TIME TO GO

Stanislaus waited for the next edition of The Tablet and, with some apprehension looked at the Letters section. There was no sign of his open latter to Israel Folau. He read the editorial section, the comments section and skimmed through the articles but there was no mention of Israel Folau's attack on homosexuals or of his dispute with the Australian Rugby Union.
"Strange" he thought and waited for a week for the next edition.
Once again his letter hadn't been published and  there was no  mention of Folau in any way. Stanislaus felt let down.

He looked on the internet for other catholic newsletters to see if the story had been fully reported but was disappointed .

Nope - nothing there

Nope - nothing here either.

He thought that The Catholic Bishop's Conference of Korea newsletter should develop a new logo as the one they are using can, at first glance, look like something else, something rude.


Looking through past issues of The Tablet he did find an article on Folau: HERE

In this article Folau's stance is reported along with that of his supporters but the central issue of an attack on homosexuality was not. Stanislaus felt let down.

"I need to make a change" he thought after deliberating on this for a day and a night. "My church isn't defending me".
Stanislaus had been re-reading his catechism and the gospels and remembering the Sunday sermons where his priest had talked about love, inclusion and forgiveness and saw that there was a disconnect between what was said and what was being done.

His research always came back to the catholic church promising him the gift of grace but to receive this he had to reject sin. Homosexual behaviour, according to the church is a sin and a violation of divine and natural law. If he were to practise homosexual behaviour he would then be deemed to be a sinner and not eligible to receive grace. This was a shock to Stanislaus. He so far in his life hadn't acted on his desires which fortunately the church didn't see as sinful. It was a sin only if the desires were acted on but what if an opportunity was to come his way?  Stanislaus thought this wasn't fair and so he made his decision.

He would leave the catholic church.