Confessions of a Free Range Prolapsed Catholic

I am a Parliamentary Question Time tragic. I watch it religiously. I don’t know why, but I do. It returns today , October 16th, 2023. I await with baited breath.

The world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. I think I am starting to feel a sense of looking forward to my end! I guess there would be thousands of people who would think “yeehaa! so you should, you’re 72 for f’s sake. You’ve had your chance, move on!” But, stuff the lot of you who might think that!

I am a genuine “cradle catholic’ but I leapt out of it sometime ago. Even the description “Free Range Catholic” in my title on my (not much used ) business cards needs an update. I purchased 500 of them when I retired, early, damaged, pissed off with the world . I imagined I would embark on a new voyage of discovery where people would be bowled over by my ability to tell tales, to write, to make people laugh out loud and to remain connected.

However, reverting to my catholic tradition , I am recalling St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Doing a google search there are hundreds of interpretations, tomes, about what various faiths believe it to mean. It took me to find the often maligned Wikipedia source to just find a quote from his flipping communication to the Corinthians!

“And now, faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 New Revised Standard Version

When I was a kid, I used to play at weddings at my local church. I was paid 2 guineas – that was 2 pounds and 2 shillings for those born after 1966 ($4.40). As a 13 year old it was a fortune! Enough to purchase a pair of Rosary beads for my Dad when he embarked on his first trip to England as a representative of Australian Journalists. The British High Commission paid for the trip to mark the commencement of BOAC’s commercial flights to Australia. My Mother’s reaction to that was like a volcanic eruption. It was 1964. My Dad died in 1999. He carried those rosary beads with him everywhere he went.

The letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians was the traditional compulsory reading at every wedding I played at.

As indicated, I went in search of St Paul’s communication to the Corinthians as I started to think about this and the event of the weekend and Question Time today. Here’s what I found:

“The battle hardened soldiers of Rome, following the orders of Mummius, embarked on a comprehensive campaign of devastation. The goal was not merely to occupy and subjugate but to obliterate Corinth as a symbol of defiance against Roman rule.” That was in 146BCE

First thought…. everything old is new again.

Poor old ex-Roman soldier, converted to disciple of Jesus after being knocked off his horse by a lightening bolt, took up the challenge to bring the Corinthians to Christianity but even he had to give up “Paul faced strong opposition from paganism, secularism, immorality, and idolatry” according to Paul. W. Barnett courtesy of another internet search. Paul was spreading the “Good News” between CE 47 and 57.

Everything not quite as old is new yet again!

At this point in writing I am debating should I try to finish this time before Question time or wait till I have endured what is compulsory viewing for this irrelevant old person, or get to the point about “faith, hope and love’?To procrastinate or not to procrastinate?That is the question!

Nothing new here!

Modern Corinth is located 80 ks west of Athens. The beginning of continuous settlement dates from 1000BCE. That’s old , but not as old as 65,000 years of continuous settlement!

According to tradition, poor old Paul was beheaded in Rome as part of the executions of christians by that lunatic emperor Nero. Oddly enough, recently I indulged my penchant for old movies and watched “Quo Vardis”, as good as any “historical Hollywood cinematographic version” of things from events around 57CE.!

So here are my thoughts about Paul’s letter ( if it WAS Paul’s letter) and its application today. Faith has been gone for quite a while! Love is too hard, or easy for most. Hope? Well maybe hope is just holding on.

As I type this it is getting close to 1.00pm. Question Time starts at 1.59

pm.. I am in a quandray. Do I continue my musings or take a break for sustenance knowing that I will not have time to finish before Q.T or do I plough on regardless?

Here is what I think might transpire during question time. The Opposition will go for the jugular re. the outcome of the Referendum and their conviction that the Prime Minister should take total responsibility for the money it took to make it happen. The Opposition will rave about the country being divided, the failure to close the gap in just about everything between our First Nations People and the rest of the country. It’ll be an attempted blood bath in a bear pit!

So I’m back post Question time. Its 4.30pm

I learned something I have been pondering about for some time courtesy of google again. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition’s christian name is Sussan. This has been a source of wondering for me. I have wondered if it could be a spelling error or a reference to being a fan of a particular women’s clothing chain of shops. After she called out the Prime Minister for his “vanity project” (the Referendum to include the First Nations People of this country in the Constitution) I discovered her name change came about “after reading about numerology” – thank you Wikipedia!

The first 15 minutes of Question Time were spent in tribute to the Australian Servicemen killed during Exercise Talisman Sabre in Julyu. The Prime Minister spoke eloquently. Compassion plus. “Peace is not possible without a price.” The Leader of the Opposition did as well. I wondered about a definition for “tragic sensibility” but he too was clearly moved.

Then it was on! First question came from the numerologist who demanded to know when the Prime Minister would apologise to the Australian People for his “vanity project”, the Referendum to change the Australian Constitution to include First Nations People and obliterate the lie of “terra nullius” . The Leader of the Opposition demanded that the Prime Minister apologise for the disaster of the Referendum and the millions of dollars wasted.

The Prime Minister was clearly committed to one of my basic principles “never enter into a battle of wits with an unarmed person” a quote attributed to several luminaries from the past including Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill. Interestingly enough, and again thank you google “the earliest evidence of comparable word play located by quote investigator appeared in an 1866 novel by the author Abby Buchanan Longstreet released under a pseudonym.”

On this occasion the Prime Minister dazzled them with his brilliance while they attempted to baffle him with their BS!

So, at the end of the day, what I do have left is hope. All it has to do is flicker.

I am in awe of the First Nations People who have chosen silence for a week. Time to heal. Time to listen to the land. Time to revive their creative spirit. It saddens me that I may have lived too much of my life to expect that I will see what hate and misinformation has put on temporary hold. I hope that all my grandchildren especially my youngest grandson and youngest grand daughter part of whose heritage comes from the Wiradjuri people, but also my four other grandchildren of Irish, English, Scottish, German descent, convict, indentured servant, free settlers fleeing religious persecution, the conglomeration of their histories, will see it too.