I learned the other day that one of my former parishioners in another town had left the Catholic Church and joined a "non-denominational" church, the kind that has worship that is kind of like a rock concert, where the church looks like an auditorium and there is a high emphasis on comfort during worship, like bringing food and drink into the "worship center" relaxed atmosphere, strong preaching on how to live your life within the power of positive thinking, and no personal challenge to one's personal morality.
The question is: do we as Catholics try to emulate what our non-denominational brothers and sisters are doing, change our music, our message and our reverence and allow a more comfortable atmosphere that is like going to a concert or do we just allow a more traditional but small and faithful Catholic Church to emerge? Just wondering.
8 comments:
I vote for the traditional, small and faithful version.
No, no and no!! The Church's greatest strength is her constancy. When the concerts are over, the snacks consumed and the positive thinking thought and lost, the traditional, smaller and faithful Church will be there waiting for her children to come home. Truth is unchanging and not subject to fads and whims. If our faith is truth (and it is) then we must embrace it without regard to what is comfortable and trendy. God is steadfast, so must we be.
Me, too. I went to a Catholic Church Sunday for a ceremony for recognising children that had been good examples of the faith and showed support for others of it. Ironically the church was one of the ultra modern versions with lots of flyers advertising lectures on protecting the earth, etc. One of the featured speakers was a sister who had an extensive CV in 'ecological' education and work, but very, very thin in the doctrine. They had a statue of Mary that was barely recognisable, done in the post-modern melting modeling clay motif. I wonder if the archbishop found the setting as ironic as I did.
rcg
I think we have all seen what has happened to our beloved Church when she tries to make like protestants (e.g. clown masses, liturgical dance, folk masses). The Real Presence even in the midst of such shenanigans wasn't enough to keep those lukewarm "catholics" from leaving for the Protestant churches. So, I vote for keeping the Church traditional, small and faithful. You can't go wrong. Perhaps God will have mercy on the souls of the misguided in their final moments.
If you teach them, they will come. If you stand for truth, they will come. If you stand in glory with the smells, bells & 2000 years of apostolic tradition in contrast to the fluff-n-nutter, whipped cream & lattes, they will come. I am a convert & I came. I vote for the REAL Catholic Church to stand up & show us what She offers to a world gone mad with self-gratification. And then let who comes, come. -pgal
I'd rather return to the catacombs then become like the Prots.
I think that the Church will get smaller, poorer, and holier. Parishes will continue to close, collections will drop, and pews and parsonages will be purged.
The "end" will then hopefully begin a renewal.
Or, God forbid, we become like France..ostensibly one of the most Catholic nations in the world, but it is only a veneer.
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