Catholic and Loving it!

It's been a while since I wrote about the survey in The Tablet. After asking about reasons for going to Mass The Tablet asked three questions beginning with the words "I can be a good Catholic without..."

Not so very long ago I saw a comic strip in which a man confessed to killing his wife and asked: "Does that make me a bad person?" It's become a bit of a catchphrase for relativists. "Bad People" are evil people like Hitler and the Spanish Inquisition. I cheated on the test, but I'm not a Bad Person. I stole from my mum, but I'm not a Bad Person. I don't go to mass, but I'm not a Bad Catholic. I'm a Good Catholic.

These figures are unhelpful without some kind of definition of a "good Catholic" and since everybody was left to define that for themselves I expect "a good Catholic" ended up pretty synonymous with "me", because "I'm not a bad person".

Percentage of people who strongly agree or agree by age...

"I can be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession"

18-35	36-45	46-65	over 65
43%	52%	49%	43%

"I can be a good Catholic without going to weekly Mass"

18-33	36-45	46-65	over 65
39%	45%	34%	27%

"I can be a good Catholic without marrying in the Church"

18-35	36-45	46-65	over 65
34%	45%	38%	25%

These questions are badly worded by the silly Tablet people because clearly there are exceptions. Can you be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession? of course you can... if you are six. Can you be a good Catholic without weekly mass? yes... if you are housebound. Can you be a good Catholic without marrying in Church? My friend Ben hopes so, he got a dispensation from the Bishop. If you can't be a good Catholic without marrying in the Church then it's game over for Ben (and so young...)

I'm going to assume these questions include hidden qualifiers along the lines of "if you are able bodied and above the age of reason" and I'm going to ignore the last one because it's stupid.

43% of Catholics say you can be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession. 43% of Catholics are wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 43% of Catholics have been cheated and lied to by priests who say (actual quote) "You don't need to go to confession, you haven't sinned, not real sins." Oh, that's okay then.

39% say you can be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. If you can get to mass, then no, you can't be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. Does that make you a bad person? I don't know, why don't you go to confession and ask?

These answers are depressing. I note with interest the 39% of respondents who say you can be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. Is that the same four in ten that don't come to mass mass every week?

Relativistic thinking is engrained in our culture. Earlier this year I wrote to a priest about a liturgical abuse and as part of his response he said "But seriously James, there are so many greater wrongs in the world on which to exercise our Christian concern, such as the wrongs of genocide, abortion and war in our world. In the face of such wrongs, I don't think this is a major breach (if a breach it is at all) which need overly preoccupy you.".

But seriously, this argument is false. We need to ditch the relativism. The fact that skipping a mass is not as bad as rape does not make it okay. Our entire culture justifies itself on not being as bad as some other comparably worse thing. This is how cohabitation, divorce, contraception and even abortion become so readily accepted, because I'm not a bad person, because I haven't actually tortured somebody to death.

Priests need to teach (with qualifiers of course, the housebound etc) that if you don't go to mass every week, you need to seriously entertain the notion that perhaps you are not a good Catholic but they need to explain that they are not therefore writing you off as completely evil. To be honest, I think it's time we dropped the term 'good Catholic'. We're all of us sometimes good and sometimes bad.

In Fit For Mission - Church [PDF] the Bishop of Lancaster puts it this way...

As your bishop, observing this forgetfulness taking place among us has been a source of great sadness to me:

• Those who ignore their responsibility to God and neighbour forget they are Catholic.
• Those who deliberately miss Sunday Mass forget they are Catholic.
• Those who never pray forget they are Catholic.
  Those who deny they are sinners and avoid confession forget they are Catholic.
• Those who live oblivious to the suffering of the poor forget they are Catholic.
• Those who dissent from the authority of the Church forget they are Catholic.
• Those who use contraception, IVF and embryonic stem cell research forget they are Catholic.
• Those who use pornography forget they are Catholic.
• Those who have sex outside of marriage forget they are Catholic.
• Those who commit homosexual acts forget they are Catholic.
• Those who exploit their power and position forget they are Catholic.
• Those who cheat on benefits or taxes forget they are Catholic.
• Those employers who exploit their workforce forget they are Catholic.
• Those who have racist, sexist or homophobic attitudes forget they are Catholic.

According to The Tablet, 43% of Catholics forget they are Catholic. Looking at that list, I reckon all of us forget at times. I wonder when our Priests are going to start reminding us.