Catholicism in the Wild

I have just finished wiping up the kitchen floor after your latest adventure. It would distract me too much to describe it here, suffice to say it involved noodles, grated cheese, an apple and a green crayon. They say green stuff is good for you don't they?

So, what happened next?

That first day I was welcomed by some friendly yet wary Centacare - Marriage Education staff who were obviously wondering what they could do with this strange person. The only Lutherans they had met in the past had been marrying a Catholic person and preparing for a marriage in a Catholic Church. Not quite the same deal as an ex-Minister I guess. After being shown around the office by three different people I was relieved when they gave me some data entry work to do. After a frustrating hour wrestling with their antiquated database, I politely asked if they were attached to the current form of the database, or if I could make some adjustments to speed up my data entry. After I assured them I would save a backup copy of the old database they agreed. Two days later they were so profuse in their praise for the new system,it was almost embarrassing.

(For the boffins out there, I'm no programmer. I simply took Access and gave them some simple workable forms which gave them access to their common inquiries with one or two mouse clicks. I have done much more complex things since, but this achievement still ranks highest for pure impact on my workplace :))

I was moved onto the admin team for an upcoming national conference and worked on the technical side of the organisation. Sitting in on those meetings was an education for a new Catholic let me tell you! It was a joint venture between Centacare and a secular counselling organisation. The theory was that the bulk of the conference featured keynote speakers and workshops focused on the secular professional skills of relationship counselors, while the Catholics were rewarded for their greater than 50% financial and 100% administrative support for the conference by way of a 'Catholic' half day preceding the conference.

Between one keynote speaker advocating abortion, divorce and euthanasia, another giving practical masturbation tips, and workshops including a specialist session on 'Sero-discordant couples' (counselling tips for when one homosexual has aids and his male partner does not), I can't say what I found more amazing. What surprised me was not so much the blatant disregard for Church teaching, nor the almost universal ignorance that they were doing so, but my own lack of concern.

I couldn't understand my own reaction! Such concentrated error would have sent me into a tail spin only a year earlier, so why was I so calm (if a little sad for them and their future contacts) about this monumental rejection of Christian teaching? I realised that, for the first time ever I was completely sure that these people did not represent Christ's teaching, and that it wasn't up to me to prove that! Even when a religious sister gave an astoundingly horrid interpretation of the account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, I sat watching calmly. I was sad for her and for those listening, but I felt no compulsion to leap up and shout the defence of the Bible or Church teaching. Not that I did this much before, but I always had to fight the compulsion!

I realised I was peaceful in that nothing I could say or do could make the truth any more true than it already is! In those days I actually felt a heady thrill at being so completely secure in the truth of the faith. I still feel it now. I now hold two different roles involved in upholding and teaching the faith in Scripture and of Marriage and the Family, but I am free to do so now out of love for the people I interact with, and not in a kind of desperate attempt to convince myself of the 'truth' I am arguing for.

As I said to one Lutheran pastor who accused me of fleeing from the hard problems, "Running away from the problems? The Catholic Church has many more false teachers and nuts than any Protestant group I know. The difference isn't that the problems aren't there, nor that the hard questions are not being asked. The difference is that Catholics have the answers!"

Next: Epilogue