The Ignorence of people

[soonfathermauro]

Hello all

I just felt like discussing something please feel free to add your own ideas or disagree as you see fit.

People are inherently ignorent, not saying that people arent smart what I am saying is that people choose not to understand things for many reasons. Maybe its that they wish to do as they wish without any authority to admonish them when they do wrong. Or maybe that people feel that when they choose the obvious wrong that they are getting a high off it that the allure of doing the wrong thing is far more enticing then the right thing. Then what are we to do? With attendence at Mass at an all time low in the states (If I am wrong please somebody correct me) and people choosing to abandon their faith all together, how are we to change this? the tried method of simply being there and waiting for people work obviously or the Church would have died years ago. But people need more now We cant simply expect people to come back on their own accord when they become so used to the “normality” of the secular lifestyle. I think that in order to bring people to the realizaltion that God and the church should be apart of their life is very simply to tell them the truth. gone are the days when you could walk down the street and ask someone to recite the Baltimore Catechism and they could do it right on the spot. and I know at this point ya gotta be like “We say the truth the whole time what are ya talking about ya crazy??” well hopefuly youre not thinking exactly like that unless your from New york then that a whole diffenrnt story What I mean is that we cant still rely on that people will take the face value of what Holy mother church teachs But bring them to a fuller understanding Basically showing them that the communion of saints relates to their life. I am no fool that will not be easy. There are so many forces out there that try to keep the faithful away from the source of our joy. But without understanding what we must do first we cant hope to bring people again to a full communion with the church.

Peace and all blessings
Mauro

 

[DJgang]

Are you being called to be involved in RCIA?

Or maybe to start setting up Adult Formation classes at your parish…

Also, I’ll have to get my CDs and give you a link, however, we have something going on in our parish where people can pay 2 or 3 dollars for CDs of people like Scott Hahn, Fr. Copari, etc and they are great talks … and about every quarter the CDs available are going to change. After Mass, there is a display that only takes a second to set up and the CDs went really fast…

The Holy Spirit is, well, getting you worked up for a reason, go with it!

God bless! Dana

 

[Sinnergy]

Personally, I think most modern day people, regardless of their upbringing, tend to get caught up in the world around them. Unlike the old days that you mentioned, people nowadays are constantly bombarded with other ideas of what constitute a “good life”. It might be fashions, the latest advice on how to look young and beautiful (even if you’re 90), and that ALL people are good and deserving of heaven no matter how they act or believe. Back in the day, so to speak, people had a much narrower view of the world since there wasn’t cable TV, CNN, Mtv, the Internet, etc., so they tended to stay close to the values they were raised with. Nowadays, not so much.
Now, even the youngest kids are inundated with sexual innuendo in kids TV programming, even in commercials. Their parents allow them uncontrolled TV time, XBOX time, and computer time and maybe take them to church on Sunday, but maybe on on Easter and Christmas. I feel that’s what’s been happening since Vatican II. I was raised that way but for the grace of God I found Him as a younger adult. I’m now in my 40’s. Many of my peers are still very immature, self serving and feel they are close enough to God to merit heaven because they believe in Him, regardless of their lifestyles and lack of any church attendance.

So, is it ignorance? I don’t think so. I think it’s complacency and an overwhelming lack of faith, not to mention not even wanting to explore what little faith they may have, as more of what the problem is.

I think the only time ignorance can truly be applicable is when a new primitive tribe is discovered that’s never been told of Jesus. Everyone else, including Jews and Muslims, have heard the story of Jesus and rejected his divinity. That is not ignorance.

BTW, I guess by your name in name you’re a seminarian about to become a priest? If so, THANK YOU!!! GOD BLESS YOU!!!
Any a pray you will help lead many souls to heaven!

Sinnergy

 

[unixfudotnet]

I’d suggest just working on your own issues and praying for others. If something specific you feel you want to help with, please contact your parish and seek guidance there.

Your giant paragraph with many grammar and spelling errors isn’t going to help much, other than maybe vent some feelings. I’ll pray for you. I hope you find peace in this matter.

God bless.
Pax et bonum.

 

[DJgang]

BTW, I guess by your name in name you’re a seminarian about to become a priest?

I was wondering the same…maybe he’ll let us know.

 

[soonfathermauro]

Are you being called to be involved in RCIA?

Or maybe to start setting up Adult Formation classes at your parish…

Also, I’ll have to get my CDs and give you a link, however, we have something going on in our parish where people can pay 2 or 3 dollars for CDs of people like Scott Hahn, Fr. Copari, etc and they are great talks … and about every quarter the CDs available are going to change. After Mass, there is a display that only takes a second to set up and the CDs went really fast…

The Holy Spirit is, well, getting you worked up for a reason, go with it!

God bless! Dana

Thank you Dana

Thats a great idea I personally enjoy Fr. Copari’s talks he is a really great talker and as for the holy spirit I am just a simple person who wants nothing more then to serve God and his people as a priest but I dont plan to be one of those one’s priests who sit around the church all day waiting for mass. I hope that I show though my post that I want to devote every wakeing moment that I have to serve the lord and his people.

Peace and blessings
Mauro

 

[soonfathermauro]

I’d suggest just working on your own issues and praying for others. If something specific you feel you want to help with, please contact your parish and seek guidance there.

Your giant paragraph with many grammar and spelling errors isn’t going to help much, other than maybe vent some feelings. I’ll pray for you. I hope you find peace in this matter.

God bless.
Pax et bonum.

Now that is just down right wrong “working on your own issues” is the whole reason why the Church is slipping. We keep dealing with our selfs and not understanding what the Lord has called us to do “go forth and fish” not be all inward and do nothing for others and as for my grammer errors… oh well I am bad at grammer Im sure at one point in time I will be better at it.

peace and blessings
Mauro

 

[soonfathermauro]

Personally, I think most modern day people, regardless of their upbringing, tend to get caught up in the world around them. Unlike the old days that you mentioned, people nowadays are constantly bombarded with other ideas of what constitute a “good life”. It might be fashions, the latest advice on how to look young and beautiful (even if you’re 90), and that ALL people are good and deserving of heaven no matter how they act or believe. Back in the day, so to speak, people had a much narrower view of the world since there wasn’t cable TV, CNN, Mtv, the Internet, etc., so they tended to stay close to the values they were raised with. Nowadays, not so much.
Now, even the youngest kids are inundated with sexual innuendo in kids TV programming, even in commercials. Their parents allow them uncontrolled TV time, XBOX time, and computer time and maybe take them to church on Sunday, but maybe on on Easter and Christmas. I feel that’s what’s been happening since Vatican II. I was raised that way but for the grace of God I found Him as a younger adult. I’m now in my 40’s. Many of my peers are still very immature, self serving and feel they are close enough to God to merit heaven because they believe in Him, regardless of their lifestyles and lack of any church attendance.

So, is it ignorance? I don’t think so. I think it’s complacency and an overwhelming lack of faith, not to mention not even wanting to explore what little faith they may have, as more of what the problem is.

I think the only time ignorance can truly be applicable is when a new primitive tribe is discovered that’s never been told of Jesus. Everyone else, including Jews and Muslims, have heard the story of Jesus and rejected his divinity. That is not ignorance.

BTW, I guess by your name in name you’re a seminarian about to become a priest? If so, THANK YOU!!! GOD BLESS YOU!!!
Any a pray you will help lead many souls to heaven!

Sinnergy

thank you for your insight, I always enjoy hearing the ideas of others because it allows me to add or enforce my own ideas.
thank you once more

peace and blessings
Mauro

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Hello all

I just felt like discussing something please feel free to add your own ideas or disagree as you see fit.

People are inherently ignorent, not saying that people arent smart what I am saying is that people choose not to understand things for many reasons. Maybe its that they wish to do as they wish without any authority to admonish them when they do wrong. Or maybe that people feel that when they choose the obvious wrong that they are getting a high off it that the allure of doing the wrong thing is far more enticing then the right thing. Then what are we to do? With attendence at Mass at an all time low in the states (If I am wrong please somebody correct me) and people choosing to abandon their faith all together, how are we to change this? the tried method of simply being there and waiting for people work obviously or the Church would have died years ago. But people need more now We cant simply expect people to come back on their own accord when they become so used to the “normality” of the secular lifestyle. I think that in order to bring people to the realizaltion that God and the church should be apart of their life is very simply to tell them the truth. gone are the days when you could walk down the street and ask someone to recite the Baltimore Catechism and they could do it right on the spot. and I know at this point ya gotta be like “We say the truth the whole time what are ya talking about ya crazy??” well hopefuly youre not thinking exactly like that unless your from New york then that a whole diffenrnt story What I mean is that we cant still rely on that people will take the face value of what Holy mother church teachs But bring them to a fuller understanding Basically showing them that the communion of saints relates to their life. I am no fool that will not be easy. There are so many forces out there that try to keep the faithful away from the source of our joy. But without understanding what we must do first we cant hope to bring people again to a full communion with the church.

Peace and all blessings
Mauro

I suspect, Mauro, that you are destined for the priesthood, perhaps already on the journey. God’s richest blessings on your call and whatever it may be! Thank you for giving posters into the thread freedom to agree or disagree.

I think we as the Catholic Church need to ask ourselves why active membership continues to dwindle. What is wrong in The Church that people are drifting away and on many many fronts?
What are the real issues involved and how can we address them?

I know it was transitional and a difficult journey for me from a Church that manipulated guilt and controlled through guilt pre V2 certainly, to a newer disposition and a healthier one. A very difficult and painful journey. I wonder if guilt filled the pews pre V2 and hence the reason the pews were full was not healthy in the first place? … hence post V2 we see the result of that guilt abandoned and an emptying of the pews. Question!

Very often the voice of honest query and criticism is silenced, victimized, as quickly as is possible rather than being listened to with “ears that can hear”. We have a potential scandal underway here in Australia on the eve of The Holy Father’s visit and involving our Cardinal and a very wrong decision he seems to have made many years ago re an abuse case. I heard him the other night on a TV interview protest that he is the spiritual father of all priests including those who abuse…he did not mention or even hint at the fact that he is also equally the spiritual father of all Catholics in his jurisdiction and most especially of those who have been weakened and are vulnerable emotionally, spiritually and mentally due to abuses within The Church, and indeed many kinds of absuses - not only the sexual. “I am the Good Shepherd…” ???

“You are the salt of the earth, and if salt looses its taste?”

 

[soonfathermauro]

I suspect, Mauro, that you are destined for the priesthood, perhaps already on the journey. God’s richest blessings on your call and whatever it may be! Thank you for giving posters into the thread freedom to agree or disagree.

I think we as the Catholic Church need to ask ourselves why active membership continues to dwindle. What is wrong in The Church that people are drifting away and on many many fronts?
What are the real issues involved and how can we address them?

I know it was transitional and a difficult journey for me from a Church that manipulated guilt and controlled through guilt pre V2 certainly, to a newer disposition and a healthier one. A very difficult and painful journey. I wonder if guilt filled the pews pre V2 and hence the reason the pews were full was not healthy in the first place? … hence post V2 we see the result of that guilt abandoned and an emptying of the pews. Question!

Very often the voice of honest query and criticism is silenced, victimized, as quickly as is possible rather than being listened to with “ears that can hear”. We have a potential scandal underway here in Australia on the eve of The Holy Father’s visit and involving our Cardinal and a very wrong decision he seems to have made many years ago re an abuse case. I heard him the other night on a TV interview protest that he is the spiritual father of all priests including those who abuse…he did not mention or even hint at the fact that he is also equally the spiritual father of all Catholics in his jurisdiction and most especially of those who have been weakened and are vulnerable emotionally, spiritually and mentally due to abuses within The Church, and indeed many kinds of absuses - not only the sexual. “I am the Good Shepherd…” ???

“You are the salt of the earth, and if salt looses its taste?”

Many blessings on you Therese
I wish to thank you for your thoughts first off yes I do feel called to the priesthood. I only hope that in my priestly ministry I can devote every second of my life to serving the people of God and bringing them closer to him.

I think you are really hitting the nail on the head “Catholic guilt” basically is one of the most important factors on how people are becoming so turned off at the church. Think of it as how a Born-again yells and screams at your face “Repent”, “God hates fags” and all those other Born-again mantras. People know equate Catholic guilt with Born-agains, but honstly I think also that another factor of equal importance is that people are not taking their church life like it should be with a spiritual grace rather they are taking it in a very secular view. People will just as easily leave the church never to return because simply a bad priest or there was someone there that imposed their will and they didnt care any more and walked out. and as for what we can do I belive even though I know it will be very hard to do is Become more involed in the church. There are good priests that is without question but there is so many such as the cardinal where you are that people see and sterotype that all priests are like that the media is mostly to blame for that. Giving priests that hurt people all the air time but the priests who give their lifes to help people are ignored. So I think that with more lay people working more in the church because we are the body of the church, we who live in this new world of hate towards religion and so many people who will try to take you away from the church to follow thier beliefs. We must rise up and show the church that you can be a to the Max Catholic and still be a member of this society. I am not a stereotype and we must be able to show that to really bring around change

 

[JimR-OCDS]

If you’re called to the priesthood, I would hope that you begin to see the “ignorance” in other people, as their poverty.

We can not make people have faith, only God can give faith. We can be examples and help educate those who are open to hear the gospel, but we can’t force feed it to them.

Years ago, I was on a Catholic Evangelization Team for my dioceses. We began by attending a workshop on the issue of evangelizing. We looked at the methods employed by Jehovah’s Witnesses and evangelicals.

One thing that was shown was that the JW’s, in your face door-to-door evangelizing, was essentially a flop. They made more converts, by invitation, than force feeding attempts.

Also, any evangelizing that brings religion, before Christ, will fail.
This is where the evangelicals like Billy Graham, were so succesful. They preached the gospel, on a human level that the ordinary person could understand.

However, one of the most successful forms of evangelizing people to the Catholic faith, is being good examples of what it is to be a Christian.

If we look back at the people who really attracted us to the Christ, we’d see that they didn’t preach to us, nor use gimmicks to get us to come to Church. Instead, they lived lives that drew our attention to their own holiness, and they weren’t even aware of it. Often, those were just ordinary people who lived simple humble lives.

For me, it was my grandmother.

Always remember, it is through the grace of Jesus Christ, that a person receives faith. All we can do is invite them to be open to receiving it.

The gospel message we give, should be “The Good News,” of Jesus Christ.

Jim

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Thank you for the response. I think that better education of lay people in the Faith is the way forward and it will be slow, I think, as it will have to happen in parishes and probably those still attending Mass (and thus in a position to be reached by education) are already the better educated in their Faith…hence how to evangelize is a factor in that education including how to speak with lapsed Catholics. In many places The Church is in crisis, but it will eventually pass as it is faced and addressed…as down through our history there have been times of crisis eventually negotiated: “and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against you”. The Church now is heavily reliant on laity and as never before and perhaps the face of The Church will be changed forever as laity take an increasingly important role in the life and face of The Church.

Blessings and regards…Barb