Catholic culture?

[NorthTexan88]

I was talking to my grandma about my great grandma, who are all Sicilian, and she was telling me all of the things they used to do back in the day, and how we used to have more of a Catholic culture than it is now. Will we ever return to that?

 

[Lisa1967]

I don’t know.

I have been reading The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould, who is a Catholic convert. She has a lot of good ideas for restoring Catholic practices in the home. I highly recommend the book. I found it at the library; you could also like Amazon or a Catholic bookstore.

 

[Oneofthewomen]

Probably not, because the nature of how we live in the US has changed.

I live in the 3rd largest city in NY. In the neighborhood I live in, there used to be 6 parishes within a 2 mile radius, each of then “catering” to a specific ethnic group region of an ethnic group.

My territorial parish was founded by Irish SSND’s in the 1880’s and seved a rather large Irish population that grew out of the building of the Erie Canal, among other things. Starting after WWI, many Italians moved into the area, and the Irish were moving out of the cities because they had “achieved the American Dream” and were moving out to the “urban centers”. The parish became one of predominatly southern Italians (Calabria, Siclia), and they brought their own tradions to the Church and the surrounding neighborhood. Same thing with most of the European immigrants. The came to America, but ended up in little “enclaves” or “ghettoes” with people from the same places. Think “Little Italy” or Chinatown" in one of the larger US cities, like NY or San Francisco.

The parish is now the home of a very vibrant Hispanic community. It is also the only parish left of the 6 that were here.

People are much more spread out now, and don’t see the need to “connect” with the people in the parish like they once did. My Mom, who was a child in the 50’s, and went to the parish school, said that even when she was a kid, the parish was the center of the neighborhood. But as more people started realizing teh “American Dream”, they too, moved out of “urban centers”, for the space of the space of the suburbs, and you now had 2nd & #rd generatons who wanted to move away from the culture they were born into and into a more “American culture”.

 

[latingirl]

I was talking to my grandma about my great grandma, who are all Sicilian, and she was telling me all of the things they used to do back in the day, and how we used to have more of a Catholic culture than it is now. Will we ever return to that?

I think that once we reclaim our identity as Catholics instead of giving into modern secularism and commercialism, that yes, it is very possible we will come back to this. From what I have seen and this is only my personal experience, too many Catholics, especially here in America, are “self-hating” of their culture and heritage.

 

[GWright]

I was talking to my grandma about my great grandma, who are all Sicilian, and she was telling me all of the things they used to do back in the day, and how we used to have more of a Catholic culture than it is now.** Will we ever return to that?**

There is no reason why not - but if we want to see a positive change for the good, then we ourselves need to be part of that change. The main source of Catholic culture in your life will be you, and those Catholics around you whom you inspire to express and celebrate their culture too.

 

[YoungTradCath]

nope

 

[lovemyjob]

Life won’t be like it was in Sicily all those years ago, but we can work to create a Catholic culture in our own circumstances.

 

[JuantheTuba]

Life won’t be like it was in Sicily all those years ago, but we can work to create a Catholic culture in our own circumstances.

This.

I think the fact that we’re all here, speaking on this forum, praying on-line for one another, consuming Catholic media, the growing number of Catholic blogs, Catholic-oriented news and publications is evidence of a new form of Catholic culture.

 

[NorthTexan88]

This.

I think the fact that we’re all here, speaking on this forum, praying on-line for one another, consuming Catholic media, the growing number of Catholic blogs, Catholic-oriented news and publications is evidence of a new form of Catholic culture.

I agree it wont be like it was in Sicily lol. But it just sounds so amazing how it was.

JuantheTuba. This was an awesome statement! I agree 100%
I’ve also come to realize that, I the case of the areas that I live in, when the Catholics start to become more and act more…Catholic, then we will start having more of a Catholic culture. I’ve been to areas of southern Louisiana where this is still the case

 

[fastenatingguy]

Probably not, because the nature of how we live in the US has changed.

I live in the 3rd largest city in NY. In the neighborhood I live in, there used to be 6 parishes within a 2 mile radius, each of then “catering” to a specific ethnic group region of an ethnic group.

My territorial parish was founded by Irish SSND’s in the 1880’s and seved a rather large Irish population that grew out of the building of the Erie Canal, among other things. Starting after WWI, many Italians moved into the area, and the Irish were moving out of the cities because they had “achieved the American Dream” and were moving out to the “urban centers”. The parish became one of predominatly southern Italians (Calabria, Siclia), and they brought their own tradions to the Church and the surrounding neighborhood. Same thing with most of the European immigrants. The came to America, but ended up in little “enclaves” or “ghettoes” with people from the same places. Think “Little Italy” or Chinatown" in one of the larger US cities, like NY or San Francisco.

The parish is now the home of a very vibrant Hispanic community. It is also the only parish left of the 6 that were here.

People are much more spread out now, and don’t see the need to “connect” with the people in the parish like they once did. My Mom, who was a child in the 50’s, and went to the parish school, said that even when she was a kid, the parish was the center of the neighborhood. But as more people started realizing teh “American Dream”, they too, moved out of “urban centers”, for the space of the space of the suburbs, and you now had 2nd & #rd generatons who wanted to move away from the culture they were born into and into a more “American culture”.

THIS!

Your story is parallel to that of my family: Poles who came to the Chicago in the 1890’s. Life was: family, Church, neighborhood. Things were simpler. There was no significant travel, no elaborate diversions (TV, vacations, etc). Everybody knew everybody else, spoke the same language (or the new one), were taught virtues (but learned some vices) and respect for their elders. And so on…

Life is much different now and we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. But this is not to say that we cannot redefine or live the Catholic Culture; it is just more challenging to do so today.

 

[LINVS]

It’s up to us to restore these valuable traditions. Modernism has done a good job at destroying our history and identity. There was a time when the calendar was filled with wonderful events and practices that defined us as Catholics. Today, many Catholics find it hard to fit a Sunday mass into their busy schedules.