Leading from the front issuu

chapter nineteen
whose god? pat on
religion & spirituality
and I were both born into fear.
She the Catholic faith, to parents of a
“Catherine
mixed marriage; me in the Open Brethren,
with the threat hanging over my head as a young
boy of incarceration in hell if I wasn’t “saved”. I mentioned
earlier in the book that my bible class teacher
Mr Pearson told us there were no Catholics in heaven,
which confused me, and my father agreed with the
teacher. My father’s business was reliant on Catholics
shopping at his store during the Depression as
we were poor and Catholics buttered our bread.
This made me doubt, not believe, and ponder, “Who
does hold the truth?”
“There were contradictions everywhere. My father
gave most of his profit to poor Catholics living near the
shop around Carlyle Street because he cared, and because
of the hypocrisy that surrounded me, I had no fear
in marrying a lovely Catholic girl, who herself was told by
the nuns, ‘Do not stand next to ‘Proddys’ at funerals’. My
father didn’t attend our wedding in New Plymouth and
Catherine’s Catholic father Mago said he understood.
Because of religion, our fathers never met.
“Catherine’s father Mago had reneged on an agreement;
that Catherine’s Swedish mother Emma could
bring her children up in her Wesleyan faith. Mago was
“Religion isn’t a big deal
for me. I am moved by the
simplicity of Friends of the
Quaker faith. The Quakers
believe that goodness and love
is born in us all and this best
reflects my own beliefs”.
told by priests to, “Forget that promise”, and Mago then
demanded the children be brought up as Catholics. So
I was asked to sign a form stating that all our children
would be brought up as Catholics. As part of the deal,
I attended religious instruction with a priest and I was
required to read a book as well, which I dutifully did but
can’t recall the title.
“Apart from attending the children’s first communions,
I decided not to join the family at mass. I supported Catherine
in other ways when work was required around the
parish. Often on a Sunday after she had left for church
Opposite: The sun rises on all our faiths. Declan Summers. Ahuriri Estuary, image by Lee Pritchard.
Whose god? Pat on religion & spirituality 269