For several years I've been a volunteer at a big, old, beautiful Catholic monastery-church in DC. This came about because of my interest in beekeeping. The Monastery has a robust beehive operation and I volunteered to be a helper. When I got a call back from the volunteer people at the Monastery I was asked if I was interested in any other kind of volunteer work and I said "sure, what do you have in mind?" They had in mind minor office work, which is right up my alley -- I like the busywork of office work. So I've been going to the Monastery once a week for years, and have enjoyed it immensely. Some good friendships have resulted, and I'm particularly close to the friar who runs the business office.
I'm not at all religious and if I had to check off a box I would have to check "agnostic, with an admiration for most, but not all, Buddhist thought."
The most recent scandal in the Catholic Church has made me question why I'm devoting my time and effort to this particular volunteer job. My work there has never been about religion or about god or about any particular belief. No one there has ever even asked if I'm religious and they do zero proselytizing. But suddenly I'm very self-conscious about just walking into the building. Does working there, or even visiting there, suggest that I'm OK with the scandal that seems to touch many corners of this religion?
What to do....
