Catholic

Rev. Gallegos of Chucándaro

I'm ambivalent about Catholics. One one hand they are Christians and so better than most of the world in so far as they are one of the foundations of Western Civilization, which I am a great believer in. I read several Catholic bloggers and they seem to be intelligent, well reasoned people. On the other hand, we have a land holding structure in Latin America which is pretty screwed up but is supported by the Church.

Now we get this report from Bayou Renaissance Man about a priest in Mexico getting in trouble with the Church over advising his parishioners to get a gun.

The common image of the church (at least in my mind) is encouraging people to hold to a moral code, don't do bad things, at least try to behave. But the church's actual business is offering forgiveness for whatever bad things you have done. That was the girl Percy's problem in season 4 of The Sinner, she couldn't forgive herself and she couldn't confess her crime to anyone else. It probably wouldn't have bothered a psychopath, but it bothered Percy enough to drive her to suicide.

When you are raised in a family with strong religious beliefs, those beliefs are going to be inculcated in you from a very young age, so when you get to be big enough to commit mayhem, then when you confess your misdeeds to the priest and the priest tells you that God forgives you, you believe him and whatever burden of guilt you were carrying around goes away, because that it what you believe and you believe that because you were brought up to believe it.

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Catholics are mentally healthier than the average bear or beast of a man.

That's my amateur psychological theory for today.