Need a good Chicago parish!

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Kendy,
The answer to that question is very complex.
Is there something that can be done? Certainly. By the Holy Father, the Bishops, and yes, even the laity.
But it’s not going to happen overnight, and it won’t happen at all unless people become proactive and start defending Holy Mother Church against abuses. Tolerating things illicit or flat-out wrong is tolerating abuses of Christ’s Church, and it may be a grave sin.
Familiarize yourself enough with the Mass, the Catechism, and the dogmas and doctrine of the Catholic Church so that your radar goes off when you hear or see something contrary to same.
When you see a priest making up his own words to the Mass, or giving a homily about why birth control is okay, know what to do.
As a Catholic, you have a duty to be intimately familar with the CCC, and Papal Encyclicals, and the like.
Here is a great link on how to report liturgical abuse:
adoremus.org/1295Bruno.html
Remember, address the priest first. He deserves that much respect.
Seminaries are like regular colleges. Some ‘graduates’ will have received more thorough training than others. He may be very receptive and sympathetic to your concerns.
Here’s the deal: if you are attending Mass at a parish which has little or no regard for dogma and doctrine, and you have a choice (such as in Chicago) it may spiritually benefit you to find another parish where you can grow in faith.
If, however, you are (as I once was) living in a place like Cheyenne, where there’s only one Catholic Church for miles around, the correct thing to do is to is to address the concerns you have, to pray for patience, and to take up your cross.
Keep in mind that these are just my opinions and suggestions, and that a good priest will help you with your concerns, and many people on this board probably have more enlightening things to say than I.
May God bless you in your journey.
 
Oh, I just met with one of my parish priests (I have been trying to get a hold of them for two weeks) and it was very disappointing.
First, he’s homosexual, and I don’t anything about his private life, but he said that the church’s teaching on homosexuality is cruel and placed a heavy cross on gays and lesbians in monogamous relationships. He said contraception was not ideal, but sometimes, it’s unrealistic to expect people not to use them. He said dissent on purgatory is negotiable, and he said generally, some dissent is good. And told me that we were an intelligent community where dialogue is welcomed.

I told him I am reading the CCC and he said “It’s a little dry and technical.” And then he occasionally bashed protestants (some stuff every catholic would agree with), but also, how they had been insensitive to the gay and lesbian community.

I am not a happy camper 😦 .

Kendy
 
Kendy,
Let me see if I can make my head stop spinning long enough to respond.
You ---- were ---- at a ---- Catholic Church?
First, how do you know the priest is a homosexual? (Is he effiminate, or did he admit to having a lover?)
A heavy cross to bear? No, Kendy. A heavy cross to bear would be to attempt to re-vert to Catholicism and be met by a non-believing, heretical priest who is steering you towards sin and away from God.
Contraception is not just ‘not ideal’. Contraception is telling God that you know better than He, that you are smarter than He, that you are in control of your body, the body, I might add, which He created. Contraception is telling God “No.”
Natural Family Planning, when used correctly, is more reliable than the Pill. I use NFP, and I know that if I don’t want to get pregnant, I just don’t have sex on those four days a month when I could. Can’t expect people to not use it? Nice. Way to lower the expectations for your flock, Padre.
Let me tell you, Kendy, my priests not only expect me to not use the Pill, they preach about it. They expect me to confess it if I have. They are Catholic priests, abiding by Church doctrine.
Purgatory is non-negotiable. I can cite Scripture passage after Scripture passage to prove it.
(Just look in your CCC.)
Dissent from Naziism is good, Kendy. Dissent from the Church of Jesus Christ is mortal sin and can cause eternal damnation.
Fine, the CCC may be a bit dry for some readers. So what?
It’s the rules and beliefs of the Catholic Church, and we all need to refer to it regularly. The Summa is dry, too, but that doesn’t make it any less brilliant.
No one should ‘bash’ Protestants. We should pray for their reunification with the True Church, and we should love them. They are our brethren. For that matter, homosexuals, the Church says, are to be treated with loving compassion and charity.
Kendy, Kendy, Kendy.
Run, don’t walk, away from that parish. Your very soul depends upon it.
You have many orthodox Catholic parishes in the Chicago area to choose from. Please, I can’t speak for all of Chicago, but the priests at my parish are loving, gentle, kind, and knowledgable, and they take the care of your soul very seriously. Many of them are young, so that might help you, as sometimes it’s easier for young people to relate to a younger priest.
Please consider talking to one of them.
Don’t stay where sin is not only tolerated but encouraged by the very man who is supposed to be combating it.
 
Kendy,

The first time back in the Catholic Church and at a small faith meeting on a Friday night, the subject came up on women priests. I cringed inside as my wife had to hear other women even consider this with the kinda liberal nun we have contributing to this. For this we drove about 30 minutes just to be part of an orthodox parish, but finally we decided we needed to be part of the local parish. If everyone left who really cared, then what would happen?

The good news is now we are teaching First Communion class, and part of a new Bible study we just started after almost a year.

The really good news is as a Catholic we have firm truths we can uphold. If a priest is wrong I can respectfully tell him and prove it. There is a consistant belief that should be held and you can back it up as a Catholic. It just that sometimes the biggest obstacles to being Catholic are Catholics.

God Bless
Scylla
 
No, he didn’t say he had a lover, but he was effeminate and felt the need to tell me that it’s ok to dissent from the church’s teaching on sexuality although I didn’t ask him about that. And he complained about the editor of America magazine being asked to resign for his liberal views.

Kendy
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ChicagoOrthodox:
Kendy,
Let me see if I can make my head stop spinning long enough to respond.
You ---- were ---- at a ---- Catholic Church?
First, how do you know the priest is a homosexual? (Is he effiminate, or did he admit to having a lover?)
A heavy cross to bear? No, Kendy. A heavy cross to bear would be to attempt to re-vert to Catholicism and be met by a non-believing, heretical priest who is steering you towards sin and away from God.
Contraception is not just ‘not ideal’. Contraception is telling God that you know better than He, that you are smarter than He, that you are in control of your body, the body, I might add, which He created. Contraception is telling God “No.”
Natural Family Planning, when used correctly, is more reliable than the Pill. I use NFP, and I know that if I don’t want to get pregnant, I just don’t have sex on those four days a month when I could. Can’t expect people to not use it? Nice. Way to lower the expectations for your flock, Padre.
Let me tell you, Kendy, my priests not only expect me to not use the Pill, they preach about it. They expect me to confess it if I have. They are Catholic priests, abiding by Church doctrine.
Purgatory is non-negotiable. I can cite Scripture passage after Scripture passage to prove it.
(Just look in your CCC.)
Dissent from Naziism is good, Kendy. Dissent from the Church of Jesus Christ is mortal sin and can cause eternal damnation.
Fine, the CCC may be a bit dry for some readers. So what?
It’s the rules and beliefs of the Catholic Church, and we all need to refer to it regularly. The Summa is dry, too, but that doesn’t make it any less brilliant.
No one should ‘bash’ Protestants. We should pray for their reunification with the True Church, and we should love them. They are our brethren. For that matter, homosexuals, the Church says, are to be treated with loving compassion and charity.
Kendy, Kendy, Kendy.
Run, don’t walk, away from that parish. Your very soul depends upon it.
You have many orthodox Catholic parishes in the Chicago area to choose from. Please, I can’t speak for all of Chicago, but the priests at my parish are loving, gentle, kind, and knowledgable, and they take the care of your soul very seriously. Many of them are young, so that might help you, as sometimes it’s easier for young people to relate to a younger priest.
Please consider talking to one of them.
Don’t stay where sin is not only tolerated but encouraged by the very man who is supposed to be combating it.
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scylla:
Kendy,

The first time back in the Catholic Church and at a small faith meeting on a Friday night, the subject came up on women priests. I cringed inside as my wife had to hear other women even consider this with the kinda liberal nun we have contributing to this. For this we drove about 30 minutes just to be part of an orthodox parish, but finally we decided we needed to be part of the local parish. If everyone left who really cared, then what would happen?

The good news is now we are teaching First Communion class, and part of a new Bible study we just started after almost a year.

The really good news is as a Catholic we have firm truths we can uphold. If a priest is wrong I can respectfully tell him and prove it. There is a consistant belief that should be held and you can back it up as a Catholic. It just that sometimes the biggest obstacles to being Catholic are Catholics.

God Bless
Scylla
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Me standing up to a priest is asking a lot. I don’t even remember how to say the rosary! I have so much to learn. And now, I have to go shopping around for something outside of my community. The thing I really liked about the vineyard congregation is that it is in my community. The homeless people we help sleep on our streets. We know their names, and when we help them find a job we make a difference in our community.

And I was just starting to get excited about going back to the church 😦 .

Kendy
 
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scylla:
Kendy,

The first time back in the Catholic Church and at a small faith meeting on a Friday night, the subject came up on women priests. I cringed inside as my wife had to hear other women even consider this with the kinda liberal nun we have contributing to this. God Bless
Scylla
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Scylla,

Why were you particularly worried about your wife hearing this? Just wondering…

Kendy
 
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ChicagoOrthodox:
Kendy,
Hyde Park. Good news!
The Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, has made its home and US headquarters at the old St. Gelasius at 6415 S Woodlawn. Msgr. Schmitz is a holy priest and the Mass there a joy.
The men of the Institute are delightful, and everyone makes you feel very welcome. They only offer the Tridentine Mass.
Might be something you’re interested in.
www.institute-christ-king.org
Otherwise, I can report to you that several parishioners from St. John Cantius live in Hyde Park and just take LSD North to Chicago, Chicago west to Carpenter to come to SJC. (In fact, I live in Rogers Park, so I pass about 100 Catholic Churches to get to SJC. It’s…uh…worth it, to say the least.
And LSD on Sunday is wide open, no traffic at all.
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I will check out the Parish on Woodlawn tomorrow morning. Hopefully, it will go well:). Plus, it’s not that far so I won’t feel like I am leaving my community.

Kendy
 
Kendy,
ICK is a wonderful parish, and I have nothing but good things to say about Msgr. Schmitz.
It is, however, uber traditional, which I love, but sort of makes me nervous like - what if I do something wrong? Do I have to wear a chapel veil? etc- and Mass takes place in a small chapel due to the Church being under construction.
So it’s very intimate.
Might be a bit overwhelming for a revert, but if you talk to Msgr., you will feel his love and holiness.
I liked the anonymity of being in a large Church like SJC when I was returning.
But I’m a very nervous person who doesn’t like feeling like people may be looking at me, etc.
 
The reason I was worried for my wife is that she had recently opened her heart to the faith and just a couple months earlier was decidingly against the Church. We still have some of the anti-catholic books from before, which one old pastor gave her and her sister, when they went to Four Square Gospel before we got married.

I had just convinced her to start coming with me to the local parish instead of the Catholic Church 30 minutes away where there was a very good priest. I wanted to get involved and I was worried she would just say forget this parish let’s keep going to the other one.

Also since she was pretty new to everything I didn’t want to make her feel like real Catholics didn’t exist around here. They are there sometimes you just need to get involved to see them. Sometimes they are just hunkered down praying. We have met a bunch of great faithful Catholics once we got involved.

God Bless
Scylla
 
Oh, I went this morning. I didn’t realize the mass was in latin. Oh, that’s just not gonna work:).

But I went to a charismatic worship and prayer meeting at my local parish afterwards and it was awesome. First, everybody was really warm and friendly, and they said things like “welcome and praise the Lord” which made me feel at home. Plus, I knew the songs and I am familiar with that wrship style; so, it was like being protestant without actually being…well, protestant 😃 .

I did talk to them about some people believing that they are not orthodox catholics and they asuured me that they were and they seemed to be from what I can tell. Certainly, more so than the priest I spoke to yesterday.

Kendy
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ChicagoOrthodox:
Kendy,
ICK is a wonderful parish, and I have nothing but good things to say about Msgr. Schmitz.
It is, however, uber traditional, which I love, but sort of makes me nervous like - what if I do something wrong? Do I have to wear a chapel veil? etc- and Mass takes place in a small chapel due to the Church being under construction.
So it’s very intimate.
Might be a bit overwhelming for a revert, but if you talk to Msgr., you will feel his love and holiness.
I liked the anonymity of being in a large Church like SJC when I was returning.
But I’m a very nervous person who doesn’t like feeling like people may be looking at me, etc.
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Kendy,
I really hope you find what you’re looking for in life.
God bless.
 
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ChicagoOrthodox:
I have lived in several states all over the US, and I have found a few things to be true:
  1. The amount of ditties you hear from the ‘Gather’ hymnal is directly correlated to the amount of times you will hear the priest mention ‘sin’ or ‘Confession’ or ‘birth control’ or ‘abortion’ in a homily. 5000-1.
  2. The availability of the sacrament of Confession, NOT the amount of time a parish devotes to a Mardi Gras party, or a block party, or a coffee and donuts hour, is related to how seriously the pastor is about care of the souls entrusted to him.
  3. The amount of times a priest begins the Holy Sacrifice with, “Hi, welcome to St. So-and-So’s. Stand up, greet your neighbor!” is directly related to how many times he will ad lib the rest of the Mass.
    Now, you might say these are ‘externals’. I say that unless you have decent externals, the Mass can be in jeopardy of becoming illicit, because a priest who chooses a David Haas hymn which welcomes ‘gay and the straight ones’ is not - I repeat not going to give a homily about the disorder of homosexuality.
    Yes, the Eucharist is the source and summit. But the homily, the availability of Confession, theologically-sound hymns, not using unnecessary Extraordinary Ministers — all these things are important for developing true, orthodox Catholicism. Can you foster good, orthodox beliefs in your children at a Church which disregards Catholic principles? Sure, but it’s much tougher.
    Only 30% of Catholics who attend Mass EVERY SUNDAY can answer a simple question about the belief of the Real Presence.
    (When you receive Communion: Is it the Real Body of Christ, regardless of who believes it? Is it a symbol? Is it the Body of Christ because of your beliefs? Is it bread and wine?)
    Church attendance, and with it belief that breaking the 3rd Commandment is a mortal sin, punishable by Hell, has consistently fallen in the previous three decades.
    This is not a condemnation of anyone’s individual parish. I simply write this as a response to people who think ‘externals’ aren’t important. I kneel in front of St. Joseph’s altar to ask his intercession, even though he could hear me just as well if I were lying in bed. I kneel to say my penance even though it’s just as valid to say it sitting.
    God bless the people who can listen to ‘Gather Us In’ and still stay focused. God love the people who can hear a homilist prattle on about some incorrect theology without losing their Christian charity. I can’t. So I drive to a Church where I don’t have to test myself. Is this choosing a different denomination? Nope. I know that the Eucharist at the infamous St. Sabina’s in Chicago is truly the Body of Christ, as surely as it is at my parish. But I also know that if I attend St. Sabina’s I might have the displeasure of hearing the Reverend Al Sharpton deliver the homily, as he did last year. No thanks.
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Perhaps you can, just try 🙂 …
 
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Kendy:
But I went to a charismatic worship and prayer meeting at my local parish afterwards and it was awesome. First, everybody was really warm and friendly, and they said things like “welcome and praise the Lord” which made me feel at home. Plus, I knew the songs and I am familiar with that wrship style; so, it was like being protestant without actually being…well, protestant 😃 .
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hehe … the charismatic movement is the Catholic answer to protestant stuff … (it rivals even the hardcore pentecostals 🙂 ) I was in such annual convention yesterday …
 
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Kendy:
Oh, I went this morning. I didn’t realize the mass was in latin. Oh, that’s just not gonna work:).

But I went to a charismatic worship and prayer meeting at my local parish afterwards and it was awesome. First, everybody was really warm and friendly, and they said things like “welcome and praise the Lord” which made me feel at home. Plus, I knew the songs and I am familiar with that wrship style; so, it was like being protestant without actually being…well, protestant 😃 .

I did talk to them about some people believing that they are not orthodox catholics and they asuured me that they were and they seemed to be from what I can tell. Certainly, more so than the priest I spoke to yesterday.

Kendy
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hehe … the Charismatic movement is the Catholic answer to protestant stuff … (it rivals even the hardcore pentecostals 😃 ) I was in such annual convention yesterday … to be honest, although I am not so impressed by the "hoo haa " now, but I should say, few years ago, it played a major part in making my head turn towards Christ.
 
CA,
“…And to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.”

Listen to a pro-abortion politician give a homily that the Pope says may only be given by a priest or deacon?
Watch parishioners walk up on the altar and not even genuflect to the Tabernacle, which houses the true Body of Christ?
Listen to Marty Haugen (who is himself a member of the United Church of Christ, the very antithesis of Catholicism) blab about ‘bread and wine’?
Nahhhhhhhh… I have an orthodox parish within reach.
I’m odd, but I’m not crazy.

😃
 
Hello Kendy,

I am involved in the Cursillo movement. We have a thriving group in our Parish and are getting ready to expand! Cardinal George supports Cursillo! If there is a group in your Parish, I recommend it. I am aware of other terrific movements as well, so please do what suits you.

I also attended the Chicago Archdioces Evangelization Insititute. If you are in the Archdiocese of Chicago you may look into “Spreading the Holy Fire”. It gives you a path and resources to energize your parish. Great people and very well done. The director, Fr. Joe is a southsider and terrific Preist.

If you are inclined, small faith groups are an awesome way to strengthen your faith and evangelize within your Parish. If they do not exist in your new home, why not approach your Pastor and suggest them? Look to Cardinal George for support as his Evangelization Institute supports them and has resources.

If you are ever in need of ideas or teaching materials, we have a wealth of great stuff from our own Pastor (former Director of the Office of Divine Liturgy) and an awesome Priest. We also have an unbelievable group of woman here in Mundelein who would be willing to lend a hand. (I know becuase I’m married to on e of them).

God Bless
 
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Kendy:
What is the cursillo movement?

Kendy
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Hello Kendy,

It starts with a 3 day weekend retreat given by both laity and clergy, but run by laity. Then, after the retreat we maintain our Christian committment by small faith groups and reunions called “Ultreye”. It started back in the 50’s in Spain, thus much of the terminology is Spanish.

You can see more at www.chicagocursillo.org. If you click on “Ultreye” on the left hand menu the first listing you see is St Mary of the Annunciation (Fremont Center). That’s my home Parish. We had a great Ultreye (Mass, Witness, and Fellowship)last Sat evening.

Please understand, I had a great experience with Cursillo as did my wife and many of our friends. However, this does not mean I think Cursillo is the only way to get a fire burning for Christ in our lives.

As for opportunities to attend a Cursillo weekend, I am in close contact with many who are leaders in the Joliett Diocese Cursillo. I attended a retreat in the Joliet Diocese. There is a weekend April 27th~30th. There are weekends available in Chicago as well.

The present Secretary from the Archdiocese is a great lady from a neighboring Parish St Gilberts (Sue Wisehart). Let me know if you are interested in knowing more, I will be happy to do whatever I can to get you connected.

Also, check-out www.goingforth.org. That is the Archdiocese web sight for Spreading the Holy Fire.
 
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wpr:
Hello Kendy,

I am involved in the Cursillo movement. We have a thriving group in our Parish and are getting ready to expand! Cardinal George supports Cursillo! If there is a group in your Parish, I recommend it. I am aware of other terrific movements as well, so please do what suits you.

I also attended the Chicago Archdioces Evangelization Insititute. If you are in the Archdiocese of Chicago you may look into “Spreading the Holy Fire”. It gives you a path and resources to energize your parish. Great people and very well done. The director, Fr. Joe is a southsider and terrific Preist.

If you are inclined, small faith groups are an awesome way to strengthen your faith and evangelize within your Parish. If they do not exist in your new home, why not approach your Pastor and suggest them? Look to Cardinal George for support as his Evangelization Institute supports them and has resources.

If you are ever in need of ideas or teaching materials, we have a wealth of great stuff from our own Pastor (former Director of the Office of Divine Liturgy) and an awesome Priest.

God Bless
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That’s sounds cool and optimistic!
 
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