07.20.06
It’s not just the young people
Today, my team leader’s landlord called me because he hadn’t been able to get in touch with him. I told him to come on over and we would try and find a different number. Harold & Enid Fowler were over for a visit. After I wrote down the number, he asked the Fowlers if they, too, were pastors. Actually … he asked if Harold was a priest.
Over the next 20 minutes I got to hear what I think was an accurate summary of how Italians view the church. His review wasn’t pretty: promiscuous priests and people who confess their sins one day and walk out the door just as mean as they were before were on the top of his list. He said his sister tells him he needs to go to mass, but he doesn’t see the point.
I read lots of articles about religion, and most say that youths are leaving the Catholic church in droves in Italy. But this conversation (which Enid said she’d heard over and over for the 40 years they have lived here) seems to indicate it’s not just the young people who aren’t happy