.

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  12. That is a beautiful way to live but my belief goes beyond morality – I believe in immortality. I had a very strong out of body experience when my second son was born. I was in so much excruciating pain that I left my body and I was watching everyone in the room from you above them. It was very much real.

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