If you get a chance, check out America Media's documentary, "People of God: how Catholic parish life is changing in the United States"
People of God: A Portrait of Catholic Parish Life in the United States | America Magazine
It's very well done, and outlines the challenges and opportunities facing parishes in the present time.
Hopefully it's not behind a paywall. But in case it is, I am going to briefly summarize it.
The video is divided into four quarters, each outlining a different geographic location. It shows how they are different, facing unique circumstances, but also how they are the same.
The first quarter features a growing pair of "twinned" parishes in a Phoenix, AZ suburb. The Phoenix area, and all of the southwest, is growing by leaps and bounds. This is reflected in these parishes, which are full and vibrant. But this obscures the fact that though the population in the area is growing, the numbers identifying as Catholic aren't growing as fast. The featured parishes are bilingual, with both Spanish and English Masses. The number of "nones" is also growing, with many Hispanic young people no longer identifying as Catholic. Some of them are Protestant, but many don't identify with a church. The point is made, though, that while not all Hispanic young people are Catholic, the majority of young people who do identify as Catholic in this area are Hispanic.
The next area covered in the video is in the midwest. The featured area is in the Wisconsin diocese of Green Bay. It is a cluster of three somewhat rural parishes, soon to be four, which share a priest. There is one deacon, who assists in ministry. The parishes were started in a time when more people made their living in agriculture. The parishioners now tend to be older, but are faithful to their parishes. They keep going by midwestern determination, and relying on volunteers to fill the gaps a lot. There are a lot of similarities to the area which my husband and I live in. The point is made about the shortage of priests, and that many of them come from foreign countries now.
The third area covered is one greatly affected by climate change, in Louisiana. Many people are shrimp fishermen, and many more work in the fossil fuel industries. They have been affected by hurricanes and floods. There is a long history of Catholicism in the area, going back to colonial times and the Acadians who came down from Canada.
The fourth area is urban. A parish in Boston is featured, St. Cecilia's. Many young people from other areas gravitate toward the cities such as Boston for job and cultural opportunities. St. Cecilia's is a large parish, which is known for being LGTQ friendly, and welcoming to all. Even before Covid, they were reaching out with live-streaming liturgies. When the pandemic hit, they had had plenty of practice with streaming online. They quickly picked up a large viewership, and some of them actually joined the parish. There was one lady from upstate New York who joined, and even some people from across the ocean in the UK. The problem is that Catholicism is a sacramental church, and sacraments are physical things. They try to welcome their online community at St. Cecilia's, but also encourage them to engage with a physical parish where possible.
Thank you for the summary, Katherine. The video is paywalled. Your point about the Church being sacramental is important.
ReplyDeleteWithout wishing to deride RCIA generally, certainly in my experience the sacraments were presented to us as obligations and responsibilities. There was no discussion about the way the sacraments might offer sustenance and encouragemen to believers.
So if there are people who enjoy virtual church, as at St Cecilia, there may be a fairly large "court of the gentiles" in some areas who are responsive to the Word but who may need more thoughtful "handling" than just being told that they "need to" get themselves to a physical church, again underscoring obligation and responsibility, and nothing of the sustenance and companionship that might await them.
To your point about "... the way the sacraments might offer sustenance and encouragement to believers", I agree that we need to focus more on that. To present them as primarily obligations and responsibilities is to suck all the joy out of them.
DeleteMidwesterners commenting on "foreign priests": Parishes here started out as ethnic churches where Grandma's priest was foreign and spoke German or Czech/Skovak. That was OK. But now that the priests are African, Hispanic or Asian, "nobody can understand him."
ReplyDeleteIn our area at least, people are getting beyond griping about foreign priests. Because they realize that a lot of times the alternative is no priest and no Mass. One of the priests in our parish cluster is of Asian background, but grew up in Suriname. Some of the foreign ones are here for a time; they raise some money to send back to their home diocese, and then go back home. But this priest is here to stay, and is much loved.
DeleteCatholics in this area are very traditional, but I do hear comments about how they would like to see the Church allow married priests if it meant fewer foreigners. I suppose this could mean a lot of things, most of which are depressing to contemplate.
DeleteI think if they do allow married priests, it's going to be in places like the Amazon, where people really have no sacramental support.
DeleteI don't know why the reverse gear people would dislike the foreign priests. Many I've encountered seem to share their Weltanschauung. I remember attending a parish where the Venezuelan priest was knocking then alive Chavez to the point I winced. He sounded so ruling class.
DeleteI think, in light of Anne's comment below, that people here want the priest to be of their ethnic tribe. Their attitudes/beliefs seem to be less important, but I don't want to assume it's that way in all rural, ethnic parishes.
DeleteI honestly do not care if a priest is of my ethnicity. I would prefer that he not be a sedevacantist or a Vatican II denier. And I don't want him to inflict us with his political views. Other than that, I'm good. I can always take away a good thought from a halfway decent homily, or even a quarter decent one. I am fine with the guy from Suriname (we get him once in awhile, but he isn't our pastor), even though I have to listen carefully to understand him sometimes. He is a caring person, and doesn't act like laypeople
Deleteare beneath him . How they treat people is way more important than their ethnicity. I should add that our pastor is a decent guy too, I was just making the point about ethnicity.
I watched the video. I still have a digital subscription to America but don’t plan to renew. The message that came through to me in all four locations is that for most of the people, church is about community, about being surrounded by their tribe. It is not about specifically Catholic doctrine, nor even much about sacraments. It’s about being with people who share their customs, where they feel at home, a place they can turn to for support when needed. The church community is where people say the same prayers, perform the same symbolic actions (genuflect, sign of the cross etc), celebrate the same coming of age milestones like First Communion or Confirmation, celebrate Christmas with Advent wreaths and midnight mass - all the things that most cradle Catholics grow up with. Some of these are different customs in the Hispanic parishes - luminaria lighting the path for the Christ child at Christmas instead of advent wreaths, etc, but the tribalism and desire for a community where you share these things with others are the same.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWe do have a subscription to America; Betty and I plan to watch the video sometime in the next few days. Sounds like America Media is preparing people for the continental phase of the synod, the recognition that both here and abroad Catholics face very different situations. We cannot be a one size fits all church.
ReplyDeleteI think you will like the video. I agree that it is likely a preparation for the continental phase. Even though we face different situations, it also emphasized the ways in which we are the same.
DeleteBetty and I watched the video last night after singing Vespers with the monks. It certainly passed the sleep test for me. I was tired after working out in the garden. It was difficult to keep awake during vespers even though I was singing each alternative verse. My mind would nod when the monks were chanting the verses that I was not chanting.
ReplyDeleteBut I was completely awake during the entire video. Betty and I both though that it was better than the average PBS documentary. Technically, extremely well put together. They need to release this beyond the paywall. Get PBS or one of the networks to run it.
Very good portrait of the diversity of Catholicism, each parish is unique even though they have some commonalities. Very good portrait of the diversity of leadership (foreign priests, deacons, and all sorts and types of lay people) necessary for parishes to survive today.
Articulated the realities of the present changes going on in the Catholic Church in America in very visual terms. Both the migration of Catholics from the Midwest and Northeast to the South and Southwest and the equally important migration of young people from rural areas to urban areas.
So, despite the outmigration of Catholics from the Northeast, Boston still had the most vibrant parish which had a digital platform before the pandemic that then brought in tens of thousands of new Sunday worshipers from Boston, the US and around the world. And they made it clear this progressive parish was competing with other parishes for the young people that are coming to Boston.
They and America now think the Boston Parish has a digital problem that the Catholic Church is physical sacramental and has to connect all these people to local churches. They have not gotten the message of Francis that we must free Christ from being locked behind parish doors and go live in the peripheries, including the digital peripheries.
ReplyDeleteThis Boston parish should become the model for all our large vibrant suburban parishes which already have fine music ministries, good homilies and model social justice programs. (I was a member of two of these). These parishes should take to digital space and serve everyone who comes. Let the people who are coming digitally decide what they need to do wherever they are, once they are filled with music, homilies, and program ideas.
And the people in the peripheries may need the food of these progressive digital parishes to endure the famine in our backwater parishes. If the pandemic ever lets me return to parish life, I intend to make it clear to the PTB that I will worship there only if they become a fully digital parish marketing themselves to the peripheries.
Recently my last surviving aunt died in PA. I was not close to her, but I did see that the parish that would bury her did live stream some Masses. Unfortunately, it was a cluster parish which did not livestream from the site of her funeral. However, my local parish did happen to have a funeral at the same time on the same day. I tuned in but they did not broadcast the funeral only the early morning Mass.
In my opinion all services (Mass, baptisms, marriage, funerals) need to be livestreamed so that anyone anywhere can participate.
Liturgy is a public event and in today’s world that means that it is a virtual event as well as a physical event. Virtual serves the same function that the ancient celebration of the Eucharist at various churches around Rome proceeded by a procession through the city to that church did. Without virtual, one cannot adequately evangelize today.
Francis has made it clear that we must be both global and local. We cannot become so global that we are just bystanders in someone else parade (e.g., a progressive church such as Boston or multicultural parish such as Arizona) or keepers of a museum (such as the parishes in Wisconsin and Louisiana). In my work in the mental health system, I was both local and national. Almost everything which I did locally was also presented at national peer reviewed conferences. I did start with what the local people were doing well but I did not stop there. I understood everything in terms of the evolving national mental health field. That enable me not only to present at national meeting things that national people thought were innovative but also enabled me to bring in within my first three years more grant money than I was every paid in salary for my whole tenure.
Thé Arizona segment reveals the future of parish Catholicism. The euro descended Catholics will be a minority within 20 or so years.
ReplyDeleteThe Boston parish shows what could be done IF there is a will and the pastor is on board - expanding social justice teachings, genuinely welcoming members of the LGBTQ community, even things like the cafe where people can gather comfortably to get to know one another. Etc. Their virtual reach is truly remarkable - more than 80,000 viewers! The parishioner - registered even though she lives in New York - who handles the live stream comments was very interesting. It’s clear that the virtual community is also looking for community - a place where they can meet, get to know one another virtually, and feel comfortable with the parish, perhaps because it doesn’t seem to be a parish branch of the GOP nor an anti-VII parish. So many parishes, as I’ve mentioned previously. have gone full bore conservative Protestant while keeping the externals of Catholicism - sacraments, rosaries, traditional devotions of all kinds, but no social justice, no réal welcoming of the LGBTQ community, divorced, etc. I frequently read parish bulletins when going to a Catholic Church while visiting family or going to a wedding etc. You can instantly tell whether the parish wants to go backwards or if it wants to go forward, following the gospels instead of the Catholic Jerry Falwell type bishops like Chaput, Dolan, etc.
I applaud the outreach to the LGTB, and if more of America's Catholics come from the Americas rather than of European origins, that is to be expected. And the online outreach is a positive thing, and a good tool for when gathering in person isn't possible.
ReplyDeleteHowever. I have received six of the seven sacraments, and all of them required physical contact. We did spiritual Communion during Covid precautions, but it wasn't the same thing. The Last Supper wasn't remote, neither was the Baptism in the Jordan. I don't think the practice of the faith remotely is meant to be the default.
The Last Supper wasn't remote, neither was the Baptism in the Jordan
DeleteThe last supper was a real meal not a symbolic one. Obviously with the growing size of congregations a real meal presented logistic problems. Even so, the agape meal was still kept in many places separate from the Eucharist. So, the Eucharist as meal is important; maybe we need to get back to that.
I believe livestreamed Masses are real Masses. If we accept that and the priest intends to consecrate all bread and wine put forward by virtual participants, maybe we could have a real meal with the sacrament again. On Sunday when Betty and I celebrate noon Mass with the National Shrine, during the gathering rite (which takes some time there) I prepare my lunch which I then eat during the liturgy of the word/ homily. It would seem perfectly nature then to bring forth bread and wine during the preparation, consecrate and consume them, then have a second course of the meal with discussion of readings and homily after Mass. We would actually be doing something closer to what Jesus did.
Baptisms in lakes and streams soon also gave way to baptism in fonts. Again, for practical reasons.
We simply don't do things the way that Jesus did them, and there is no reason why we need to do sacraments in the way that Christians did them in any particular century. Indeed, for all the sacraments change has been a constant. It is not like we were given a one unchanging ritual by Jesus.
The only Eucharist celebration that I remember as truly meaningful - still vivid in my memory - was what I assume would be called an agape meal. I was active in the parish where we were married for about 30 years. I finally changed parishes after the arrival of the first JPII pastor. When a JPII priest arrived at my second RC parish, i headed for the EC.
DeleteThe most meaningful ministry that I was part of was our twinning relationship with a very, VERY poor parish in the mountains of the Dominican Republic. Visiting that parish was literally life changing - an important part of my evolution from conservative Republican to bleeding heart liberal. The social justice outreach involved a wide array of programs, and the social justice committee, composed of the leaders of the different ministries, had about 25 people. We met monthly. It was an incredible group. We also had a twin parish in inner city DC. The pastor there was - is - a remarkable man, a true pastor. He’s still there. One month the parish staff social justice minister decided we should meet in a home, and share a meal. The pastor from our DC twin parish joined us for our prayers before our discussion, and our discussion itself. He didn’t give us a homily, we all talked together. More like the Jewish services I’ve gone to. After lunch, we celebrated the Eucharist with real bread and, of course, real wine. Ever since I have experienced a longing for the same kind of community. The closest I’ve come was my Centrring Prayer community. My ideal is a house church, maybe a couple of dozen people, who share a meal, prayers, discussion, and the bread (real bread) and wine. Mass in a huge church with hundreds of people who are mostly strangers, and a wafer, simply doesn’t mean much to people like me.
Unfortunately the RCC is so inflexible - everything is canon law and the GIRM. The liturgy, strictly governed by the GIRM, does not permit the celebration of an agape meal. The RCC parishes have one size fits all in liturgy, and in the extracurriculars, mostly limited to traditional devotions like the rosary. Fine for some, but not for all, as the empty pews clearly show.
Katherine, you’ve experienced physical contact in confession?
DeleteAnne, I should have said physical presence in confession. You have to be there, you can't phone it in or do it online. Though in the past, prior to a consciousness about possible sexual abuse, it was not unusual for the priest to lay his hands on one's head for the blessing of absolution. Even more recently, prior to Covid, my confessor would shake my hand afterwards when he said "Go in peace". Of course this wouldn't happen if you went behind the screen. I do kind of miss those things, though it's understandable why they don't do it that way anymore.
DeleteI haven't experienced the Agape meal which you describe, but I have experienced Mass in a small group, as in someone's home. It is a much more intimate thing. When I was in college, for a daily Mass, the priest would invite the students to stand around the altar for the liturgy of the Eucharist part. I don't suppose they would do that nowadays.
DeleteBetty and I watched the rerun of the Saint Cecilia Mass this evening. It is well worth the time.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=saint+cecilia+boston+live+stream
Don't forget your 26 page worship aid/ bulletin!
Deletehttps://www.stceciliaboston.org/wp-content/uploads/4338_Cecilia_Bos_10_16_2022.pdf