Before I start blogging about the conference today, I wanted to share a remarkable conversation I had with a woman there who works in the national security field -- hence her presence at the conference -- but who is also a reader of this blog. She told me about her volunteer work at her Evangelical megachurch in the Washington area, then mentioned that by the way, she is a Catholic. She explained that she converted enthusiastically to Catholicism nearly 20 years ago, but at some point became so starved for community that she began attending this particular Evangelical church. She said she's found so much life there -- a community of people who are excited about the faith, who are serious about living it out, and crucially, are serious about living it out together. She said that in Catholic parish life, she grew so hungry for the presence of others who seemed to share the same faith that she had, and that eventually she became so lonely, trying to live out Catholicism in a parish where there was no real commitment to Catholicism, and people didn't seem much interested in talking to each other. I hope I've accurately reflected her comments -- and I hope too she'll elaborate on them in the combox. She told me she hasn't left the Catholic Church, that she still loves it, and goes to mass from time to time. But about 18 months ago, a sense of personal pain so great it was destroying her spirit compelled her to take a chance on this Evangelical congregation, and there she has found life.
I've heard of this kind of thing before -- Catholics who maintain a formal relationship to the Catholic church, but who engage in activities to some degree at Evangelical parishes, chiefly to be around other Christians who are more alive in their faith, and community-oriented. Any other readers do that sort of thing? If so, talk about it. I'd like to hear about your experiences.
Why is community of the sort this Evangelical-Catholic woman speaks of so difficult to find in many American Catholic parishes? I know what she's talking about, having experienced it myself, and I think the main reason is that there's so much internal fragmentation among contemporary American Catholics that they've lost a great deal of unity in the faith itself. What unifies them is their formal membership in the Catholic Church, which they're not going to give up even if they no longer believe what the Church teaches. And it's reinforced by priests and religious educators who don't proclaim the Church's teaching, and impart to the faithful a sense of the importance of being united in belief. A conservative Catholic priest friend once told me, with sadness in his voice, that if he started boldly teaching Catholicism, uncut, to his parishioners every week, he'd end up driving most of them away. Do you think that's true for your parish (if you're Catholic). If so, why?
I had dinner tonight with Patrick Deneen, and we were talking about how Americans, when they have the option to leave a place or situation that makes them unhappy, usually end up doing it, because they don't have loyalties that make them stay there and try to improve it. Most Protestants I know would have no problem at all moving to another church if the one they attend now displeased them at a profound level (e.g., the pastor began teaching something they believed was false). I have known more than a few orthodox Catholics who tried to get involved in their parish life, only to be shunted aside by their priest or the parish establishment for being "divisive." They didn't leave the Church, but at some level they gave up, and accepted marginalization and suffering as the price one pays to be a loyal orthodox Catholic in the American church today.
Let me correct myself: I can think of several Protestant friends -- one mainline Presbyterian, and a few Anglicans -- who stick it out unhappily in their parishes out of a deep loyalty to the church that their families have been part of for generations. If you're this kind of Christian, what keeps you there? What would make you leave?
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Cleveland:
I didn't know you had psychoanalytic training ...
I learn something new from the comboxes every day.
I thought the same thing about my enormous parish--that there was no fellowship--until I jumped in and got involved in pro-life ministry. What a vibrant group of people committed to prayer and living the faith! So at my parish, fellowship / service isn't jammed down your throat (as it was at the church I used to attend pre-conversion...you could barely move without someone asking you to get involved with something or sign on for something). Here you have to take the initiative, but there are plenty of small groups to get involved with if you do.
From what I hear (I'm pretty new here), our parish is changing in a good way--much more is going on here in terms of community life. And the reason = orthodoxy. We got a group of young, wonderful orthodox priests, got kneelers installed, started adoration, and are getting a much stronger pro-life & NFP ministries going. There is a real upsurge in Catholic identity. Granted, it took quite a while to get this done, but we are seeing a real revival spill over into all aspects of the parish.
She told me she hasn't left the Catholic Church, that she still loves it, and goes to mass from time to time.
My understanding is that if a person deliberately and with forethought misses the Mass and has no acceptable excuse, they have committed a mortal sin (i.e., it's "grave matter") and have thus for all intents and purposes excommunicated themselves until they return via confession and repentance/penance, etc. If so, then she has indeed left the Catholic Church.
Jim, I simply do not even begin to understand your "progressive" brand of Catholicism. It's as though you were two separate people-- a regular Catholic and a High Mass Episcopalian.
Whatever. God bless.
On the post below concerning this woman's excommunication, and leaving the Church:
She's still a Catholic by virtue of her baptism, which is indelible.
Excommunication would not erase this chrism, and is more than simple exclusion from communion. It's a formal legally defined exclusion from the entire life of the Church.
Assuming she understands what she is doing as an act of apostasy, she would be under a latae sententiae excommunication. More likely, she does not, and is simply guilty of missing mass, and therefore only in mortal sin (which would only mean she is not to communicate again until repenting & confessing.) Note that only certain mortal sins excommunicate, and though apostasy & schism are two of them, simply missing mass and going to a protestant or Orthodox service instead, would be unlikely to meet that measure. I think she would have to both formally understand what she is doing, and be pertinacious in her rejection of the Faith to be considered apostate.
Especially if she is in a spiritual, intellectual and emotional muddle.
Which she evidently is. So pray let's for the woman, aye?
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.