What is Catholic Culture?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Curious
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Curious

Guest
This is probably not the correct board to post this under, but the one I wanted to use was locked. My question is mainly for Catholics, but also non-Catholics can answer and tell what they think Catholic culture is.

I’ve heard a lot about “Catholic culture” and I’m not sure exactly what it is. If you asked me the first thing that pops in my mind when you say those two weirds, I would be dishonest to say that several stereotypical and unfair images didn’t pop in my mind.

If it helps understand the question, I know that my own mountain fundamentalism has a sort of culture, as well. Eating some good fried chicken after Sunday morning service (a joke, kind of, but it’s really true!), trying to keep up with the latest nifty Christian fads, lots of socializing and carrying on, lots of outings, youth trips, and so on.

There’s just a sort of “culture” I guess that has grown out those types of churches. I hope what I’m trying to ask makes sense.

Anyone?
 
IMO, Catholic culture (as in “He’s a Culture Catholic”) is more about signs than meanings. A ‘Culture Catholic’ will have a rosary hanging from their review mirror - but never pray it. They’ll go to Church, possibly every Sunday, but won’t really take to heart the homily or meaning of anything they say. They’ll have their children baptised (which will actually do something) but then never really bring them up in the faith. They’ll probably present their children for first communion and confirmation, but not expect their children to live up to the requirements or believe the beliefs of either. They’ll never go to Confession. If someone asks them why they use birth control/don’t find abortion offensive/don’t pay attention to the pope or bishops they’ll laugh and say “Well, I’m not a very good Catholic”.

Some of them may genuinly be ignorant, or some may just not care. We pray for both.

But there’s also Catholic Culture for those who are practicing. A Lenten Fish Fry put on by the parish Boy Scouts is an example. My parish just had a procession with our statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe not to long ago. She was carried through downtown where our church is, then brought to the front of the church where she sat until they coronated her on her feast day. Praying the rosary in groups. Crossing yourself or tipping your hat to the church as you pass. Daily mass. Having statues, medals, crucifixes (sp?) and icons around your home to remind you throughout the day of your duties and prayers. Inviting the priest over for dinner and having your house/car/medal/rosary/children/Bible/miscellaneous object blessed while he’s there. Asking people “Is there someone you’d like to have prayed for at our Mass for the dead tomorrow?” as your kids say “Trick or Treat!”.

That’s just some, but all of that is very Catholic, and probably has a deeper meaning for the practicing Catholics then the ‘Culture Catholics’ even if both are attending the festival/feast day.
 
Going to visit a friend and being invited to pray the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet with them.

Not eating meat on Fridays during Lent, even though it is allowed except for Good Friday
 
Did we forget about bingo as a fund raiser? hahahaha!!! Thats one of my favorite stereotypical Catholic things. Some fundamentalists really hate the idea of gambling and religion combined.
 
BlestOne said:
Did we forget about bingo as a fund raiser? hahahaha!!! Thats one of my favorite stereotypical Catholic things. Some fundamentalists really hate the idea of gambling and religion combined.
Click to expand...
How about the ladies guild bake sales, the parish fish fries, and the craft sales? Those don’t involve gambling. My parish when I was a kid and the one I attend now do not have bingo, although my high school I graduated from does (it was not affiliated with a parish, though–an order of sisters runs it). I used to want to play bingo when I was a student, but you had to be 21+ to play. Once I became an adult I no longer had any interest in bingo. I do like to go to fish fries. I’ll see my friends from church and even take friends who are non-Catholic with me sometimes.
 
I would say it is a socio anthropological sharing of people with the same [or similar] social principles and shared identity in worship and beliefs 🙂

I guess to a large extent [and for better or worse] catholic culture is also ethnocentism

To describe what it is, is probably better explained by how it is permeated. through the process of social interactions of shared understandings of internalised personal and shared contstructs of who the world is and how in the light of the Gospel, it should be.

Within catholicism this can be seen as manifested in the differences in interpretation of social and biblical phenomena such as the conservatives [traditionalists] who starkly contrast with the reformists [liberals]. Each argue for their OWN interpretation of canon law but each interpretation reflects not canon law but the shared constructs of ethnocentrism of each ideological sub culture.

Catholic culture also implicates unstated assumptions of how the world is and the way people [catholics] should act.🙂

Thus the ‘shared’ culture can be seen as comprising different and sometimes conflicting sub-cultures who collectively are united about the central tenet of the faith: the Eucharist which binds the sub-cultures together into a coherent and cohesive culture of catholicism.🙂
 
Thanks for your replies so far.

Not a lot of Catholics in my part of the country, so I was curious. 🙂
 
Another thing is making the Sign of the Cross before saying Grace Before Meals in public. Protestants hold hands and bow their heads. My ex-boss asked how it affected our holding hands during the prayer and i old him that we didn’t, we “made prayer hands”.

He started making the Sign of the Cross with me when I ate with him and his family, after I explained what it meant and why we did it.
 
By definition, Catholic culture would have to be those aspects of faith which are somewhat common in all the societies which are Catholic and which stem from the faith, affecting even those who aren’t strictly believers. Perhaps also some anthropological perspective on religious practices. One example would be Friday being “fish day” for people who are not Catholic. Or people who have long stopped going to church but still do things. Sometimes the theological bond is severed, but the person keeps some kind of affiliation. That would also be Catholic culture, I guess.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top