Dear Pope Francis,
As a Catholic, married to a Catholic man and raising four Catholic children, I was very excited to hear this morning that “we” have a new Pope. Congratulations on the gig.
When I woke my eldest son for school the first thing I said to him was “we have a new Pope!” It’s exciting for us. One of the highlights of my childhood was seeing Pope John Paul II in Sydney. My grandparents had a blessing on their wall from Pope Paul VI that was personally signed by him – that was a BIG THING!
We totally dig the Catholic Church and we’re trying our hardest to raise our children with Jesus’ words and teachings. But you need to make some changes, Frank. I don’t think my children will stick with their faith if you don’t.
I can’t imagine being the head of the Roman Catholic Church would be an easy job. I know it’s not all about sitting in a big chair while people kiss your Papal ring and touring around in that groovy Pope-mobile waving at everybody. There’s some pretty tough stuff to deal with, isn’t there?
Like the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests that keeps being swept under the rug. You don’t think it’s going to go away, do you? As a Catholic, hearing these horrific stories makes me feel physically ill and it certainly doesn’t make me want to profess my religious persuasion to anybody lest I be somehow tarnished with a similar brush.
Do you realise how hard it is to maintain your faith when the very people we’re supposed to look to for guidance have broken our trust so badly? How do I explain to my four Catholic children how horrible abuse happened to children who trusted priests? Also, can you let me know if it’s OK to trust our parish priest when he is around my kids.
Frank, I really do hope you will take the time to have this investigated thoroughly and properly acknowledged. I also hope there’s a big fat apology from the Church to not just those who were abused, but Catholics who have had their faith rocked in this way.
Do you think maybe it’s time for Catholicism to move into the 21st century? The catechism of the Catholic Church is a bit dated now, don’t you think? I mean – do you think maybe our priests should be allowed to have relationships or be married? I think that’s a fabulous idea. You’ll probably end up with more people willing to take up the vocation too, if you do. I know you’re struggling for priests these days. If any of my sons decided they wanted to be a priest, I would be happier for them to walk that path knowing they could still have a loving and fulfilling relationship with their partner and children of their own. Would that be such a bad thing?
And what about the contraception? Is it so evil to want to manage how many children we have? We can’t all afford to have child upon child upon child. For what it’s worth, I have four children – does that make me more holy than another family who only chose to have two? Let’s move with the times, Frank!
Speaking of moving with the times – gay marriage. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this, Frank. There’s such a huge movement in the world towards the acceptance and legalisation of gay marriage. Do you think there will ever be a place for that within the Catholic Church?
Look, I’m not expecting you to change anything overnight and I certainly won’t be holding my breath for any changes but it would be nice if you could consider it.
It’s all up to you, Frank. Time to stop living in the past and let’s move into the future – where people can again say, proudly, I’m Catholic.
Yours sincerely,
Marti
