2001-07-18

Monsignor McFarland RIP

There was a death in my family yesterday. I wasn't related to him. I'd never met him personally, although it turns out that my parents talked to him, and my father and he had many of the same friends.

Monsignor McFarland passed away, and when I found out last night, I burst into tears.

I'm constantly in a position where I have to defend my faith. Let's face it, it's patently uncool to be a 30-year-old practicing Catholic. I'm a woman, a "feminist," I have multiple piercings and short dyed hair, I've been sincerely attracted to other women, and I would trudge through a blizzard barefoot to defend a woman's right to choose. Nevertheless, I cling to my religion as much as anything else that makes up my identity. It's absolutely absurd that I believe in Christianity, but I do believe in it, despite the many problems I have with organized religion as a whole, and with Catholicism in particular.

I understand that being this open about my faith invites all kinds of ridicule, as does the fact that I am sincerely mourning someone I'd only encountered on television, several nights a week, to recite the Rosary. This, too, I realize, is also ridiculous. But Monsignor McFarland was truly among the first to put the religion in which I was brought up in its proper perspective, and if you want to scoff at the fact that I rediscovered my faith via cable tv, that's okay. Like I said, I realize how insane it is. But I miss him just the same.

lisamcc at 6:50 a.m.

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