MY VIEW
Let’s focus on loving all of God’s people
All Saints Church was the center of our lives growing up in Riverside back in the 1950s. It served as the glue that kept the family and neighbors together.
Like many areas in Buffalo, Riverside was largely Catholic, however, unlike other neighborhoods in the city, there was a mixture of ethnicities including Croats, Serbs, Irish and us, the only Italians. Yet there seemed to be peace and unity among neighbors. My mother called our tiny dead-end street of Prairie Avenue a League of Nations.
I went to School 60, but every Sunday my whole family went to All Saints for Mass. Afterward we would go to our aunt and uncle’s house for brunch, right across from the church on Esser Avenue, to break that all-night fast. We would play with our cousins, and our parents would debate weighty issues like the Korean War and the third revelation from Fatima.
Every Monday my sister and I would trudge to religion taught by the Mercy nuns. The commandments and the sufferings of Jesus were pounded into us, sometimes literally, but we also learned that God created us out of love. The Baltimore Catechism told us so, and we had to memorize it before our First Communion.
We learned the gospel that Jesus preached was love for all of God’s people. When an African- American girl integrated our fifth-grade class, the Church’s teachings of inclusiveness seemed important in saving me from the casual racism of some of my classmates.
In Catholic high school and college, I learned about the amazing social teachings of my Church. Weekly Mass and seasonal celebrations, along with the sacraments, guided my life, my family and my neighborhood.
Now as a grandmother, I am very grieved that the Church that was so formative for me cannot be so for my adult children and their families. I am so proud of both of my grown sons. They are men of substance, men of honor and great fathers. One of them happens to be gay. He lives in Seattle with his husband. They are raising two adopted children.
As any grandparent will affirm, grandchildren are one of life’s greatest joys. For my husband and me, our joy is clouded. The Church that was so central to our lives now preaches against our son and his family. This is not new, it is true, but the hurt was renewed when I learned of the active participation of the Catholic bishops in favor of the California proposition banning gay marriage. This is especially disturbing, since our son was married recently in California.
Our grandchildren are growing up and asking questions about the world around them. How can we attempt to share with them a faith that chooses to interpret the message of the gospels in a way to disrespect the very foundations of their own family?
My knowledge of the social gospel tells me that there are grave evils in the world that need the moral voice of the Church. For example, poverty, the distribution of wealth, war and torture cry out for serious attention. Instead of focusing on these weighty issues in important elections, the bishops try to denigrate families like my son’s.
I wish for him and his beautiful children the support my family experienced back in the Riverside of the ’50s. Maybe tightly knit Buffalo neighborhoods are in a rose-colored past, but the message of the gospels should be eternal. It seems to me that the Church I was raised in taught the importance of love — love for all of God’s people.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments
Learn more about our moderation system.