09-26-2011, 06:09 PM
Friends :hello!:
I want to see your opinions on this 24-page PDF letter from a priest in our entirely NO archdiocese (not one TLM for miles around). I find his attitude very interesting - putting down pastoral/evangelical practices in the Church "in the last 50 years" as "essentially unchanged" since before Vatican II, and this is why we're failing so hard. He gets into theological reasons after the introduction, and I find this a very fascinating look into NO psychology. To see how they explain away losses in attendance in a way that doesn't tie to loss of tradition, is very twisty-turny.
http://www.saintbenedict.ca/?s=pastoral+care+of+the+sacraments&search=Search
First Paragraph (the whole thing is there in PDF after the second paragraph)
"Over the last fifty years our society has witnessed what can arguably be called the most accelerated social change in human history. As we have moved through several paradigm shifts in the last generation the pastoral practice of the Catholic Church in Western Civilization remains, for the most part, unchanged from what existed prior to this state of flux. In the last decade, the result of this failure to adapt and recognize what the Second Vatican Council referred to as “the signs of the times” is finally becoming evident. As a result, Church leaders are openly calling for deep change in our pastoral methods and courage to implement new models of faith formation, discipleship and Christian living."
He calls for a "new Pentecost", a "personal encounter with Jesus Christ", and the "empowerment of the Holy Spirit". Just as an aside, I've met our Archbishop many times in the last year, sometimes daily, and he is a bureaucrat entirely. It's somewhat farcical for a man who hides his clerical collar behind a scarf and dresses like your old granddad, to "call" all Catholics to new evangelisation and living the Gospel.
This is all a bad joke or dream or nightmare, surely? I can't get away from the lesbian gay feminist liberal ideal... I'll have to move out of this entire province or I'll go mad.
Any opinions or observations or insights into his mindset? :)
I want to see your opinions on this 24-page PDF letter from a priest in our entirely NO archdiocese (not one TLM for miles around). I find his attitude very interesting - putting down pastoral/evangelical practices in the Church "in the last 50 years" as "essentially unchanged" since before Vatican II, and this is why we're failing so hard. He gets into theological reasons after the introduction, and I find this a very fascinating look into NO psychology. To see how they explain away losses in attendance in a way that doesn't tie to loss of tradition, is very twisty-turny.
http://www.saintbenedict.ca/?s=pastoral+care+of+the+sacraments&search=Search
First Paragraph (the whole thing is there in PDF after the second paragraph)
"Over the last fifty years our society has witnessed what can arguably be called the most accelerated social change in human history. As we have moved through several paradigm shifts in the last generation the pastoral practice of the Catholic Church in Western Civilization remains, for the most part, unchanged from what existed prior to this state of flux. In the last decade, the result of this failure to adapt and recognize what the Second Vatican Council referred to as “the signs of the times” is finally becoming evident. As a result, Church leaders are openly calling for deep change in our pastoral methods and courage to implement new models of faith formation, discipleship and Christian living."
He calls for a "new Pentecost", a "personal encounter with Jesus Christ", and the "empowerment of the Holy Spirit". Just as an aside, I've met our Archbishop many times in the last year, sometimes daily, and he is a bureaucrat entirely. It's somewhat farcical for a man who hides his clerical collar behind a scarf and dresses like your old granddad, to "call" all Catholics to new evangelisation and living the Gospel.
This is all a bad joke or dream or nightmare, surely? I can't get away from the lesbian gay feminist liberal ideal... I'll have to move out of this entire province or I'll go mad.
Any opinions or observations or insights into his mindset? :)