Rebuild the Home; Rebuild the Church
Reviewing the Why Are They Leaving? Symposium at InsideCatholic.com, Deal Hudson was struck by how many of the "participants talked about catechesis and did not mention lifeless parishes and slothful liturgies.
While I agree that the reason behind the mass exodus of Catholics from Holy Mother Church is not simply intellectual and certainly there's the issue of lifeless and banal parish life, it seems to me that the crux of our problem is both intellectual and emotional, with the emotional driving the intellectual.
Deal goes on to say:
I think people who stop attending Mass know what they're missing, but they stop going anyway. Why? Because when they go to Mass, everything they see, hear, and feel seems mechanical, painted by the numbers, or, if innovative, simply dumb.
Most fallen-away Catholics I know don't know what they're missin' as we say in the South. They have little to no formation in the faith, intellectually and emotionally, and are usually surprised they stayed in the Church as long as they did. While Mass may seem "mechanical" on the one hand, the lack of emotional and intellectual buy-in is due not only to not understanding the little we can of what is truly going on at Mass (for it is a mystery), but a sincere lost sense of direction and purpose in one's Catholic life.
What's the purpose of Catholic living? Is it worth the daily sacrifice - giving up those things that are so treasured by the world?
You see, it seems to me that Catholics leave the Church for truly emotional reasons which they justify intellectually. Most of their justifications have little to do with lofty theological matters. Defecting Catholics, and many who still remain in the Church, consciously dissent from the simple, yet challenging, morality to which we are called. They are adamantly opposed, ignorantly or not, to some moral precept or are simply indifferent. I would venture to say that the exodus of Catholics from the Church has more to do with moral (and sometimes, juridical) matters in the area of marriage and family than any other area of formation, intellectually and emotionally.
We live in a culture of death which constantly attacks the family and the underpinnings upon which it rests. As our parish priest often says, "You families with kids - you're in the minority! You are the future of the Church."
Surely, the answer to our problem of defecting Catholics doesn't reside in catechesis alone, as Deal rightly notes. However, I believe the answer to our exodus problem lies in the family, the domestic church, the most intimate realm of Christian formation, a formation wrought in love. It is by living the daily morality of the domestic church as prescribed by the Church, by living a civilization of life and love, we will be able build up the Universal Church and stop the hemorrhage of fallen-away Catholics.
10 comments:
I think it's a chain reaction. Movements in society emerge that are anti-Church (freemasonry, humanism, protestantism, communism) and these undermine the family and the individual.
These trends/movements spread, and eventually infect the Church. The Church, in its illness from being contaminated by these movements, fails to adequately innoculate the faithful against them. The faithful then begin falling away in droves, eroding the Church further.
The things you mention are symptoms of the disease. The disease is pride and sin and our fight with principalities and powers. It's been going on since the beginning, but it has intensified in the last 500 years. It no longer appears that we are winning. Of course, we won't be destroyed, we'll only be beaten into a bloody pulp.
We know, however, how this one ends.
Peter,
What a great post!
Adding to what you've said, I think the best way to make an impression on fallen-away Catholics and non-Catholics alike, and to spark their interest in authentic, traditional Catholicism is to live a life that completely contradicts their prejudices and misperceptions of the Faith.
To indulge in prayer constantly, for peace and conviction.
To love our spouses passionately and with utter devotion (Peter's coworkers are always commenting on how often and how joyfully he speaks of me - what a guy!). To be completely open to life and to take our role as primary educators seriously, proudly homeschooling if that's our best option.
To be constantly educating ourselves in matters of the faith so we can patiently explain the Truth when we're confronted with misconceptions. To be JOYFUL instead of cynical and pessimistic. How does that saying go? "If you believe you've been redeemed, you should tell your face."
When you're living a life that's drastically different, people notice. They may think you're a little strange, but they'll see over time why you do what you do, why you are who you are, and sooner or later they begin to ask soul-searching questions - either to you or just to themselves.
P.S. I love that you include "joe-sixpack" as one of your labels. Very funny.
Speaking of cynicism...
Once again, I have a completely different perspective. I do not believe God looks at the numbers, per se. He looks at souls on an individual basis. He isn't as concerned with "How many are there?" but "How great is the intensity of the love this one has for Me?"
In that case, what does it mean to say, "We know how it turns out in the end"? We certainly do NOT know how it turns out in the end for our individual selves, and ultimately that's all that really matters and what we should be most focusing on. Too much looking at the disease in the whole Body takes our attention away from the diseases that rage in our own souls and in those souls under our care and protection.
And the faithful do not fall away from the Faith in droves because of various movements within or outside the Church, they fall away because they succumb to their own personal vices and sins. They fall away because individual priests and parents aren't doing their jobs. The movements that plague society and affect the Church in negative ways aren't the main reason for the loss of faith among the vast majority of the faithful; the blame primarily lies on those of us who aren't doing more to become holy.
The Church has always existed in a hostile world, and in fact, the times when the world is most hostile to Christ is when grace abounds all the more and we have a greater opportunity to do great things for Him and become saints.
In fact, I've wasting too much time blogging already. I need to get back to my vocational duties. As Peter always reminds me, sanctification is in the moment!
It certainly comes down to individuals, but there are aggregated movements in the world that demonstrate massive trends either toward or away from orthodoxy.
In the past 500 years, things have been moving away. And these macro-trends influence more individuals than micro-trends do, thus building momentum.
As I summed up already on this topic earlier, Protestantism, Enlightenment thought, political revolution, the advent of democracy, the subversion of confessional states, the rise of Communism, etc. - these things swept the world and profoundly influenced society and the Church, and they did so in a rapid period of time.
I think that's why we are where we are now in the Church. The world has tainted the Church - not fatally, but chronically nonetheless.
These things wouldn't have caused so many souls to go atray if they weren't mass movements. The question is why they all seemed to happen when they did, and what caused them to pick up so much steam?
Why were we so ready to be susceptible?
I just think a better and more crucial question is, why are certain vices converging at the same time in my own soul? Why haven't I spent more than 5 minutes in actual prayer time today? Why don't I go to Confession more often?
Why bother asking the questions about the devil's influence in the world and in the Church? Saints spend their time for the Church more profitably by asking themselves "Why does that roaring lion still have influence over me?"
If navel gazing is your only interest, why do you still have a blog?
Perhaps because the sanctification of the self and the attempt to understand what afflicts the world are not mutually exclusive?
Steve,
The main purpose of our blog is to help individual souls learn more about the faith and to grow in personal holiness, not to theorize about how all the socio-political movements in history have and have not affected the Church on some widespread level. Novel thought: Your idea of what a blog is meant to be is not everyone's idea of a blog is meant to be.
In any case, I never said that personal sanctification is mutually exclusive from understanding what afflicts the world. I simply said that one would profit more for Christ by focusing on oneself than on a host of movements over which one has absolutely no control. Some call it self-examination for the purpose of growing in virtue...I wasn't aware that other Catholics consider it "naval gazing". I still learn something new everyday.
In the future, you might actually read what others write in their comments instead of twisting their words into something they never said.
Truly, your example of virtue lays my objections to rest. There's nothing more I could say.
I sometimes carpool with a guy who was raised Catholic and is now Baptist. I've known him for 7 years, and we've become good friends. We've discussed religion a few times (shocker) and he once said that his issue with Catholicism was that the youth were not offered a chance to "accept Jesus as their Lord & Savior" until Confirmation. I said "um, no ... when you pray the Creed at each Mass, you are essentially declaring your belief in Christ".
He had never thought of it that way.
I agree that the answer is in both Catechesis and in the domestic church. A friend once said about Catechesis "You may be teaching, but are you reaching?"
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