The other day, my mom told my dad that she "quit religion." Today, while I was playing with my niece, I heard her tell my grandma that she doesn't believe in the Catholic Faith anymore. My grandma of course asked why and she said a bunch of stuff but all I heard was the priest sex scandal and cover up.
I don't know what's going on. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Am I causing this? Or should I be glad because if one day I do switch religions she'll be more open about it? Oy, but what if she is against all religions like I was in high school. All religions really have a bad part to their history... I've heard my mom say that before and it's probably why she said she quit religion and not quit Catholicism. I, of course, am just of the opinion that the Church's bad history is much more extravagant than any other religion's.
I just wanted to report that this happened and that it's something I'm thinking about. Even if my mom was understanding, because she usually is, I still have my dad and my brother to worry about.
Interesting...my mom is also the parent I think will be more understanding when I announce my self-imposed excommunication from the Catholic Church and convert to Judaism. My mom was raised Baptist. When she married my dad, he was a not-so-observant Catholic. My parents decided that they would pick a religion for the sake of having a unified household, and so in order to choose, they began alternating going to the Baptist church one Sunday, the Catholic one the next. At this point, it looked more like my dad would convert and be Baptist since at the time he wasn't as religious as my mom. But one fateful morning, my dad was with my mom at the Baptist church. The preacher was doing his sermon, and he started talking about a mission trip he took to Mexico once. He said, "Our car was broken down late one night and we didn't know anyone who could help us. We waited and we prayed, and we eventually saw some headlights on the road. And guess what -- it was a nice Christian man! And you know, there aren't too many Christians in Mexico. It's mostly Catholic." Yeah, my dad was pretty livid. All of this is a second-hand account that I found out from my parents just last year, but I'm pretty sure my dad stormed out of that church. The deal was sealed -- his kids would be raised Catholic. A few years later, my mom converted to Catholicism. She sort of became dead to my grandmother for a period of time (how long exactly I'm not sure). Growing up, I remember my grandmother pointing out things that were "better" about being Baptist, or pointing out the shortcomings (in her eyes) of Catholicism. It was nothing so blatant as, "Your religion is ridiculous." It was always little things. I remember her telling me, "Mary was not perfect. She was a normal human who made mistakes like everyone else." (Okay, gotta agree with her there!) Also, another thing that comes to mind is her saying while singing the unfamiliar hymns at a Catholic Mass, "I still don't see what's wrong with 'Amazing Grace.'"
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I kind of got a bit off subject there, but I think my mom will be understanding since my grandmother was so rude to my her when she converted to Catholicism (albeit for the sake of marriage -- now that I'm older, my mom has admitted to me that she's still more comfortable at Baptist church services). My mom might not understand converting for spiritual reasons, but I definitely know she won't stop talking to me or anything. And no -- I definitely don't think my dad will do that either (not anything CLOSE!) but it is *his* religion I'm rejecting, so I definitely think there'll be more negative emotions from him.