Judge Not.

Today, in the place where I should not be judgemental, I was. During Mass - ALL of it - a little girl 3 pews in front of us spent the whole time playing her Nintendo DS! At first I thought this girl had a pink book. Never mind that she looked to be around 8 or 9 years old - at the very least past First Communion age when kids should be listening. But while looking up at our priest during the homily, I was startled to notice it was a DS! This little girl sat all through Mass, even when the rest of us stood, playing DS with her little sister looking over her shoulder.

It drives me crazy enough when parents allow their kids to bring the DS into a restaurant, rather then take responsibility and teach them how to sit and socialize, but church? Come on! Now I have to add this to my list of things that irresponsible parents do in church. (My list also includes food in church - it's only an hour, eat before...) I even contemplated telling her smug, affluent looking parents that I would pray for them at the end of Mass. And then, right after the Eucharest, I looked over and the girl's mom was kneeling, and praying and crying. And I realized, who am I to judge? I have no idea what is happening in that family. And maybe if the DS was the only way to get that family to Mass and allow the mom to have Communion and pray and cry, then so be it. God doesn't mind, so why should I?

You Can't Be Catholic If...

I'll preface by saying overall we are really happy about Alex's week at page school. We were really lucky to find a host family, with whom he could live for a week. A large (6 kids), Catholic homeschooling family, that normally only takes girl pages but allowed Alex to bunk with their 15 year old son. Such a relief to send him somewhere safe.

But I was really sad when Alex came home and told me that his bunkmate told him he couldn't be Catholic if he favored the Democratic party. WHAT!!!!!

This makes me mad on so many levels. First of all it is a direct attestation to the perception that Christians are too involved in politics. Second, when did believing in peace / anti war, protecting the environment, and providing basic services to really, really unfortunate people become anti-Catholic. And what about the view that "as Catholics, we are not single issue voters" from "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship"?

I respect those people who have different views then I, but please don't teach your kid to tell my kid he can't be Catholic!

Isn't there room for ANY choices???