A New Leader Confronts Catholics’ Disaffection {Catholic/Orthodox Caucus}

I’m at St. Thomas Aquinas in Charlottesville

Lucky you—a Dominican house of St. Joseph’s Province. Not everyone is so blessed. My parents and two of my sisters are doubly blessed by being at St. Thomas Aquinas in Zanesville, which not only has the Dominicans, but also has solid architecture, though I suppose St. T in Charlottesville isn’t bad for being on a college campus (I have friends in the area and have been through a few times).

I AM blessed. It was Fr. Brian Mulcahy and the friars with him who dragged STA-UVA out of the “spirit of Vatican II” muck into the firm verdant ground of orthodoxy.

The architecture? Mneh. Last Easter I was working security because we had a death threat phoned in. Afterwards I suggested to the pastor that maybe a little gunfight would take care of some of the less than inspiring stained glass.

And we have a statue in front which is an embarrassment. Again, the ROTC training area is just down the street and I have asked if they couldn’t arrange for a little artillery accident. Just a little one.

But as an Episcopalian, I drank poison served in golden vessels. The food of eternal life served up on chipped melamine is fine with me.

That parish is one of the very few where I have heard abortion preached against during the sermon.

I had to ask if the other parish I was at in c’ville was Catholic, I really couldn’t tell. I asked where the tabernacle was and it was in some other building.

Freegards

I strongly suspect you will find the reason so many no longer participate in our faith community in the various comments in these posts

Part of it is just social evolution in America with a generation or two that is taught to be narcissistic and disrespectful of authority. This is no coincidence. For the past 40 or so years, schools have been aiming their education at raising the "self image" of children, and practicing various social experiments.

Dr. Spock is long gone and his retractions are not even remembered, but his methods continue. The society and schools in particular continue treating children as "little people," and rewarding failure and disobedience just so not to hurt their little hearts and run a chance of ruining their positive self-image.

Naturally, the post hippie generations are "rebellious" and pigheaded and detest a structured society that "imposes" things on them, especially a traditional Church. You see, they see nothing wrong with texting while driving because they don't care about anyone except themselves, and we taught them that! Our society did.

Changing the Church to accommodate a passing generational trend is to destroy the Church. Trends change, and the Church will be better off in some periods then in others, but the Church must never conform itself to the world, or human whims, and hope tor remain a Church.

Are not many gone because we have driven them away?

No, they are just who they are, the children of this age and culture. Those who beat themselves up over their leaving are the ones who will take the Church where no man (dared) take it before in order to appease rather than condemn narcissism.

The food of eternal life served up on chipped melamine is fine with me.

I admired your attitude toward the irritants very much. I do not remember seeing the statue of St. Thomas, but I do remember a very entertaining description of the statue, and that if one is asking directions on campus one is best off asking for directions to the statue (which apparently is a landmark) rather than to the Church (which apparently is not).

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