Posted on 12/04/2013 2:17:07 PM PST by markomalley
Today is the 50th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium.
What great fruits the liturgical reforms have produced! Jammed churches, long confession lines, full schools, lots of weddings and baptisms, convents bursting, seminaries churning out priests as fast as they can be ordained .
Back in 1967 when the reformers were creating the Novus Ordo, an experimental Missa Normativa was celebrated for a groups of cardinals and bishops. After this Mass, Card. Heenan of Westminster remarked to the Synod of Bishops in Rome:
At home, it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to Mass. If we were to offer them the kind of ceremony we saw yesterday we would soon be left with a congregation of women and children.
There is a good post at Cream City Catholic, which originates in Milwaukee, WI. He tackles the question of why fewer men go to Mass than women.
This article, appearing in The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, discusses various efforts being made by Milwaukee-area churches (Catholic and non-Catholic) to attract men back to the pews. [Reason #12 for SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM!!] The concern is that men are, for some mysterious reason, [Not mysterious to me.] checking out from liturgy or other Christian services.
[...]
According to a statistic presented in the article, the male/female discrepancy is especially felt in the Catholic Church, where 64% of parish life is comprised of women.
So why are the guys MIA?
This is another one of those instances within our local Church where you have a lot of people who subscribe to the conventional wisdom scratching their heads and asking Why? Why? Why? when the answer is not particularly elusive. This really isnt a surprise to me, or to many others. I recall attending Mass in Rome at a local parish and, unbeknownst to me when I entered, it was a Childrens Mass. Start to finish, the liturgy was replete with childish, Sesame Street-styled songs and embarrassing hand motions. As I scanned the pews, only two groups of people were participating: the small children, and the women, especially the older women. The men, from young to old, were standing there, stone-faced, arms crossed, totally disengaged. It was painful. The music and everything else was thoroughly emasculating. No self-respecting man would participate in that. And they didnt. If this is what is meant by active participation on the part of the laity, I and lots of guys, want nothing to do with it. Run for the hills.
This phenomenon has been replicated ad nauseam in the United States as well.
Authentic masculinity has been knee-capped in our Church. [OORAH!] This trend is conspicuously apparent in our liturgical life, as any manifestation of authentic masculinity is attacked as boorish male chauvinism, old manifestations of discrimination and oppression from a Church that is unfairly dominated by an all-male hierarchy. (The article cites an example of a parish in the Diocese of Madison where the pastor insisted on only boys serving as acolytes. Predictably, he received tons of criticism as a result. Fortunately, Bishop Morlino backed up his priest.) [Do I hear an "Amen!"?] Whats more, many of the liturgical planning committees have been taken over by women. The embellishments of many church buildings often look like a Jo-Ann Fabric was detonated inside. Pastel ribbons, crafts, baskets, streamers, quilts BOOM!
What Ive often referred to as the Oprahfication of our Church has had a direct effect on the number of men who opt out of liturgy. Much of our Church culture has imbibed a pandering, touchy-feely, soft sofa approach to dealing with real challenges, and guys dont dig that. Coupled with a de-emphasis on the Sacramental life, the Eucharist in particular, many men simply see no point in attending Mass if all theyre getting is meaningless psychobabble and Stuart Smalley motivational talks.
[...]
Dead on.
Vast swathes of the Church have been wussified. Part of this is internal to the Church. Part of this comes from the decades long war on boys and men.
I think a huge part of this comes from the fact that our sacred liturgical worship is massively screwed up.
“plus sermons that are more political than biblical”.
I would pass out of my parish priest ever gave a political homily. Ain’t gonna happen. I wish it would.
I’d been avoiding going to church for so long (for some of the same reasons others have stated) she was joking that wasn’t I afraid the Lord would burn me up for being such an un-devout fellow?
Football.
“When Jesus was on the cross why were there more women around then men?”
Excellent point - it was a tragic shame then and it should not be happening now. The women then had nothing to fear, being “women” - the men did. They learned their lesson and died as martyrs for Christ later.
Want it fixed? Stand up, show some testosterone and freak the ladies out. The priest may try to comfort them, but that may just be cover.
Did I miss something?
Is this the “Let’s Quit Then” estrogen thread?
If you’ve already been immasculated, this must seem like therapy.
Why would men want to go to church as women?
“Why dont as many men go to church as women?”
I swear I read that as ‘Why don’t many men go to church as women.’ Which could easily be the title of an article these days.
Freegards
They’re too busy running half marathons, raising cats, and watching their fantasy football players.
You leave my peanut butter out of this.
I did not leave the Church, the Church left me and I will not be back.
Raising cats?
football
I know. Sometimes it’s hard for them to preach honestly, though, about some of the challenges facing individuals, families and the country without getting political. My pastor manages to do it without explicitly telling people things like how to vote. For example a few weeks ago he preached about a society in the Old Testament that had become thoroughly corrupt and wicked. I think people could connect the dots.
I used to play a game and speculate what people would have done in my old church in Seattle if the senior pastor had said things in a sermon(say the Sun. after 911) that Rev. Wright was saying. I think that some people would probably have gotten up and walked out. Afterwards, I think that people would assume hed had a mental breakdown of some sort and arrange for someone else to pinch-hit for the subsequent sermons. This church was so big that there were 5 services every Sunday, more on Christmas a d Easter. By the next Sunday hed be gone and a delicately worded letter would go out. I’m just guessing. I think I myself would have probably walked out. At my new church in Everett I think somebody would stop him before he finished the sermon. Then he’d be gone by next Sun. a d a delicately worded letter would go out. But it’s so hard to picture. My pastor is a former Navy Chaplain. But Wright was a Marine, I guess. Incidentally, a religion columnist at the Seattle Times came to Wrights defense back in 2008. He compared him to Old Testament prophets. Also I guess he visited that church once and they were really nice to him. Go figure.
were there?
If you're talking pastor as in the role the priest has, then every Christian is supposed to be a priest. (See 1 Corinthians 4:1 and 1 Peter 2.)
Number 7 is very solid, and number 6 is probably valid as well.
That's exactly the point that a youtube guy, TheIgnoredGender, makes.
It is fairly simple, most men even in this world we live in today still want to be men.
Not all but so many Churches has a way ( maybe not deliberately ) of making a man believe it is wrong to be a man.
Also women can put up with a lot more false doctrine than a man can.
And most Churches has at least a little.
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