How Do You Do???

Oy... I need to stay off Catholic Answers Forums and comments in blogs I like to read. Maybe I should expand my blog reading or just give up altogether. There are times when I wish Andrew was real. Because in my story I had Isabel musing the same frustration about all the Catholics on the Internet and he told her to stay off the Internet and to come to him when she was troubled or questioned. In my story, he is a priest and all, so that's all well and good, but he's not real! I suspect though, at least one, maybe all the priests at my parish church would say the same thing.

I stumbled onto a post on a blog and found a comment that just bugged me. I find a lot of comments made by Traditional Catholics (I hate labels. Do Catholics have to define themselves with labels, such as Traditional, Orthodox, Liberal, Conservative, good, bad etc.? Aren't we all Catholics? And why do we have to use political terms to define ourselves? I'm a political liberal, so naturally I'm a liberal catholic? I don't think it works that way. I've always thought I was Catholic.

My feelings about the Church can't be put into liberal/conservative categories. I question things plenty. Do I think women should be ordained priests? No. The idea of a women in Persona Christi troubles me. It's hard for me, as a feminist to admit that and it surprised me that I feel so strongly about it. Yes, I think women and men are equal and can do the same jobs. The priesthood isn't a job. It's a vocation and it's a vocation open to men only.

Do I think priests should be allowed to marry? No-- not after ordination. Do I think married men should be ordained? Maybe yes, maybe no. Definitely yes for the men who convert from other faiths and are allowed ordination under the pastoral provision. We have many married priests coming from Episcopal and Lutheran backgrounds. Our archbishop ordained the archdiocese's first married man this summer, so, yes, in that case I support it heartily. I'm not not sure if it would work for the church as a whole. It seems to work in Eastern Catholic, who are part of Rome and the Orthodox Churches not in Communion with Rome, but in the whole Latin Rite church, hard to say.

Do I oppose altar girls? No. Would I want my daughter to be one? Maybe. Only if she could understand that she would never be allowed to be a priest, but that there are other roles women can do in the church.

I would welcome an edict from Rome that says communion must always been received from a priest or a deacon and on the tongue. Probably, though, I don't think it would matter to me either way. However, I usually receive in my hand, but I am comfortable with receiving it on the tongue as well. If I can avoid going to an EM, I do and go to the priest or a deacon. I remember being told as a child in catechism we cannot chew the host, so I don't. I try to keep my hands by side during the whole Mass, but will hold hands during the "Our Father" as I generally like it.

Catholics need to remember we are all different people, but we are one united in and by the Church. We are one body and we need to accept and embrace each other, not distance or reject one another.