Catholic culture and church versus secular culture.

Fr. John Higgins

The difference between Catholic culture and church, versus secular culture.

One evening I was doing a session with our Confirmation Students. They had written questions on small pieces of paper and they were put into a basket. We met in the church and a Priest from Cameroon, Fr. Khumbah was with us. He and I had a great relationship and we often laughed together. We sat on stools in front of the Altar and answered the questions. One of them was "Do you believe in EQUALITY?" I smiled and asked this African Priest. He said "No, of course not. Fr. John is not nearly as smart as me, but I am fatter than him!" The youngsters looked shocked. He gave them a big smile and they laughed. He said "It depends on what you mean by "equality". We are all equal in our human dignity, but some people are beautiful like me and some are pasty white like Fr. John! The students looked a little shocked. He said "Now is that not ridiculous?" I said "We are not exactly alike, so we are not absolutely equal. But we enjoy the differences between us! Can you imagine if everyone in the world was exactly like you? Wouldn't the world be boring?" They looked confused. I said "I am very glad, for example, that there are difference between males and females, that we have Mexican food, sushi, burgers, pizza and more here in our city." "That is what makes life interesting", said Fr. Kumbah, "We are many colors, many sizes and shapes and we can all be a family in Christ! But thank God we are all different too!" 

With that I think they got the point. The next question was: "Why does the Catholic Church hate gay people?" We had even more fun with that one. 

Secular culture will lie about what we believe and who we are as Catholics. It's good to call them out on this whenever we can!