The Genius of the Catholic Laity

[Mole]

The largest religious group in Oz is the Catholic Laity, but 90% don't go to mass but most of them staff and send their children to Catholic schools and staff and attend Catholic hospitals. Also most staff Catholic welfare agencies.

This is because most of the Laity don't accept or practise the sexual teachings of the clergy. And to a very small degree because of the sexual scandals of the clergy. And because there is now alternative entertainment available, such as television.

And as a result the Laity is no longer joining the clergy or religious orders, and so the clergy and religious orders are in crisis and are dependent on importing clergy from overseas.

But most of all because the Australian Government gives forty-seven thousand million dollars to religion every year, and the lions share goes to Catholic institutions. And as well, these same Catholic institutions own vast and valuable prime real estate.

So rather than rejecting Catholicism, the Catholic Laity have taken over the Catholic institutions and their income.

Of course the idealists amongst us regard this as rank hypocrisy. But the Catholic Laity are laughing all the way to the bank.

So the Catholic clergy as well as the idealists have been outflanked.

And this is the genius of the Australian Catholic Laity. Rather than having a revolution, the Catholic Laity have, in their typical Australian laconic way, incrementally taken over the Church from the clergy, without fuss.

And the clergy and religious orders put a good face on it by calling it, "Inclusion of the Laity".

 

[Take Five]

I think you could be on to something here. I don't call it hypocrisy on behalf of the laity, but I am uneasy about having so many Catholic institutions fall into lay hands, especially when so many don't really practice the faith. I wish there were enough religious and clergy to handle all the institutions as it seems they once did. For a Catholic like me, I think the best I can hope for is that the laity rediscover the faith and that more people join religious orders, and just hope for the best in the long run.

 

[jenocyde]

I'm tickled because you taught me something today, Victor. Beyond the obvious laity discussion, I had to look up the phrase "thousand million".

Thank you.

 

[Mole]

I think you could be on to something here. I don't call it hypocrisy on behalf of the laity, but I am uneasy about having so many Catholic institutions fall into lay hands, especially when so many don't really practice the faith. I wish there were enough religious and clergy to handle all the institutions as it seems they once did. For a Catholic like me, I think the best I can hope for is that the laity rediscover the faith and that more people join religious orders, and just hope for the best in the long run.

Well, my dear Take Five, you can take heart for the situation is reversed in the undeveloped world. And the undeveloped world is evangelising us. And the clergy are making up their numbers from immigrants and visiting clergy from the undeveloped world.

Sure, they don't speak English very well and their sermons are largely incomprehensible and they perpetuate all the old superstitions, but they do as they are told and repeat the theology by rote.

And I can't help feeling that the good Catholic, Niccolo Machiavelli, is smiling to himself.

 

[Mole]

I'm tickled because you taught me something today, Victor. Beyond the obvious laity discussion, I had to look up the phrase "thousand million".

Thank you.

And I am tickled pink at the very thought of tickling you, dear Jenocyde.

But I can't help looking at your face to see whether you like being tickled. You may enjoy it, or your face may darken and I would quickly withdraw my hand, for I don't even know whether you are ticklish.

And yes, a thousand million is one billion dollars. Our gross national product is about a thousand, thousand, million dollars ($A1.2 trillion dollars), the 12th largest GDP in the world. So the forty-seven billion is quite a tidy sum to give to religion each year. So who can blame them for keeping an eye on the main chance.

No wonder they are tickled pink so I thought it might not be entirely out of order to give you a little tickle too.

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

You know, Victor, if you were to gnaw your own fingers off, it would serve at least two useful purposes.

 

[Mole]

You know, Victor, if you were to gnaw your own fingers off, it would serve at least two useful purposes.

I guess it would satisfy my hunger as I am getting a little peckish at 2 AM in the morning.

And it would stop me from annoying you with my posts.

 

[01011010]

I thought lots of religions do this. I mean some may believe, some may not but it's definitely a business that can often make boatloads of cash.

 

[Mole]

I thought lots of religions do this. I mean some may believe, some may not but it's definitely a business that can often make boatloads of cash.

It is usually more subtle than simply cash.

We are talking about a vast, international institution with diplomatic immunity that informs the whole culture of the West.

In such an institution motivations are often hidden, such as financial motivations and sexual motivations. Everyone believes they are doing good. And so they project evil outwards.

I was talking to Falun Gong the other day and they are a straightforward authoritarian organisation that projects evil outwards. And Falun Gong are of course a Chinese spiritual institution. So such institutions are common throughout the world. And you can see elements of it in any kind of closed world, even our little world here.

Of course you can learn an awful lot by following the cash flow, but my guess is that no one knows the cash flow of this cult, and they don't want to know. They just want to know that by following those innocent looking categories, they will find greater understanding.

Of course all cults are for peace and understanding, just as every beauty queen is for world peace.

 

[Arthur Schopenhauer]

TAX FREE!