THE PRIOR MONK AND RELIGIOUS SIGNS IN 2019

THE PRIOR MONK AND RELIGIOUS SIGNS... 
By Bernard Bujold -
The debate on religious symbols that is currently raging in Quebec in the spring of 2019 confronts us with the universal question: what is religion and what is its role in today's society? The Quebec debate is very serious and it could have a profound influence on the future of our society in the coming decades, but the discussion is also a little worrisome, because it shows that the time of my childhood is becoming more and more distant... 
During this period of my life, religion was not complicated, because we had only two: Catholic and Protestant. Each organization tolerated the other, as long as we displayed our beliefs among ourselves in our respective villages where each religion had its church and cemetery. It was a beautiful time! 
Personally, I sort of grew up in a Catholic presbytery in the Gaspé Peninsula because my aunt was the priest's servant and I would visit her several times a day as my parents' house was nearby. I have always kept a pleasant memory of the presbytery with its long gallery facing the Baie des Chaleurs. I have also always been attracted by the architecture of the Catholic churches that I love to visit. I really like their high ceilings and the calm that invites reflection. 
However, I am not a practitioner even though I know all the Catholic rites. 
In the past, I could have become a priest, because as a teenager, my aunt's priest, a respected canon in the diocese, offered to help me financially with the necessary studies. I refused the offer and preferred journalism. One could say that I missed the vocation... 
I have often wondered what role I would have developed within the Catholic organization if I had become a priest? Sometimes I like to joke, with my close friends, that I could have become a bishop in Rome and who knows (nothing is impossible and you have to be ambitious) maybe the Pope's assistant... But it is also possible, with my rebellious spirit, that I would have found myself in an isolated monastery in the very simple role of "Prior Monk”. 
In my opinion, all man-organized religions are political organizations with administrators and a management structure. A kind of government for the soul. For me, the church is not God and God is not the church. 
I probably wouldn't have been a good priest because I'm a loner and my compassion is selective... But philosophically, I think I would have been a good pulpit minister because I like to explain ideas. 
With regard to religious symbols in 2019: times have changed and will continue to change. We are more and more people on earth and, for this reason, there are more and more diverse religions! Society has become a "Tower of Babel" in terms of religious beliefs and it has become complicated to live one's religion in public without disturbing one's neighbors. The good times of my childhood are over, but the discretion of my childhood is still the best way to live in society today, especially in terms of religious beliefs! "Religion is a matter of community, but not of society!" 
Respect and discretion towards religion are the only ways to live our beliefs! 
Have a good spring 2019... 
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