Pastor pushing "Renew" for the Fall

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Our Pastor is really pushing a program called “Renew” that seems to involve small discussion groups. Is anyone familiar with it? Sounds like a another step away from traditional Catholicism and toward Fundamentalist “witnessing”.
 
DWPC said:
Our Pastor is really pushing a program called “Renew” that seems to involve small discussion groups. Is anyone familiar with it? Sounds like a another step away from traditional Catholicism and toward Fundamentalist “witnessing”.
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My dear DWPC, how many Catholics every year leave the Catholic Church because some Fundamentalist “witnessed” to them, invited them to pray with them, showed them a “personal relationship with Jesus” – that they NEVER FOUND IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

Let me tell you: it is THOUSANDS. Many, many Catholics truly just go through the motions on Sundays, experience religion as a series of rituals, and somehow never “click” with the depth and beauty of Catholic spirituality. If it takes small, personal groups to help people relate to the person of Jesus Christ, then for Pete’s sake, why in the world would you whine that people are stepping away from “traditional Catholicism” if that step will keep them from leaving Catholicism altogether?

I’m not a small group personality myself, although I DO belong to a small group of women in my parish. We’re tight as thieves, and we “witness” to each other all the time, make meals for each other when someone is sick, share good books, keep each other posted on prayer requests . . . How bad is that?

Oh. I attend the TLM whenever I can.
 
Seems to me that Jesus and His 12 Apostles was the first “small discussion group”.😃
 
I thought Renew was a non Catholic thing that got pushed into the Catholic Church to further water down the flock from getting real spiritual food, and instead get ecumenical ideas instead of instruction in Catholic beliefs.
 
go to the website and review the materials. They are orthodox in themselves and like many such programs, begin with establishing small faith sharing communities in the parish based on reading and prayer with the Sunday Gospel. If someone with an agenda gets hold of the program, or gets hold of the small groups, no doubt they will use the mechanism to push their agenda. Good leadership and good facilitator training for those running the small groups, and clear communication to all involved on the goals of the renewal process is essential. If yours is a liberal, dissenting parish with leadership to match, this or any renewal program will make matters worse. If yours is just a lackadaisical parish with only a few people involved, this could be the key to a whole new evangelizing, vital parish life. Depends on the pastors, the leadership and the parishioners.

this is NOT the same program as Renew2000, it has been completely revamped since then, so don’t judge if your parish did Renew2000.
 
witnessing is something the first disciples did, something the first martyrs did, something the saints did, and something every baptized Catholic is called to do. We owned it for almost 2000 years before the fundamentalists claimed it. Don’t let them co-opt our heritage and our mission.
 
I tried finding their website, but just keep coming up with charismatic renewal pages. Does anyone know the official name of the program?
 
puzzleannie said:
go to the website and review the materials.
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I thought there was a post here asking for the website. Anyway, here 'tis: renewintl.org/ I thought it looked solid; I hope it’s better than some sentimental claptrap.

But Oy – on second look, they’re the people who brought us “Theology on Tap.” Ugh! I hope it’s better than that. I also have higher hopes for anything but Theology on Tap!!!
 
Miserissima said:
I thought there was a post here asking for the website. Anyway, here 'tis: renewintl.org/ I thought it looked solid; I hope it’s better than some sentimental claptrap.

But Oy – on second look, they’re the people who brought us “Theology on Tap.” Ugh! I hope it’s better than that. I also have higher hopes for anything but Theology on Tap!!!
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What’s wrong with Theology on Tap?
 
I’m a member of a Renew discussion group at my parish. I enjoy it very much and what we are taught and discuss is orthodox Catholic teachings.
 
ToT is as good as the group who presents it, just like Renew and Why Catholic…
 
There were big problems with Renew in the beginning but I thought they were corrected.
 
I participated in Renew last year, and I thought it was wonderful. For me, it seemed a continuation of RCIA (I had just been confirmed that Easter ;))

The books we had were very centered on the Catechism and the Gospels, and invited small groups to discuss and contemplate the subject of the week. I thought it was very well structured, and it was a great way to meet more people in the Church.
 
mercygate said:
My dear DWPC, how many Catholics every year leave the Catholic Church because some Fundamentalist “witnessed” to them, invited them to pray with them, showed them a “personal relationship with Jesus” – that they NEVER FOUND IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

Let me tell you: it is THOUSANDS. Many, many Catholics truly just go through the motions on Sundays, experience religion as a series of rituals, and somehow never “click” with the depth and beauty of Catholic spirituality. If it takes small, personal groups to help people relate to the person of Jesus Christ, then for Pete’s sake, why in the world would you whine that people are stepping away from “traditional Catholicism” if that step will keep them from leaving Catholicism altogether?

I’m not a small group personality myself, although I DO belong to a small group of women in my parish. We’re tight as thieves, and we “witness” to each other all the time, make meals for each other when someone is sick, share good books, keep each other posted on prayer requests . . . How bad is that?

Oh. I attend the TLM whenever I can.
Click to expand...
 
I guess it’s not the “small group” thing,it’s what’s being taught.😊
 
Jenny_Z said:
I participated in Renew last year, and I thought it was wonderful. For me, it seemed a continuation of RCIA (I had just been confirmed that Easter ;))

The books we had were very centered on the Catechism and the Gospels, and invited small groups to discuss and contemplate the subject of the week. I thought it was very well structured, and it was a great way to meet more people in the Church.
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That is what I thought. Our parish did it early on and the prayers were really wacky like there was this one to the four winds and we had this ceremony where we wrote something on a paper and then be burned it.We did the Renew 2000 program.

ourladyswarriors.org/renew/index.html
 
Jenny_Z said:
I participated in Renew last year, and I thought it was wonderful. For me, it seemed a continuation of RCIA (I had just been confirmed that Easter ;))

The books we had were very centered on the Catechism and the Gospels, and invited small groups to discuss and contemplate the subject of the week. I thought it was very well structured, and it was a great way to meet more people in the Church.
Click to expand...
I agree 100%. I suppose you could get a group facilitator who is liberal and steers the discussion in a manner not in keeping with Church teaching but the books, I thought, were perfectly orthodox. Granted our parish only just started this spring and we’ve only covered one book, but I loved it. The Military Archdiocese is working very hard to bring this study to all military parishes. In our small parish alone (~600), we probably had a 20% participation rate; soldiers, family members and retirees all together. It was WONDERFUL!
 
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