An example would be if the congregation prays, “for us and for our salvation” (instead of “for us men and for our salvation”). This is an example of “horozontal inclusiveness” which is part of the Catholic feminist agenda. A much more eggregious offense is if the congregation prays, “for our sake, and for all God’s holy Church” (instead of “all his holy Church”). This is an example of “vertical inclusiveness” which seeks to “correct” the way that God has presented himself to humanity using a masculine identity (and it presumes we know better than God).
While I don’t know the entire liturgy by heart the way that long-term orthodox Catholics do, it seems to be that my priests follow what is in the books and cards that are in the back of the pews – all of which come from Novis or the CCCB. I’m the kind of man who can’t stand political correctness or the changing of words to be more “inclusive” (read radical feminist) so I’m sure that I would have noticed such alterations. You make a good point though, and luckily this doesn’t happen at any of the handful of parishes I’ve attended.
Are all of the altar servers girls?
No. Sunday mass has a mixture, though weekday masses tend to be all older women servers. I chalk this up to a lack of time on the part of younger people during the week. Also, the majority of weekday mass attendees are older women.
You could always ask him why homosexuals cannot marry. His answer could provide a lot of insight.
Based on our private conversations, he sounds like he’s 100% in-line with Church doctrine – at least from what I’ve researched on my own.
- What do you mean by “speaks”? Not exactly a homily topic when Masses have young children.
Sorry for my lack of explanation – I was tired and wanted to just “get the text out”. Anyway, what I meant was in men’s groups or at chastity events for adults he talks about the problems facing society. He says these days chastity is the hardest thing to promote and how internet porn is partly to blame for the way people dress immodestly and for how men have learned a distorted view of sex. He doesn’t talk about that at Sunday homilies. Some weekday homilies he talked about modern evils, such as euthanasia, internet porn, consumerism/materialism to the exclusion of all else, etc. When he speaks of the evils of porn, it’s not in a graphic or overly-descriptive way. The reason I mentioned this is because it stood out for me over the other things, mainly because I was glad to hear someone who doesn’t shy away from moral teaching. This is not to say that other priests at other parishes in my area don’t do the same thing, I was mainly comparing these positions to what I’m used to from Protestant churches.
- Making sure that such groups are listed in the bulletin, fine. But announces? And what if there are no such groups in the area?
Sorry again for not being as clear. He was “announcing” by saying something like “remember all men who want to come to tomorrow’s men’s group in the hall …” or “we invite everyone who wants to peruse a life of chastity to come on Friday in the main room to…” Basically he’s talking about upcoming events at our parish during weekday masses when there are no laypeople to do special announcements.
- This one is very dependent on the number of priests in the parish, the size of the parish and the other duties the preist has been assigned. Regular Confession times would do it; daily is nice but not an indicator.
Fair enough. I took this as an indicator that there are more “actively practising” Catholics in my parish, as well as the fact that there is a high population density. It is a demand that is being met. Low demand may reflect the parishioners’ views of the need for confession, nor the priest’s adherence to church teachings.
- This is not a mark of anything - orthodox, heterodox, etc. In fact, many very heterodox priests act somewhat egotistical, in my experience, and would gladly make such a statement since they like to be the focus of attention.
Hmmm…this was one time, and only because, I think, it had been an issue of people leaving after communion.
- Rephrase this to “Encourages young people to seek out and attend discernment events” and I am with you.
Fair enough. I wasn’t really listing actual quotes, I was doing some broad based paraphrasing.
Finally, also as mentioned by others, if a priest continually spoke on internet porn, I would become concerned about such an obsession and might think that he himself was struggling with such an issue. To say nothing about the issue of continually bring this up with children present.
I should clarify. He does not continually mention this. I mention that topic only because I was glad that he brought it up. It was not done with kids around, but in events dealing with men’s groups or adult chastity groups.
An orthodox Priest is someone who does not speak against the teachings of the Church, nor does he pray heretical prayers.
Gotcha! While I’m not as well-versed on what constitutes the whole compendium of proper Catholic prayers, nothing stood out in my mind, based on what I know.
I’m already convinced that I found a good place with faithful teachers. Many of the laypeople I meet in groups are quite orthodox in their own views, so I feel this is also a good indicator. I just wanted to see if there was anything else to look for. Also, keep in mind, not all the things I talked about or listed are necessarily specific to one individual!
