Another year end review

As we approach the end of another year, it is time to evaluate our parish Synod which may or may not continue into 2023.  The stated purpose of the program was to get former members of the parish who no longer attend Mass to come back.  If one were to measure the results based solely on that goal, we get an F.  However, the meetings were designed to help current members to reach out to separated Catholics in a manner to draw them back, so results are still pending.  Now it is time to go forth and make disciples.  

It remains to be seen how many participants will actually make the effort.  The monthly meetings were fairly well attended, usually around 18 to 20 parishioners.  Presenters did a good job relying on a mixture of instructional videos and personal stories.  Many of them stressed apologetics and how to dialog with people constructively.  Those in attendance should have an advantage when sharing the faith given the opportunity.

One of the Synod committee members wasted no time in her evangelical effort.  She invited a Lutheran friend to come to the Synod presentations.  In fact, she brought that friend to every session, and I believe the woman is giving serious consideration to Catholicism.  Her biggest stumbling block at this time seems to be purgatory, a common obstacle for many to overcome.

On the downside, a few members of the synod organizing committee dropped out after the first couple of sessions.  One of them left the parish altogether over personality conflicts with our pastor and several parishioners.  Such issues can crop up any time a team is assembled.  Drawing people back to a parish can be especially difficult when the pastor is perceived as unlikable, but some conditions are beyond our control.  Let us hope the new year draws us all closer together and closer to Our Lord.  

I was reminded this evening how much we miss our parish school that closed in 1970.  My youngest grandson is enrolled in a pre-kindergarten class at a local Lutheran school since we have no Catholic counterpart in our area.  My wife and I attended the children’s Christmas program which was actually a prayer service held in the Lutheran church.  The 5 and 6 year-old children sang about the Lamb of God and prayed the Lord’s prayer led by the Lutheran pastor.  So evident was the importance of exposing kids to Jesus at a very early age, something we are lacking in our own Catholic parish.  This indoctrination of the young is a pro-active approach to catechesis in contrast to the reactive approach in which we Catholics find ourselves needing Synods to draw the lost sheep back.

What's the difference?

While channel surfing on a Sunday morning several years ago, I came across what I thought was a Catholic Mass.  Living close to Notre Dame, Mass was televised regularly on Sunday mornings, but this did not look like the chapel where the televised Masses usually took place.  The officiant was giving the homily, so I decided to watch and listen. It wasn’t until much later in the broadcast that I realized this was not a Catholic Mass, but rather a Lutheran service, even though the differences were barely distinguishable.  

Martin Luther never intended to start a new church.  The idea of his reformation was to eliminate what he saw as problematic and retain what was good.  As far as the liturgy goes, he found little fault.  Hence the Lutheran service looks much like the Catholic Mass.  The problem is that Luther had no power to change anything.  He was simply a Catholic priest with no magisterial authority. 

Last week, I came across a blog on Patheos.com by Gene Veith titled “5 Tips to keep in mind when visiting a Lutheran church”.  One could substitute the word Catholic for Lutheran, and these 5 tips will still mostly hold true, except for some definitive differences in understanding.

1. The Liturgy consists mostly of words from Scripture.  The author points out a few differences that Lutherans eliminate from the Catholic liturgy, such as invoking the saints or praying for the dead.  Luther rejected those beliefs even though they can be biblically supported.  The last paragraph in this section says the Lutheran sanctuary will demonstrate the Reformation principle of retaining elements that point to Christ.  He goes on to describe things you see in Lutheran sanctuaries, all of which are also present in Catholic sanctuaries.  He also defends the use of crucifixes and representational art.  We Catholics agree.

2. Chanting lets us sing prose, such as texts from Scripture.  Chanting is certainly not foreign to us Catholics.  Perhaps we do not hear it as much as we once did.  He says, “This may be the aspect that seems the most “Catholic” or “Medieval” or just unusual to visitors.  But chanting, with its flexible meter and flowing melodic line, is simply the way that a person can sing prose.”  Sounds Catholic to me.

3. The Pastor will forgive your sins.  The author explains how the pastor can forgive sins because he is an “ordained servant of the Word.”  We Catholics would ask what constitutes a valid ordination?  Martin Luther was a Catholic priest.  A priest cannot ordain another priest.  Only a bishop can conduct a valid ordination.  Christ gave the authority to forgive AND RETAIN sins to His apostles, the first bishops of His Church. That authority has been handed down through a succession of validly ordained  bishops to validly ordained priests.  Not so in the Lutheran church.  Lutherans (and all Protestants) must ask themselves, who truly retains the authority today to forgive and retain sins as Our Lord decreed in John 20:22?  If your pastor rejects the magisterial authority to which that power was granted, are your sins truly forgiven?  We Catholics can rest assured the priest can absolve our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

4. You will hear a law and Gospel Sermon.  Many Lutheran churches use a lectionary based on the Catholic lectionary three-year cycle.  You may hear the same Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel readings in both Catholic and Lutheran churches on any given Sunday.  We Catholics typically refer to the sermon as a homily, but they are really the same thing. 

5. You must be catechized before you go up for Communion.   Also true in the Catholic Church except you must be more than catechized.  You must be a Catholic in a state of grace to receive Holy Communion in a Catholic Church.  A Catholic who is not in a state of grace must confess his sins to a priest and receive absolution before receiving Communion.  A Catholic would never approach the communion rail in a Lutheran church since we do not believe they have a valid Eucharist.  Confecting a valid Eucharist requires a valid priesthood that the Lutherans do not possess.   

So while these 5 tips to keep in mind when visiting a Lutheran church are mostly applicable to Catholic Churches as well, there are significant differences we as Catholics understand.  Those differences may seem somewhat superficial to the casual observer, but appreciating the significance requires some serious theological study and knowledge of Church history.  That is why it is so important for us to be properly catechized in our faith.

Man the life votes!

Election time again.  Living in northwest Indiana, we are inundated with Illinois political ads on Chicago television.  Of course, most candidates use their campaign funds to belittle their opponents rather than tout their own record.  When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, abortion became the hot campaign topic.  In Illinois, that means accusing your opponent of being pro-life!  Our society has stooped to the point where protecting the lives of unborn children has become a reprehensible offense in the eyes of many on the left.

Even here in mostly conservative Indiana, a black woman, US Air Force Veteran, running for Indiana’s First Congressional District, is being targeted by ads repeatedly showing a clip of her saying she is “100 percent pro-life”.  Ads do not even mention her opponent as if being pro-life should automatically be reason enough not to vote for her regardless of the alternative.  Too bad unborn babies can’t be given a proxy.

I can understand how abortion would be a hot topic for those running for legislative offices, but why should it be so prominent in the Illinois Supreme Court race?  Two seats on the court are being contested, each featuring a female Democrat running against a male Republican.  Campaign ads for the Democrats boast of their pro-abortion endorsements by Planned Parenthood.  Other ads accuse their Republican opponents of being pro-life.   No Judge should be pushing a political agenda.  

Judges do not legislate.  A judge must be fair, unbiased, and follow the law.  Running on a biased agenda should immediately disqualify that person for the job.  Stating a personal bias on an issue that could eventually wind up in front of the Court should eliminate that judge from ruling on the case.  People with little understanding of the basic branches of government are not only voting, but also getting elected.  

I am suspicious of the efforts to make voting easier.  It takes little effort to register and cast a vote.  What does take some effort is to study the issues, filter the campaign rhetoric, and make a responsible thoughtful decision in the voting booth. If a person has so little stake in government as to need coaxing or incentives before casting a vote, perhaps that person should stay home.  Elections should not be decided by the disengaged.  

Sunday Obligation

It is disturbing to see how many Catholics no longer take their Sunday obligation seriously.  Perhaps the temporary dispensation during the Covid pandemic lessened the binding force of the obligation, but Catholics need to understand that missing Sunday Mass without legitimate reason is grave matter.  Weekend camping trips, baseball tournaments, parties or vacations are not normally acceptable excuses.   Those who are casual about Mass attendance are not likely to be regulars in the confessional either.  I am not being judgmental about others.  I am simply criticizing this attitude and behavior.

Even some devout Catholics seem to believe God would not send anyone to hell for skipping Mass one Sunday or eating meat on a Friday.  They forget the entire fall of mankind happened when someone took a bite of fruit!  When Jesus established His Church on Peter and the other apostles, He gave them the authority to bind and loose.  Whatever discipline they deemed appropriate on earth would be bound in heaven.   While these may seem likely minor offenses, the grave matter is due to willfully disobeying a commandment bound by the Church Christ authorized to rule in these matters.  

Those who take their obligations lightly also risk adding scandal to their sin.  If my Catholic neighbor can skip Mass for a couple of weeks in the summer and still go to Communion when he returns, I should be able to miss with my family while we are on vacation.  Our behaviors can influence those around us.  We are all one body and when one part of the body ails spiritually, it affects the spiritual health of others.  

On a cautionary note, we should not assume our neighbor has ignored his Sunday obligation just because we haven’t seen him in Church for a few weeks.  He may have a legitimate reason for not being there or may have attended Mass at another parish.  Catholic Churches exist all over the world.  Unless we are vacationing on some extremely remote area or on another planet, it should not be too difficult to find a Catholic Church not far away.  

Synod synopsis

I recently wrote about our parish synod effort to evangelize Catholics who no longer attend Mass.  The committee decided to offer monthly sessions to our parishioners to help them reach out to family and friends who have lapsed.  Committee members were assigned to work in pairs, each pair given a topic to present at one of the sessions.  My turn came in July.

Fortunately for me, I had a very good partner to work with me.  Our topic was Why am i Catholic.  My partner Mike and I each wrote a script of what we would like to say.  Mike combined them into a PowerPoint slide presentation we used to guide our discussion.  We both wanted to try a testimonial approach to our talks, and it worked well as we were both able to tell our stories.

Mike’s story was especially interesting as he told about the time he unknowing fried bacon in front of his Muslim roommates in college.  They considered themselves unclean for even being in the presence of forbidden food.  Their year-long interaction on religious differences led Mike to delve deeper into understanding his own Catholic faith.  

So, why am I Catholic?  A part of my testimony centered on speculation whether I would be Catholic today if my mother had not raised me in the faith.  I don’t know.  Probably not.  My dad’s family were all Methodists. 

My grandparents on my mother’s side were devout Catholics who came to this country from Eastern Europe.  Strong Catholic families probably have a lineage just like the line of popes going back in history to early Christianity.  That Catholic faith was handed down from generation to generation.  I think about how sad it is when one person in the family falls away from the Church, breaking that Catholic family line that may have existed for centuries. 

My mother had nine siblings.  Ten children in the family altogether, all of them raised in a good Catholic home.  The children of those nine siblings are my cousins.  As near as I can figure, about half of those cousins no longer practice the Catholic faith.  Once that Catholic lineage is broken, it is likely lost forever.  

When conversing with non-Catholics, often someone will say, oh my grandmother was Catholic, or I have an aunt who is Catholic.  Most every family has Catholic ancestors.  Somewhere along the line, someone left the Catholic family and subsequent generations never got to know the faith.   

So, our synod mission is to bring back those we have lost, either because someone drifted away or didn’t return after the pandemic scare.  We need to know why someone would leave the Church, and before we can draw them back, we need to appreciate how fortunate we are to be members of the one true Church established by Jesus Christ.  Study the Faith, know the Faith, share the Faith, and never stop learning.

1 Peter 3:15. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.

What's in a name?

Someone posted on a local social media billboard that they had recently moved and were looking for a new non-denominational church.  A flurry of responses came almost immediately from a variety of area Christian communities.  Some offered endorsements about their pastors, programs, music, or camaraderie.  One poster encouraged the seeker to find “the most biblical and sound church within driving distance.”  All great selling points when competing for business.

One responder commented, “No denomination IS a denomination.”  In a sense, he is correct.  To denominate is to give something a name.  To label a church non-denominational is essentially giving it a name.  Merriam-Webster defines a denomination as a religious organization whose congregations are united in their adherence to its beliefs and practices.  Therefore if a church is non-denominational,  it is not united to any other church’s beliefs and practices.  

While most Christian non-denominational communities have some common beliefs and practices, beyond them lies open season depending on who is in charge.  In a non-denominational setting, that may be the pastor or a board of directors.  Effectively, they are the pope and magisterial authorities of their own church. I would like to ask the respondent who suggested looking for the most biblical and sound church how to make that determination.  How does one decide whether the beliefs and practices of a certain religious community are sound and biblical?  By whose standards do we compare?  People choosing a faith community in this manner want a church that conforms to what they believe or what they want to believe.  If not, they can simply choose another church or start their own.  

Belonging to a non-denominational church means not being accountable to a higher earthly authority.  The problem is that Jesus left us an earthly authority to guide us in matters of faith and morals.  Even more importantly, He instituted a ministerial priesthood to offer sacrifice and forgive sins.  In a non-denominational community, or any Bible-only institution, these essential provisions for God’s plan of Salvation are lacking. 

We Catholics sometimes take the sacraments for granted, not realizing how fortunate we are to have them available.  They are hygiene and refreshment for the soul.  Living without them would be like living without soap and water.  To the person seeking a non-denominational church, consider that the Catholic Church is not a denomination as you might define it. The Catholic Church is THE Church that Jesus Christ established.  It is the only Church you should be seeking.