The Christmas church service turned out to be fairly nice - we all went to St. Thomas Aquinas, the University parish run by the Dominican Order, as opposed to the parish in town under the control of the Richmond Diocese. It is the parish I attended all my years as a student at UVA (going to daily mass everyday almost as I tried so hard to pray away the gay), although they have built a much larger church building than the one used in the 1970's. It is much larger than the one in town (which dates from the 1890's or so) and it is much more progressive than most parishes in Virginia to the extent that that word and Catholic Church can be used in the same sentence.Not to sound sacrilegious, but I could not help but notice the abundance of beautiful guys at the service (definite "male beauty" material) even though the University is not in session. Charlottesville has always had a disproportionate number of Catholics in more recent decades, perhaps due to the presence of the University of Virginia and the University Medical Center which is huge and ranks consistently as probably the best hospital in the state. Together they have a huge number of employees. Add to that the large number of New Yorkers and others who have estates out in surrounding Albemarle County. Even in my days as a student, the student population was approximately 45% Catholic, which was surprising for a state university.
I could not help but wonder, however, during the service how many of the young guys and young women in the congregation were gay and being indoctrinated with self-hate and self-loathing by dear Mother Church. I was sorely tempted to say something during the prayer of the faithful when members of the congregation can voice prayers, but figured my sister would have a cow. My nephews in contrast would have laughed their butts off. It upsets me to no end that the Church goes on spreading its poisonous anti-gay mantra and distorting so many lives. As I have said before, until bishops and cardinals who aided in the cover up of sexual abuse by priests are removed from office, I will never have any respect for the Catholic Church. Hypocrisy is the hallmark of the Church hierarchy.
