CATHOLICISM: CORPORATE PAGANISM?

With Halloween just around the corner, I got to thinking about the holiday, and how different religions view it. My son is presently at a catholic school, and before that, he attended a catholic preschool. I recalled a time when I dropped off my son at preschool, and was greeted by “Happy Holiday” instead of “Happy Halloween.” I thought I had heard wrong as I walked past the first teacher, but by the time I had passed the second, I caught on. So, as I walked into my son's classroom with him, I asked the teacher why no one was dressing up in the Halloween spirit. She told me with a slight grin on her face "because it's a Pagan Holiday.” She new, like I knew, how nonsensical that was, but hey, she works for the "firm" and has to tow the party line, right?

Right. Is that to say that there is nothing Pagan about Catholicism. Catholicism has the saints – which can be almost construed as lesser deities – the rituals of chanting during mass, the incense in processions and don't forget the many different types of amulets that can be had including crosses of almost any type, all sorts of Jesuses and Amulets of saints for protection or "patronization" of pretty much anything you can think of. In fact, when one prays, it is not always to the big man himself OR his son. Sometimes you'll actually ask the patron saint of “whatever” to protect, help and/or guide you. Polytheistic images of Rome and ancient Greece begin racing in my mind.

So, given all that, isn't then – at least when we compare the Catholic bead on things to the rest of the world – Paganism the same as Catholicism, but just viewed as inferior? I'm sure the church would have a hard time admitting it, but is Catholicism not just a corporate form of Paganism? It's the all encompassing, all-inclusive – as long as you're JUST catholic – version of Paganism. It's the one we can sell, and unify people with. Catholicism is like the Paganism that showers and shaves, puts on a nice suit and smells of great cologne. Paganism suffers the constant berating of mother culture as she says, "why can't you be more like your brother (or sister depending on your persuasion). I wonder, if when it's all said and done, we will ever "get it". As the saying goes, "A rose by any other name is still a rose is it not?”

Two brothers spawned from the same family that war endlessly, all the while thinking they're the "one" Hey wait, I think I've heard this one before.