this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
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My wife's Catholic, but apparently that means something different in the Philippines. More vague than dogmatic, I guess? In any case, her religion is nothing like the religion I know from America.
For example, she doesn't know the first thing about the Bible, not even the standard Sunday school stuff. Nothing. Yes, I'm sure I'll get comments that Christians don't read the Bible, but her ignorance is astonishing. A comedian told a Bible joke and she clearly didn't get it. "You know! It's the story of 'I forget'. Blank stare.
She doesn't let it rule her life in any way. No church, rituals or confession either. We got married in a church, but that wasn't important to her in the slightest. I wanted to marry there because it's a quaint little place from the 1920s that was moved to my favorite outfitters (camping, kayaking, cabins, hiking, etc.) land.
She's definitely prone to magical thinking, but not the "Jesus will make it all good." sort. More like, "Your car's AC is clearly failing." "It's OK. It was cold a few minutes ago." Call it positivity in the extreme.
She has a rosary on the rear view window. Often grabs it and does the stations of the cross when nervous. (Which is kinda hilarious, but I don't laugh.) Found a fairly nice crucifix in the trash and gave it to her. She was thrilled and hung it by her side of the bed. Whatever.
Now that I think on it, I should get her a really nice rosary from Christmas.
Oh, a lot of Filipinos can be quite cultural in their Catholicism.
As far as my own experience goes, catechism in Philippine public schools is more of a guy from the nearby church gives a series of weekly lectures that students don't really pay attention to in order to have their first communion. And then after confirmation is treated more of a rite of passage than anything. Even my peers from Catholic schools aren't that much better either, but they do have allotted time for religious teaching (or indoctrination). As far as people I know are concerned, they don't take it seriously either.
There is no such thing as a Sunday school here, at least nothing that I know of.
There might be some people really serious about their Catholicism, but they're few and far between. For a lot of people, going to church is for the Christmas eve mass (on night of the 24th of December), and maybe the Easter day mass, and sometimes even for their birthday (which is basically: go to church and pray for a bit, light a candle, etc.) However, going to church every Sunday is not something a lot of people do. And even when they do, not a lot pay attention to the homily and most just go through the ceremony and motions.
However, we can be pretty wild with our devotions: the Black Nazarene being the most well-known. Thousands of people flock to its yearly procession. And then there's the infamous vows of being crucified during the yearly Lenten reenactment of Christ's crucifixion in certain town and localities.
And then there's our love of religious paraphenalia. Lots of Filipino homes have an altar with figures of their preferred saint alongside the icon or statue of the virgin Mary, Sacred Heart of Jesus and/or Jesus on the cross. β This altar also has a candle (unlit, for safety, but sometimes lit for a few hours on certain days). This is also where some novena booklets, rosaries, and other blessed (as in sanctified by a priest in a special prayer at the end of novena masses) religious paraphernalia are placed.
Despite this outward show of religion, we barely know anything of it. Whatever little we may know of our religion mostly comes to us via whatever our parents teach us, if at all, or that scant cathecism given to us before our first communion. It's no wonder then, that most of us don't have any idea what our religion requires us to believe, or whatever the bible says. The bible might sometimes be part of the family altar, but often, it's just there to gather dust.
Just a disclaimer though, while I count myself among the people I described, Iβ later on became agnostic. However, only my partner (who is more of a Reddit atheist, btw) knows that.
Not surprised the Filipino catholic experience is similar to the latino catholic experience in my neck of the woods. Grew up catholic in a catholic school, and yeah, what you describe tracks. Down to the altar and general ignorance about the nitty gritty.
Also, the cath school thing, around here kids didn't take the religion class too seriously either. From my class, of about 60-70 kids, only two enrolled into a numerary programme, and besides them, I know a handful are devout church-goers.
I also ended up agnostic, and luckily it only ever turned out to be a problem in two relationships.
WOW! I'll have my wife give your comment a read. Sounds about exactly as I had imagined her religious background.
And again, for those not in the US, religion is a very different animal halfway around the planet.
What is the joke or story of 'I forgot'?
Philippines- and rosary-loving atheist here. Sheβs a keeper.