When all else fails…

Facing a shortage of money, a shortage of parishioners attending mass each week, a shortage of priests, a shortage of priests for whom English is their first language,  a shortage of trust in what few priests are currently working in parishes, it is somewhat unsettling to learn that American cardinals and bishops anticipate that Catholicism in the U.S. will somehow experience a spiritual resurgence in their parishes as a direct result of the significant changes in wording of the English-language missal that are being introduced to the worshipping faithful across the United States. Such unrealistic expectations reflect a similar track record of arrogance, denial, and elitism that has actually caused many of those current challenges.

“The people of God . . . when they get to know and hear the new translation, I think it’s going to grab them a little bit — and it should,” Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre was quoted as saying. “My prayer is that’s going to be a moment in which the people who are shepherds, the people who come every Sunday and do all those good things in our parish, they will be energized to become evangelizers.”

The obsession to put forth such anachronistic language revisions at a time of crisis in church history reminds me of a college fraternity–whose members were all about to be expelled–deciding that the best action to take was to schedule a “toga party.”

I also question Bishop Murphy’s  perpetuation of the metaphorical image of worshippers being “sheep” and church leaders being “shepherds.”  It is my impression that sheep are not among the most mentally gifted animals ever to have walked the earth, and they seem capable of being  led anywhere to do most anything.

Back in the 1960’s, Pope John XXIII thought it was important enough to gather bishops and cardinals from around the globe to take an introspective look at the Catholic religion and to try to update and to simplify it for a more meaningful position as a  “church in the modern world.” 

Thousands of ordained participants in the Second Vatican Council overwhelmingly approved changes in church attitudes, liturgy, ritual, and theology, to demonstrate its sincere attempts at relevance in a rapidly changing global society. In addition to the modernization of liturgical language, Vatican II documents added humility to the church’s relationship with other religions, and the role of the priest in Sunday worship became much more egalitarian with the other “people of God” present during the celebration of the mass.

Today, ruling members of the magisterium apparently have short memories. Over the several decades that have passed since Vatican II, a large preponderance of church leaders continue their obsessions with what is going on in the bedrooms of their followers, have repeatedly denied the priesthood to married men and gifted women, and have tried to push the toothpaste back into the tube in regard to some of the refinements that were applauded and endorsed by those church leaders who attended the Second Vatican Council. 

While unwinding some of the spirit and substance of the reforms that were put forth by Vatican II,  American bishops have taken their followers on an archeological scavenger hunt that provides answers to questions that no one was really asking. The recent liturgical changes that resulted from deconstructing and re-translating ancient Latin scripture are currently being spun by clergy like a campaign created by Madison Avenue, offering parishioners a “new and improved liturgy, coming to a church near you.” 

Ultimately these and other associated reactionary attempts to negate Vatican II reforms will most likely only prove to frustrate the faithful and continue to deflect attention away from the real challenges that threaten to leave the future of Catholicism as little more than an historical footnote. A volatile 21st century civilization could have benefited from some of the inherent compassion and benevolence that lives on deep within the Catholic religion despite the misdeeds of its aging leaders.

“Please insert the square peg into the round hole…”

From time to time we all get unsolicited gifts in the mail from various religious organizations in their attempts to raise funds.  The gift could be as simple as personalized mailing labels, rosary beads, a miraculous medal, bingo chips, pope soap-on-a-roap, etc. 

I recently received in the mail something from a Catholic religious order that still has me a bit puzzled.  It was a crucifix but it appeared to have been made by Furn-A-Kit or Bush or Sauder because it required some assembly. 

Included in the envelope was a finished wood crucifix that bore a relatively ornate plastic body of Jesus, along with a separate wood stand. Sauder would have labeled the crucifix “A” and the stand “B” and the directions would have read, “Insert crucifix A into stand B.” 

Seems simple enough, except for the fact that the part of the crucifix that is supposed to fit into the stand is square.  The hole in the stand is round. Literally a square peg into a round hole.

I didn’t save any of the literature that came along with my gift, although I did say a prayer of thanks for their generosity, hoping that they didn’t actually expect me to send them a donation.

Without knowing the source of the crucifix, I guess I’ll never truly understand whether the square peg/round hole was someone’s mistake; someone’s idea of a joke;  a divinely inspired parable; or punishment for my venial sin of accepting the gift without sending back a donation. 

Regardless of the intent, I can’t help but regard that gift as a profound statement about religion in the modern world.