Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Attention Seeking Flash Mob and the Pope

Once in a while as I scan through the Catholic news a story will catch my eye that is so bizarre that it's hard to believe that it's true. This latest article about gay flash mobs lining the streets to kiss as the pope drives by, definitely falls into that category. As did the activists last month that tried to make the Mass into a political event/protest, ultimately showing the world one thing: their complete disregard for what was actually happening up on that altar during the Mass as they tried to make the Mass into something other than an amazingly wonderful gift from God.

The first thing that popped into my mind as I read the article was that it seemed a little naive. I don't know about you, but I haven't met very many priests that seem like they would be shocked by seeing anyone kiss anyone else. Priests hear confessions. It's a big part of their job. And someone who hears other people confess their deepest darkest secrets, probably isn't going to be all that shocked by a group of people kissing.

It just all seems rather odd to me. The group has a facebook page and seem to be very proud of how the "event" went. I'm still trying to figure out what it accomplished (maybe I'm just too results oriented, but with the limited number of hours in the day, I have to be!).

I'm just not sure why these people, who are so incredibly certain that the Church is wrong, put so much thought and energy into trying to shock the pope... Here's a comparison that came to mind as I was trying to come up with a way to explain why this whole thing seems so strange:

There are a number of atheists out there who proudly talk about how stupid Christians in general (and often Catholics in particular) are. In fact, they put quite a bit of energy into attempting to force anyone with any sort of moral conviction from the public sphere, while wringing their hands and shouting about the "separation of Church and State!" at the top of their lungs. Once in a while, if I read something exceptionally ridiculous I might bring it up here and say, "wow, look at that... how insane..." but that will pretty much be the end of it (actually when I find stuff like that the first thought to come to mind would most likely be "I could write a great post about that!"). Later I'll try to remember to pray for the person in question. And I'll vote my conscience. But I'm certainly not going to waste energy trying to shock (or even engage) the person to prove anything about myself to them. It just seems futile.

Then again, I don't understand why people who disagree with the Church on pretty much every issue (and many have decided not to even try to understand Church teachings on any subject) would want to proclaim to the world that they are "Catholic."

The Catholic Church is not going to remake itself in man's image. It wasn't created for that purpose. It was founded by Christ (remember the whole key's to the kingdom part of Matthew chapter 16) and it isn't supposed to change because of the whims of a morally relativistic society.

3 comments:

  1. Seems to me that if people are so bothered by what the Pope stands for/does, they'd be better off leaving him alone and devoting those copious amounts of spare time to a more worthwhile cause.

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  2. Nice point! People do seem to be so confused as to what they are actually presenting to the world. It's like they have never taken a class in Logic. Thanks for the post.

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