By
Laura Winsky
I'm Catholic. And this is a funny week to be Catholic, especially on the UA campus; it's the holy week of Easter, and it's a big deal. Bigger than Christmas. Actually, it begins every year with Ash Wednesday, which is hilarious. This year, after coming out of church, I was stopped by a kindly soul, trying to help me out.
"Uh, Miss? You've got a little something there on your forehead. Some dirt, or something." This happened eight times during the day. Now, Catholics have the choice of getting ashes put on their foreheads every year on Ash Wednesday for a complex set of reasons, mostly to remind us to sacrifice - to live simply so that others may simply live.
But this is hard to explain to the guy who just stopped you on your way to class to help you with the smudge on your forehead.
I kind of thought I would add to the comedy and come up with something different every time someone stopped me.
"Yes, I know. I put the dirt there to remind myself to do yard work when I got home."
But for the most part, I just quickly said something inadequate like, "It's Ash Wednesday, and it's just this thingie Catholics do."
Really eloquent, huh? But it's when someone actually engages me in conversation about my Catholicism that things really get hysterical. Eventually, they find out that from kindergarten until now, I was a Catholic school girl. Oh, the jokes that ensue. Apparently, because I'm Catholic - get this - the nuns beat me with rulers at school, my closet is full of navy blue, pleated skirts, I've never said a curse word, and I wore a rosary around my neck. It's always news to me. Truth is, Catholics belong to one of dozens of groups to which society feels they need to attach labels and stereotypes. But there is one thing that the questioners are usually right about. I lived and breathed prayer.
While I was growing up, my mother made huge sacrifices for me to get a Catholic education. Even with some assistance, it was a difficult financial venture. But she sure got what she paid for. Prayer, prayer and a little bit more prayer on the side. We began the school day with prayers over the loudspeaker, we had a full mass every Wednesday morning before we could go to classes, and yes, attendance was taken in the Church. I had four years of Christianity classes during high school, and I was required to complete 60 hours of community service before graduating. It was an excellent education that set me up well for college.
But my prayers were bought and paid for.
That's right, my parents sacrificed to put me in a place where I could learn about my Catholicism and pray freely, without infringing on anyone else's rights. Easter is always a time when I remember that, because I, like many Catholics, understand that prayer has no place in the public school system. "To each his own" is the motto of the United States, and my Catholic prayers shouldn't be any louder than anyone else's prayers or beliefs, religious or not. Next weekend should be a time when the community strives to learn a little about Catholicism and what we're proud of, just like last weekend's Passover should have raised a consciousness about Judaism, and so on with each religion.
Religious freedom is a United States beauty, and keeping it free means prohibiting one religion to overpower any other.
So Happy Easter and cheers to individual beliefs.
