The Other Side of the Church

Good day, beautiful writers and readers of read. cash! I hope you are fine right now and for the rest of the day, weeks, months, and years.

Warning: This article did not intend to mock people or to say something bad to people in the church nor to influence the believers to believe what I am about to share. What I am about to share is purely my experiences and my observation. I am a devoted Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ faithfully and my loyalty is to Him alone.

Catholic Church is God's home on earth and the shelter of all Christians who are devoted to Jesus Christ. It is the organization that will devote itself to pray for people, giving charitable acts to those who are lowly and weak. The church relies only on the devotees who will give donations that will serve as the church's bread and butter.

Catholicism was brought by the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan to the Philippine shore in the year 1521. The first Catholic Church in the Philippines was established in 1595, is the Church of the Immaculate Concepcion of San Agustin, in Manila. Going back to the Spanish Era, the church and the state were united. The government had the right in any way to the church and vice versa. There was a time in Philippine history that the highest leader was the bishop. Bishop Manuel Antonio Rojo became the governor-general during the British Invasion. But as of now the church and the state are already separated as stated in the 1987 Constitution, Article II, Section 6.

In the Spanish period, it was noted that some priars were cruel to the Filipinos. Unfortunately, the Spaniards took advantage of the Filipinos innocence and ignorance about the words of God. Thus, sometimes the use of religion for corruption and personal interest was highly evident.

But as I observed right now, there are still cases just like before that the church is used for personal interest, (not all of them but few) to earn and to gain money from its believers. There are few men of the church, who gain money from devotees and spend it in luxury like buying cars, lands, and other assets or even help their direct families to have a good life. Soon enough, the church become dirty because of the people who managed it. The church mainly survived with the donations but how come donations have some range? From P2,000 for the mass payment during burial, P2, 500 for the weddings, and P500-100 during the special intentions and different ranges during christening and other occasions.

The intention of Jesus Christ founding the church is to spread His words about the salvation of mankind. Through sacrifice, penance, and atonement of sins of mankind. The men of the church must be role models to the believers and uphold Jesus' Christ teachings but how come some of them did not abide Jesus' teachings?

• I knew some priests who have secret families outside the convent.

• I knew that some of them used the church money for their personal interest in buying a lot of luxurious cars. lands, and other assets even if the church needs to be renovated.

• I knew some of them that helped the poor by providing scholarship to the youth but they only choose those closest to their hearts. In fact, I knew an orphan who lost her parents but did not get the scholarship maybe because she is not beautiful in the priest's eyes. Recently, the priests' diary was discovered and the contents there were about his unrequited love with some of his beautiful girl scholars.

• I know some of them who hated the LGBTQ community and sometimes include them in his homily mocking them and so on...

• I knew some of them who mocked the drug addicts and the youth who lead astray. Why mock them? Why not pray for them?

• I know some of them who used the name of the Lord just to fund more money to be used in the project of the church kuno...but there is no progress seen in the church.

• I know some of them who molested or even raped some girls using their power as the head of the church and the man close to God.

• I know some priests who did not have a ceremonial mass for the dead because the family could not pay for the mass.

Final Thoughts

I knew a lot of priests who abide by Jesus' teachings religiously. They even have a simple life as Jesus had in His time on earth. Jesus is too simple and humble, he was even born into a manager just to let the people know how humble He is. He showed that He can do anything for His love for us. He even died brutally on the cross to show how He sacrificed for us. In short, He is everyone's role model.

The priests are Jesus Christ's followers, but sadly few of them are not following Jesus anymore by living in luxury. Instead of helping the people, they are taking advantage of people by using Jesus' name or the church. Thus, the church will be dragged into its undesirable image.

But the priests are still humans, they aren't saints and most especially they aren't perfect. They are sinners like normal people, we can't blame them for doing those things that disobeyed Jesus' teaching because they are also weak and vulnerable. But nonetheless, the priests and the aspiring ones should know the doctrine they should follow before entering this holy profession and these are: To pray, to spread the words of God about salvation, repentance, and forgiveness of sins, and the acts of kindness that will become contagious to the believers of the church.

As believers of the church, we should pray that the men of the church will be enlightened by God's grace and power. We will pray that God will give them power and strength to fight against evil so that they can lead the church in the right way with integrity and devotion as Jesus wants them to lead so that the sanctity of the church will remain the same throughout the ages.

Thanks for reading my dearest friends. This article is purely based on my observations and experience. Do you have any thoughts about this? Just let me know your comments below.

God bless everyone and keep safe always.

Lead Image is taken from: Unsplash.com

Date Published: October 18 @ 9:46 PM (Philippine Time Zone)

Always be your friend,