Category: Uncategorized

As a Catholic and a priest I remain quite stunned at the decline in Mass attendance during my lifetime. When I was a little child I remember jam packed Masses, get there early or stand. In those days of the early to mid sixties if you put up four walls Catholics would fill them. There were waiting lists for the parochial School, lots of Religious Sisters, and there was not just an associate pastor or curate, there was a first, second, third and fourth curate. Long lines for confession on Saturdays were common then too.

But this is largely gone. Yes there are still some  large parishes in suburban areas but even they used to be a lot bigger. Weekly Mass attendance has gone from 80% to less than 30% Vocations are beginning to rebound but the usual experience is empty convents and largely empty rectories. An Associate Pastor is unknown in many parishes and in some parts of the country even a resident pastor is often missing.

There is no other way to describe this than “stunning.”  And I can hear all the usual arguments about why swimming in my brain. We abandoned tradition! No! Say others, we are not progressive enough!…..There are too many rules!  No,  say others our problem is that we abandoned all the rules!….I could go on. Everyone has their human explanations and there are lots of disagreements about them.

But what might God be doing or allowing? Now I know I am on difficult ground in attempting to ponder this question. But please be sure, I am merely pondering it, not proposing a complete answer. But I have often asked the Lord, “What’s up with the Church?….What has happened Lord?” I do not claim a bolt from heaven came in answer but just a gradual and increasing awareness that what we are experiencing is not really new. There does seem to be a Biblical precedent that in the past God has frequently seen fit to thin his ranks, to prune and purify his people. In the Old Testament as well as the New there seems to be a kind of remnant theology at work. That is to say, of the many followers of God, many if not most fall away and only a small remnant remain to begin again. Perhaps some examples from Scripture will help:

1. There were Twelve Tribes in Israel. But ten of them were lost in the Assyrian Conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC. The Prophets had warned the Northern Kingdom of its wickedness but a refusal to repent brought the destruction promised. Those who did not die in the war were deported and disappeared by assimilating into the peoples around then. They are known as the Ten Lost tribes of Israel. Only a remnant, the Tribes of Judah and Levi survived in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
2. Judah too grew wicked and prophets warned of destruction. The Babylonians destroyed Judah, and Jerusalem with it,  in 587 BC They deported the survivors to Babylon. Eighty years later the Persians conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Jewish people to return to the Promised Land. But only a remnant went, most chose to stay in the Diaspora, preferring Babylon to the Land promised by God.
3. Gideon had an army of 30,000 and faced the Midianites who had 60,000. But said to him, “Your Army is too large. Tell the cowards to go home.” So Gideon dismissed any of the soldiers who didn’t think they were up for this battle. 20,000 left. Now with only 10,000 God said to Gideon, “Your army is still too large, lest you think you would win this battle on your own.” So God had Gideon observe the men at the stream as they drank water. Some drank leisurely and others lapped up the water like dogs! “That’s your army,”  said the Lord, “300 men and I will be with you.”  Gideon won that day with three hundred men whom the Lord had chosen. God thinned his ranks, and chose only a remnant as his true soldiers. (cf Judges 6 & 7)
4. Jesus too didn’t seem to trust big crowds. Some of his most difficult sayings come when there is a big crowd. In fact, anytime you see a mention of a large crowd in the Gospels, fasten your seat belt because I can guarantee you that a hard saying is coming!  Once when there was a large crowd, Jesus taught against divorce (Matt 5 & 19, Mark 10). Another time spoke to crowds and declared that no one could be his disciple unless they renounced their possessions took up a cross and followed (e.g. Luke 14). Yet another time Jesus taught on the Eucharist and many left him and would no longer walk in his company (Jn 6).

These are just a few examples of remnant theology in the Scriptures. There are many more. I would like to quote one last one from Zechariah because it also gets to the root of what God may be doing in our times, if my hunch is right. First the quote:

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,  against the man who is close to me!”  declares the LORD Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.  In the whole land,” declares the LORD, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it.  This third I will bring into the fire;  I will refine them like silver  and test them like gold.  They will call on my name  and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’  and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.‘ ”  (Zech 13:6-9)

A stunning passage to be sure. But it also show the purpose of God thinning his ranks. There is something very mysterious as to why God allows many to stray and yet it is true  that we are free to stay or go. There seem to be times in the History of the Church and Israel that God allows many to depart, even “causes” them to depart as this passage describes it. It is a hard mystery to stomach. But I suppose I understand one aspect of it. It is currently pruning time here in the Northeast. My mighty rose bushes, eight feet tall have been pruned to one foot off the ground. And I had it done on purpose. But if my roses are to thrive next year and be beautiful, the prunings have to be done. The roses do not understand what I do, but I know of what I do. It is necessary, though painful. And God too knows of what he does and we cannot fathom it any more than my rosebushes fathom me. But he does it. And the 1/3 who remain in this passage must also be purified, refined as in fire. But when it is done:  pure gold. Those who remain and accept purification will call on God’s name. They will be a people, a Church after his own heart.

To me it has become clear that the Lord is pruning his Church. He is preparing us for spring. And we do in fact have a difficult winter we are enduring. But we’re being purified, cleansed. These are tough days for the Church but I already see signs of a great springtime ahead. There are many wonderful lay movements and growth areas in the Church. I am very impressed with the calibre of men entering the priesthood. These are men who love the Lord and His Church and who deeply desire to speak the truth in love. In my own Convent we have 25 young sisters of the Servants of the Lord, a wonderful new and missionary order. They too love the Lord and his Church and want to spread his gospel everywhere. Though our overall numbers of practicing Catholics are diminished, I see greater fervency in those who remain. In my own parish there are many who are devoted to prayer, bible study and praise of God. Eucharistic piety is stronger  in the Church today through adoration, daily mass. On the Internet there are many signs of excitement and zeal for the faith. Many wonderful blogs and websites are emerging to strengthen Catholics. EWTN is doing wonderful works and many Catholic Radio Stations have begun.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. God has pruned and is purifying us as Church. There are already many signs of this great work of God. I have no doubt that there are still some difficult winter days ahead before a full springtime sets in. But God never fails. He is renewing his Church and preparing us for whatever lies ahead. I realize this post will not  be without controversy. I do not propose it as the only answer to the times. Neither do I claim that fallen-away Catholics have simply been pruned as though we could know they will never return and be grafted on again. We should continue to Evangelize and seek to grow the Church by Christ’s own mandate. We cannot know when spring will set in fully and so we must step out as if it is already here.

Please remember a  blog is about discussion so feel free to comment. I do not propose this as a full answer but as a discussion starter: Add subtract, multiply but DON’T divide!  😉

Thank God for my car!

My uncle had an uncanny sense of appreciation. He pasted on to my generation a propensity to thank God for the most unusual of things. For example, my wife laughs at me every time I drive by a bus stop. Often, when I notice a bus stop, I say a prayer of thanksgiving for my car. Until I was well out of college, I did not own a car. I rode the Metro buses and subways everywhere. At that point in my life, I did not ride the Metro because it was the most convenient way for me to get to school or work. I rode it because I had no other choice. Without the Metro, I would have to depend on rides from friends and classmates and I certainly could not afford a cab.

The “70” bus

If you grew up in my part of Washington, you know of the “70” bus which runs from somewhere in Silver Spring, down past Howard University toward the National Mall.  It goes though some of the richest and poorest neighborhoods in the District.  Therefore, riding this bus is often an adventure.

I told my wife that I cannot recall how many times I would be waiting on Georgia Avenue for the infamous “70” bus and look at people sitting in traffic. Many of those folks looked annoyed at the traffic and I would lament silently, “You don’t know how blessed you are to have a car!”

Prayers for the pavement

Living with traffic is part of living in the Washington area. And cursing the Beltway is very much part of the Washington experience. So, here is a lesson. The next time you are in traffic because of an accident, thank God that you are in the traffic and not the accident. Then pray for those folks in the accident who would probably gladly change places with you at the moment. Or, the next time you have to endure rush hour on the Beltway, be thankful for the employment that caused you to get on the Beltway in the first place. And when you are slowed up going home, thank God that you have a home in which to go.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving – even if you spend some of it on the Beltway.

We have discussed in the past on this blog that Catholic Education throughout the country is in serious crisis. The Washington Archdiocese is no exception. A combination of factors are to blame for the significant numbers of closings in this Archdiocese:

1. The Loss of Opportunity Scholarships (vouchers),
2. The increasing cost of running schools.
3. Aging and expensive school buildings.
4. The necessarily higher tuition rates put schools out of range for an increasing number of families.
5. Fewer benefactors in hard economic times means fewer scholarships.
6. Declining birthrates in Catholic families means there are simply fewer children to fill the seats
7. Declining numbers of active catholics means Parish budgets are shrinking and fewer Catholics have to cover the increasing costs of parish subsidies for schools.
8. Declining number of religious vocations to staff our schools.

An article appeared in the Washington Post on Tuesday that I would like to excerpt here and include some of my own commentary in RED

• Catholic schools look at closing
• 14 in District and Md. with lower enrollment discuss concerns
• By Michael Birnbaum
• Washington Post Staff Writer
  Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Pastors at 14 churches in the Washington Archdiocese have warned that their schools could close or be reconfigured if enrollments continue to decline.

The schools are split evenly between the District and Maryland, and all serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Not all are in immediate threat of closure. But the meetings between pastors and school parents in the past month signal a further possible retrenchment of Catholic social services in the same month that the church announced it would pull Catholic Charities out of contracts with the city if it doesn’t change a proposed bill on same-sex marriage. And in the case of the threatened D.C. schools, the archdiocese is encouraging its parishioners to get politically involved.  Not so fast here! The Church has not announced that we will pull Catholic Charities out of anything. What we HAVE indicated is that we would no longer qualify to receive city funds in the care of the poor if the current Gay Marriage Bill is passed without further religious exemption. It is the CITY which is causing this possibility not the Church. It is the Church that will be kicked to the curb in this regard. We are not threatening to do anything, we will simply be disqualified by these draconian new laws. As for the education matter we are encouraging Catholics to get politically involved so as to get the congress to revisit their decision to shut down the Opportunity Scholarship Program (vouchers). The Congress has currently chosen unions over children. It is clear that options are best for children. Returning them to a failed Public School System is wrong. We need to politically organize parents and families to convince the congress that children are more important that unions and school bureaucracies.

“These are the schools that have an urgent need for the pastors to sit down with them to discuss the financial health of the community,” said Kathy Dempsey, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese. [The archdiocese operates 96 schools in the District and Maryland and serves 28,629 students, down 2.4 percent from last year, when it closed two schools in Southern Maryland. Two years ago, it gave up control of seven D.C. schools and converted them to public charters]. We did not covert them. We rented them to a high quality Charter provider so that the legacy of our school buildings to provide quality educational alternatives, especially to the poor would be maintained. The Current Charter Operator (Center City Public Charter Schools) does a fine job providing quality, values based education to largely inner city children. Catholic Education would still be better but this is a good fall back position given the current challenges in operating faith-based Catholic Schools.  Notice that these schools closed even prior to the end of vouchers. The schools that did remain open are, for the most part very fragile and the loss of the vouchers may well be the end of them. Vouchers alone cannot keep our schools open but they can provide an important life line that is part of the necessary mix in funding sources.

Dempsey said that people at the seven D.C. schools now under threat met to discuss the futureof the D.C. voucher program, which is up for reauthorization in Congress and was closed this year to new entrants. The seven schools have high proportions of students receiving the federal vouchers, which pay up to $7,500 in tuition for low-income families. Although no formal surveys have been done, Dempsey said many families will probably pull their children out of the schools if the program were discontinued. Dempsey said the church was encouraging the school communities at the meetings “to call Congress and mobilize,” and the archdiocese has been involved in several pro-voucher protests since August.

Of the seven schools in the District, St. Augustine School in Northwest has the highest percentage of voucher students: More than half of its 180 students received vouchers this year, and it was targeted by the archdiocese for conversion into a charter school in September 2007 until community backlash forced a reversal. This is not true. St. Augustine School was never slated for conversion. It was offered a palcein the new Consortium of Catholic Academies which would have kept it open and Catholic. The Parish chose not to accept membership in the Consortium and preferred to return the school to a parish based school. The parish committed to do the fundraising necessary to keep it open and thus far has been successful. The possible loss of half its students will be a serious blow however.  Holy Redeemer School, St. Ann’s Academy, Sacred Heart School, St. Anthony, St. Francis Xavier and St. Thomas More were the other schools in the District that had meetings. Voucher students account for at least a fifth of the students at all of them, Dempsey said.

The Maryland schools are St. Hugh School in Greenbelt, St. Jerome and St. Mark in Hyattsville, St. Catherine Labouré in Wheaton, St. Jude in Rockville, St. Michael the Archangel in Silver Spring and St. Michael in Ridge, in St. Mary’s County. The future of the voucher program doesn’t affect them, but they are suffering from declines in enrollment and charitable giving. As noted above, vouchers or public funding alone cannot save our schools (unless the funding levels were much higher) but some tuition assistance to students is an essential component of helping schools to stay open.

….Schools discussed options to make their operations more sustainable, ranging from increasing enrollment through community outreach to bolstering bank accounts through fundraising, Dempsey said. She said decisions about whether schools close will be made before the January enrollment process begins.

The bottom line is that it looks like we are heading for a smaller more regionally based Catholic School system. I would also like you to consider this fact: As a Church we can no longer sustain many of our programs, schools and parishes when only 27% of Catholics go to Mass regularly and support their parishes financially. In the end this is a people problem well before it is a money problem. People bring resources with them. A  lack of people people means a lack of resources. There are other factors listed above but the bottom line is that we are losing critical mass, we are losing synergy.

If you’re a lukewarm Catholic please consider how desperately you are needed. You may expect your parish to be there for you in times of need like weddings, baptisms and funerals but please consider that the “family Church” may close not long after the family school. Missing Mass on Sunday is not just a sin against God who is due our worship. It is not just a sin against your self  who needs Holy Communion. It is also a sin against others who need your prayers, presence, talents and resources. Together we can meet the challenges of providing schools and social services. Divided and lukewarm, we are slowly shutting down.

This video is from the Dicoese of Austin TX. But you’ll get the point:

Recently, I was serving Mass with a good priest friend of mine at a parish in Baltimore. During the Mass, a small toddler got restless, starting crying and every few moments, the baby would let out a piercing scream. The poor parents of this child were trying in vain to quiet the child. They pulled out toys, passed the boy back and forth, hugged him and rocked him, all to no avail. Now, the parents did not take the child out of the Church because the father was being received into the faith and needed to be present during the Rite of Acceptance. Nonetheless, I must admit, one part of me was annoyed because I found it hard to concentrate.

Should I really be annoyed or thankful?

Sitting on the altar, I noticed others in the congregation getting annoyed as well. Well, right when we could not stand it any more, right when the mother and father were about to surrender and leave the Church, my friend the celebrant, said to the parents, “Don’t worry about the crying child. All of that crying just means that the Catholic Church has a future.” He went on to say to the rest of us, “If you go into a church that does not have a crying baby, that church is in trouble. It has no future. So, let us thank God for crying babies.”

Cries of joy

That simple statement changed my mentality as well as that of most of the congregation. I still think the parents of an older child who should be disciplined may still rightfully garner a few scorns. But an infant whose parents are trying the raise the child in the faith deserve a bit more sympathy.  So, next time you find yourself annoyed and distracted by a crying baby, thank God; the future of the church is being secured.

I will share more “less-than-obvious” reasons to thank God in the coming days.

Here is a movie review of 2012 – the Movie (Spoiler Alert) by Fr. Barron He does a brillaint job of setting forth the anti-religious and anti-Catholic roots of this movie.

Take a minute to learn what is really at stake. 

http://www.adw.org/family/pdf/09Marr_Insert_11%2013.pdf