Is it a church or a country club with a cross on top?

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Just got the tent ⛺ set up!
 
In about 60 years money will probably be no use to me.
 
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I keep them in my beer cellar. It’s a little cooler than room temperature 🤓
 
I’m not sure we can pin the causation of secularism to the priest facing the parishioners or female altar servers. Perhaps correlation, but…eh…what do i know.
 
Death by a thousand cuts. Female altar servers, “contemporary” hymns, lukewarm homilies, churches that look nothing like proper churches, general lack of reverence, etc. all add up to fewer people going to mass.
 
JimG said:
He has much more to say.
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That’s an understatement. He should learn the virtue of brevity in writing. I closely read several paragraphs, enough to see that in his view, the sex abuse scandal is less significant than the presence of altar girls. I skimmed the rest. I think it will play well to the “traditional” base.
 
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Those contemporary hymns are a torment.
 
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JimG said:
I have to add a few more quotes:

“I love to ask a very embarrassing question: How is it that most of our Catholic institutions were built by penniless immigrants but cannot be maintained by the most affluent Catholic population in the history of the Church?”

And he did have some good things to say about my former diocese of Wichita:

“If the relatively small Diocese of Wichita can sponsor tuition-free schools, what is the problem with everyone else? What is stopping priests or bishops from adopting the stewardship model that has been so successful there? Is it worth pointing out that one of the effects of the Wichita school system is priestly ordinations in abundance—ten men for several years in a row?”
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Back in that day 78% of Catholics went to mass faithfully on Sunday. Today it’s around 22%
 
KJW5551 said:
Death by a thousand cuts. Female altar servers, “contemporary” hymns, lukewarm homilies, churches that look nothing like proper churches, general lack of reverence, etc. all add up to fewer people going to mass.
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Really, none of these are what make people stop going to mass.

What stops people from going to mass is having a faith problem. They didn’t grow up with it, or it wasn’t a priority. The world offers too many distractions, too many excuses, and ways of living that have no “rules” to follow. Media influences, social media, everyone wanting an easy way out, a quick fix.
 
Irishmom2 said:
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KJW5551:
Death by a thousand cuts. Female altar servers, “contemporary” hymns, lukewarm homilies, churches that look nothing like proper churches, general lack of reverence, etc. all add up to fewer people going to mass.
Click to expand...
Really, none of these are what make people stop going to mass.

What stops people from going to mass is having a faith problem. They didn’t grow up with it, or it wasn’t a priority. The world offers too many distractions, too many excuses, and ways of living that have no “rules” to follow. Media influences, social media, everyone wanting an easy way out, a quick fix.
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How do you know, though, that poor liturgy has nothing to do with a faith problem itself? How do you know that nobody leaves Catholicism to find a more beautiful / reverent / tasteful worship experience? How do you know that nobody leaves a Mass that is riddled with guitar / drums / tackiness and says, “If that’s Catholicism, I don’t want anything to do with it”? Or even “If that’s Christianity, I want nothing to do with it”?
 
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KJW5551 said:
Death by a thousand cuts. Female altar servers, “contemporary” hymns, lukewarm homilies, churches that look nothing like proper churches, general lack of reverence, etc. all add up to fewer people going to mass.
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I know people who have given up on the Church due to pedophile priests and enabling bishops. I don’t know anyone who left over altar girls.
 
I have never met anyone that has used those excuses to not go to mass. Would you give up receiving the Eucharist because you couldn’t stand the music? Or because there were altar girls with the boys? Honestly, all of those things are superficial compared to receiving our Lord. People that give up receiving the Eucharist because they are looking for something more beautiful/ tasteful/reverent? What will they find not going to mass at all that is more beautiful/tasteful/reverent than the Eucharist?

Nothing.
 
As the proud father of two girl altar servers (and one boy altar server) I categorically reject anyone who blames the Church’s “problems” on female altar servers.

And if the good Father truly sees female altar servers as more threatening than the sexual abuse scandal perpetrated by his clerical brothers, then I’d like to give him a good talking to.

Regardless, I’m done wasting my time on Fr. Stravinskas
 
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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-nickels/from-catholic-to-orthodox_b_2529459.html

I suspect this guy is not the only one who has felt this way:

" Orthodoxy (lower case) implies a strict adherence to tradition against which Modernism doesn’t stand a chance. In Judaism, Orthodoxy is seen as that religion’s supreme, most traditional expression, its un-reformed essence. In Christianity, Orthodoxy which has never had a Second Vatican Council or anything approaching a Novus Ordo — Divine Liturgy with lay ministers and Protestant-style hymns — is a window into the ancient Church. In fact, you could search the world for a modern young Orthodox priest with a guitar and a penchant for humming “On Eagles Wings,” but chances are you wouldn’t find one. Priests like that never get a chance to bloom in Orthodoxy; or, if one was discovered in seminary, he’d be sent packing or be told to switch hit to the local Catholic Franciscans… .In the Orthodox Church there are no activist organizations of lay women clamoring to be priests …I came to Orthodoxy from Catholicism partially because of its unchanged liturgy; because the Orthodox Church, in its wisdom, never embarked on a path of liturgical self-destruction."
 
The article placed blame on liturgy, Catholic education, clerical leadership, and lack of faith for the current problems facing the Church.

It’s typical of CAF for people to be jumping on one tiny bit (altar servers) of an otherwise well-reasoned article and dismissing it out of hand.
 
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