Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Misrepresented

First semester of my freshman year here at Loyola has been both enlightening and tons of fun, and I think Understanding Literature only added to my experience. I initially thought that all the extra events and bus trip were going to be a complete drag and waste of my time, but I was pleasantly surprised. I learned so much through attending events and exploring Baltimore. These are things I would not have done if I wasn’t assigned to do so. I think the extracurricular events really helped me to discover all that Loyola has to offer its students, and conveniently I got to have these experiences during my first semester. I have learned great tips for applying to jobs, to have tolerance for other groups of people through learning about their struggles, and even how the Catholic Church is sometimes misrepresented from my most recent event with Father Linnane.

Father Linnane gave a great talk on sexual ethics last night. He talked about his training in this field and then went on to share with us an experience he had a few years back in Boca Raton, Florida when he went to visit his parents. He said that he would go to mass with his parents everyday, “but on this particular day they had slept in—thank god!” He told us that the Priest gave a homily about how Lent is a time to repent for our sins. He told the congregation that he knows what a sin is and he unlike most other priests is not afraid to tell the world what they really and truly are. This included birth control, masturbation, fornication, and even homosexuality. At this point Father Linnane said that the crowd’s—probably no one under 60—faces turned white and their jaws literally dropped. This statement absolutely enraged Father Linnane because this priest completely misrepresented what the Catholic Church stands for. Sins require a reflection then grave wrong doing, and homosexuality is not a choice therefore it can’t be a sin. There were probably many people in the crowd who believed the priest when he said that homosexuality is a sin. This made me wonder how many times groups, organizations, and other people go misrepresented and we believe what we are told purely because we have done no other research. This reminded me about how in Twelfth Night Viola disguises herself as a man, Cesario, in order to work for Orsino–-the man she has fallen in love with. At this moment Viola is misrepresenting herself to Orsino and to Olivia who is now attracted to him. As one can see when you misrepresent something you can create a whole web of problems. This goes the same for the priest who said homosexuality was a sin. By misrepresenting the church to its followers he is likely to cause a web of problems. Catholics may tell other Catholics this so called belief and then you will have the people believing something completely untrue.

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