Religous Fluff

Apparently dwindling parishioners is not just a Catholic problem. Today’s Wall Street Journal reviews Quitting Church by Washington Times religion reporter Julia Duin. The Weekly Standard publisher, Terry Eastland, is the writer of the WSJ’s review. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122031237268288821.html?mod=2_1580_middlebox)

According to Duin droves of evangelicals are fleeing their churches for a variety of reasons, including

“a lack of a feeling of community among church members, inducing loneliness and boredom; church teaching that fails to go beyond the basics of the faith or to reach members grappling with suffering or unanswered prayer; pastors who are either out of touch with their parishioners or themselves unhappy, or who fail to shepherd their flocks, or who are caught up in scandal, or who try to control the lives of church members in a high-handed way.”

Of the above listed complaints I find “church teaching that fails to go beyond the basics” most interesting. Many who left the Catholic Church for evangelical worship did so because they wanted to shed their spiritual lives of Church teachings and dogma. They wanted less structure and more emotion. How ironic is it that this same vanilla, non-judgmental, “love-is-in-the-air” brand of religion is responsible for the emptying of churches?

The truth of the matter is that people want and need to be challenged. A psychologist friend once told me that the most important word to teach a child is “no”. Children will get angry, but subconsciously they are happy to hear it. “No” teaches them they are not alone, that someone is protecting them. “No” sets boundaries, which makes a child feel safe. We adults are no different. We are children of God. We too need the guidance. We too need to hear “no”. Boundaries let us know we are on the right path—that we are not headed for destruction.

It’s no surprise that the post-Vatican II Catholic Church has led the way in dwindling Sunday Mass attendance. The church no longer challenges the Faithful as it did prior to Vatican II. I often laugh when I recall the CCD instruction I received in the 1970s. I can honestly say that I learned nothing in all those years except that God is Love. I remember beautiful pictures of flowers, oceans, and sunsets, but nothing else. Anything I learned about The Faith was from reading the gospels during Mass or from doing my own research.

Evangelicals are learning what Catholics need to learn: Challenge strengthens spirituality; religious fluff does not.



Donald Tremblay

Religious Entertainment

Yesterday, Catholicexchange.com posted a column entitled, “Hold the Applause: Confessions of a Conflicted Clapper” (http://www.catholicexchange.com/2008/07/22/113245/) The op-ed writer says she began to question clapping at Mass after reading then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, which says the following : “Whenever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.” (Ratzinger, p198) Religious entertainment is something all churchgoers have had to suffer through. And because of its flawed objective the Novus Ordo mass is the main culprit behind the growing prevalence of this problem.

Following Vatican II the Church decided to “democratize” the liturgy (“Six Marks of the Novus Ordo Mass”, http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/newmass/marks.html).They wanted increased laity participation in the Mass, so they changed the liturgy’s objective from that of a sacrifice to one of a celebration. The Traditional (Tridentine) Mass was “a sacrifice linked to the sacrifice of the Cross”, while the New (Novus Ordo) Mass is “a meal linked to the Last Supper”. (http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/newmass/comparison.htm) The congregation became the focus of the liturgy instead of God. Need examples:

· No longer does the priest face God as he consecrates the bread and wine. Now he must face the congregation as if he is performing for the crowd, sort of like a magician at Radio City Music Hall .

· Parish Councils – Lay members in consultation with the pastor decide on the direction of the Church. In the case of the liturgy “it means that the Mass should be led not just by the priest, but by many lectors or readers taking turns, by many communion ministers, including women and even teenagers, by many ushers or so-called ministers of hospitality, and above all by a parish liturgy committee that decides the style and structure of the various Masses. The cantor or leader of song is another player on the team of the democratic liturgy.” (“Six Marks of the Novus Ordo Mass”)

And no discussion of religious entertainment would be complete without addressing the issue of Church music. Perhaps the best commentary on this disaster is my experience last week at a beach town parish. Prior to the opening of the liturgy, the pianist played a solo that must have been written by Charles Schultz since it can only be described as “Peanuts-like”. From there a set of drums, a violin, an organ, and a guitar were added. (Never did I fathom that a Responsorial Psalm could be turned into a Jazz-like tune with a drumbeat setting the rhythm). Rounding off the Twilight Zone-experience was the performances of the singers themselves. The main singer, a gentleman with a wonderful voice, felt the need to smile and gesture with his arms throughout as if he were giving an aria at Lincoln Center .

And people wonder why Mass attendance is down.

Donald Tremblay

Learn more about the Tridentine (Latin) Mass