Dear Pope Benedict: It's None of Your Business!

I heard about Pope Benedict's resignation early Monday morning.  I'm sure most Catholics view this with incredulity because a resignation has not happened in about 700 years.  That is an interesting fact, but I feel indifference.  I was baptized Catholic, I grew up Catholic, and I still feel Catholic, but why do I feel as if the Catholic Church has abandoned me?

It's no secret that Catholicism frowns on divorce.  If you are divorced, you are not allowed to take communion.  That's saying you are not allowed to participate in sacred rites, which means to me that I might as well not go to Sunday mass.  I wasn't going to Sunday mass anyway, but when Pope Benedict firmly re-stated the Catholic Church's view on divorce, I threw my hands up in the air and did not pay attention to Pope Benedict again.  Until now.

It's funny how I still feel allegiance to the Catholic Church even though I view religion more academically.  I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  It's all part of my upbringing.  I never once thought of converting to any other religion such as Islam or Judaism, or another form of Christianity.  My son was  baptized Lutheran, but that didn't mean I would become one.

I don't go to Sunday mass.  I only go to church for baptisms, funerals, weddings, and confirmations.  To me, religion is a very private matter, and my relationship with God and Jesus Christ is a very private matter.  I don't impose my religious beliefs on anyone, including my son.

So if I don't go to church regularly, does it mean I don't believe in God or that I am an evil person?  One of my close friends once accused me of that.  He questioned my relationship with God just because I did not step into a house of worship regularly, whether it was Sunday or Wednesday or any other day.  It sounds absolutely ridiculous, doesn't it?  I am not evil, and I believe in God.

Also, just because I am divorced doesn't mean I am evil or any less of  a person than someone who is married.   As a matter of fact, the circumstances around how my marital status changed to "divorced" is really none of the Catholic Church's business.  It is nobody's business but my own, for that matter.  I gave it my all, and the situation would have been worse if I had stayed married.  But why do I even need to explain that to anyone?

So why should I be punished as a divorcee?  Why should I be labeled and frowned upon?

Pope Benedict will retire in a little more than two weeks.  This is not much time, but I will pray that he will at least indicate a change in the Catholic Church's conservative view of divorce.