Disrespect of the sacramentals: Holy Water at a Mission

[KCtheMommy]

I hope I am posting this in the right area. This is part vent, part “atta-boy,” and part “what would you do?”

Yesterday, as part of my “Summer of the Missions” tour with my four kids (the eldest is going into fourth grade in Catholic school so she’ll have to build one – a CA thing. So I am gearing her up, as well as preaching/teaching our faith on the way) we hit Old Mission Santa Barbara. Which, by the way, has to be the most amazing Mission I have been to (out of five) thus far. It’s also a HUGE tourist attraction. HUGE.

OK so – into the chapel. On the way in to the main church I see a sign pointing away from the door with an arrow to the “Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.” Right, I get IT, Jesus is kept in a separate, more Holy location due to all the tourists, ( ) and that’s great. There is also a “Quiet, Please” sign. Relevant: I am with my atheist father (true atheist, not today’s atheist of denying God in an aggressive manner, but respecting people’s right to believe) as well as my four kids. So, we walk in, and I am immediately reaching for the font, but it’s not there. My elder two kids, same thing. I look to my dad and say in hushed tone: “there’s no Holy Water. I’m confused dad.” I am breath-taken by the beauty of the chapel, and yet, there is no candle, so Jesus is not present. Basically all of our Catholic motions are not in play – if you catch my drift.

My dad, again, respectful – gets my attention to point to the back of the church. Quietly, but determined, he’s pointing – out of respect – at a HUGE Holy Water Font at the rear of the church, and he’s desperately trying to make me comfortable by pointing it out so I can utilize it.

I head for it, and run into a large group of Japanese tourists. Boys. Eldest maybe 20? And they are actually PLAYING in our Holy Water. They were doing really ridiculous stuff like acting like they were conjuring something out of it, such as a cauldron, not a Holy Water Vat. Even going on with “whoooooo, whooooo.” Splashing, playing, completely disrespecting.

Every part of me wanted to shout and say “NO! STOP IT!”

I didn’t.

To be fair to myself – I didn’t have to, because in that moment a young Catholic man came up and SHOVED the heaviest-offender in the chest as hard as he could. Hard, actually he punched! He said “NO!” and let the kid have it. Even though he was out-numbered 7-1.

My dad, meanwhile, had been looking at me in that kind of concerned “are you going to say something?” type of way, while also letting me know he might. I am so glad someone else did do something as I had a baby strapped to my front. Dad was VERY pleased by the young Catholic’s reactions. Again, disrespect of anyone’s religion is NOT OK.

Yet, YET I also felt sad I didn’t get on them immediately.

I am SO PROUD of the young man who did, and he did so in full defense of his Faith. I know it’s a sacramental, not a sacrament – and there is no Blessed Sacrament in the chapel due to this very thing…

BUT it made me think – if even my ATHEIST dad – who does know a bit about our faith – was offended: we Catholics should very well be . . .

***HOW MANY OF US WOULD MAKE A SCENE TO DEFEND OUR FAITH?

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Or to be fair: just to educate about RESPECT?

(SERIOUSLY – could you imagine being THAT disrespectful in a Buddhist temple?)

 

[FCEGM]

[Edited]

I would like to think I would - as we get older I think we get bolder.

This reminds me of a counter to the disrespectful behavior you witnessed: When I was a teenager (MANY years ago) I was with a small group of Catholic girls who had gathered at the convent of the Holy Family Sisters in Mission San Jose, CA. While we were there a small group of Buddhist women came through the chapel on a tour of the convent grounds and buildings and all of them, knowing that the altar was a place of great religious significance to Catholics, made a respectful bow towards the altar.

 

[Brenda_V]

Hi KCtheMommy. I visit this forum often as well as the family ones.

I certainly don’t know what I would have done in a similar circumstance but do know that disrespect of other cultures has certainly become the norm for all the younger generation so use this experience to teach your children about respecting others cultures and religions!

I do agree that age does indeed make one bolder and also not having my children whom I must physically protect as well is something that came into how I would do something. God saw to it that there was someone there to defend the Faith and a Sacramental and personally I would have been far more offended had a group of American Baptists been doing the same, I might even have said something then.

Brenda V.

 

[Teakafrog]

Yeah, me and my big mouth would have said something. I often discipline other people’s children, since they refuse to do it. I would have at least said a stern “Stop that!”

 

[EasterJoy]

Yes, you try to be hospitable or to let those who are hosting handle these problems, but sometimes you just have to step in. You would try to do it under the assumption that the offenders are ignorant, rather than purposefully disrespectful, but you can’t let it go. One would hope that a decent traveller wouldn’t want you to.

I had a friend, a tall blonde woman, who was vacationing in Hawaii and had a band of Japanese women tourists start touching her, as if she were a hands-on museum piece! So sometimes tourists of any age might, shall we say, put an impossible strain upon the normal indulgence of hospitality.

Although this is not true of Mission Santa Barbara, Our Lady of Light Chapel, the home of the famous “miraculous staircase” in Santa Fe, NM, was deconsecrated as a Catholic Chapel. Loretto Chapel is now a private museum, and does not have holy water or a consecrated altar. So sometimes what looks like a Catholic church is not one. That is something to keep in mind, too…although a certain amount of respect is due, I think, simply because of the history of the place.

 

[MarieVeronica]

Hi “Mommy”. This is quite a troubling scenario. But it sure does make us THINK. It seems a few of us would step forward and intervene… and a few might be more hesitant. We must pray for courage, in defending our faith (and our churches!).

But your question certainly gives us the opportunity… to imagine this ill behavior taking place in our own parish church, and how we would react. So, thanks for sharing it. God bless.

(P.S. I’m a native Southern Californian, and I’ve been to Mission Santa Barbara several times, too. It is truly beautiful. I was filled with a sense of awe… and a feeling of gratitude for all that Fr. Serra and the Franciscans did there; and on the entire Mission Trail. God bless).

 

[Spiller]

Hi “Mommy”. This is quite a troubling scenario. But it sure does make us THINK. It seems a few of us would step forward and intervene… and a few might be more hesitant. We must pray for courage, in defending our faith (and our churches!).

But your question certainly gives us the opportunity… to imagine this ill behavior taking place in our own parish church, and how we would react. So, thanks for sharing it. God bless.

(P.S. I’m a native Southern Californian, and I’ve been to Mission Santa Barbara several times, too. It is truly beautiful. I was filled with a sense of awe… and a feeling of gratitude for all that Fr. Serra and the Franciscans did there; and on the entire Mission Trail. God bless).

Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen founded Old Mission Santa Barbara. The Blessed Junipero Serra passed shortly after receiving permission to build the mission – long before any activity actually took place.

 

[MarieVeronica]

Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen founded Old Mission Santa Barbara. The Blessed Junipero Serra passed shortly after receiving permission to build the mission – long before any activity actually took place.

Thank you Spiller, for the reminder that. Fr. Fermin Francisco de Lasuen took over for Fr. Serra (re: Mission Santa Barbara)… who, as you said… passed away prior to the Mission being built. As Fr. Serra was still the founder of the “Mission Trail”. That is what I had in mind, when I referenced Fr. Serra. That I could feel his “presence”, in a way; In the “work” that was done there. I should have been more specific, in my meaning. God bless.