T
Thunderbird
Guest
This January, I had the pleasure of spending an entire month in Washington DC - partially for the inauguration, partially for the Pro-Life activities, mostly to visit my family.
Anyway, this was my visit to my hometown as a Catholic, so going back was an entirely different experience. For the first time, I visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (such a long name!), the Franciscan Monastery, etc…and also, I had the opportunity to attend a few parishes’ masses.
Keep in mind that a lot of the Catholic Churches in the area are far more under the radar than their protestant variations. For instance, there’s a section of DC where you basically can’t throw a rock without hitting some kind of protestant church - Tenth Street Baptist, Metropolitan Baptist (the church I grew up in), Lincoln Temple, Mount Gilead… all of these churches are within a four-block radius of one another. I mention this because for the longest time, I thought that DC was a largely left-leaning area and that its catholic churches would reflect the same.
You can imagine my surprise when I attended a few of the masses in the area and found that they were far more traditional than I would have thought! At every church I attended there, a rosary was said aloud in the half-hour block before the start of mass. EVERYONE bowed at the appropriate part of the Nicene Creed, people kneeled after the Agnus Dei… Even the Gospel Mass that I attended at St. Augustine’s on 15th and V still managed to be reverent.
In conclusion, visiting churches in DC was nothing short of Amazing…but I have to ask. Was I just lucky with the churches I chose to visit? Are there any DC natives on the board that can speak to whether or not this is the norm?
Anyway, this was my visit to my hometown as a Catholic, so going back was an entirely different experience. For the first time, I visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (such a long name!), the Franciscan Monastery, etc…and also, I had the opportunity to attend a few parishes’ masses.
Keep in mind that a lot of the Catholic Churches in the area are far more under the radar than their protestant variations. For instance, there’s a section of DC where you basically can’t throw a rock without hitting some kind of protestant church - Tenth Street Baptist, Metropolitan Baptist (the church I grew up in), Lincoln Temple, Mount Gilead… all of these churches are within a four-block radius of one another. I mention this because for the longest time, I thought that DC was a largely left-leaning area and that its catholic churches would reflect the same.
You can imagine my surprise when I attended a few of the masses in the area and found that they were far more traditional than I would have thought! At every church I attended there, a rosary was said aloud in the half-hour block before the start of mass. EVERYONE bowed at the appropriate part of the Nicene Creed, people kneeled after the Agnus Dei… Even the Gospel Mass that I attended at St. Augustine’s on 15th and V still managed to be reverent.
In conclusion, visiting churches in DC was nothing short of Amazing…but I have to ask. Was I just lucky with the churches I chose to visit? Are there any DC natives on the board that can speak to whether or not this is the norm?
What made you decide to move to the area?