What can I say to a friend who was rejected at Mass?

[tilagarza]

What can I say to a friend who feels rejected by the Catholic Church? I recently found out that years ago before he was a Christian, he was going through some depression, he started to seek the Lord and wanted to start attending church. He felt like God was calling him. So, he went to a Catholic Church in his neighborhood but was told he couldn’t come in because he was wearing shorts and a tank top? Now he is non denominational, and he talks about how his church accepts everyone regardless of how they look, ect. He is now very anti-Catholic. What can I say to him?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

Would your friend wear shorts and a tank top to the White House to meet the President? What we wear not only says something about ourselves, it also says something about where we are.

Our Churches are not simply meeting halls; they are houses of God where the Lord is present in the tabernacle. We honor that by the way we comport ourselves in our dress as well as our actions. It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t able to talk to a priest at the time and that whoever he met wasn’t kind. We will keep him in our prayers.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.