A lot of ground was covered in this conversation. Not much of it was happy.
But it has to be said.
It is tiring to have relentlessly bad news. BUT… if we choose to be tuned in, this is what the status quaestionis is.
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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Thank you for featuring this. Sobering, all. The cry of my heart is for a faithful, Catholic pope.
Come Holy Spirit, hear the prayers of your suffering nestlings and fledglings. We are cold and broken. There is danger all around with canid chops seeking to devour us. Keep us in the shadow of your wing, feed us with the scarlet drops from your opened breast. Help us persevere!
The scenario vis-a-vis Pelosi et al and the mafia is obviously inconsistent, unless one is going to somehow try and maintain that people who say that hiring hit men is a right, who provide legal protection for hit men, and who try and force others to fund the hiring of hit men are somehow less deserving of excommunication than the mafia.
The world is an Alice in Wonderland story now. None of it makes any sense. Francis and the cardinals and bishops have abandoned Catholicism, and look where the world is now. It’s exhausting to even contemplate these things anymore. As far as we’re concerned let women pick the bishops, third graders, emus, whatever.
More bad news came from the White House today. However I am optimistic. Why?
As someone who remembers 8th grade American History (had a good teacher at my public school – he was also a coach and my brother was in the same class) there are three branches of government (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial) and there are “checks and balances”. That said I don’t see how an Executive Order overrides a Supreme Court ruling.
My parish priest asked me to teach CCD for the high school students the other day. I asked him to let me pray about it before I answered.
This video, for the most part, shows why I do not feel that I can teach the Faith in an “official” setting.
That is to say because what we Catholics are getting from Rome is *not* the Faith at all. It is a sham. I have been convicted, through Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, that what we are getting from Rome is the *opposite* of their pontificates – which isn’t the Catholic Faith at all.
It is, from what I can ascertain, gobbledygook. So why bother?
@Midwest St. Michael
Teach but teach using the resources from the Faith.
Look, “infiltration” is a two-way street. Things are as bad as they are because people went into education and catechesis to use different materials. It didn’t necessarily come top-down but in many cases, it came from the bottom up. When you look at catechetical materials, even if you are forced to teach from the materials, there is just such a huge amount of room to minimize this and to supplement that. A good trick is to get your hands on the diocesean CCD standards as well as the book USCCB National Directory for Catechesis. Know what they should be done by the modern Church’s own standards. It won’t be the order of doing things that you would like but there is a huge opportunity.
Midwest St. Michael:
From a priest who is always on the look out for good catechists, please reconsider. There is a reason to bother: the students. Even if they only get a few classes of sound doctrine it could help them out for the rest of their lives. You would be surprised at what things stick in our minds.
If you are fired, then you are fired, but you will have been persecuted for sharing Christ. I seem to remember that there is a blessing associated with that.
God bless.
Midwest St. Michael:
Now, more than ever, you should seriously consider teaching CCD. If we abandon the trenches, we know who will replace us.
Thanks for the replies, Lurker 59, Fr. Gonzalez and Mike. ?
My priest has given me “free rein” as far as materials are concerned. So I would use the Catechism and the Bible in apologetic fashion. He’s mostly worried about content.
The Lord has given me the ability to memorize Scripture (chapter/verse) and paragraphs from the Catechism so I will simply use those.
I have asked certain friends to pray for me about this. I feel like when I get into the classroom the old juices will “get flowing” – despite my being somewhat tepid about teaching.
Thanks again!
Say you will teach, but only using the Baltimore Catechism, nothing else. If he says yes then you will be able to clearly communicate the faith. To this day, students I taught over a decade ago remember what was decided at the 1st council of Jerusalem.
The know know what mans purposed for being is. They know who God IS and what his plan is for all of us.
You would be amazed how many people can NOT answer those last two questions.
I would also recommend the Marian Catechist materials. THAT is how you counteract any nutty teaching that is out there.