My old man was raised a Roman Catholic. I recall how he never felt remorse or guilt for his actions

[Floyd R. Turbo]

regardless of how egregious they were. His rationale was that he had received absolution following confession and completing the prescribed penance.

I was thinking about this during the hearing yesterday. I’m guessing Kavanaugh after a few Hail Marys and a couple of Our Fathers has a clear conscience.

[StarryNite]

1. Topped off by a few beers.

[Trust Buster]

2. I am Catholic as well as my immediate and extended family. We don't rationalize that way.

[CurtEastPoint]

7. Nor do I.

[grumpyduck]

8. Me neither.

That's not how we were taught.

[Hangingon]

15. Nor do I!

Certainly not in the spirit of the Act of Contrition.

[Mariana]

14. A lot of Christians do, though, Catholic and Protestant.

It makes sense.

[blueinredohio]

18. The church my mother went to

believes once you're "saved" you're always saved so you'll always go to heaven.

[Trust Buster]

21. Have any numbers to back up that claim or is that just a biased opinion ?

[dalton99a]

3. Protestants also have a reset button that says "Everything Is All Good If You Believe In Jesus"

[BigmanPigman]

4. I doubt that the Jesuit magazine requesting an FBI investigation is of any interest to him.

[SharonAnn]

26. They didn't request an FBI investigation. They said he should be WITHDRAWN! Big difference.

They know.

[BigmanPigman]

32. What do they know...he has no character

or temperament to be a justice?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Yes, but Jesus doesn't want people to lie, either.

So did K. go to confession yesterday and tell the priest that he'd lied his ass off for hours, then got some Hail Marys and Our Fathers and he's good to go?

[gratuitous]

6. He was practicing bad theology

He clearly didn't understand the doctrines of the sacrament of confession.

[llmart]

9. I was married to one once...

and he and his family believed that exact thing. You tell your priest behind a curtain what you did and that you are sooooo sorry for your sins, and that priest has the power to absolve your sins and send you on your way after you say a couple of Hail Marys.

The only difference in the marriage is that he never once said he was sorry for his actions or behaviors. He once said to me that "Men don't admit it when they've screwed up. They just don't." He went to Catholic schools and was an altar boy and, though I don't know this for sure, I'd bet he was molested by a priest. In hindsight, there were many signs.

[raccoon]

11. Disgusting as it is, IME many men think the same way he did.

He once said to me that "Men don't admit it when they've screwed up. They just don't."

[llmart]

12. In me experience, I agree that that is true.

In my working years, I was mostly in male dominated offices and I could probably write a book on all the instances of harassment, stalking, lewd things being said to me and about me, etc. etc. I can also tell you that there were a few upstanding men who actually stood up for me and had my back. They were the minority.

[dameatball]

10. I was raised a Catholic, but it wore off when I was about nine.

[llmart]

13. LOL!

And they continue to scratch their heads wondering why they are losing parishioners in droves.

[Caliman73]

16. Contrition is REQUIRED for absolution in Catholic Doctrine.

Understanding the humans are prone to temptation and living up to the expectations of a "holy life" are difficult, the sacrament of Reconciliation is there for Catholics but it is called Reconciliation and not "Confession" or "Penance" for a reason. You have to make changes in your life to Reconcile your behaviors with Christ's expectations.

While I am no longer practicing, I still try to live my life to the extent that I can, following the teachings on the Sermon on the Mount. There was an expectation in Catholic school that you would live a life of service to others. I suspect that if your dad and Kavanaugh still practice they are going to be in for a rude awakening if they think they are saved.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

17. As a practicing Catholic, I was never taught that at all.

Maybe it is a pre Vatican II thing?

[Drahthaardogs]

23. No.

You have to be sorry and try to do better or it doesn't count. Standard doctrine still taught today.

[Itchinjim]

19. I was raised Catholic, including 12 years of Catholic schools and trust me

Remorse and guilt was ALL I felt.

[peggysue2]

24. Ditto!

As a Catholic kid, guilt and remorse and contrition was what it was all about. And it followed me into adulthood for years after.

This thread reminds me of people talking out their asses, and/or reminds me of the non-Catholics I grew up with who regarded Catholics idol-worshipers, not real Christians.

I say this as someone who hasn't practiced the faith in decades. The Catholic Church has lots of problems but please, stop making things up or pretending you know the daily lives of practicing Catholics. When you don't.

Not you personally, Itchinjim. But even as a non-practicing Catholic, I find this thread highly offensive.

[Hortensis]

20. Reminds me of the old saying that

religion tends to make good people better and bad people worse.

Whether yelling megalomaniacally about how our nation was going to reap the wind for rejecting him or crying pathetically at how unfair it was, I thought it was an arrogant man raging and definitely whining about the possibility of having something he was promised and entitled to taken away.

I strongly doubt the questions of whether he deserves this position or is the right stuff have ever entered his mind. He's profoundly dishonest with himself, not just the world. Like so many who've risen in today's Republican Party, a bundle of deficiencies and flaws, strong intellect, hard working, but extremist attitudes, poor insight, incapable of wisdom, and genuinely bad character.

And that's without considering the question of violent sexual assaults.

Btw, googling Kavanaugh and homosociality (note, it's not -sexuality) brings up some possible insights. We still haven't heard of a steady girlfriend any time through his high school/college years, but some guys just prefer the companionship of other males and he had a very close friendship with Judge.

[enough]

22. An interesting thread with various different points of view on this,

but no shouting or insults. Thank you DU!

[FakeNoose]

25. It seems that a lot of DUers consider themselves "former Catholics"

I guess I am too. I was raised and educated as a Catholic but I hardly ever go to church. I have no interest in joining any other religion either, so I'm Catholic in name only.

[rustysgurl]

27. If Memory Serves ...

... the priest tells you after confession to "go and sin no more." Confession isn't an Etch A Sketch. You recite the Act of Contrition, in which you resolve to SIN NO MORE. It's not a get out of jail free card. Those who think it is are perverting the act.

[Jrsygrl96]

28. I am Catholic

also and was taught that we are forgiven of our sins ONLY if we are truly remorseful, but never do we get a pass. We still must do our time in purgatory to atone.

[muntrv]

30. Did he have this on his car?

[Yuorik57]

31. Seriously

Twelve years of Catholic school and graduated from a Catholic college that had become technically non-denominational and this simply does not run true.

The nuns and brothers did their very best to instill a fine sense of guilt and conscience examination into their youthful charges. Read your Joyce... Guilt is an essential element of the Irish Catholic culture. As an Austrian, I was a bit immune and my Italian friends seemed even more so. But the Irish Catholic culture was built on guilt.

[melman]

33. 'Guilt is an essential element of the Irish Catholic culture'

As someone who had an Irish Catholic mother I can say this is 100% true.

[Mc Mike]

34. Definitely not a universal trait.

I'm a pro-choice Catholic, and what gets me most about rapey Kavanaugh is how 'pro-life' he is. He'll tell those sinful women who got pregnant by rape that they WILL bear the rapists' kid. He will decide that some woman will bear his kid, against her will. Fucking devolved caveman. The law is for you to obey, not him. He's just like dRump. They think they're kings and lords.

The Jesuits are a mixed bag. I went to a Jesuit founded college, and there were some hard right nazi freaks who considered themselves 'catholic', mixed in with some Liberation Theologists who's people were getting killed by nazi types in Latin America.