Eye of the Tiber satirically “reports”:
Dumbstruck Congregation Listens In Awe As “Judgmental” Pastor Delivers Sound Homily
Encinitas, CA–Listening in shock and horror as a visiting priest delivered what many believed to be a judgmental homily earlier this morning, many parishioners at Sacred Heard Catholic Church in Encinitas, California, were traumatized after listening to what some called “the most sound homily they had ever heard.” “It was disgusting,” one parishioner, Debbie Locke, told EOTT. “This is a Church for goodness sakes.” Others also voiced their concerns saying that such filth should never be spoken anywhere, let alone in a church. “This is the house of God!” parishioner Bob Woodward said. “Is there no place left in the world where we can avoid hatred, injustice, judgment, and sound Catholic doctrine!” According to Woodward, a world that “did not allow for a women’s right to choose, or for two men to love one another” was not a world deserving of the King of Kings. The baffled and furious parishioner went on to explain how he was forced to flee Denver years ago after noticing a more prevalent and uncomfortable trend of sound homilies coming from several pulpits around the diocese. “The Bishop was doing nothing about it, so I fled with my family from Denver so that we could get away from that kind of critical and unwelcoming attitude. I chose to flee so that my Catholic children could grow up in a world that is accepting of all things…even if they’re not even remotely close to being in the same vicinity of being in line with Catholic teaching.”
Who am I to judge?
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“Is there no place left in the world where we can avoid hatred, injustice, judgment, and sound Catholic doctrine!”
Lots of places where he can avoid sound Catholic doctrine. St. Margaret’s in Oceanside, CA is not one of them fortunately.
Sadly, this parody isn’t too far from the truth. There are more than a few Catholics that only go to church because the the social aspects or because they’re “spiritual but not religious” or because they’re expected to go and only go because of inertia or cowardice in confronting the people nudging them to go.
These people would love it for the Church to just be like the Unitarian Universalists or Atheist “Megachurches” and just let them believe what they want to believe (preferably whatever The World says is good) without consequence, and assume that either everyone goes to Heaven (in which case there’s no point in changing) or there is no afterlife (in which case, it’s best to do the most you can get away with in this life).
They’re prime candidates for evangelism, since they won’t leave Catholicism due to inertia, but they’re also the hardest to evangelize since they have to unlearn what they think they know and although they may not leave the Faith (physically — although they might learned enough of the faith to actually be fully Catholic), they might leave the parish if you confront them too strongly.
I lived in San Diego County for 10 years and visit regularly since my sons and their families live there. The sad truth is “pablum preaching” is available in most of the parishes in the Diocese.
As someone who lives in the Archdiocese of Denver, this, of course, makes me smile. As it turns out, there is a strong correlation between passionate orthodoxy and full(er) pews and seminaries.
It seems as if “new evangelisation” is coming to Encinitas. And, not before time!
Good stuff. Made me laugh.
Sounds what the congregation needed is a good ‘ol fashioned Baptist healing service (say Amen) that the associate pastor performed a few months ago. “Now put your hand on the person in front of you….’ say Amen” – I had never seen or heard this one before, outside of flipping through the TV channels on Sundays.
We left.
I never realized how common this was until I started reading this blog! No Catholic teaching, no Catholic preaching in Catholic churches! It’s no wonder that Catholics vote pro-death! It’s been a year since we were assigned an “all we need is love” pastor, with his “let the church say amen” sermons. And we live in a very small town in PA. Pray for their retirement and more vocations!
I know of a priest who was removed as a pastor here in NJ, because he had the audacity to stand up in the pulpit and announce to his congregation that “We’re all sinners”. Obviously, that made some of his well-to-do parishioners so nervous that they had him ousted. Which is so, so sad.
What’s even sadder is that the old saying – “Money talks” seems to have been true in this instance.
Friend of mine took his wife and newborn to Italy a few weeks ago; they attended a church were Padre Pio was, in fact that order is still there. The priest did not start mass on time, he came out and harangued the people for 20 minutes before mass about their lack of fitness to be there (he did not even know them) and it was a major turnoff for a family who had traveled so far and had been looking forward to it. No wonder church attendance is so horrible in Italy!
The priest did not start mass on time, he came out and harangued the people for 20 minutes before mass about their lack of fitness to be there (he did not even know them)
As our saying goes (trying to render the pun approximately in English),
“a priest may preach about everything, but he must preach about ten minutes” (or less). In a weekday Mass, where people did not expect a sermon to come up at all, five.
Dear @anilwang, I said that before, and – and while I have no right that anyone should read my comments, still as long as our reverend host does not delete I’m going to say it again – in your
and assume that either everyone goes to Heaven (in which case there’s no point in changing),
the “in which case” part is wrong. I do not hold, for the record, that everyone goes to Heaven (which would contradict my interpretation of Scripture); I hold with our Holy Father emeritus (Spe salvi 46) that to all we know the probability is that most people go to Purgatory, and consequently, Heaven; but even should most people go to Hell, it would remain wrong to say that there is no sense in obeying God if He does not put you in eternal torment for not doing so.
Bob B. says:
Sounds what the congregation needed is a good ‘ol fashioned Baptist healing service (say Amen) that the associate pastor performed a few months ago. “Now put your hand on the person in front of you….’ say Amen” – I had never seen or heard this one before, outside of flipping through the TV channels on Sundays.
Did you ever see Ernest Angley (once known, I think, as Ernest Ainsley)?
“Put your hands on the TV set! Feel the power of the Holy Spirit!”
frjim4321,
You have to understand Italians. But prefatory comments (good or bad) are usually not to be found when the 1962 Missal is used.
I went through RCIA in California.. so I understand Catholic moonbat.
My RCIA teacher, when I asked him before the election in 2008 how a Catholic could vote for Obama given that he was so pro abortion.. he blew it off as if abortion wasnt that big of a deal. He was such a nice man and I learned a lot from that Parish.. the priests were wonderful men… It wasnt like they actively were for abortion.. it just wasnt talked about or blown off as not a biggie. they are liberals first in my opinion… and I dont even think they realize it.
I am glad I moved back to Indiana where the Priests here dont hesitate to speak pro life. That sermon would have shocked nobody here.
St Jude says,
. . . I asked him before the election in 2008 how a Catholic could vote for Obama given that he was so pro abortion.. he blew it off as if abortion wasnt that big of a deal.
I wonder what he thought actually was a big deal.
Rob.. exactly.. he is a liberal first..
robtbrown says:I wonder what he thought actually was a big deal.
From personal experience with that sort I would say: The redistribution of wealth from the rich (or anybody who actually works for their money) to the poor by the government.
If you pin them down about abortion they’ll usually bring up some bogus statistic about how liberal government actually reduces abortion because poor women only abort because they can’t afford to have more children. So voting for Obama or Kerry or a Biden is actually a pro-life vote. While voting for a conservative who is against abortion actually causes abortion to go up. ITs the kind of double think that George Orwell would be proud of.
Rob, when I was a very young Army brat, we lived in Florida and Alabama and hearing and seeing preachers in their tents was a fairly common TV program. I remember asking my mom if someone was sick during one of the TV shows because some guy looked like he was having an epileptic fit on the floor. The associate pastor seemed to be tuning himself up for something similar (like, “Heal brother”) and I wasn’t about to stay or stand for that during Mass.
NB: robt is an abbreviation for robert
There is in the US a tendency for pastors to try almost anything to cause zeal among their people. Some have tried it with Medjugorje. And some have tried it with “healing services”, i.e., by administering the Sacrament of the Sick at halftime of the mass.
My experience at masses with the latter is that almost everyone who has ever had a headache is invited up to be anointed. Further, by overemphasizing the possibility that one effect of the Sacrament might be healing from the illness, the essence of the Sacrament, that it strengthens the faith of those who are seriously ill, is all but ignored.
“And some have tried it with “healing services”, i.e., by administering the Sacrament of the Sick at halftime of the mass.”
That’s entirely legit and the rite permits it.
That is NOT what is typically called a “healing service,” which often involved people who present themselves with special powers who lay on hands, etc., sometimes a certain kind of oil is used that is not even sacramental oil.