2026-5-18
To be RC and to be somewhat aware of what is going on the church is to live with cognitive dissonance. All of us have it until we leave and stop recognizing the church and the men in the Vatican as representing God. And priests are swimming in this same water. They, too, live with the cognitive dissonance of being told they must uphold a mighty high standard all the while being practically pushed to have a double life.
Sometimes cognitive dissonance is impossible to face. I think the ones who never face it are the lucky ones. Maybe not. The RC church is this massive distraction from God. You get swept away in the smells and bells and the shiny bits and you miss God all together. God is in the opposite direction. And then some people stop looking for God or even caring that they’ve stopped looking.
I have a woman friend who never misses a liturgy. Wears a head scarf. Is always pregnant. Is submissive to her husband and priest, of course. She told me she didn’t believe in God. She believed in the beauty of the liturgy but not God… Essentially, she was treating the liturgy like some sort of pagan ceremony while carefully virtue signaling that she was a good Catholic woman. It didn’t bother her in the slightest. As a RC you don’t really have to seek God. You have to go through the motions.