Men and the Church

[rpp]

I went to reconcilliation earlier today and I saw something unusual; something that I felt was a good thing.

Where I went was not my regular parish, but one in another part of town which has daily scheduled confession. I go there during the week when I, for whatever reason, am unable to attend my regular morning Mass. Such was the case today (I overslept).

I realized today that nearly every time I go there, the line for confession is only slightly shorter than the one at my parish which only has confession on Saturday and Sunday. Furthermore, this is a much smaller parish than mine. While I suspect that part of the reason is that this is the only parish in the city that has confessions during the week, it is the other thing that got my attention.

There was only one woman in line.

All the other people, about a dozen, were men. Men of all ages. Most of the people in line were middle-aged men like myself. There were a couple of retired men, but there were also a couple of young, 20-something, men.

This parish, run by Dominicans, celebrates the English Novus Ordo Mass. It has an altar rail, does not have any female lectors or altar servers. It has a great deal of art and staues throughout the sanctuary and also, I have been told, has several very active apostolates, the Blue Army, Legionares of Christ and Lay Dominicans among others. On the few occasions that I have attended Mass there, either daily or Sunday, the gender of the parishoners are evenly split, men and women in equal numbers. The women are easier to spot since many where head-coverings when at Mass.

All of the people at this parish, men and women, whom I have met, are among the most faithful and devout Christians I have met, particularly the women.

It has been my experience in many other parishes that women make up the bulk of active parishoners. This parish seems to be an exception to that.

Could it be that having well defined roles for genders helps to encourage male attendance? Or is it that faithful and orthodox Catholic families and men are drawn away from female-dominated parishes to a parish because they are, in reality, misogynists?

 

[lotusblossom]

I think both .

From my observance, men tend to stay away from activities that are more “feel good” events than ones that are more tradition and have well-defined roles and parts. I think God made us male and female and gave us roles and certain qualities to our gender. My own dad and my husband are both very quiet men, and you would never hear them bragging about “feel-good” things, but they’ll talk incessantly about the Latin Mass, the reverence for the Eucharist, daily confession, traditional hymns, etc. Also, with the well-defined roles, the women let the men be the leaders, which in turn, makes the men want to be there even more.

I’ve found in my own experience that when women are leaders in a parish, things tend to get muddled, watered-down, and stray away from the traditional and the Church’s teachings. Not that all men are right, or that all women do this, but this has appeared to be the trend.

 

[Polish]

Interestingly, I noticed awhile back that at my Byzantine Catholic Church, there are about the same number of men as women in attendance. However, many men are coming with their children or coming alone. As many of you know, our liturgy is mainly entirely sung alternating between the priest and the congregation. The men are vibrant singers. It actually brought tears to my eyes when an 80 year old man next to me was singing very vigorously. Of course, our church does not allow female altar servers, we do not have Eucharistic ministers distributing Communion (the priest does it all), we have a male cantor leading the singing. We do however have a female reading the epistle (that is when the male reader is not in attendance).

To me, it’s very moving to see men actively worshiping God. What a blessing!!!

 

[lotusblossom]

Interestingly, I noticed awhile back that at my Byzantine Catholic Church, there are about the same number of men as women in attendance. However, many men are coming with their children or coming alone. As many of you know, our liturgy is mainly entirely sung alternating between the priest and the congregation. The men are vibrant singers. It actually brought tears to my eyes when an 80 year old man next to me was singing very vigorously. Of course, our church does not allow female altar servers, we do not have Eucharistic ministers distributing Communion (the priest does it all), we have a male cantor leading the singing. We do however have a female reading the epistle (that is when the male reader is not in attendance).

To me, it’s very moving to see men actively worshiping God. What a blessing!!!

Polish -

You are very blessed!!! When I was studying abroad in Austria, I had the benefit of attending a few Byzantine liturgies, and one in the US, and they almost brought tears to my eyes! Such beauty in the music and reverence .