I skipped commenting on Father George last week. He made the argument that if we found Jesus as our Savior in the Church, nothing the nitwits in the Church do should drive us out. We should drive them -- to conversion. I wished he had made it more personal, because he has talked about growing up poor, in India, and what the Church meant to him. But He didn't push out to sea very far from Bishop Barron's dock.
Today, for Chapter 5, the grand finale starring Deacon Jack at every Mass, we got our sailing orders. One thing not everybody knows about Jack: When he was with the IRS he padlocked a Mafia warehouse in New Jersey. Not only that, but he had to tell the unhappy employees they wouldn't be paid because he had frozen the warehouse's bank account.
IRS agents are not armed.
Like Barron, but in his own New York voice, Jack dismissed all the one-shot answers and said the Church can only be saved by better priests. But since the priests come from the laity, we need better laity, too. So pay attention, get involved, and believe in action -- not just what they tell you. He got applause, which has been very rare around here since the pastor who structured his homily for cheering at the big finish (and brought in the organ to help) departed and sued the bishop for kicking him out of his house a/k/a our rectory.
On the whole, I don't think the parish got much of a bang out of five weeks of reflection on Bishop Barron's Letter to a Suffering Church. I suspect those who were going to throw in the towel did it long ago and didn't say goodbye. The letter wasn't what was discussed over coffee. My men's group had four weeks to pick on the discussion but we didn't. Last week's Bulletin said discussion groups will be formed to go deeper, but this week's Bulletin is silent on the subject, and the parish calendar for November and December is pretty full already.
So about Father George, was he in the Barron series, or is he one of your local priests? And is he from India's Christian community? There seems to be an India theme popping up lately here. In fact I may post on one later.
ReplyDeleteOur three priests are all Indian Carmelites -- Antony (the pastor), George and Tony. You do NOT want to try to spell or pronounce last names
Delete"On the whole, I don't think the parish got much of a bang out of five weeks of reflection on Bishop Barron's Letter to a Suffering Church. I suspect those who were going to throw in the towel did it long ago and didn't say goodbye. The letter wasn't what was discussed over coffee. My men's group had four weeks to pick on the discussion but we didn't."
ReplyDeleteThis is just my opinion: I don't think these "top-down" programs, whereby the church authorities try to get the people in the pews to talk or think about certain things, works very well. Cf. the Fortnights for Freedom, which for all I know still happen, but the next person at our parish who talks to me about it will be the first.
Preachers do better, istm, by being aware of what is on people's minds, and connecting that to the scripture readings of the day.
If bishops are dreaming about recreating the days when disciplined and fervent Catholics will bring the sinful entertainment industry to its knees, as has happened in earlier eras of history, 10 minutes of exhortation per Sunday for a few Sundays isn't going to get the job done.