Non-Catholic Christian Question About Parishes

[texanabroad]

Hello, everyone.

This is my first post on this forum (I hope I’ve put this in the right section), as I’ve come seeking an answer to a question I have concerning parishes. For an introduction, I’m a baptised non-Catholic Christian; my parents are non-denominational Christians but my dad was raised Catholic, though my grandparents, in his own words, “weren’t devout.” He had some really negative experiences at a local parish in Austin and still harbours a lot of suspicion towards Catholicism. I’ve become quite interested in becoming Catholic, as I’m working on a PhD in history and am realising there are a lot of biblically accurate things that seem to have been removed or watered down in Protestantism.

In my research, and during the pandemic, I streamed a few mass services from my local parish. The concern I have is that the priest stated that all faiths led to God the Father. This is not biblical, as Christ explicitly stated in John 14:6 about being the way, the truth, and the life and that none could come to the Father except through Him. Equally important are the various verses throughout scripture which emphasise the sovereignty and singularity of the God of the Bible. My question is, therefore, are all parishes equal? Is it possible to have some parishes which are more rooted in scripture or the catechism than others?

It is not my goal to be judgmental or critical, I’m genuinely curious. I know that not every church within Protestantism is equal, as some have looser interpretations of scripture than others (even amongst certain denominations–the Anglican Church is an excellent example of this).

Thank you for your responses!

Best,

Nichole

 

[Fauken]

My question is, therefore, are all parishes equal? Is it possible to have some parishes which are more rooted in scripture or the catechism than others?

Sadly, no, not all parishes are equal. I’m sorry you heard that at a Catholic parish. Some Catholics are more well catechized than others, and some believe and publicly support things that are at odds with Catholicism. But as a Catholic convert myself, their opinions don’t mean anything to me. I know what the Church teaches, and that’s what ultimately matters.

 

[Fauken]

You may have to look around a bit then for a good parish. You’re in Austin, Texas right? As a good Fightin’ Texas Aggie, I’d suggest you leave that weird town of yours where that tea-sippin’ school is, and go to St. Mary’s in College Station. Now that the required ribbing is out of the way though, I’m not terribly familiar with the parishes in Austin. I am told though that the Austin Cathedral is great, along with parishes in North Austin and St. Louis King of France.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Hi, welcome to the forums.

Fauken’s point is well taken.

However, given that you are not an experienced Catholic, there may well have been some specific context to what the priest said that you didn’t quite catch.

We often have people post here that their priest said thus and so, without context, and they are immediately wanting to call the priest wrong or otherwise condemn him. Unless there is a transcript or a video or a reliable news story containing what the priest said exactly, It is frankly impossible to fairly evaluate what a priest allegedly said without hearing his entire speech, in context, which would include knowing what the daily Scripture reading was and how the priest’s talk related to that.

As for “rooted in Scripture”, you may know this already, but the Catholic Church is not sola scriptura and we also rely on sacred tradition. There are not certain parishes that are more “rooted in Scripture” than others. There can be occasional cases of a priest giving an overly liberal interpretation or saying something that doesn’t come out right. Although you more often see those kinds of cases with people like lay ministers, RCIA teachers etc and not so much with priests. Priests generally know their stuff when it comes to Church teaching, especially nowadays when priests tend to be more traditional and better taught than they were about 40 or 50 years back.

It is best that if you don’t understand something said by a priest and you really want to know, you should contact the priest and make an appointment to have a discussion about it, with him. I realize that during the pandemic might not be a great time to do that. But at other times it is doable, and it is more productive than posting to a forum full of strangers saying, “My priest said this wrong thing.”

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If this was a Mass and the man was preaching the homily, then he was almost certainly either a priest or a deacon. They are the only people allowed to give homilies.

If this was a deacon preaching and not a priest, then I would still need to hear the context, but I would add the caveat that I have heard more poor quality homilies from deacons than from priests over the past few years. Some deacons are good at preaching, but a good many are not so good, probably because they don’t get the same level of training or experience at it that the average priest gets.

I would also say that even if we agree that whatever was said was wrong, a mistake, contrary to Church teaching etc, if it’s the only time all year that one hears such a mistake - and I realize it would take regular attendance to know that - then I’d be inclined to dismiss it as “Deacon (or Priest) had a bad day, missed the mark etc.” If you hear repeated gaffes then it’s more of a concern. Since I go to daily Mass at a number of different parishes, I tend to hear a lot of priests and deacons preach more than one time and I pretty much know what to expect when they get up there as they all tend to have favorite themes and personal styles of speaking. There are definitely some whose styles I prefer and others who I just tune out the minute they hit the pulpit. But I have not heard anyone up there making repeated errors in Church teaching while preaching.