Better Get Ready
I grew up Catholic as did my entire family. I was christened in the church, confirmed there, (confirmation name, Michael) attended catechism there and was married there. Alice did all that as well as attending Catholic school when she was younger. Our children were all baptized as Catholics.
Somewhere along the way, it occurred to me that there should be more in-depth information about God, Jesus and salvation. And maybe a little less emphasis on the seemingly continuous collections taken at Mass.
At the time I was growing up, immediately following World War II, parishioners didn't have money. They bartered to provide for themselves and their families. The shoemaker fixed shoes in return for bread. Meatcutters cut up deer, geese, fish and fowl in return for a portion of what they had cut. Mechanics repaired worker's trucks in return for getting their leaky roofs fixed.
These were the blue collar workers in our town and they did not have extra money to put into the basket on Sundays. But that didn't stop the priest in his homily from telling everyone that it was their duty to give to the Church.
Back then, when a family was in need, the Church would give them assistance but the bulk of the assistance came from friends and neighbors.
In our church, St. Joan of Arc in Orleans, our priest (Father James Lynch) did not live lavishly. The Church-owned building where he lived was not a mansion so I always wondered why the heavy emphasis on trying to get blood from the proverbial turnips?
I learned that the Fall River Diocese was pulling the strings and that Father Lynch was simply doing what he had been ordered to do. By the Church. The hard-earned money of the parishioners in Orleans and surrounding towns was not benefitting local people with few exceptions.
That got my attention.
I still continued to go to church but with very little enthusiasm. Hellfire & Brimstone teaching didn't do much for me. I stayed with the church primarily so that our kids could get a basic religious education much to the chagrin of our youngest daughter, Kim. Kim paid attention to what was being said and taught. She said it was bogus (or words to that effect). I listened.
In 1977 I had the opportunity to read a book called “The Late Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsey. It explained the Holy Bible in a way that I had never heard in the Catholic Church. It grabbed me.
Shortly after that, facts and allegations of child abuse at the hands of the priests of the Catholic Church became widespread. Proof that the Catholic Church not only knew about the abuse, but condoned it and actively covered it up, resulted in huge legal settlements which have nearly bankrupted the Church. They actually increased their collections to rebuild their coffers. I was mortified.
Reading the writings of Mr. Lindsey and several others who are recognized experts in bible interpretation and prophesy , all of whose lives are dedicated to spreading the Word of God so that souls may be saved, I learned that the Catholic Church developed their own bible and added some books not included in the 66 original books of the bible as a teaching tool and, among other things, omitted reference to the Rapture.
That did it.
I was brought up to think that religion was all about the “Church”. The Catholic Church specifically, which had dared to call itself the replacement for the Jews as God's chosen ones since, in the Church's view, the Jews had killed Jesus and therefore forfeited their right to be the chosen ones.
What I learned was that the people were the churches. Not the buildings, cathedrals or edifices. The Church cannot be “saved”, only the people in it. Except to attend weddings and funerals of friends and relatives, I no longer darken the doors of the Catholic Church.
