Roman Catholic Kool-Aid Drinkers

Today’s Washington Post has an article on younger conservative Roman Catholics who “reject cafeteria Catholicism” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040803427.html?hpid=sec-religion). I simply could not pass up commenting upon the article since those interviewed demonstrate the mindset that has allowed the Church’s hierarchy escape any accountability for the sex abuse scandal and cover ups. Having been raised Catholic and having grown up into my teens before Vatican II made sweeping changes to the Church’s customs (I was an altar boy for 10 years and once knew the entire mass in latin), I well remember the customs that the individuals featured in this article desperately cling to. The mindset of that time was to blindly follow all the ridiculous rules and formalities like a herd of sheep - would eating meat on Friday really cause you to go to Hell - so that all the proper boxes could be checked off the Church promulgated checklist to insure one would go to Heaven. Despite such diligence and daily mass attendance for many years, none of it made me straight as promised.

Sadly, the families interviewed have a devotion that seems more of a form of idolatry than true faith. Slavish devotion to ritualistic practices and mindlessly following the dictates of a corrupt hierarchy replaces thought and a mature faith. To me, these people seem lost in a time warp seeking a time period that many of them never even experienced personally. I truly have to wonder what deep seated psychological issues induce them to cling so fanatically to ritualistic form over substance. Why such terror of thinking and reason? Likewise, I can just imaging how f**ked up their children will be from this type of upbringing. I know it has taken me years to get over the damage I experienced at the hands of the Catholic Church. Are these individuals devout or delusional? I'd say the latter. Here are some story highlights:

During an era when two-thirds of young Catholics say they can be good Catholics without going to Mass and many believe in a woman's right to choose abortion and view premarital sex as morally acceptable, Karen and David Hickey might be considered renegades -- because they are so devout. For the Hickeys and a community of young, conservative Washington area Catholics who piously follow the teachings of the church, Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Washington next week carries a special meaning.

They appreciate Benedict for his unwavering advocacy of what they hold to be "Catholic": ancient liturgical practices such as the traditional Latin Mass, the supremacy of the Catholic Church, Gregorian chants in worship and theologians who concur with the pope's teachings. As the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog for 24 years before becoming pope, Benedict earned this group's devotion.

Such young Catholics' strict obedience to the tenets of their faith makes them an anomaly in their generation. Only 14 percent of Catholics ages 20 to 40 attend Mass at least weekly, according to research by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, and just one in five goes to confession once a year or more.

It is not an easy existence. Conservative Catholics, compared to "cafeteria Catholics" -- the term for Catholics who pick and choose which doctrines to follow -- say they can feel off the beaten path culturally. Daniel Heenan, 25, a Sterling Catholic school teacher who plans to enter the seminary, faces the amused scrutiny of his peers for his devout life. "A lot of them think I'm a lunatic," Heenan said.