Z
Zoe_Brain
Guest
Thank you so much, your cogent explanation was as clear as it could be.
I don’t consider myself worthy of the name “Christian”, as I lack faith. I have made two vows in my life though, ones that I take seriously. As seriously as life and death.
One was my marriage vow. There was a clause about “in sickness and in health”, with no cavils or exceptions made about which medical conditions counted, and which did not.
The second was the vow I took at my son’s christening, to bring him up in the Catholic faith.
My marriage is chaste: my partner is not a practicing Catholic, unlike my mother or sister, yet we cannot bring ourselves to break our vow, whether the Church allows it or not. We have no intention of troubling them with the question, living as sisters more than anything else, and both devoted to the son whose birth was so unlikely.
That some people, people who are well-meaning and trying to do the Church’s bidding, don’t understand, misinterpret, and in general don’t follow your line of reasoning is regrettable. It’s also inconvenient for me personally. Every few months, I must travel hundreds of kilometres to see an endocrinologist, because those nearby won’t treat “people like me” on religious grounds. I’ve been ordered to divorce by a senior governmental official or face withdrawal of human rights, and told to withdraw my son from his Catholic school, the usual that many Intersexed people face, Far less than most, in fact.
That though, while upsetting, is not really important. In this life, we all have to suffer some injustices, some great, some small. What is important is that I should do the right thing, as I see it. That means not just “following my conscience”, because I’m acutely aware of my own fallibility, but making my best efforts to ascertain what is the Right. Then have the gumption to do it, or give it my best attempt, considering that I’m all too fallible.
As for others in the Church who are not Doctors Juris Canonici, and who persecute me out of the best of motives, how can I blame them? Someone who went through far worse said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. If someone who is Perfect can say that, when faced with worse, how can someone as imperfect as I am not follow that example as best she may?
Your argument is impeccable. I cannot fault your logic, and it concords with such other research as I’d done. It makes sense, and I need little convincing. I was afraid though that my tentative conclusions might have been due to me seeing what I wanted to see, not what is.
Again,my thanks. You exemplify 1 Corinthians 13, a text I try in my faltering way to live by.
May I ask you when you pray for me to redirect your prayers to my son, and also to the many many Intersexed people who have been treated far, far worse than I have. That’s almost all of them.
For those whose bodies were mutilated by well-meaning surgeons when they were infants.
For those forbidden from ever seeing their children again.
For those recovering from rape and brain-injury from assault.
For those shunned by their parents and their Church.
For those dying because medical treatment was refused to them.
And especially for those in the depths of despair who are in danger of suicide.
If I am worthy of a scintilla of blessing, please re-direct it to them. Their need is so much greater than mine, I’ve been already blessed far more than I deserve.
I don’t consider myself worthy of the name “Christian”, as I lack faith. I have made two vows in my life though, ones that I take seriously. As seriously as life and death.
One was my marriage vow. There was a clause about “in sickness and in health”, with no cavils or exceptions made about which medical conditions counted, and which did not.
The second was the vow I took at my son’s christening, to bring him up in the Catholic faith.
My marriage is chaste: my partner is not a practicing Catholic, unlike my mother or sister, yet we cannot bring ourselves to break our vow, whether the Church allows it or not. We have no intention of troubling them with the question, living as sisters more than anything else, and both devoted to the son whose birth was so unlikely.
That some people, people who are well-meaning and trying to do the Church’s bidding, don’t understand, misinterpret, and in general don’t follow your line of reasoning is regrettable. It’s also inconvenient for me personally. Every few months, I must travel hundreds of kilometres to see an endocrinologist, because those nearby won’t treat “people like me” on religious grounds. I’ve been ordered to divorce by a senior governmental official or face withdrawal of human rights, and told to withdraw my son from his Catholic school, the usual that many Intersexed people face, Far less than most, in fact.
That though, while upsetting, is not really important. In this life, we all have to suffer some injustices, some great, some small. What is important is that I should do the right thing, as I see it. That means not just “following my conscience”, because I’m acutely aware of my own fallibility, but making my best efforts to ascertain what is the Right. Then have the gumption to do it, or give it my best attempt, considering that I’m all too fallible.
As for others in the Church who are not Doctors Juris Canonici, and who persecute me out of the best of motives, how can I blame them? Someone who went through far worse said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. If someone who is Perfect can say that, when faced with worse, how can someone as imperfect as I am not follow that example as best she may?
Your argument is impeccable. I cannot fault your logic, and it concords with such other research as I’d done. It makes sense, and I need little convincing. I was afraid though that my tentative conclusions might have been due to me seeing what I wanted to see, not what is.
Again,my thanks. You exemplify 1 Corinthians 13, a text I try in my faltering way to live by.
May I ask you when you pray for me to redirect your prayers to my son, and also to the many many Intersexed people who have been treated far, far worse than I have. That’s almost all of them.
For those whose bodies were mutilated by well-meaning surgeons when they were infants.
For those forbidden from ever seeing their children again.
For those recovering from rape and brain-injury from assault.
For those shunned by their parents and their Church.
For those dying because medical treatment was refused to them.
And especially for those in the depths of despair who are in danger of suicide.
If I am worthy of a scintilla of blessing, please re-direct it to them. Their need is so much greater than mine, I’ve been already blessed far more than I deserve.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter if you are “convinced”- you are a random poster on the internet. But the Church does not speak on this matter directly, as the canon lawyer pointed out earlier on, so who are you to say that it DEFINITELY doesn’t happen?