ACTION ITEM!
One of our regular readers here brought this to my attention.
I alert you to a survey put out by some folks who seem to want 1975 back.
You might want to help them people with their survey! They sent it out to their – say – half a dozen readers. I think we can do better. I hope that thousands of you will jump in.
The American Catholic Council… remember them? (click HERE)… wants your views. They write:
Pope Francis is offering all of us new hope in our beloved Church and he has called out many times for “dialogue, dialogue…” Some have called this the “Francis Revolution” because he is turning all expectations upside down. The American Catholic Council is joining this revolution in an active way and we invite you to help us discern the best way for all of us to engage and support the grassroots in creating change along with Francis.
We invite you to fill out our very short survey as a next step in our mission to support you and your dreams to change the Church. Toward that end, we hope you will also send this invitation and survey to a half dozen of your friends so that we can collaborate widely on planning next steps. Together, no matter how big our dream is, we can achieve much!
Survey will close on Monday, May 12th at noon EDT
Summary of results will be in the next ACC newsletter
If that survey doesn’t come up for you with the link, above, try HERE and then look for the link.
Here are my answers (numbered questions first):
1. We are interested in what it means to YOU to be Catholic in 2014, your vision of the Church. Francis gets a lot of media attention, what if there were a lot of positive buzz about your local Catholic community? If a 60 Minutes reporter visited your ideal local Catholic community, what three things would grab his/her attention and be a part of the story told on television? ( the answer boxes will expand to accommodate whatever you write)
- Full, joyous active participation in Holy Mass celebrated according to the pre-Conciliar Missal, in Latin, with many young families and children in attendance.
- Preaching that is completely faithful to traditional, official teaching of the Church as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
- All male service during liturgy, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, many lay groups and evening activities, the new Communion rail
2. Try a thought experiment: Imagine it is one year from today and there is trouble in your diocese and people are in the streets. Look back: what happened that woke them up and got them into action? Name three things. Please be as specific as possible (the answer boxes will expand to accommodate whatever you want to write)
- The full effect of ObamaCare kicks in and many people are without jobs, the economy is tanking, the crime rate is soaring because of unemployment among the young. They request more traditional devotions from their pastors, such as public recitation of the Rosary, processions to ask God’s blessings and forgiveness for to being faithful.
- People finally tire of the same old liberal rubbish from liberal priests and nuns who can’t seem to realize that the 60’s are over. They begin to volunteer in parishes to put in more statues, remove the potted plants, mauve carpets, big puppets and install Communion rails and ad orientem altars.
- After numerous attacks on the local bishop in the newspapers and other media, people cancel their subscriptions and begin writing letters to the editors and then increase their donations to the bishops fund for conservative seminarians.
You see, in the second point they are looking for things that interest their base enough that they – the half-dozen or so – might go out and protest. You know, relive the 60’s.
Help them out!
This is what my friend wrote for responses:
- Great number of devoutly celebrated Masses in the Extraordinary Form (Latin)
- Long lines several times a week when Father is hearing confessions
- Large number of healthy, intact families with 5, 7, 10 children – parents who fully embrace and live the Church’s teaching on life and sexuality
ad secundum:
- People actually realized that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ and took to the streets on Corpus Christi to celebrate that fact
- Obama’s HHS mandate takes full effect, requiring Catholic institutions to act against our beliefs. Catholics take to the streets to protest this assault on our religious liberty
- The LCWR finally accepts and embraces the reforms of the Council. Habits, common life, orthodoxy, and sanity return. People take to the streets cheering!
Take a few minutes and help them out. Talk about it at home and over coffee and doughnuts at church. Forward it to your friends. Come up with some ideas.
¡Hagan lío!
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(the temptation to be uncharitable is so great that I have to refrain from going there).
BUT, one response would be that people discovered a Universal language for the Mass. Instead of peppering many languages throughout the Mass to include everyone present, they turn to Latin and wonder why they didn’t think about this earlier! It’s a hit!
Survey submitted.
First question:
Large numbers of us Catholics and our friends, Catholic and not Catholic praying for an end to abortion, the death penalty, and the murder of Christians in Muslim countries.
The outward appearance that we understood that Christ is truly present in the consecrated hosts and the people dressed appropriately, as if we were visiting Christ The King. Men and boys in suits, women, especially teens, dressed modestly.
An educational program that stressed the teachings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, especially those parts on sexuality and true marriage
Second question:
The arrest or attempted arrest of our Bishop for standing up for true Christian teachings and rejecting Common Core for Diocesian schools.
The over reach of government attempting to force Catholic priests to perform or recognize unnatural marriage.
The realization the the new government run health insurance was using their money to fund abortions and pay for contraceptives.
Done. Mine were very simple:
Question 1
People kneel for Communion and receive on the tongue.
Father preaches that sin exists, that we need to repent, and Confession times are freqent enough to allow us to do that easily.
The choir makes good use of Jubilate Deo and Glory & Praise is nowhere to be seen.
Question 2
The Bishop promoted the Ordination of women and the people are outraged because they know that the Church has no power to do that.
They’ve all read Sacrosanctum Concilium and now know what Vatican II really said. They are outraged that they have been deceived all these years.
They’ve read Canon 536 §1 & §2 and want the priests to take back the power from the Parish Councils who think they run the parishes.
1. A church characterized by faithful adherence to the doctrines even if it means personal sacrifice.
2. A church in which no one receives the Sacrifice of Our Savior (communion) unless they are willing to make a sacrifice of their own to obey God’s commandments
3. Those who cannot yet receive communion are many and welcomed. they attend Mass, Holy Hours, and other activities and feel welcomed and ask God for the graces to make the changes they need to be obedient. There are a good amount of people who realize they ought not to receive the Eucharist, so they do not feel so ostracized remaining seated. The members who do go to communion appreciate their respect for the Sacrament and pray for them.
1. hundreds of Christians losing their livelihoods for refusing to be accomplices in contraceptive, abortive, or homosexual acts
2. All Catholic hospitals and soup kitchens, homeless shelters etc shut down due to Obamacare contraceptive mandate.
3. Catholic churches close after government forces gay weddings or pay punitive fines
Done. Thank you for alerting us to this! Can’t wait to see the results.
Done…
Done. My favorite: parishioners protest after the parochial school attempted to remove its requirement that all students study Latin as the universal language of the Church.
I can’ possibly say what I put in but, just a hint now, there was something about the latest church to close and, joy of joys, our local (Catholic supported) football team has at last, after many years, just beaten the other local (Protestant supported) team.
Done.
1. Eucharist kneeling on the tongue
2. Gregorian Chant and polyphony (Palestrina) sung by choir.
3. Church renovations to bring back classic beauty.
1. Govmt declares Church hate group and we march in protest.
2. Catholic Hospitals forced to violate conscience, we march in protest.
3. Supreme Court declares ACA (Obamacare) unconstitutional and we celebrate.
A Church focused on God and not on the personal feel-good whims of the self-absorbed, anything-but-humble-in-the presence-of-God people in the pews
Long lines at the confessional, quiet reverence before the Blessed Sacrament, large families who are well-dressed and whose women modestly cover their heads
Music that is sacred and true to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, with Latin and Chant given the called for pride of place
Catholic identity was renewed along with awareness of our obligation to spread our faith and Eucharistic and Marian processions in the streets returned
We finally wake up to the anti-Catholic intentions of the government and take to the streets in protest
Nuns in habits protest the government’s war on women that demeans home-schooling, stay-at-home women with large families.
Lana: Good ones!
I said: 1) commitment to the poor (which my parish has, regardless of anything else) 2) quiet, unostentatious faith — no shouting from the rooftops 3) patience and endurance in the midst of fads and banality. Hey, my parish is no friend to orthodoxy, beauty, or outward signs of devotion. But it’s still here and plenty of people have those things.
Part two: 1) Efforts to legalize “gay marriage” (my state will be a battleground this year); 2) efforts to force Cahtolcis and other Christians to publicly profess things that aren’t true and bar them from professions, jobs, adn public office if htey don’t, and 3) efforts to close Catholic schools as bigoted and unAmerican.
I don’t have a whole lot of hope for any of those… to some extent they’re all going on now. But you never know when people will wake up and fight.
1
Both OF and EF Masses, celebrated with equal reverence in careful accordance with the missal and rubrics of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Actual participation of the people in the liturgy, both in quiet prayer and in vocal chant and responses.
Long lines for confession and full attendance at devotions such as the Rosary and Stations of the Cross.
2
People requested more reverent liturgy and traditional devotions In all parishes of the diocese.
People requested an end to heterodox pop songs at Mass, and more traditional sacred music and chant.
People requested more solidly doctrinal sermons, and an end to dissident teaching in their Catholic schools.
Done! My comments are similar to many expressed above!
one of my six comments was simply a quote:
“I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.” – Bl. John Henry Newman
Volanges, I was once on a mission trip where the priest said one of our tasks would be to throw out the old Glory and Praise books. He even said, “as we do, we’ll say ‘You are lukewarm and I shall spew you out of my mouth!'” I very enthusiastically volunteered. He later became my spiritual director. :)
Well, here’s my stab at it:
1. Well attended, liturgically correct, devoutly celbrated Masses in both Latin and the vernacualr, using both the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms.
2. Large, exuberant, prayerful and faithful to the Magisterium teen and young adult groups active in the parish and the community
3. Lots of participation in parish activities outside of Mass, Confessions, Eucharistic adoration, parish school, Legion of Mary, etc.
1. The Bishop made repeated, strking, clear and forceful statements defending the Church’s freedom to teach, pray and live the Faith, standing against those forces that tend to silence the Gospel whether backed by the governemnt (such as the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate) or other associations (Freedom from religion, etc.)
2. The Bishop regularly and with well publicised media coverage participates in pro-life demonstrations at various locations in the diocese, even gets himself arrested.
3. In addition to celebrating liturgically correct Sunday Mass in the Cathedral and preaching orthodox Catholic doctrine he goes out to celebrate and preach at various parished in the diocese, directly calling the people to fidelity, holiness and evangelical action.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the ranks of the hierarchy with holiness, fortitude, zeal for the Gospel and grant them the gift of effective preaching.
I expect the results will be ignored if they are not as expected…It was worth doing though.
Eucharistic Processions bring the unchurched from their comfortable lives and the lukewarm to zeal.
To the second question, I suggested an amalgam of real, historical events.
a) The Pope writes an encyclical letter, condemning Americanism, which he smuggles into every parish nationwide and requires to be read from the pulpit on the same Sunday; news media try to quash the story; protests erupt as people demand that the truth about the encyclical be proposed.
b) Gov’t requires identity badges for Catholics, but Catholics choose to wear Sacred Heart badge INSTEAD.
c) Diocesan Ordinary requests prayers for rain, and the people turn out for public processions and acts of reparation.
It might be worthwhile not to use the link from WDTPRS though, but to copy-paste the URL in a new browser window. Some sites will simply track where their vistiors came from, and use “manipulation” as an excuse to throw out those responses that came from a certain site.
And that would be our responses, in this case.
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Thanks, Phil_NL. Hope I remember to keep track of this and follow up. It should be super interesting – with our help.
1. Masses celebrated with reverence in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms.
2. Families with many children; couples who do not use contraception, but if necessary, NFP to space births.
3. Many parish activities that bear fruit in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
1. Increased persecution of those who believe marriage is between one man and one woman.
2. HHS mandate of Obamacare interfering the religious freedom of Catholics.
3. Priests and religious who uphold Church teaching are openly and publicly ridiculed and mocked.
It does not seem to be very scientific.
I would rather spend my time on surveys with validity, such as the recent one from CARA that exposed the failure of the VC2010 product especially among priests with sufficient pastoral experience.
Oh frjim4321 you crack me up! That is why we should all just go back to the 1962 missal and be done with it. The VC2010 is like making modifications to a Yugo, yes it is better than it was but it will never be a Ferrari. The 1962 is a Ferrari, don’t need to mess with it, runs great right off of the show room floor.
If our bishops and priests and laity were looking for issues they can work on, here they are. Listing mine would be mostly redundant. Evidently we want reverent liturgy, return to Confession, education in full doctrine and practice, and public witness to and defense of our Faith and liberties. These are duties for all of us, but the laity depend on the leadership of bishops and priests. They exist because of their unique offices. Pray for good bishops and priests!
I’m sure I don’t have anything original to offer as far as survey responses, but my final answer was this (what motivated us to take to the streets):
Our Blessed Lord, coming down from heaven at the Last Judgement, in which faithful Catholics beg for His mercy upon all, including dissenters
One of the curiosities of this survey is that it seems to assume that all revolution is effected either by mobs in the streets or by mandarins in committee rooms.
The most profound revolution in human history took place on a Cross. That revolution is re-presented every time that Holy Mass is reverently celebrated. It is an atoning Sacrifice not susceptible to “scientific” deconstruction for “pastoral” reasons.
That persistent attempts at such deconstruction, having extended over two generations and more, continue to be accompanied by aging and emptying of the pews of Novus Ordo congregations would seem to be a matter of the gravest pastoral concern. Indeed, to read Ecclesia Dei is to sense a profound pain on the part of its author, who as chief shepherd undertook to reassemble the flock scattered by deconstructionism and the reaction therefrom.
We should beseech urgently the intercession of Pope St. John Paul II as self-styled Catholic groups and pundits continue to wreak mischief rooted in agendas other than that of Calvary.
Chris G-Z, after I saw the movie The War of the Vendee, I embroidered the sacred heart on the left sleeve of every dress and t-shirt that I own. I’m one step ahead of them.
A point for the second set of questions (ie reasons for mass protest a year from now) could be when a liberal bishop rashly tries to re-introduce the idea of Mass in the vernacular. Protest banners read ‘No More Puerile Pastoral Products!’ and ‘English is NOT a Sacred Language, FFS!’ Protest Songs include ‘Vexilla Regis’, ‘Faith of Our Fathers’, and (from the large cohort of students) ‘Gaudeamus Igitur’.
Q #1 (ideal local Catholic community)
1) Full attendance at all Sunday Masses in the Latin Rite performed with the St. John the XXIII Missal;
2) Fervent preaching of Roman Catholic Truth according to the Catechism of Trent and a profound attachment and practice of all the teachings contained in Humanae Vitae, with a profound rejection of the culture of death;
3) Parishioners who believe steadfastly in Divine Revelation and the Magisterium and rejection and or correction of lax clergy or fringe laity who espouse “socialist justice” and secularism as substitutes for the Truth.
Q #2 (three things that woke up the parish)
1) attempts by lax clergy to replace Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen with a faux milquetoast “tin Jesus” of secularism and syrupy sentiment;
2) aggressive secularist proselytizing in the media and culture which was seeping into parish life weakening families and causing diabolical disorientation;
3) Attempts by recently assigned lax clergy, with aid from fringe lay “catholic” activist parishioners, to substitute Leftist political ideology, therapeutic inanity and secularist mumbo jumbo for the Truth of Catholic teaching.
Phil_NL, I’m afraid that the reason responses from Father’s readers might be dismissed as “manipulation” is that, well, they are. While I can understand why it might be gratifying to mess with these people’s surveys, I think the result is no more legitimate than a bunch of Democrats voting in the Republican primary where the Republicans are the minority. Rather than these shenanigans, I think the better course would be to reason with these our brothers and sisters and convince them of the error of their ways.
used their link to the survey. don’t know if they can track back from there.
Will be helping my husband respond to the survey too .That’s a two fer here.
I do agree with Polycarpio, above. Nevertheless… I think may have used “polyester suit” as part of one of my answers. May our good Lord have mercy on my soul.
“I think the result is no more legitimate than a bunch of Democrats voting in the Republican primary where the Republicans are the minority.”
As has been mentioned, the poll is not a scientific survey instrument. Leaving questions of legitimacy aside, the poll asks our opinion. Not to offer a faithful opinion would serve neither truth nor charity.
1. The sacraments celebrated with due reverence
2. Timeless moral theology taught without compromise
3. Protection of the most vulnerable among us from euthanasia and tolerance of depravity
4. The state’s persecution of folks who refuse to promote euthanasia
5. The double-standard by which the Church is criticized both for the wrong acts of some members in sexually abusing children and the right opposition of sexual depravity, while governmental officials bugger children with impunity
6. The ongoing efforts to redefine families as including criminal conspiracies
Done.
1-1. The Extraordinary Form of the Mass being used as often as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion
1-2. Vatican II Properly Implemented as stated with Latin and Gregorian Chant having prominance of place
1-3. Sermons that address sin, repentance and Catholic theology such that a non-Catholic (or non-Christian for that matter) would immediately know they are not in their own churches (mosques, meeting halls) any more.
2-1. The Church closes all social services organizations rather than bow to new laws on homosexual “marriage” and supplying abortion
2-2. A member of the Religion of Peace ™ converts to the True Church, repents and is immediately arrested for “hate speech”
2-3. Pope Francis acknowledges the gaping hole in Summorum Pontificum and fills it by decreeing that each parish convert at least one normally scheduled Sunday Mass to the Extraordinary Form.
No problem of this life worries them. They only worry what can lost their soul.
They do not work to change the world, they only work to be better christians
Before start any task the say Ad Maior Deus Gloria.
Preaching of the gospel was forbidden.
A law was issued that mandate violate catholic morality
Catholic church was banned
1. a massive increase in vocations.
2. a large precession lead by the priest in front of the local abortuary
3. a brand new Catholic school with a solid curriculum and faithful to the magisterium.
part 2
1. Obama’s HHS mandate fires up Catholics to take their faith seriously.
2. Pope Benedict comes and preaches on the love of Christ.
3. Scott Hahn hosts a fantastic talk in my parish.
PhilNL,
Yes, I’d say it’s a safe bet they’ll toss our answers; they won’t want to hear from anybody who’s not pushing their agenda. Oh well. Look on the bright side: Many, if not most, persons never learned traditional norms during youth; many of our elder generation thought they had done away with the old nonsense. These didn’t plan for many of us to grow irritated with the “newer, better” ways, and definitely didn’t expect us to learn traditional norms on our own. … But we did anyway.
These folks won’t be happy with our barging in on their survey, but I can’t think of any reason why we should let their attitudes get in our way yet again. We have a right to be heard too.
Well I guess I’m not really adding anything, but:
The rich patrimony of our sacred music program.
Ad Orientem worship in the Novus Ordo Mass.
Large, young families actively participating in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.
Further erosion of our religious liberty by the Obama administration
Construction of a new Abortion facility.
Legalization of Homosexual marriage.