More 'holier than thou' ppl..? 18 11 23 (16) 25 2 10

Some years ago from one of the only 4 cousins on my father's side of the family I heard this story of how our grandmother LL had admonished him with the words "You must never marry a catholic!"

It was some years before that that on my second winter over here my kid sister 4 years my junior wrote to me from England and the town of my childhood to ask my advice about a boy she was seeing and whether it was okay to go on seeing him because he was a catholic as in belonging to the Roman Catholic faith. Well with a Protestant mother, and someone it has to be said not so interested in matters of the church, we hadn't been brought up to be prejudiced against one faith or another, and so I readily told her that this had to be a decision only she could make. She might have asked the advice of our father but she never knew him because he died whilst she was still a baby. Well later that same first year I spent here I had to travel home one weekend in February to attend their wedding, when the bridegroom-to-be and my sister M came to Ringway Airport, Manchester, to collect me for this weekend visit when I was made to feel akin to Royalty, so solicitous was their behaviour.

Some years later after W had been fully accepted into our family, despite our mother's younger sister Ad refusing to welcome him into our family for at least a couple of years, because he was RC (Roman Catholic), despite the fact that her elder sister, also M, our mother's favourite sister incidentally, had also chosen to marry a catholic boy, F, W took it into his head to tell me one day: You are alright you K brothers, the only trouble is that you are not RC..? 

W’s father, W senior, I learned many years later when Ma, W’s younger brother died that their father hardly ever spoke to his son Ma, after he decided to leave the Priesthood having decided it wasn’t what he himself wished to do with the rest of his life although to a man or woman the whole Irish clan attended church regularly. M my sister fulfilled her husband’s dearest dreams when in middle age she became a Minister of the Eucharist by which time she was attending church daily…

Over here I am very happy we don’t have too much hocus-pocus but this coming evening we have a joint b-d party for another Englishman who lives in our town and me for we both share the same birthday as Tina Turner and his wife belongs to the Russian Orthodox religion who, believe it or not, has a very profound superior attitude, there being very few things she is not an expert in, whilst at the same time there are very few things she doesn’t know, and undeniably falls into the category of being Holier than Thou! Not only that but she too used to teach Religious Instruction in School, and is also the person, together with her husband, who also has converted to Russian Orthodoxy, and the people to take care of their local Russian Orthodox church.

For my part I am going to strive once more to watch my P’s and Q’s and for a large part of the evening keep my mouth buttoned up lest I let slip that I do not subscribe to the God Hypothesis, hahaha!!!

PS.

Two things more: 1) I never knew my father had two grandfathers who hailed from Ireland like my sister’s husband’s family, until the time I retired a few years ago, but whilst his father, JP, was Catholic Irish from Dublin, his mother’s, LL’s, father W, hailed from County Monaghan, Ulster, and when we have known all along his family's men used to adorn the Orange Sash of the Orange Order, making the family profoundly Protestant, but, 2) not explaining why LL chose herself to marry a catholic boy..! 

Footnote: 25 2 10 former title "T `holier than thou` attitude of some ppl..? 18 11 23 (16 hits)