I honestly don’t understand something here.
Several posters have compared Catholic and Protestant churches, and been rather disparaging about Protestant “socializing” vs. Catholic “Mass/worship.”
I find this rather offensive.
I was Protestant for most of my life, and although Protestants are missing the Eucharist, which is the Lord Himself, they are not at church merely to socialize. They come to church to receive the Lord through His Word, to pray, and to worship Him as best they know how through excellent music.
And Protestants don’t “socialize,” they “have fellowship with other believers.”
**I hope that people will stop criticizing Protestants for doing things that all CATHOLICS should be doing, too. **
And keep in mind that Protestant churches are growing by leaps and bounds. The megachurch in our community (which has coat racks) has several thousand people in attendance every weekend, and has a huge charitable outreach program that even our Catholic churches get involved with.
And even though Protestant churches don’t have Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, He is present nonetheless in those who believe in Him and have been baptized. So I fail to see why Catholics are getting so puffed up about our churches to the point where they say, “We don’t need coat racks, heat, bathrooms, hugs, etc.”
Maybe if you had more of these common amenities, more people would come to receive Jesus.
I do want to start this post by saying I know how serious you are about this subject but many of us Cradle Catholics just don’t get it. We definitely have a different view of what Worship and “fellowship, socialize” is all about. Every time someone comes here who hasn’t been Catholic that long appears to be critical of how we have
always done things our hackles come up and, yes, we get defensive.
Cat I am truly sorry you find it offensive that as a cradle Catholic my limited experience with protestants and their services have been one of “showing off” for each other and “socializing” as much as worshiping - and that is there too! You know, when we hear about how you can “come to worship services and have a cappuccino and a croissant” it is just weird, as a matter of fact for many mainline Protestants it is weird. It is this attitude of “worship” that really bothers me, how can you focus on God when you are eating?
My Parish btw is growing by leaps and bounds, both reverts (returning Catholics) and Converts are in abundance. We have so many activities that our Parish Hall and RE building are always booked, if you want to have an event in either place you have to schedule months in advance. We have so many students requesting Religious Education that Sr. had to turn some away due to building code requirements and not enough time slots for classes - we have classes running 5 or 6 different times just for the K-8 grade students, this doesn’t include the High Schoolers who still come even after they have been confirmed, yes, our students are taught that they will never stop learning and they have a thirst for the knowledge!
RE: worshiping as best they know how, beg to differ with the “great music” part, when was the last time you attended a Lutheran Service? Eeeee, you think we Catholics have bad music, you should hear some of the music they try to sing - only a trained Opera singer could sing some of them.
I hope, Cat, this helps you understand a bit more about where I am coming from when I say what I do. I know my experience with Protestants is limited and as much by word of mouth from Protestant friends (inviting me to “fellowship” which is a very lightly veiled way of trying to proselytize me, that vocal Catholic who is surely going to hell just because she is Catholic!) They don’t do that much anymore because I tend to have way too many good answers to their questions and they just don’t want to let me loose in their church!
Cat you said above, “So I fail to see why Catholics are getting so puffed up about our churches to the point where they say, “We don’t need coat racks, heat, bathrooms, hugs, etc.”” Could it be that we just don’t see a need for the same things you do? The problem is you keep harping on it, some have said if this bothers you then fix it, we don’t have a problem with it so, we just go to Mass to Worship God and receive Jesus in the Eucharist - we then go to other events to socialize or, in your words for fellowship!
Brenda V.
I never worry about anyone stealing my coat – unless you are part of the choir, and need to be up there, you’d have to be out of your mind to climb that many steps. 
The greeter program did not work.
That’s a new one! That explains everything, of course!
