Soldiers for Christ

About ten years ago, our pastor at the time was a rather conservative priest, very orthodox and particular in the celebration of the liturgy. He maintained a small army of well-trained altar servers, all of them boys. Shortly after his assignment to our parish, he dispensed with the servers’ albs and robed them in cassocks and surpluses. Two to four servers were assigned to each Mass, and on special occasions such as Holy Week or Christmas, they all served en masse.

The servers grew to be a rather close-knit group. The older boys got the envied jobs of cross-bearers, bell ringers and incense lighters. They trained the younger servers and taught liturgical protocol by their example. Maneuvers around the altar were coordinated and reverent. Father usually rewarded them with an amusement park outing during the summer.

Eventually during Father’s time here, a few parishioners began to take exception to his conservative ways. Among their complaints was the fact that only boys were allowed to serve at Mass. Most other parishes in the diocese permitted girls to serve, a privilege left to the discretion of the parish priest. Amid persistent pressure from a few parents, Father relented and allowed girls to join the ranks. Among them was my daughter although I was not a proponent of the change. I had reservations about breaking the all-male tradition. Even though priestly vocations are rare in our parish (only two that I know of in our 128 year history), being an altar server is a first step in that direction.

Looking back over the past ten years, I realize my concerns were not without merit. Once girls infiltrated the serving ranks, the fraternity fell apart. Interaction between pre-adolescent boys and girls is awkward at best. What was once much a relationship much like the Boy Scouts soon lost all its comradery. Some boys were reluctant to get involved, and it was not long before girl servers out-numbered the boys. Without the mentoring that took place in the past, the reverent postures and precise movements posture around the altar deteriorated to the point of distraction.

I am not blaming the girls for the changes that took place. Their inclusion in the serving ranks was just one of many changes happening in the church at the time. Our current pastor has taken steps to improve the training of the servers. Both boys and girls are doing better these days, although still a far cry from what they were years ago. I do not know the numbers, but I imagine the girls still outnumber the boys by a few, and it is difficult to go back without being labeled a chauvinist. That did not stop a parish in Minnesota from trying however.

In a blog by Father John Zuhlsdorf, he reports on a post from Stella Borealis telling of two men in a Minnesota parish who increased the number of male altar boys from 10 to 60 by making the rules more demanding. They approached their pastor with a plan for boys only that included training, a system of ranks with cool nicknames, a more reverent atmosphere with cassocks, surpluses and uniform footwear, and a program of outside activities such as bowling and fishing. The boys were motivated by the hierarchy of ranks, along with the program’s high standards of order and discipline.

Implementing such a program would be difficult in parishes where girls have already been permitted to serve, which is probably most everywhere. All servers, boys and girls, would benefit from higher standards of order and discipline. I see servers in our parish arriving late in all kinds of dress, oblivious to the Blessed Sacrament exposed for Eucharistic Adoration, and genuflecting in way where the knee never touches the floor. A little training and higher standards could go a long way. Holding the position of altar server should require certain responsibilities, such as observing dress codes, being on time, and maintaining reverence.

In my day, server training was done primarily by the Sisters of St. Francis who taught at our Catholic School. They attended most every Mass, so they knew who was performing properly. The nuns are long gone from our parish, leaving server training to the priest. The problem is that the priest cannot see what is going on behind him. Many of the server duties take place out of his view. For that reason, trainers other than the priest have the best opportunity to coach servers and evaluate their progress. The post cited above suggests finding adult leaders to run the server program. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Bias Sometime

The Christmas season brings the usual flood of Christmas cards from friends and relatives. I love getting them and dread writing them, but it’s part of the annual tradition. I especially enjoy reading those form letters people send telling all they accomplished during the past year. I think you can download them from the Internet and simply insert your name at the bottom.

When I reflect on the past year with respect to the Church, I can’t help but think about the controversy revolving around the political stance of Catholics, both in and out of government. Living only a few miles from Notre Dame, we found ourselves in a hotbed of debate on whether an abortion-friendly President should be honored at a Catholic University. I try to be a very orthodox Catholic and therefore find those soft on intrinsic evil to be troubling.

Everyday, I am flooded with emails from conservative causes that try to raise awareness of the doom we face if liberals succeed in their quest for power. Conservative Catholic groups are constantly bashing Bishops for not being aggressive enough in making Catholic politicians toe the line. Being conservative myself, I agree in principle, but I also think that constant liberal bashing can be counter-productive. Conservatives can further their cause by sticking to policy issues rather than trying to stir up dirt. Political mudslinging does nothing but obscure what is really important.

One of the Christmas form letters I received bothered me a little. It was from a Catholic priest, a relative of mind who I love and respect. He has devoted his life to God and to serving the poor, underprivileged, and especially racial minorities. In his letter, he said he experienced a deep personal satisfaction when Barack Obama won the election, and that his personal experience in dealing with the plight of African-Americans caused him to be ashamed of his white skin at times. His statement made me very uncomfortable. Whether biased for or against, some people never see beyond skin color.

I have always felt that believing American people to be racially intolerant is itself a stereotypical view. We all have a natural tendency to gravitate to people of similar circumstances to our own, and look down a bit to those who are different. These differences are not limited to skin color. They can be economic, cultural, or religious. They can be ethnic, political, or geographic. They can be authoritative, philosophical, or social. Democrats may cast dispersions on Republicans. Marines may think less of sailors. Constituents may disdain politicians. Boston Red Sox fans boo the New York Yankees. Environmentalists criticize lifestyles of the affluent. Anytime we associate ourselves with a certain group, we may take on a feeling of superiority to those who march to a different drummer. Skin color, in my opinion, is of little consideration today except to the most shallow of minds. The problem is, we still have an abundance of shallow minds.

Even in cases where distinction among groups is not chosen (such as race), I believe prejudicial bias is more the result of behavioral choices. Black athletes and entertainers are cheered or jeered by whites, depending on performance. White teenagers often copy clothing styles from trends started in Black neighborhoods. Others wouldn't be caught dead dressing that way. White singers and musicians have mimicked the style of Black musicians for decades. Some like it; some do not. Much of the music I listened to in the 1960’s was written and produced by Black artists. I didn’t even realize it at the time, nor did I care. All of this has little to do with skin color. Yes, we do have a tendency to stereotype, but stereotypes are learned, and sometimes earned. While we may associate them with the most obvious difference, which may be skin color, they are really more a result of other traits or behaviors.

This brings me back to the letter. Why would a Catholic priest who spent his whole life in the struggle for human and civil rights, experience a deep personal satisfaction in the election of a Black president who also happens to support the right to take of lives of the unborn? I can understand a certain feeling of satisfaction in having elected a minority President. I often find myself pulling for the underdog, but not at the expense of throwing all other factors out the window. What does the election of Barack Obama prove? Is it a victory for civil rights? What about the right to life? Does it mean we have finally overcome our racial prejudice in this great country of ours? Was he elected despite the color of his skin or because of the color of his skin? Does skin color trump all other factors just to make a point? While racial bias against minorities may have waned over the years, perhaps the pendulum has swung too far the other way.

Some Catholic clergymen seem to have a propensity for supporting liberal political causes. They assume anyone with money or power got there by victimizing someone else. I suspect they are also the ones inclined to question the authority of their own superiors. Certainly all priests and bishops have the duty to speak out on matters of faith and morals, but when proper actions are debatable, that is, not clearly defined by Church teaching, they should keep quiet.

The recent Copenhagen Climate Summit took place among revelations that some of the global temperature data had been biased to make the problem seem worse than it actually is. For many investors in green technology, the fear of imminent global warming disaster is essential for keeping government money flowing their way. Whether we have a problem, whether we are causing the problem, and what we should do about it is a matter for the scientific community to decide, not the Church. So, what do I find in the December 9, 2009 issue of the South Bend Tribune? An article with the headline “Bells to ring for global warming” says that Churches in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend are being encouraged to toll their bells at 3 PM on Sunday to show solidarity with the effort to call attention to global warming. The article did not say who was doing the encouraging, but I have to assume it was someone within the diocese since only Catholic Churches seemed to be involved. I wonder if they will be encouraged to toll their bells on January 22nd.

The Copenhagen Climate Summit dominated nightly news coverage in early to mid December. Whenever a global warming story appears on television, we are shown the obligatory video of smokestacks with huge white clouds billowing into the atmosphere. I have spent nearly 37 years of my life working in a coal-fired power generating station. We have four large turbine-generators, each with its own furnace and emissions controls. Each unit has its own 500 foot tall smokestack. On any given day, with all four units running at or near full capacity, and with all systems working properly, two of the smokestacks will have the huge white plumes billowing into the air like you see on television. The other two will have little or nothing visible. They never show you those on TV. Now, here is the irony. The white stuff you see billowing into the air is harmless water vapor, a byproduct of the government mandated sulfur dioxide scrubbing process. The other two clean looking units do not have scrubbers, hence no plume. They burn a low sulfur coal, but generally are not as clean as the ones emitting the plume. That white plume is clean technology at work. Don’t be fooled into thinking you are looking at something bad.

I have some questions I would like to ask Al Gore, the Nobel Prize, Oscar and Grammy winning global warming expert. The latest environmental crusade appears to focus on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. If the density of carbon dioxide is about 1.5 times that of air, why doesn’t all the carbon dioxide settle to the earth instead of floating above where it can absorb infrared radiation? If coal fired power plants consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide, why does the oxygen content of air remain a constant 21 percent? If the water level in a melting glass of ice water decreases, why will the ocean levels rise when the polar ice caps melt? My questions probably reveal my own bias against people who claim expertise in areas where they lack qualification.

God gave us many natural resources to use for our benefit. Yes, we must be good stewards and use these resources responsibly, but I wonder if many who blame us for creating climate change are motivated by their own biases while underestimating the power of the true creator.

There's no place like home!

Most evangelization that takes place in the Catholic Church these days happens through lay apostolates. One of my favorites is CatholicsComeHome.org, started by Tom Peterson, a former advertising executive who channeled his talents into producing advertisements directed at bringing inactive Catholics back to the Church. What caught my attention was an article stating that 92,000 Catholics returned to the Church in the Phoenix Diocese after the ads ran on local television stations.

When I viewed his short videos on the website, I was immediately hooked. They are powerful messages, professionally crafted. My favorite depicts the particular judgment where people watch a movie of various events in their lives. In fact, the entire website is a great resource for anyone interested in the Catholic Faith. Being the webmaster for our parish website, I added a link to CatholicsComeHome.org hoping some of the inactive Catholics in our area might find it helpful. I also made a donation sufficient to get their magnetic logo to display on my vehicle, and a DVD copy of the videos to pass around.

Our parish, like many others, suffers from falling attendance. It did not happen overnight. Over the past forty years, numbers have diminished. Some of it is demographics. Though the population in our area has probably remained constant or even increased some, the average age has undoubtedly risen. Jobs here are difficult to find, so the younger generation tends to move on to greener pastures. Years ago, we had two priests and four Sunday Masses, some of which were standing room only. Now, we are fortunate to have one priest with three Sunday Masses, with the church barely half full at any of them. Recently, our bishop announced the closing of another parish in our diocese., something that could happen to us a few years from now.

Our pastor publishes the amount of parish income in our bulletin each week, along with the average weekly income needed to sustain the parish. It is not unusual to see a thousand dollar per week shortfall. The economy being what it is today does not bode well for seeing any increase in parish revenue. If we are to survive as a parish, we need to increase our numbers. The sad irony is the fact that we need a financial crisis to spur us to get people back to church. We have been in a spiritual crisis for many years with little effort made to rectify the situation.

I gave the DVD copy of the CatholicsComeHome videos to our pastor, who in turn gave it to the Liturgy and Worship Committee for our parish. They were also impressed and plan to show the ads before Sunday Masses during Advent. In addition, the ads are scheduled to appear on Chicago television stations beginning in December. Chicago television viewing is limited in our area, but I hope the Holy Spirit will guide some of local fallen-away Catholics to right time and channel. How nice it would be to see them during halftime of a Notre Dame game. Eventually, the ads may run nationally during prime time, but that requires much money. I hope good Catholics everywhere will support the effort.

Music for the Masses

My wife is the organist for our little parish. She took over for my late Aunt Agnes who played more than sixty years until her retirement in the early 1990’s. The position is voluntary. The parish is too small to afford hiring a professional, although we do pay an organist from a neighboring parish to play one Mass on Sunday. The responsibility for selecting hymns each week falls on my wife’s shoulders, a task she has graciously delegated to me. Our parish entry in the diocesan register lists my wife and me, along with the hired organist as the parish music directors, a job for which I do not remember applying or volunteering. Nevertheless, I do my best to pick out hymns suited to the Sunday liturgies.

My liturgical music taste tends to be on the conservative side. Having grown up prior to Vatican II, I like traditional Catholic hymns, including some Latin occasionally. It came to my attention recently that some members of our parish Liturgy and Worship Committee thought our liturgical music needed to be a little more “uplifting”. At the same time, we were getting input from another person who wanted to teach chant at our parish. While I consider chant to be uplifting, I had the feeling that more chant was not what our Liturgy and Worship Committee had in mind.

Our pastor was doing his best to keep all factions happy, including my wife and me. I felt we were being pulled in two different directions, although confused over what exactly we were being asked to do. I thought it best to explain to the Liturgy and Worship Committee what we do each week in selecting the music for Mass. What follows is adapted from a letter I wrote for presentation to the committee. Part of it is taken from an earlier blog entry about Latin in the liturgy. I should add that this letter has not yet been presented to the Committee.

Music selection is not a job we particularly enjoy. Although it may seem like we sing the same stuff every week, the preparation is quite time consuming! Our parish currently uses the Breaking Bread Hymnal published by Oregon Catholic Press. As part of their service, they provide liturgy preparation for all Sundays, weekdays, Holydays, and special liturgies. This includes suggested hymns for each part of the Mass. Each week, we log onto their website and look at the suggested hymns. We also look at the Scripture readings for that Sunday. Using their suggestions and taking into consideration what we are capable of doing, we try to choose hymns appropriate for the day.

We have over 150 selections in the current repertoire. Many are seasonal, and some are better suited to certain parts of the Mass. For example, the Communion hymns generally have a Eucharistic lyric. The hymn at the Preparation of the Gifts needs to be short so we can finish before Father says the Offertory prayers. When all criteria are met, the choices are actually quite limited. We try to add a new hymn from time to time, but prefer doing this after we have had the opportunity to practice it with the choir.

Liturgical music selection is a controversial topic these days. Much has been written about various Church documents on music in the liturgy. It is my observation that liturgists are very opinionated and often in disagreement. In the past six months or so, we have been approached by a parishioner who wants to teach us Gregorian Chant, as well as others who want more contemporary music. At this time, we are pretty much limited to what is available in our hymnal. We have tried to choose music that is reverent, primarily God-centered, and compatible with the Gospel message for that Sunday.

Just because a hymn is published in a Catholic hymnal does not mean it is appropriate to sing during Mass. Some hymns contain lyrics that can be interpreted to convey a Protestant theology. Amazing Grace is a common example of a hymn that appears in many Catholic hymnals, but contains lyrics that may suggest a Calvinist belief. This doesn’t mean it can’t be sung at Mass, but some Catholics who are well catechized in the finer points of Church teaching on salvation find the lyrics problematic. Not long ago, we came across a Communion hymn worded in such a way to sound consubstantial (Lutheran), rather than transubstantial (Catholic). Though some criticisms may be subject to interpretation, we try to avoid such hymns out of respect to those sensitive to these issues.

We were asked why our music can’t be more uplifting. Uplifting means different things to different people, so I am not sure how to answer. Certainly there is a time and a place for various types of Catholic music. The Mass is the actual Sacrifice of Calvary made present, once and for all, outside the limits of space and time. At Mass, we witness a miracle that places us at the foot of the Cross. We are kneeling in the Real Live Presence of Jesus as He gives Himself up for us. In selecting appropriate music, we should consider where we are and what we are witnessing. While we can sing joyfully in gratitude for our salvation, music within the Sacrifice of the Mass should be reverent and contemplative. In this sense, uplifting does not mean upbeat and lively to me. Nonetheless, Father has asked us to look for some contemporary music that might be appropriate for use at Mass. Suggestions would be welcomed.

Some parishioners are questioning the increased use of Latin in the liturgy, and I would like to address this at some length. Are we caving in to traditional Catholics who want to return the Church to pre-Vatican II liturgies? The answer is no. Vatican II reaffirmed that Gregorian Chant is especially suited to the Roman Liturgy, but also said other kinds of sacred music must not be excluded. The operative word here is “sacred”. In the years following Vatican II, the Latin chants fell into disuse, and sacred hymns were replaced with praise songs deemed more popular for congregational singing. Some refer to this period as the “protestantization” of the Catholic liturgy.

I recently came across an Internet blog on liturgical music written by Father Mark (I don’t know his surname) from the Diocese of Tulsa. He said, “The way we sing at Mass effectively shapes one's understanding -- or misunderstanding -- of the Church, of the priesthood, and of the hierarchical ordering of the liturgical assembly. A protestantized approach to music at Mass will inevitably engender a protestantized ecclesiology.” This makes sense to me, and I believe it contributes to some of the loss of reverence for the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Mass attendance has certainly decreased in the past few decades. Hardly anyone comes to Eucharistic adoration on Sunday mornings, and our pastor often mentions how few confessions he hears. These are all opportunities to receive graces in ways unavailable to our Protestant brothers and sisters. Yet, many Catholics no longer take advantage of them.

I think Father Mark is referring to a type of music quite prevalent in our diocese. While we have consciously attempted to avoid this pitfall, I suppose some of the songs we sing fall into this category. The problem is that many people like these songs even though they would hardly be considered sacred music. Under Pope Benedict, the Church is experiencing a renewed interest in tapping into our rich musical history. Are we gradually going back to all Latin? No. Father asked us to do Mass settings in Latin during Lent and we gladly obliged. From time to time, we will sing a traditional Latin hymn during Communion, and use Latin Mass settings seasonally or on special occasions.

There are good reasons for singing and praying in Latin. Two of the four marks of the Church are catholic, meaning universal, and one, indicating unity. If we are truly united, we must share the same mind and spirit, as Paul tells us. Maintaining our unity in the mind of the Church that exists all over the world is not an easy task. Prior to Vatican II when all Masses were universally celebrated in Latin, Catholics all over the world were hearing and saying the same things. Translating the mind of the Church into all the languages of the world presents challenges. Any time a translation is made, the meaning is filtered through the mind of the translator.

Several years ago, we were sitting in a restaurant on a Lenten Friday trying to find meatless dishes to order. My son asked why it was permissible to eat fish, but not other types of meat. I didn’t have a good answer at the time, but I found one courtesy of Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin on his web page. (http://www.jimmyakin.org/2005/02/fish_fridays.html) He explained that all Church law is written in Latin. On Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent, we are required to abstain from eating carnis, which we translate as meat in English. In Latin, carnis literally means a land-dwelling, warm-blooded animal. Fish are neither land-dwelling nor warm-blooded, so they are not considered carnis. All carnis is meat, but not all meat is carnis. Therefore, under Church law, it is acceptable to eat fish on days of abstinence even if one considers fish to be meat. By strict definition, one could also eat turtle or frog legs if so inclined. When we translate the Latin into English, the message is slightly distorted.

Our English language undergoes subtle changes over time, sometimes called semantic drift. This happens in many different ways through every day usage. Words take on new meanings or connotations. Catholic apologists occasionally have to explain that they are so called because they explain and defend certain positions or doctrines of the Church. This type of apology has nothing to do with expressing regret as we commonly use the word today. That same apologist may also find it necessary to explain that when we pray to saints, we are simply asking for their intercession. The word pray originally meant to ask, and that is the way Catholics use it. Prayer in that sense is not a form of worship as many non-Catholics believe.

Changes in the language may seem insignificant, but variations in the way we communicate happen more rapidly than one might think. Our parents used expressions that would seem dated or even nonsensical today. Our children sometimes communicate in slang we do not understand. Find a hundred year-old newspaper and see how much writing styles have changed in a century. Now imagine the challenge facing a two thousand year-old Church in accurately passing down revelation to everyone living today.

That is one of the beauties of Latin. Being a dead language, it is not subject to semantic drift the way other languages are. After Vatican II, the Mass had to be translated into every language of the world. Vernacular translations employ dynamic equivalence, meaning the literal language is translated to convey the intended message. The translator must interpret the mind of the Church and choose words that best represent that idea. When sacred hymns are translated, the English is often changed even more to make the lyrics rhyme.

For most of this decade, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) has been working on a new English translation of the liturgy that more accurately expresses the original Latin. Wording of the Gloria, Sanctus and some of the responses will be revised, making our current Mass settings obsolete. The Commission had a very difficult time coming up with wording the majority of Bishops could agree on. Missals will have to be reprinted and music re-written to reflect the changes. The Church hierarchy deems all this trouble necessary because our current translation does not always express the original Latin as accurately as it should.

When we pray and sing in Latin, none of these distractions come into play. Latin expresses Catholicism in its pristine historical form, a form universal (i.e. catholic) to the Church in its fullness and entirety. It is our faith expressed free of a Commission’s debated interpretation. At that moment, we are entrusting the unaltered mind of the Church to express our love for God in words that we may not even understand. It’s not something we would necessarily want to do exclusively because its also good to know what we are saying, but there exists a certain beauty in honoring our Church heritage by praying and singing in her native language.

With all the different ideas out there, pleasing everyone won’t happen. Please understand that no matter what music we choose, somebody ain’t gonna like it. Anytime we try to introduce something new, something old or something different, people will think we are pushing a certain agenda, which really isn’t the case. We are not trying to be conservative or liberal, just orthodox. If you hear a lively praise band in other parishes, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are doing things right and we are stuck in the middle ages. I hope some people will appreciate our efforts to maintain our ties to Rome and our history, but we don’t pretend to have all the answers, so please bear with us. I just read a comment by someone on an Internet forum who said, “The difference between a choir leader and a Somali pirate is you can negotiate with a Somali pirate.” We want to be receptive to suggestions and will try to accommodate as best we can. Perhaps the Liturgy and Worship Committee could go through our hymnal and pick out some songs they would like to try. If we can work them into the liturgy, we will. If we can’t, we will try to explain why. Feel free to come to choir practice anytime and join in.

Spread the Word

I wish I could remember the exact date. It was sometime in the mid-1990’s. Our pastor had mailed a flier to every address in the community inviting them to hear a former Baptist tell of his conversion to Catholicism. I remember wondering what our pastor was getting himself into. Surely this was going to backfire. Either this guy is still a Baptist who has hoodwinked our priest into thinking he was going to speak for the Church and will instead try to set us Catholics straight, or the many Baptists in the area will turn out and hang this guy out to roast.

I was a somewhat lukewarm Catholic at the time. I went to Mass every week, but I thought the Pope didn’t really understand what it was like to live in the world today. Protestants had challenged me about my Catholic Faith, and I really had no answers. Church teaching seemed pretty antiquated to me and I couldn’t understand why a Baptist would want to become Catholic. So, I decided I had to attend the event to see what was going to happen.

That night, I met a young Catholic convert named Tim Staples and my life would never be quite the same again. In the span of about two hours, he lit a fire in me that still burns to this day. Tim told his conversion story, how he was a bold anti-catholic evangelical in the Marine Corp who took pride in pulling ignorant Catholics out the Church until he was challenged by another Catholic Marine who actually knew his faith. In his talk, he discussed many of the same challenges that had been thrown at me by a co-worker. He taught me that all of these challenges have reasonable answers. He taught me that we Catholics can be confident that we are in the one true Church established by Jesus Christ. I learned to appreciate the Magesterial teaching authority of the Pope in union with the Bishops.

Such profound change occurred for me that evening. I became so excited by the Catholic Faith that I now try to share my excitement whenever the opportunity arises. When people ask me to tell my story, I always go back to that evening when I met Tim Staples, and I also give credit to our priest at that time, Father Mark Mazza, who had the courage and foresight to bring Tim to our little parish. But my most sincere appreciation and respect goes to a man named Matt Dula. Who is Matt Dula? He was the Catholic Marine who had the courage to stand up to a very cocky anti-Catholic and ultimately figured in his conversion. Had he not done so, perhaps Tim would still be pulling people out of the Church. As it turned out, Tim became a fervent Catholic apologist responsible for countless conversions.

You see it is not enough to learn the faith. We must also be ready to share and defend it. Someone undoubtedly had an impact on Matt Dula’s religious education enabling him to go toe to toe with Tim Staples. I doubt that Matt Dula had any inkling that his defense of the Faith would later affect so many souls, including my own. One small spark can start a raging wildfire. I hope and pray that I may be one to fan the flames.

Preacher or Teacher

I find myself feeling very frustrated these days. Seems to me very few Catholics know even the basics of their faith. Even those who are active in the Church, serving on pastoral councils, parish commissions, Knights of Columbus, Christian Mothers, you name it, most approach these services as political or social rather than spiritual. Yes, I am generalizing, perhaps unfairly, but I have seen little evidence to think otherwise.

The Church has been in existence 2000 years. Up until a few hundred years ago, being Christian meant being Catholic. The faith was handed down from generation to generation. I received my Catholic Faith from my mother’s side of the family that immigrated from Czechoslovakia some five generations ago. As the Church protects the deposit of Faith from error over the centuries, Catholic parents have taught the Faith to their children. When one person in a family loses or rejects the faith, the Faith is then likely lost to that persons descendants. Most of the millions of good Protestant families out there probably have a Catholic ancestor who for some reason left the Church.

I look around our community today and see many Catholics who just quit going to Mass and are not raising their children in the Faith. In most cases, their ancestors preserved the family faith for 2000 years only to have one of their descendants break the chain. Barring a personal conversion, that precious Catholic Faith will be lost forever to their future descendants. How sad.

Why does this happen? I blame ignorance for the most part. Most Catholics are poorly catechized. Anyone truly understanding what the Catholic Church is and knowing the reality of eternity, would never leave the Church. I was bothered by a conversation I recently overheard between two very active Catholics speaking of receiving Communion in Protestant churches. One spoke of attending an Episcopal wedding where everyone was invited to receive communion. She was asking the other Catholic if it was okay to do so. He told her he didn’t see anything wrong with it, and had himself received in a Lutheran church when traveling with another person. Another told of visiting a dying relative in a hospital when a woman Episcopal minister came in an offered to perform a communion service. Their response was that it couldn’t hurt, so they did it. I did speak up, trying to charitably explain why it was wrong to do so, but they seemed to think Catholic rules were too restrictive.

When attempts are made to provide catechesis for adults at our parish, the people who need it most never attend. Those who do are already seemingly grounded in the Faith. Hence my frustration. What can we do to evangelize people who are already Catholic, let alone those who are not? I have said this before, but I truly believe education from the pulpit is where it must begin. That twenty minute homily each week is the only opportunity we have to light the fire. Priests may need to take a different approach to homilies, shifting modes from preaching to teaching.

Our current pastor writes his homilies in manuscript form and reads them to the congregation. I can understand why he may prefer to do this. He and I are about the same age, and I know how easy it is to lose my train of thought as I get older. Working with a prepared text allows the author to organize thoughts and edit them for content. He can say exactly what he wants to convey without fear of leaving something out or speaking in error. Yet in doing so, he loses effectiveness. What is gained in the transmission may be lost in the reception. There is nothing more boring than listening to someone read a lengthy script.

In speaking from the heart, the priest engages the congregation in a way that captures the attention of the listener. People are more likely to remember details from a conversation than from a speech. Catholics are more apt to accept Church teaching if they know the history and understand the origin of doctrine. Catholic belief comes from Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magesterial Authority of the Church. The Liturgy of the Word gives the priest plenty of opportunities to take an apologetic approach to his homily by explaining how Church doctrine developed from God-breathed revelation.

We have not had a Catholic school at our parish since 1972, and religious instruction since that time has been inadequate. Every Sunday as our altar servers arrive for Mass, I see them walk right past the monstrance completely oblivious to the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Some of them will make a mechanical curtsy in the general direction of the tabernacle, but they clearly have no concept of where they are. This often happens in view of their parents and catechists. Seeing the same young faces behave the same way week after week leads me to believe they are not being properly formed, probably because their parents and those teaching them were not properly taught either.

Our hope lies in the parish priest being able to inspire a desire in his parish to grow in faith. Those who are spiritually distant are unlikely to respond favorably to verbal chastisement or criticism from the pulpit. That is not to say the message should be sugarcoated. Rather, many need to be lovingly taught the very basics of the faith, as though they are children hearing them for the first time. It may actually be the first time for some. 1 Peter 3:15 comes to mind again. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence. With understanding comes appreciation and the desire to know more.