Not so right. While Wikipedia does say 70-90% of the proclaiming Christians are of the Roman Catholic persuasion, I'm not so sure.
After all, Sarah and I searched all day for one of the Catholic Ash Wednesday services to no avail. We were even in the city that night and didn't see, or at least I didn't (I don't know about Sarah), a single cross on one's forehead.
When we asked Javi what the deal is, he told us that there hasn't been as much respect for the Catholic churches for these past five years. And for the same reason you might suspect--various scandals among the leaders of the church.
"Certainly there are still celebrations like midnight mass for Christmas?" we asked.
"What?"
Hmm.. I've had other conversations with the people talking about the differences between the Catholic and Evangelical churches. Many are surprised to hear the Catholics are actually Christians too (which is a similar line of thinking in the States). Some though, acknowledge that the problems of the Catholic leadership is really what is offensive.
It just kills me to see such beautiful churches...
... but no one knows the work being done in and through them. I explain that I can't eat meat for Lent and they respond, "That's okay, we'll get empanadas."
Umm.. no.. that doesn't work either. And after a few minutes of explanation they still don't make the connection. You will find many Argentinians make the sign of the cross whenever they pass these churches, but they really aren't so clear on what they believe. Chau.
No comments:
Post a Comment