Ahhhh, the holidays are over, for the most part. The only thing left is to de-decorate. I am so tired. The good eating and exercising I was doing, well, halted. I was blowing up like a puffer fish and feeling like a slug. Then the awful, dreaded stomach bug of 2011. I got it 2 days before 2012 and it feels like I have been sick for a year. I lost 10 lbs in 3 days and aside from the smell emanating from me, I was hot. It is a week later and I am just starting to bounce back. This is the weekend to take down the decorations and get the house back in order. Ha ha. The house back in order. What does that mean? I am not sure.
The looming news for us locals is the Philadelphia Archdiocese will be announcing the closings of many Catholic schools in the area. It is sad and distressing. It will not help anyone if these schools close. The already struggling inner city public schools will be flooded with more students. The families that have struggled to pay the tuition for their students to get a better education are basically being shunned. The Church wants all it’s children to get a Catholic education, however it is now limiting that opportunity and making the Catholic family’s lives that much more difficult. As if a Catholic’s life is not difficult already.
I have posted on this blog before about my conflicted views, but I really feel for those that have found their way in the Church and who have found peace in it. It is a distressing time. I have a good friend and neighbor who will have to wait until 4 pm today to see if her daughters will have to switch schools next year. She is a devout Catholic and of all people deserves to be able to send her daughters to the Catholic school that she wants. I feel for her.
I have plenty of suggestions about how the Church can obtain some money without hurting the school students.
- They can take .5% of the paintings and art that the Church owns and sell it to museums all across the world.
- They can take the vast and I mean VAST amounts of land (http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-biggest-landowners-2011-3?op=1 )177 Million Acres) that they own throughout the world and sell some of it.
- They can stop spending money to lobby in congress fighting legislation that allows insurance companies to pay for birth control. http://www.salon.com/topic/catholic_bishops/ They are fighting that NON-Catholics be denied birth control! Why?
- They could stop paying for lobbyists to fight same sex marriage. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/04/1033225/-Catholic-Bishops-Lobby-Congress-Against-Birth-Control,-Gay-Marriage,-and-More) They are fighting against the rights of non-Catholics. WHY?
- They could stop paying for lawyers and lobbyists to fight statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse. (http://catholics4change.com/)
- They could take some of the priests out of their individual homes and house them together and make them drive to work everyday like the rest of us.
- They could stop supplying lawyers to defend priests accused of raping children. (That is what public defenders are for.)
Why am I still so invested in this? Why do I still get so fired up? I am still hoping for the Church to change and be held accountable for it’s wrongdoings. I am still praying for an uncorrupt religion that is simple in its message and kind in it’s teachings. I am still waiting for the good priests who live in THIS century (there are many out there) to be put into leadership roles so they can help facilitate the changes needed. I am still waiting for more of the parishioners to stand up for what is right and what they truly believe in their hearts and not just follow the Church blindly. I am waiting to come home to my Church.
Back to the life in my house. We are playing play-doh and Cars 2 is the movie of the day. My oldest has a major Lego project when he gets home from school. I will continue/restart my exercising. Tomorrow will be the day that we take down the tree and the nativity set. We always keep up the decorations until after Little Christmas. For those of you not familiar it is also called the Feast of the Epiphany. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Christmas) It is a Catholic thing.
