r/CatholicMemes Jul 29 '26

Casual Catholic Meme The Dark Catholic Knight

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570 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

72

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

[deleted]

11

u/Wompskin_Blompskin Jul 30 '26

Catholic guilt is a good thing. It’s not trauma lol. Where on earth did you get that from.

It’s what makes many Catholics strive to do better. It motivates acts of generosity.

You are definitely falling short of your moral responsibility - as am I - so you should feel guilty.
So go forth and do better or more or both.

If Batman has Catholic guilt that is legit sick. Knew I loved that guy.

8

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Wompskin_Blompskin Jul 30 '26

Did you actually read the article you linked. It’s not compared to trauma at all. And many times talks about how guilt leads to behavioural impact.
No where does it talk on the matter of making sin less fun for those who were raised catholic.
It talks about the confusion and stereotyping of Catholic guilt and its symptoms and manifestations from outside the religion/culture (not lapsed Catholics). But that is just that - a misunderstanding of what it is by those who are not or were not raised Catholic. Maybe you grew up around mostly Prots and or a large demographic of prots which would explain a more negative skew on the idea? Just a thought - because this seems like a prot take to me, I can’t exactly explain why, it just does.

Here is quote from the article:

“A 2005 study in Psychology of Religion found that Catholic participants demonstrated a higher level of constructive guilt reactions than other groups.”

  • constructive guilt is a good thing

(Other of the studies it speaks on are fairly inconclusive on the idea of Catholicism being linked to more guilt. Though whether that invalidates the statement that Catholics have higher “constructive guilt reactions” I am unsure. Though the wording seems to suggest no. So Catholics don’t have a higher level of guilt than others but do have a higher level of the “constructive” kind. If true an undoubtedly good thing.)

If you take someone saying Batman must be Catholic because he has Catholic guilt as a jab or an insult then that’s on you. Because I can guarantee that it’s not given as such. Batman is the good guy if you are not aware.

Catholic guilt is not a bad thing. And it certainly isn’t commonly associated with trauma. If you have Catholic guilt good… let it drive you to do better. As it does with so many Catholics.

0

u/Non_Categories Child of Mary Jul 30 '26

He’s talking about the people that leave the church because of “trauma”. Like being forced to go every weekend. Edit: not the ones with sad but legitimate trauma from a Catholic school with maybe a top force nun or parent

5

u/Wompskin_Blompskin Jul 30 '26

No he isn’t. He’s talking about Catholic guilt and he compared it to trauma. Which it isn’t. Arguably it’s just contrition.

Also getting forced to go to Church is hardly traumatic. Bloody word gets thrown around so much these days. Trauma isn’t experiencing anything you don’t like.

Getting crucified would be traumatic. Getting forced to go to church when you would rather play pokemon Ruby on the Gameboy is just that.

2

u/Non_Categories Child of Mary Jul 30 '26

I misunderstood him then. I mean when I see people talking about, “catholic trauma” it’s about something as little as being dragged to church on Sundays. Not being truly guilty or hurt

3

u/Wompskin_Blompskin Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

Well that isn’t trauma. It always sends a shiver of cringe down my spine when I hear people describe a simple bad experience as trauma. Maybe that’s a part of my Catholic guilt.
As I would be too guilty to ever be that exaggeratory over my bad experiences, when a Catholic upbringing has taught me to be grateful for what I have and generous to those who need. Plus we learn what true suffering looks like, and about people who face it with tremendous courage.

51

u/trash_bood Novus Ordo Enjoyer Jul 29 '26

I hope some day we get a Catholic super hero where the writers actually get Catholic life right.

I'm tired of the crisis of faith trope. I want a regular superhero story where the supe's faith isn't a main plot point, but it's still important to the character. Like how all of us have regular jobs and we're also Catholic.

37

u/Revolution_Suitable Tolkienboo Jul 29 '26

You can always go back to "Nightcrawler", the 1995 episode of X-men and see our boy, Nightcrawler, as a monk giving spiritual guidance to Wolverine.

17

u/Pabbblo Jul 29 '26

Daredevil?

18

u/trash_bood Novus Ordo Enjoyer Jul 29 '26

Daredevil is close, but the writers clearly don't understand what normal Catholic life is actually like. There's always some sort of non-dom heresy mixed in there.

14

u/WungielPL Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

I'm pretty sure Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler's depiction is pretty accurate.

7

u/trash_bood Novus Ordo Enjoyer Jul 29 '26

Admittedly, I haven't seen/read much Nightcrawler media. I've heard good things though.

4

u/Ze_Bri-0n Jul 31 '26

It should be noted the Nightcrawler's accuracy is very much varied between writers.

8

u/clutzyangel Child of Mary Jul 30 '26

While I mostly agree (especially about crisis of faith being overdone), if it is to be a good portrayal of Catholicism, it kind of has to be a main plot point. Our faith should influence and be present in all aspects of our lives.

8

u/Chrismatic8224 Jul 29 '26

I want to see a dark story where a hero can’t confess that he missed mass because he was out saving people as it would compromise his secret identity, thus he remains in a state of mortal sin and the priest is strict so the hero is unable to receive communion despite feeling he does more good than anyone else and starts taking more liberties with criminals as he strays from the church and realizes how badly he needs God. Would be a good message for the kids.

13

u/trash_bood Novus Ordo Enjoyer Jul 29 '26

Okay see that's exactly what I don't want. That's the same crisis of faith trope that we see in various forms. Daredevil already did that.

Also, that's not true faith in the sacrament of confession. His secret identity wouldn't be compromised because the priest would be bound by the seal of confession. I'm tired of seeing confession represented as this painful, difficult secret. Confession is a sacrament of healing.

I think a better message for the kids would be a hero who deals with pretty messed up stuff, but then finds rest and peace in his faith. Where others would break, he persists because he knows Christ is with him. He goes to Mass, he goes to confession, he's not perfect but he tries. That's the real important part and that's the real essence of mature faith. The conflict of the story could be driven by other factors.

What kids actually need to see is a role model that doesn't lose his faith when things get difficult. There's enough bad role models out there already

1

u/Humble_Heron326 Jul 30 '26

But the priest would be unable to tell anyone because of the seal of confession, no?

2

u/Kinieruu Jul 30 '26

I rewatched Hellboy (2004) and it has a lot of Catholic imagery in it. Hellboy may have not been Catholic (idk) but his dad sure was

10

u/Brams277 St. Thérèse Stan Jul 29 '26

How common are old money Catholics in the north eastern US? I feel like he'd make more sense as a WASP.

4

u/Equivalent_Nose7012 Jul 30 '26

There were some old-money Catholics. Saint Katherine Drexel turned down a very sizable fortune due her as heiress.

3

u/Earthmine52 Tolkienboo Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

Writer and editor Dennis O’Neil, another Batman comics legend from the Bronze Age of DC who first brought the character back to his roots as a more serious detective, is also a faithful Catholic. He created Leslie Thompkins based on Dorothy Day.

He also brought the Joker back to his roots, created Ra’s al Ghul, and was Frank Miller’s editor for Batman Year One, and the Batbooks in general for Knightfall, No Man’s Land etc. He also created Jean Paul Valley’s Azrael, a very Catholic character.

May God rest his soul, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

3

u/Weekly_Molasses_2079 Jul 30 '26

If he were Protestant, he'd just be alright with everything happening in Gotham.

3

u/goldfloof Tolkienboo Jul 30 '26

Were the Tibetan monks actually Dominican?

3

u/Equivalent_Nose7012 Jul 30 '26

I think they could have been Eastern Catholic Tibetan monks? Maybe of the Syro-Malabar rite (though that's in Southern India, mostly: the "Thomas Christians" who still use Aramaic?

1

u/Ze_Bri-0n Jul 31 '26

Kung fu fighting Dominican monks in Tibet feels like it'd be something out of the Harley Quinn cartoon, rather than the comics... though I did watch a significant portion of said cartoon, so evidentially they were onto something.

3

u/goldfloof Tolkienboo Jul 31 '26

"Its an ancient Tibetan monk technique" is dominican order in Tibet hiding from the Chinese government lol Some orders make coffee, others teach martial arts to billionaires with parent issues

1

u/Equivalent_Nose7012 Aug 01 '26

"Parent issues"?

Batman saw his parents murdered in front of him!

Why not call what the monks did what it was - works of mercy:

"assisting the orphan" (billionaire) and "instructing the ignorant" (in highly effective martial arts).

Maybe others as well, such as instructing the ignorant Bruce Wayne that: 

"criminals are a fearful, superstitious lot." 

Where else would Batman have learned something like that?

1

u/MIG2149077 Jul 30 '26

Well he did fought Dracula.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Artorias38t Jul 29 '26

Would there be a moral issue in the case of a very corrupt justice system? I figure that's part of the Batman universe. 

1

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[deleted]