call me sisyphus

Today's soundtrack:
"Falling in Love" by Lisa Loeb

This morning I went to mass and promptly remembered why I don't go to mass. Oh sure, it started well. The church was full, everyone seemed to be passed this "mourning your faith" thing, and the choir was perky. And then, the sermon. It went on and on. Methinks Father likes to hear his voice over the speakers. I was worried that the sermon, which was based on the story of Paul's conversion and the help he got from Barnaby, would be a sick call to convert the heathen masses, yadda yadda yadda. But it was worse.

"There is a Right to Life rally today at Royal University Hospital," says the priest. "It's a sacred activity, this rally. You should be there."

Whhaaa?

All of a sudden, it was an anti-abortion, pro-life, rally the troops sermon. I glared at the priest from the backrow, shaking my head vehemently. By Communion, however, I'd rationalised it in my head. It's a Catholic thing, I thought. Every sperm is sacred and all that. It's not that abortions are wrong... well, not just that. It's that hierarchy would like it if the circumstances (rape, incest, etc) which force abortion to exist would go away. Of course, they're going about it ass backwards. This is likely because the hierarchy is full of men who, to be honest, have no clue and have no right to decide what a woman should do with her own life. But life is sacred, okay fine. Breathe, this will all be over soon. Rationalised, I felt a little better. I don't have to agree with the priest and the Church, especially when they are flat out wrong.

But then this Knight of Columbus gets up at the end of mass and says "There's a petition in the back that we'd like everyone to sign. It asks the current parliament to reopen the question on the definition of marriage."

That's it! When did intolerance become par for the course around here? I grew up in this church and I don't remember it ever being this political and this out of touch with humanity. Disgusted, I left after the blessing, but before the final hymn (that's scandalous, by the by).

Walking home, I was upset. No, upset doesn't describe the feeling accurately. I was hoping that maybe, since this is a church attached to a school, it would be a bit more in touch with reality. I was hoping that the conservative throwback was just on the coast. I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't feel like such a fish out of water.

Not bloody likely.

Instead, I'm left feeling like Sisyphus, doomed to forever push a giant rock (let's call it "reality", or perhaps "common sense") up a stubborn mountain that refuses to listen (that is, the Roman Catholic Church in all her glory).

If I lived in Regina, I'd be at the Reform Synagogue so fast, the Catholics wouldn't know what hit them.