"Playing Catholic"

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There have been some academic items about “playing Indian” , studying the assumption of different personas, etc., as a kind of pretend thing.

I think we should develop a category of “playing Catholic,” or persons who like to play at being Catholic. . . either adopting garb, sacramentals, language or the label.

Some political figures come to mind here. . . Nancy Pelosi.

Who else likes “playing Catholic?”
 
Captain_America said:
There have been some academic items about “playing Indian” , studying the assumption of different personas, etc., as a kind of pretend thing.

I think we should develop a category of “playing Catholic,” or persons who like to play at being Catholic. . . either adopting garb, sacramentals, language or the label.

Some political figures come to mind here. . . Nancy Pelosi.

Who else likes “playing Catholic?”
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What does this mean, academic studies about playing Indian? People pretend to be Indians and see what others think of them?

And I don’t think that Pelosi would be able to pass as a Catholic with saramental garb on–they’d think she was Episcopalian… and that wouldn’t make any difference.
 
The basic idea is cultural appropriation for one’s own purposes.

In some situations, it behooves people to play at being Catholic. It can help a politician, for example.
 
Dale_M said:
erm… if someone is born and raised Catholic, it isn’t cultural appropriation. Catholicism would be part of his or her culture.
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Cultural Catholic means one who just likes the, as Protestants say, smells and bells of Catholicism. They have no religious connection to it, no importance in the ritual. They just wanna see their little girl in a cute mini wedding dress, the just want to have the wonderfuil wedding pictures in front of the alter. They wear a rosary for show, but have no intention of every praying it, or maybe don’t even know how. They’ll probably only attend mass on Christmas and Easter.

That’s a cultural Catholic. A lot different from someone who has Catholicism as part of their culture.
 
shondrea said:
Cultural Catholic means one who just likes the, as Protestants say, smells and bells of Catholicism. They have no religious connection to it
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Oh… I think most “cultural Catholics”, and certainly Nancy Pelosi, would take exception to the statement that they have no religious connection to Catholicism. Granted, they don’t take the teachings of the Church as seriously as many here at CAF would want them to, but that doesn’t mean they lack for a religious feeling or sense of the divine in Catholic prayer and sacraments.
 
Well, I’m not saying they don’t. I don’t know near enough about politics to really know much of anything about Pelosi. Just putting my two cents out there 🙂
 
People can pretend to be a lot of things they are not. I think anyone who adopts a persona or label to gain some temporal advantage is being dishonest.

God bless,
Ed
 
Going ahead, it might make sense to distinguish two things here:

(1) Catholics who pick and choose what they want to affirm.

The question here is, how far can this picking and choosing go? Can a Ted Kennedy support abortion and still, realistically, fit within criteria for being REALLY Catholic? How far AWAY from the Church teachings can you go before you REALLY ARE NOT Catholic, although it’s comforting and convenient and perhaps quite helpful to say, ala Pelosi, that you are Catholic.

(2) Non-Catholics who want the Catholic label or identity for themselves; they find something in Catholicism that they really like, externalities, and dress themselves in these things. But without belief in the Church herself.

I would call this second group “playing Catholic.”
 
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