Let me cite three factors in the contemporary milieu which, I believe, must be understood both if we are to nurture our own spirituality and be responsive to the spiritual needs of contemporary men and women.
1: NO SENSE OF SIN…
2: RAMPANT CONSUMERISM…
3: SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION SPLIT,,,
Outstanding. Thanks for posting!
I hope there is a sequel!
As I now watch my second denomination go down the tubes (first I was an Episcopalian, then a PCUSA Presbyterian–yeah I know, but I’m part of a good local church), I am starting to have the suspicion that I may end my days as a Catholic.
Jim the Puritan, don’t idealize any church – there are also problems with gay priests in the RC which has caused problems and precipitated an exodus from the RC, even former Episcopal priests. Consider the new or continuum Anglican groups or PCA or LCMS. PCUSA and ELCA have been forming renewal churches.
The Lord be with you.
[blockquote]I see this as an obstacle to contemporary spirituality, because if there is no sin, then, there is no need for a Redeemer.[/blockquote]
Jesus not as Savior but as enabler.
I am speaking, but only somewhat, in jest. At least for the RC church, or parts of it any way, the light bulb has come on, partly when they realized how much damage has been caused to their church by the wolves (to the point of some dioceses being bankrupted by the resulting lawsuits). Remember back in the Seventies when all the immorality and scoffing in the churches–Protestant and Catholic– started becoming rampant, the post-Vatican II RC initially was participating as much as everyone (I remember one publication in particular approved by the USCCB whose theme was that sexual relations outside of marriage were perfectly fine so long as people “loved one another”). They have now paid a heavy price for the anything-goes mentality of that period and have swung the other way.
What would it look like if we examined ourselves as Catholic Christians for answers to the question regarding the young sliding away? I would suggest:
1. Lack of a sense of community. Attendance at Mass can be huge, you can go every Sunday and nobody know your name.
2. Banal homilies that are inoffensive, and never link with the realities of everyday life.
3. An avoidance of key topics in Christian doctrine that are difficult to explain, but which are central to who we are: incarnation, Trinity, salvation, eucharistic real presence, for example.
I wish it were possible to say all I feel about this.
So let me just tell a story. Carmelite nuns (cloistered, contemplative) depend on the bishops of their dioceses and charity for support. The RC Diocese of Albany had a Carmelite monastery. The nuns had become surrounded by an industrial park and a six lane highway. They needed a new location. Howie told them he had no money for them. They shut down and moved in with another monastery hundreds of miles to the west. Their monastery is now a homeless shelter.
Around the same time the RC Diocese of Albany paid $1 million to a pair of “private detectives” to investigate some sexual misconduct allegations — and really, to make them just go away. They did.
Two churches closed down by the RC diocese in a small river city nearby were sold to a wacked-out bad news cultic group whose “guru” “channels the cosmic healing light.” So that little city now has a big infestation luring people into a nightmare.
Don’t swim the Tiber yet, Jim. Talking a good line is way different from living it.
This is a really good post, as it helpfully reveals that Bp. Hubbard is in fact a faithful believing Catholic pastor. He has been Albany’s diocesan since 1978, in which time perhaps he has quietly held things together better than they would have been otherwise (a finger in the dike?), though overall in that time society in NYS and especially the capital district has been unravelling (always behind NYC’s pace of course). At least he says what is true and needs saying and publicly. As for action, a la Abp. Burke for example – would the bishop of Albany deny communion to the notorious governor, who is divorced from a Kennedy, lives in concubinage and also just enabled a law permitting SS’M’? Could this governor and the CINO legislators who helped out ever hear what this pastor is saying and repent of sin? Inquiring minds and all that. Decades after some Catholic NY legislators voted for Gov. Rockefeller’s 1970 lifting of an abortion ban they repented of that sin. Great post in any case, also for its access to the addresses from decades ago that reveal this bishop’s thinking.
We cross-posted, #8, and you are aware of facts on the ground I am not. What you say backs up the [i]impression[/i] I had of Bp. Hubbard which was one of timidity and non-confrontation coupled with some naivete. I have no idea if he is controlled by others or just misses opportunities, which can be hard to see coming. We could pray that the bishop who replaces him eventually is from a different mold, more disposed to confront the deeply rooted corruptions in the area’s politics.
LumenChristie, I haven’t put on the swimming trunks yet, it’s just that I feel like I’m part of one of those battle scenes in Lord of the Rings where the good guys are besieged by the armies of Sauron/Saruman and all they can do is keeping on falling back to the next perimeter wall. I have a feeling it’s going to be the remaining Catholics and remaining Protestants that are standing together in the innermost keep of Helm’s Deep. Hopefully the Lord comes before then, but who knows.
Hey Jim the Puritan — since the quality of the local congregation is the priority for you rather than the denom, why not stay there? My bet is that they will leave the PCUSA denom anyway at some point, and you will still have a great local congregation.
I feel pretty bad about posting the facts on Hubbard. I would be glad if they weren’t true.
In response to # 9 I can only say that Andrew Cuomo, our governor, appeared on the steps of Immaculate Conception Cathedral with his live-in girl friend AND Bp Hubbard for a photo op shortly after his inauguration. Presumably everyone received Communion inside.
Jim, I believe that God is fed-up and done with “denominations” ALL of whom are equally guilty of heresy and schism. Those who have genuinely given our lives to Jesus Christ as THE Way, Truth, Life, Savior and Lord are indeed finding one another across those old denominational lines. I also feel entirely surrounded by orcs with swords most of the time. If elves and men could unite, so can “catholics” and “protestants” if we focus on what is truly essential.
We need to stand on our common foundation of the Faith once received and pray earnestly for the Kingdom and Will of God to come into this world: “on earth as in heaven.”
Many blessings to us all.
[blockquote]Those who have genuinely given our lives to Jesus Christ as THE Way, Truth, Life, Savior and Lord are indeed finding one another across those old denominational lines.[/blockquote]
I think that is becoming more the case.