- Jul 1, 2013
- 9,199
- 8,425
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
One cow-orker of mine makes a habit of talking about religion on a semi-regular basis. I confess this would be more annoying but my other cow-orkers make conversation frequently about politics. So I ask what it's worth? I'm sincerely not sure which is more off-putting.
But in the plus column Donald Trump and Pope Francis (and my hat is off) have both done amazing jobs with messaging because it seems like pretty much everybody in my office knows where they stand. Whether or not they like those things is... well, as always there's no accounting for taste.
So as I say my cow-orker makes a relatively annoying habit of talking about religion on the job. She made a big deal last week over the fact that her son's Confirmation was this past Saturday. I figured she was Catholic by the way she talked about her religious life but, as I overheard today while minding my own business and trying to do some work, she confirmed for a different cow-orker that she's a convert. I wish I didn't know any of this stuff. But now I do.
So anyway, she mentioned she was a lifelong Baptist but apparently swam the Tiber because her (second!) husband was Catholic and insisted. But she was careful to emphasize that she's "Catholic" rather than Catholic.
That is to say she's received her sacraments but she'd be the first to tell you (trust me) that she doesn't believe everything the Church teaches.
Now, up to this point what we had was a fairly aggravating cow-orker who doesn't understand you're supposed to avoid subjects like that. But when she mentioned that, I must tell you, folks, it just filled me with curiosity.
Don't get me wrong, the last thing I would ever do is encourage this type of behavior by probing for additional details. Don't feed the animals, you know? But when I dabbled with RCIA, I encountered quite a few people (mostly women, oddly enough) who were only joining the Church to appease their fiancee/spouse.
Now, obviously I'm a convert myself. But I converted because I believe the Church to be right. I would never in a million years (I'm not kidding; Satan would need a parka and heating pad before I would) have converted just to keep someone else happy. It would never happen!
That isn't hypothetical. When I was a kid, I dated several Catholic school girls (I went to public school) and each tried getting me to join the Church and I, being the angry young man that I was, told them maybe less politely than I could've thanks but no thanks, I'm never joining their religion.
Incidentally, God has a sense of humor.
But like I was saying, I was filled with curiosity over all this. The chatterbox cow-orker was not specific (and gosh I know too much about her personal life as it is because of her big blabbermouth so I wasn't about to ask for additional details, you dig?) so I couldn't be sure about which issues precisely she disagreed with the Church.
She doesn't buy into the Sunday obligation, for one thing. This I know for sure. So she misses Mass pretty much every Sunday. And it's not like she doesn't know what the Church teaches on this one. She knows and she openly disagrees and contradicts the Church. So I don't think Invincible Ignorance can apply to this (but who knows, right?).
Anyway, all of this is a (very long) way of asking how Catholic is my cow-orker really? Because it looks like the best anybody can say is she picks and chooses what she obeys and what she doesn't. The worst might be that she converted under false pretenses.
I'm not ordained or anything but I'm not sure if it's really accurate at all to call this woman a Catholic.
And guys, just to put this in perspective, if I miss Mass, either I have something contagious or I have a dispensation; one of the two. I receive the Body and the Blood as often as I can. These days I hit up Confession once per week. I pray several times per day. I'm not saying I'm perfect (actually, I'm saying I'm not perfect, hence Confession every seven days) but dang it I'm trying my best here.
I think an unbiased outsider might say "Colors is a really crappy Catholic.. but he is recognizably Catholic. That cow-orker of his though, I dunno about her."
I won't bother her with this (because people aren't supposed to talk about this stuff at work for crying out loud!!), I'm just asking from input from people who probably know more about this type of thing than I do.
Is someone Catholic if they've received their sacraments but rarely (if ever) attend Mass and they disagree with Church dogmas??
But in the plus column Donald Trump and Pope Francis (and my hat is off) have both done amazing jobs with messaging because it seems like pretty much everybody in my office knows where they stand. Whether or not they like those things is... well, as always there's no accounting for taste.
So as I say my cow-orker makes a relatively annoying habit of talking about religion on the job. She made a big deal last week over the fact that her son's Confirmation was this past Saturday. I figured she was Catholic by the way she talked about her religious life but, as I overheard today while minding my own business and trying to do some work, she confirmed for a different cow-orker that she's a convert. I wish I didn't know any of this stuff. But now I do.
So anyway, she mentioned she was a lifelong Baptist but apparently swam the Tiber because her (second!) husband was Catholic and insisted. But she was careful to emphasize that she's "Catholic" rather than Catholic.
That is to say she's received her sacraments but she'd be the first to tell you (trust me) that she doesn't believe everything the Church teaches.
Now, up to this point what we had was a fairly aggravating cow-orker who doesn't understand you're supposed to avoid subjects like that. But when she mentioned that, I must tell you, folks, it just filled me with curiosity.
Don't get me wrong, the last thing I would ever do is encourage this type of behavior by probing for additional details. Don't feed the animals, you know? But when I dabbled with RCIA, I encountered quite a few people (mostly women, oddly enough) who were only joining the Church to appease their fiancee/spouse.
Now, obviously I'm a convert myself. But I converted because I believe the Church to be right. I would never in a million years (I'm not kidding; Satan would need a parka and heating pad before I would) have converted just to keep someone else happy. It would never happen!
That isn't hypothetical. When I was a kid, I dated several Catholic school girls (I went to public school) and each tried getting me to join the Church and I, being the angry young man that I was, told them maybe less politely than I could've thanks but no thanks, I'm never joining their religion.
Incidentally, God has a sense of humor.
But like I was saying, I was filled with curiosity over all this. The chatterbox cow-orker was not specific (and gosh I know too much about her personal life as it is because of her big blabbermouth so I wasn't about to ask for additional details, you dig?) so I couldn't be sure about which issues precisely she disagreed with the Church.
She doesn't buy into the Sunday obligation, for one thing. This I know for sure. So she misses Mass pretty much every Sunday. And it's not like she doesn't know what the Church teaches on this one. She knows and she openly disagrees and contradicts the Church. So I don't think Invincible Ignorance can apply to this (but who knows, right?).
Anyway, all of this is a (very long) way of asking how Catholic is my cow-orker really? Because it looks like the best anybody can say is she picks and chooses what she obeys and what she doesn't. The worst might be that she converted under false pretenses.
I'm not ordained or anything but I'm not sure if it's really accurate at all to call this woman a Catholic.
And guys, just to put this in perspective, if I miss Mass, either I have something contagious or I have a dispensation; one of the two. I receive the Body and the Blood as often as I can. These days I hit up Confession once per week. I pray several times per day. I'm not saying I'm perfect (actually, I'm saying I'm not perfect, hence Confession every seven days) but dang it I'm trying my best here.
I think an unbiased outsider might say "Colors is a really crappy Catholic.. but he is recognizably Catholic. That cow-orker of his though, I dunno about her."
I won't bother her with this (because people aren't supposed to talk about this stuff at work for crying out loud!!), I'm just asking from input from people who probably know more about this type of thing than I do.
Is someone Catholic if they've received their sacraments but rarely (if ever) attend Mass and they disagree with Church dogmas??
