So much for being inclusive
I came across a strange little story yesterday.
But first I have to go back to my school days to explain things.
I was taught by The Brothers in a boys Catholic school. Religious education was of course a core subject taught by the Brothers themselves. This education started with one basic rule – there was only one religion on the planet and that is Roman Catholicism. Therefore you were either Roman Catholic or you were a Heathen.
It didn’t matter is you lived a life of selfless devotion to the poor and the sick and never transgressed in any way, if you are a Heathen you are condemned to the fiery pit of Hell for all eternity. The Pearly Gates of Heaven were very strictly open to Roman Catholics only. No exceptions.
There is only one entry to Roman Catholicism and that’s through Baptism. Once you are baptised you are RC for life and it is the golden ticket to all the other sacraments. No baptism and you can’t be educated in a Catholic school. There is no entry to the priesthood. You can’t even get married and of course, being a Heathen once you die you go straight to Hell.
Now here it gets interesting. Apparently there are many thousands in Brazil and the U S of A who think they are Catholic but in fact they’re not. They may think they have later been confirmed but in fact they haven’t. They can’t even get married, so those who have gone through the ceremony are in fact unmarried and living in sin. Oh dear! Think of all the offspring of these sinful parents – little bastards, the lot of them. Many will have died and after leading a blameless life to their surprise find themselves in the Fiery Pits for all eternity when they were expecting angels strumming harps on clouds.
So what brought about this calamitous state of affairs?
It’s all down to one priest. He’s the one who officiated at all these thousands of baptisms. All his baptisms were invalid. How did this catastrophe happen?
In the ceremony he said “We baptise you in the Name ….” etc where he should have said “I baptise you in the Name …” etc.
Yes. Apparently his use of the plural pronoun instead of the singular invalidated the whole thing. Woops!
A simple little mistake but apparently that’s enough.
Pronouns are even trickier nowadays, with the funny lot demanding unique ones!
At least they can’t complain about ‘we’ and ‘I’. Who would have thought though that those tiny words could be so catastrophic?!
My last employer before retirement was the state of Oregon. About a year before the grand day of my retirement an email was sent out to all employees that suggested we specify in our outgoing emails our preferred personal pronouns. I exercised my option to decline doing so.
Within a week half of the emails received had (She) (Her) or (He) (Him) included in the signature line.
These were supposedly educated people. Why they bought into this nonsense is beyond me.
There’s a play by J B Priestley, ‘When We Are Married’, based on the premise that three middle-aged, respectable, pillar-of-the-community couples, all celebrating their 25th Anniversaries, suddenly discover that the ‘vicar’ who performed the marriages may not have been adequately qualified, thus they had all been ‘living in sin’ all that time.
Maybe that’s where the Brazilian non-priest got the idea.
I have no recollection of the event as I was only six weeks old at the time. According to my parents, the deed was done at Sacred Heart Parish in Klamath Falls Oregon. Father William Casey officiating.
Since none present other than me are among the living, I have a 50/50 chance.
Maybe he was royalty.