The Pontificate for people who dislike Traditional Catholicism.
PopeWatch: True
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
More and more I wonder if he even likes Christians.
The Pontificate for people who dislike
Fixed it.
I wonder what priests think of the laity making decisions which were meant for them? I can imagine it would get tiresome.
The laity have been doing it for decades.
It’s made worse by the sacrosanct principle of a nomadic clergy (that stupid idea of uprooting a man every few years)
Is it any wonder that parishes see the same secretary, music director, and CCD director year after year. Someone has to provide the continuity that we were robbed of by an inept hierarchy.
So, we get secular governance, secular music, and secular theology. The programme is only disturbed by the most industrious priests.
Sometimes these laypeople are holy, selfless, and competent. Sometimes they are the opposite. They are always meant to be subordinate to the governance of a parish priest. In my experience this relationship is not common, but I think at this point, neither the priests nor the laity consider it the goal.
Great points TBO – The gossipy laity are the worse type of laity and always undermining the Priest to other Parishioners behind his back. He looses control of his flock and drops the ball and leaves or is moved.
Then you have the good priest who is such as good leader they move him to fix another Parish OR they move him up the hierarchy.
Lastly you have the priest who has been there for a long time. To “rejuvenate” the Priests comfortable Faith they move him. This is difficult for the parishioners who are used to his style.
Most people like the comfort of continuity and predictability at Church. That’s why the celebration of the Mass is the same – it offers stability and refuge in the familiar. A good priest mimics this and facilitates this. Churches don’t need to be exciting. They need to be a refuge. We have enough excitement and drama in the world than we can tolerate. Which is why it’s a bad idea to let the laity run the show. They are too much “in the world.”
“The laity have been doing it for decades.”
So have the bishops.
My last pastor in the Novus Ordo made distinct effort to offer Mass reverently. Seems his next parish… didn’t like this. So the bishop required him to change things, mostly to keep donors happy. I attended Mass at his current assignment a few weeks past, …his dedication to reverence and rubric has been subdued and “updated”. Very sad. I could discern traces of his vigor, yet most of the Mass reflected… the norm I’ve mostly departed. Noticeably, maybe half the nave was full for 10 o’clock Mass. .
Our bishops should be shepherds, teaching faith vigorously, reminding us how rubrics help Mass have meaning. Efforts to “appeal” to laity…work poorly.
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