Am I the only person here on CAF who struggle to accept Church teachings on different issues? I love the Mass, believe in the True Presence, and absolutely adore the Holy Mother…
What are the issues that you deal with and pray about on a daily basis? Thank you all , in advance for being honest.
I really struggle with Catholic social teaching, and not so much with what I read in the catechism as with what is taught by my local parish, my diocese, the Church in actual practice. And I know if my interpretation is so different than say, my pastor or my bishop or my pope, that my interpretation is likely not the correct one. My viewpoint is that the Church must be correct so I have to figure out a way to accept what it teaches whether it makes any sense or not.
While I firmly believe in my obligation to be loving and charitable to the poor, I have a lot of trouble with the idea of forced government income redistribution, confiscatory tax structures, big government programs in place of individual or local religious charities, open borders, etc. I’m not saying all of these are explicitly ordered in the catechism, but they are what is taught and practiced and fought for by my church leaders in my local parish, my diocese and the U.S.
I’m disturbed by being told by church leaders I am obligated to vote for higher property taxes in order to support public school funding and to vote against water rights for farmers in order for everyone to have a “fair” share of water. I think farmers grow food and need water to do it. I like to eat and all the poor people I know like to eat, too. Therefore, if farmers have water, poor people can eat and so voting against taking away farmers’ water rights is voting for feeding the poor. And when I suggested organizing a group to raise money to buy school supplies and computers, I was told that wasn’t fair to schools that don’t have such a group so Catholic social teaching obliges Catholics to ensure it is done through property taxation (never mind that as a renter I don’t pay property taxes). I see illegal immigration as a way to import a slave class of menial laborers who have no legal rights and are forced to live in poverty. That seems wrong to me and I don’t understand why the church so avidly supports what is essentially slavery.
I think the death penalty should be very rare and used only for the most horrific crimes. But I don’t oppose it altogether. I even understand the church’s reasoning why it should not be used. I question whether we can effectively render horrific criminals incapable of doing harm since they are housed with other prisoners who can also be harmed, but I kind of admire th optimism of those who think we can render them incapable. And while I read in the catechism that the church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty and only says it should be “very rare if not practically nonexistent”, I’ve also been taught by my priest, deacon and other leaders that the past 3 popes have expanded their understanding of that decision to mean it should be completely nonexistent always.
And I get confused by the pope being anti-air conditioning in Laudato Si and my parish having a fundraising drive to raise money for an air conditioner so it won’t be so miserably hot when the archbishop comes to visit this summer.
So Catholic social teaching confuses me. And maybe that confusion is more in my confusion over how much I need to listen to the authority of my pastor, archbishop, pope, etc, and how much I can rely on my own interpretation of things.
Probably the answer lies in the end of your initial query where you say, “…pray about on a daily basis.”