Rabbit Hole Thought: Papal Infallibility

I’m working on a research story about the history of the Irish Catholic Church and the German Catholic church in my hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I wanted to explore the different cultures within the Catholic church and how it relates to our current political climate. I get sidetracked easily, go down rabbit holes of research, and periodically have eureka moments. The following passage was a written rambling on the topic of papal infallibility.  

I consider myself a Catholic who knows more about the faith and the church than an average Catholic. I had three great-great uncles who were priests and one great-uncle who was a priest. They were not just any ordinary priest. They were college professors at a Catholic Benedictine university in Washington state. Yet, that doesn’t make me an expert. I realize I know less than I thought I knew the more I dive into history.

I grew up with a unique insight into the Church. My Great-uncle left the priesthood and married a woman who was a nun about to leave the order when they met. On top of that, I’m the fourth generation in my family to be raised Catholic to marry a Protestant. To marry outside the Church shows some dissent to the Church’s control over their heart and minds. There is no question that the non-Catholics who were part of their everyday life were influenced by their perception of the church’s authority.

With that, here is my rant:

The thing that is most opposed to democracy. Roman Catholicism threatens the idea of democracy since the pope is the "king" and resides in his own country of Vatican City. There is its own set of laws and its own economy that relies on money from outside sources, such as parishes throughout the world. If democracy was about the people having the power to control and take away from one man, then there is conflict between the two. Do you look at the Catholic religion as a spiritual and moral guide through the Bible and specifically the stories of Jesus, who was a grand ethical model? Or do you look to the Catholic Church as a political government to rule over all people and not just ones baptized in the Catholic Church? People want the state laws to reflect the laws of the church even though the country is made up of non-Catholics who want nothing to do with the authoritarian power of the church. They came to this country with the guarantee of the Bill of Rights, the freedom of religion. They will not be forced to believe in a religion they didn't want to. This freedom also protects Catholics who see the hypocrisy in church leaders in preaching about the compassion and mercy of Christ and at the same time, refusing to show any mercy to Americans wanting to participate in their rights to freedom of thought.

I must think that the conservative Catholics who refuse to show any mercy on women who choose to terminate a pregnancy for any reason at all have read and heard the same stories about Jesus as I have. What do I think Jesus would have said or done if the people brought a woman to Jesus who terminated a pregnancy? Maybe the same thing he said and did to the woman who was accused of adultery (John 8: 7-11). This is a story I heard many times in church and when I went to school. But I get the impression from the actions of many Catholics that they do not interpret this story the same way I do. I get that no one is without mistakes or faults. I understand that calling an abortion a "mistake" or "sin" is offensive to some. But we will call it such here for the sake of this discussion. Sure, some do not see abortion as a sin, and that is acceptable. The idea that abortion is a sin is only defined by religion, and if you don't practice or believe in the same religious morals or laws that I do, and in the United States, that is your right, it's okay not to think of it as a sin. But that same right as an American allows people to define it as a sin or a moral mistake. I'm talking to those people. My goal is to show them and explain to them a different way of seeing how abortion can be acceptable in Catholic spiritualism. That is not the gravest sin out there. It's by far not the most horrible sin. Abortion is a medical procedure that people had prayed to God to create to ease the suffering and prevent death and suffering on earth. Like anything on earth, it can be used for good and evil. There is good in the procedure, and it will depend on why it's performed. If you prevent anyone from obtaining a process because you deem it evil, then you prevent anyone from getting the procedure if the intentions are to ease and avoid suffering.