Most of the time when we chat we make silly jokes or talk about how to fix her up with my eldest son. She met him this summer at a family wedding and has a bit of a crush on him. He likes her too but they live about 1000 miles apart so it's probably not going anywhere.
A few weeks ago she told me she was Catholic but in the same breath said it would be fun to get married in Vegas. And I don't mean at a Catholic church there. She said they have a family friend who is a priest who would dress up as Elvis. I nearly gagged.
We had a pretty deep conversation about one of the Six Precepts of the Church - the one about going to Mass every Sunday and refraining from servile work. She goes to Mass once in awhile but disagrees with most of Church teaching. She told me which parish she attends and when I looked it up on the internet I could tell it was an aging hippie kinda place. Such a shame too because she has a good bishop.
So last night she admitted to me that she had once escorted a rape victim to get an abortion as it was part of her duties at work. My knee jerk reaction was to "un-friend" her and delete her email address but not before I warned my son to stay far, far away from her (which would amount to nothing because he is as liberal as she is.) Instead I took a breath and kept pushing on with the conversation.
She is so mired in relativism it's a wonder she has an opinion about anything. She said that as she has matured her opinions about things have expanded and changed. Yeah, be careful Lee - don't open your mind so much that all common sense falls out! I admitted to her that when I was her age I would have agreed with her on many issues. Living together? Why not? Abortion - wouldn't have one myself but I can't make that decision for anyone else. Gay marriage? Awww...those poor people - sure, let's make sure they can be just like us. UGH!
We kept circling back to the rape victim and I reminded her that only in abortion after rape does the innocent victim get the death sentence. She countered that the life of that child would have been horrible and nobody would have supported the mother. I said that Birthright would have helped. They can help arrange for adoption too by putting the mother in touch with appropriate agencies. I mentioned that pro life advocate, mom of 5, and lawyer Rebecca Kiessling was conceived in rape and her life is worthy and a blessing. Lee couldn't argue with that.
I asked Lee if she had confessed her part in procuring the abortion. She said she spoke to the priest who is their family friend. They spoke in general about it. She said, "he's quite liberal." I replied, "no kidding." Actually I did not use the word "kidding."
At this point I was starting to boil over and I told her that when I changed my opinions it was in response to God's initiative to me, not because I talked to a bunch of misled souls who were pro -gay/pro-abortion/anti-Christian. Amazingly she did not "un-friend" me! In fact she said "you must not like me anymore." I told her that I did indeed like her and I was just speaking out of concern for her eternal soul.
Nothing she has brought up about the Church is anything new or original. It's the same old tired slogans trotted out again and again. Instead of making inroads into my heart they are only serving to strengthen me against the lies of the evil one.
I counselled her to go to confession about escorting the rape victim to the abortion clinic. Even if she doesn't get why it's wrong and that might mitigate some of her guilt hopefully the priest will instruct her. She promised me that "next time our church does a general absolution service I will go." I practically screamed "those services are not licit! They are only for large groups in danger where private confession is not immediately possible and as soon as the danger is past the people must present themselves for individual confession."
She then asked me a very good question - "they why do they have them?" I completely lost all sense of decorum and kindness and barked, "for the effin' panty waist liberals!" I think she laughed. In a way I felt bad for being so earthy but like I always say - meet them where they are!
Finally the conversation wound down and she said "great conversation!" like we were talking about something bland and mundane! Argh! Like many young people I know she also said she likes hearing different "opinions." I'm sorry Hon, those are not my opinions - they are the revealed Truth of the Holy Catholic Church! These truths are 2000 years old.
In spite of her views I do see her heart and it is good. She genuinely cares for people and does not want to see them hurting or suffering. Her methods might help in the (very) short run but in the end we are all here to work out our salvation and her ways are ultimately going to hurt people. She just hasn't seen the end result of her social experiments.
Pray for her and the millions out there that are just like her.
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