Charlie_Eleanor

I don't care. What are they going to do, kick me out?

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Lost in Some Story

Exactly my thinking. They are begging people to come to church all the time. Why would they kick me out? Even if I am only there to exploit them.

I'm so going to hell.

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"Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds"--Douglas Adams

Nicco

My mother is Catholic, raised us her religion, so I know a lot about the beliefs and can try to answer whatever questions you have and correct some of the misunderstandings brought up.


One obvious element that makes Catholics unique from other Christian religions is the Pope. Some background on that--Catholics believe Jesus gave the apostle Peter authority over his Church. Peter started the first pontificate, and the line continues with each pope. (further reading)


Catholics believe in Apostolic succession. So, according to this, authority granted to the original Apostles was directly passed down to their spiritual successors--what we call priests, bishops, etc. It's why they're considered a big deal in the religion. It is also a Catholic belief that the authority given by God cannot be corrupted because a person is corrupt. So when priests or popes are vile it doesn't screw up the entire line. A biblical example of that would be after Judas' betrayal, a new person was chosen to replace him. The position was without flaw even though the person who had previously held it was not.

Also, Catholics aren't actually supposed to pray to saints as if the saints have any power, but they may ask for prayers from saints (or anyone dead) as they would ask a living person to pray for them. The words to Hail Mary, if you ever get a chance to read them, are telling her that she is blessed and asking her to pray...not to actually do anything God-like herself. So, for example, if your character lost her earring, she could ask Saint Anthony (patron saint of missing items) to pray for her but not to miraculously find it for her.

Jeff Colburn

There's one main rule for Catholics. If your doing something, and it is in any way pleasurable, STOP IT!

I was raised Roman Catholic, but I'm doing much better now.

Have Fun,
Jeff

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Pete_C

Damn, I forgot First Confession. It comes before First Communion.

Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been X months since my last confession, and these are my sins. I swore, I told lies, I spat at my Mammy, I went at myself like a dog with ticks, and I called old Mr Murphy a bastid. This is all I can remember Father, and I am sorry for these and all my sins, and with the help of thy grace I will not sin again. Amen

You see, this shit was really beaten into me!

Charlie, the real difference between Irish Catholicism and any other flavour is that the Irish brand is beaten into you, whilst the others are applied with a variety of techniques!

smilinghelps

Pete,
I think it was actually said like this--

Bless me Father for I have sinned, it has been XX (days, weeks, months) since my last confession (confess sins, you boy--lol) THEN you say the Act of Contrition--

O my God, I am heartily sorry for
having offended you, and I detest
all my sins, because of Your just
punishments, but most of all because
they offend You, my God, who are
all-good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of
Your grace, to sin no more and to
avoid the near occasion of sin.

THEN he said something like, You are forgiven in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, say 10 Hail Mary's and 5 Our Father's and go in Peace.

Yep, Irish Catholics did beat it in good.

__________________
"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
E. B. White

Pete_C

"... and say a prayer for me!"

The bloody priest always asked you to say a prayer for him.

This thread has made me look back on my youth, and I remember being dragged to visit a dying relative when I was about 16. In her bedroom was a framed print of that awful Footprints thing. I was reading it, and when the fellow involved asks God why there's only one set of footprints, I thought God should really have answered: "Because I'm imaginary!"

I was smirking about it when the old bitch rises up from her death bed to ask why I was smiling. I thought about telling her the truth, that she was about to die and, facing nothingness, would realise that her belief system was flawed. I could see no value in annoying her, so I said: "It's very moving, that poem."

She died a few days later. She left all her estate to her own children, but she remembered us in her will. Both my sisters got £1,000. My brother got her car and a piano. I got the family bible, a set of ivory rosary beads used by some idiot Missionary in China, and the bastarding Footprints, frame and all.

I went home and had a bonfire.

smilinghelps

Pete, That's hysterical! Rosary beads AND the family bible on top of the footprints poem, you sure got the cream of the crop!

Seriously though, in retrospect of all the things she probably valued the most, she left them to you. Feeling a little guilty about that bonfire? Perhaps you should go to confession! LOL

Imagine my Irish Catholic Grandmother a few years ago when our Christmas card showed a picture of my daughter in a white dress looking "solemn and prayerful". My Nana's remark to me was, "Didn't she look beautiful for her first Communion?" and I said, First Communion? Ha! She'll never go to church- I got that dress on clearance at Strawbridges and I copied that pose from a catalog-it saved me a ton on Christmas cards this year."

I thought she'd fall over with a stroke right then and there.

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"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
E. B. White

Pete_C

You're evil! If Jesus was real, he'd be cross (no pun intended).

Charlie_Eleanor

Dude Pete, you so need to write a story about that! Hilarious!

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smilinghelps

LOL! Now, now, let's not get hasty--I never said Jesus wasn't real, we'll leave that conversation for the debate thread

For which am I evil? Making you feel guilty for burning your inheritance or b/c I don't hide the fact that I don't take my daughter to church?

__________________
"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
E. B. White

Pete_C

You taunted an old woman with a small child dressed in white.

smilinghelps

She still loves me because I tell her the truth. When she passes, I'll probably inherit her bible and rosary beads.

__________________
"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
E. B. White

ClancyBoy

You did so intend that. Shame on you.


(For the bad pun, not the blasphemy.)

__________________
"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

lisajane

Abortion is a big No-No in the Catholic church. I did actually enjoy being Catholic and their way of life when I was a kid, however then I went to a Catholic high school that zapped any fun out of it. I'm still Catholic, but I definitely don't practice it. (Mum is Anglican, Dad is Catholic).

And personally, I'm all for abortion in every way outside using it for birth control, cause then I think those women are down right stupid.

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'Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap. And he, a little charleychaplin man, who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence.' - Laurence Felinghetti, 'The Acrobat'