Day 16 at St. Florence: Gimme that old time religion

so it's been about 3 weeks in a Catholic school, and i hadn't seen much Catholicism. sure, every classroom in the building has a crucifix with an elegantly modern-shaped benevolent Jesus and every morning begins with a prayer over the PA, but it was all... less than expected.

today, we got down to the nitty-gritty: making rosaries for starving orphan kids in Africa or New Guinea. the church of this district (diocese, i am guessing is the term) thought it would be a lovely idea to have the kids in all the Catholic schools in the area fork over a dollar and make rosaries for the poor heathens and pagans on the other side of the world. the sentiment around St. Florence is that a) the rosaries are effin' complicated for primary and junior high students alike; b) the dollar could've been put to better use for things like books, socks, beds, housing, FOOD etc.

so there was a bit of wondering why the church is headed by such pompous and chest-beating pricks -- pardon my Medieval English -- who start off their meetings with, "well, Sacred Heart (another school) has finished all their rosaries..." and wondering about the religion in general. sermons at mass are apparently either dreadfully boring or infuriating because the priest comes off so stuck-up and self-righteous. the teachers who are parents brought their kids to Mass regularly, but now they only go at Easter and Christmas. kind of reminds me of how much the church i attend has been blessed greatly with Godly leadership and servants (with only a few jerks sprinkled in for flavour).

i haven't had the time to sit down and formulate thoughts and theories about all this, but it all bears striking resemblances to things we've seen over and over and over again; there is nothing new under the sun. Roman Catholicism, in general, is one big punch-line in my mind, though there are definitely pockets of genuine Christ-likeness. the same can probably be said for Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism and Atheism as well.

all religious mumbo-jumbo aside, i love this place and the students and staff in it. they've all got their quirks and wrinkles, friendships and... animosities, just like any other group of people stuck together in one place for an extended period of time. this is community.