Language the Soul Speaks

This just arrived from reader Kate:

Thanks to Ms. Markey and to your blog for publishing “Religious Education.” I read this article at work and wept in my cubicle. You’ve struck something very tender and complicated and true.

I stopped going to Mass ten years ago because the Catholic church no longer fit me somehow—I couldn’t say exactly how, except that I disagreed with its homophobia, its treatment of women, and how the purpose of my CCD classes seemed to be primarily concerned with getting me through my teen years without getting pregnant. Catholicism was like a nanny that protected me as I grew up. Once I was an adult, its wisdom felt outdated, even comical. It couldn’t keep up with (be relevant to) my knowledge of the world. I became bitter that my Catholic identity felt more bound up in my sexual choices than my spiritual ones. When Ms. Markey wrote about the Catholic church not respecting the maturity of its members, that’s what I thought of.

What impressed me most about this article is the author’s ability to name her reservations about the church without letting the church off the hook. That she keeps going to Mass and raising her son WITH the contradictions of Catholicism, not despite them.

Over the years I’ve realized that even if I no longer celebrate Mass, I can never not be Catholic. It’s who I am and where I came from. It’s the language my soul speaks, if you will. Thanks for reminding me of that.

Best,
Kate

And this from Rev. Dr. Luccia Rogers:

Perhaps Ms. Markey would do well to read “Original Blessing,” by now ex-Catholic theologian Matthew Fox. Fox, inspired by Eckhart, Hildegarde von Bingen, and others offers the Catholic church he loved a different perspective on the church. His vision was not just grounded in Vatican II, but in the mystical tradition that’s been hunted down and stamped almost out of existence in the Church of Rome as it continues to seek power instead of faith and holds to unworkable dogma.

Ms. Markey is on a path of personal discovery that few of us today undertake with the level of integrity she demonstrates. My prayers include her and all seeking to resolve the dilemma of loving a church that rejects them.