You know the old story about G.K.Chesterton. There was a series of articles and letters in the paper about what was wrong with the world. So he writes, “Dear Sir, What is wrong with the world? I am, Yours Sincerely, G.K.Chesterton.

The same might be answered about ‘What’s wrong with the Church?” After rather a lot of discussion about liturgy and reverence and what’s wrong with the Church a couple of commenters have asked me what to do about it. It seems to me that the first thing to do about it is to develop an attitude shift. Instead of blaming everybody else I should blame myself. Accepting the blame has the wonderful triple effect of confounding one’s enemies, accepting what seems to be an outrageous absurdity (which is always a tonic for the mind and soul) and helping one to nurture that most elusive of virtues: humility.

There seems to be an awful lot of sour grumbling about the Church from both liberal and conservative Catholics. Yes, I know there are liturgical abuses. I also lament the deplorable state of modern American Catholic architecture. I share your antipathy for Sister Sandals and Fr Folkmass. We a could go on and on and yawn and yawn. It’s so easy to blame everybody else. If you’re a grumbling conservative have you ever stopped to consider that the liberals grumble just about as much as you do? They go on and on about ‘this conservative, reactionary papal regime and the misogynistic, corrupt hierarchy and the homophobic, medieval anti democratic bishops who cover up pedophilia etc. etc. etc. You think you’re right and they’re wrong. Guess what? From their point of view they’re just as convinced that they’re right and you’re wrong.

So maybe you are a conservative and you have the church teaching on your side and you really are right and they’re wrong. So what are you going to do about it? The first thing we can do about it is stop complaining so much and be a bit more philosophical.

You know, the church has always been troubled with corruption from within and persecution from without. In different ages the corruption from within has taken different forms. There has been sexual scandal, financial corruption, heterodoxy, complacency, worldliness, liturgical abuse, bad music etc. etc. etc. in just about every age in one way or another. You only have to read the New Testament the apostles criticizing the various churches for their inconsistency, false teaching, immorality etc. Guess what? It’s all part of being Catholic. It’s all part of being human.

The most ordinary source of disappointment in life is having the wrong expectations to start with. If you thought it was going to be all marvelous and to your liking in the Catholic Church you had the wrong expectation in the first place. If you thought all the bishops and priests were going to be perfectly moral, upstanding, totally orthodox saints you were suffering from a major delusion. If you thought every parish would be straight down the line and have wonderful liturgy, saintly pastors, fine music, exemplary architecture and all the rest, you misunderstood. Correct your expectations and you won’t be so disappointed.

So I’d say, “Stop whining and get on with it.” Be positive. There’s far more that’s good in the modern Catholic Church than bad. Continue Reading

The last post condemning church shopping seems to have put the cat among the pigeons. Let me clarify my comments. By comparing traddy church shopping and trendy church shopping I am not suggesting that traddy worship is just as entertainment oriented as trendy worship. If I had to say that one was ‘better’ than the other, then obviously traddy worship comes out on top.

I am not comparing the two types of worship. I’m commenting on the “I know best” attitude of the church shopper. What I’m criticizing is the self righteous know it all attitude that so often prevails, and this attitude is prevelent on both sides. I hear people tell me how they have left a traditional parish in order to attend the local AmChurch parish because it has a good youth work and “We really don’t like all that gloomy music Father has brought in.” So much for the misconception amongst the traddies that “If the faithful only get a taste of real reverence and beauty in worship they will all flock to the traditional styles of church.” No they won’t. 85% of American Catholics actually want banal hymns, carpeted churches, guitars, hip hop sermons and feel good liturgies. Likewise, we all know of folks who emigrate to a particular parish for the traddy worship that makes them feel good.

What I’m criticizing is not traddy worship, but the mentality that we seem to have sucked up from the culture that the reason for this type of worship or that type of worship is that it is what will draw the crowds, and the accompanying action in our tootling off to whatever parish we want to go to because we like that liturgy better or that priest better.

I say this as one who likes trad worship. I think it is the best. I think it is the most honoring and I have good reasons for the argument, however, I have learned more through sticking with a parish with a sloppy liturgy and awful music. I have learned through the difficulty some lessons in stability, some lessons in ecclesial obedience, some lessons in perseverence, some lessons in where to find the lessons.

What I’m trying to say is that maybe, just maybe God is wanting to do something far greater and more profound in your life than just allowing you to choose what you think is best for yourself spiritually. In fact I’d say that that is the one area of my life where I most certainly do not know what is best for me spiritually. Therefore, to submit oneself to one’s parish, one’s priest, one’s diocese, one’s church…geesh, there’s so much there to be learned and gained and so much spiritual advancement to be made that you lose when you march off in a huff to a parish you think you like better.

That being said. Sometimes you just got to go, but when you do you’d better agonize and pray over the decision, and when you find that new parish. You’d better stay put and learn stability. I know it will sound like heresy to some folks, but there is more to the spiritual life than fine liturgy. It’s called humility. Humility is very very hard.

Humility is endless.

Ruth Gledhill, the intrepid and often vapid religion correspondent on The Times of London has put together this article claiming that men find church ‘too girly’. The ridiculous thing about the article and the organization that is trying to do something about the ‘girliness’ of religion is that they focus entirely on the superficial level. Apparently church is ‘girly’ because there are flowers and candles and statues of the Virgin Mary and the priest wears a ‘dress’ like a girl and they sing songs about loving Jesus.

They suggest that decorating churches with knights and swords and military flags would be better. I suppose they would also like to bring back hymns like ‘Fight the Good Fight’ and ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. “Give us a dose of the old muscular Christianity, what ho vicar!” Or what about that daft scheme in one diocese in England where the Humphrey Blytherington bishop decided to give all the men who came to church a pint of beer.

I would agree totally that the Anglican Church has become feminized, but surely they’re missing the elephant in the room. The Anglican Church has become feminized because it has been taken over by females and homosexuals. The ordination of women has distorted the sexual standards of the Anglican church so that it is dominated, on the one hand, by masculinized women, and on the other hand, by feminized men. No wonder healthy men run a mile. They come into church and it’s not that it is feminine, but that it is some sort of creepy transgendered place.

In comparison, I don’t sense that the Catholic Church is feminized that much at all. We’ve suffered somewhat, with the rest of society, through the sentimentalization of all things, and that has made some of our liturgies and music rather touchy feely and feminized. However, one of the things my Anglican mother in law said when she came to our church was, “Gosh! I can’t believe the number of young families including fathers and young men who come to church here!”

PS: My opinions here (as usual) are just opinionated blather. Leon Podles has written the book on the subject. The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity is available for free as a pdf file if you’re interested go here.

What I love about the Catholic Church is that we use physical stuff in worship. It makes sense doesn’t it, that Our Lord did not despise the physical realm when he became man, so why should we dismiss the idea that he comes to us still through the physical realm?

In the Catholic Church you find what is best from every other religion and denomination. It is syncretistic in practice without being syncretistic in dogma.

Do you like the austere asceticism and counter cultural life of the Mennonites and Amish with their odd clothes, old fashioned lifestyle and prophetic and pastoral way of life? We got monks.

Do you find Hinduism intriguing and fun with its flowers and candles and statues and temples and little festivals and offerings and devotionals? Catholics have all that without the idol worship.

Do you like Anglicanism with beautiful buildings, sophisticated educated people, fine music, sumptious liturgy and a spendid history? We’ve got all that.

On the other hand, do you like down to earth worship with folksy people involved in fellowship, peace and justice and making the world a better place? There sure plenty of that in the Catholic Church.

What about scholarship? Are you impressed with the bookishness of Protestants, the erudition of the Jewish scholars and the love of Bible learning among sincere Evangelicals? Catholics have it too.

What about Eastern religions? Are you drawn to esoteric spiritualities? Mystical experiences? Meditation? Monasticism? Catholicism offers a rich banquet of 2000 years worth of spirituality.

Closed communion like the Plymouth Brethren? It’s Catholic. Tolerance and acceptance of other religions and seeing what is good about them like Protestant liberals? That’s Catholic too.

Of course, it could be argued that all the bad stuff about other religions you will also find in the Catholic Church, and I suppose that would be true up to a point–at least to the point of admitting human failure, hypocrisy and defeat, but hey, let’s accentuate the positive.

Among converts and those thinking of converting and those who are thinking of converting but denying it, there is a lot of talk about how awful the Catholic Church is when you actually stop reading books of apologetics and visit the local branch.

Here you thought it was the Church Militant and it seems like the Church Mediocre. It has what Fr. Newman calls, ‘living room liturgy’ a goofy left wing priest wanders around in sandals, and tone deaf children sing kumbayah and stand around the altar with father to say the Lord’s Prayer…(Awww, aren’t they cute?) Added to this are the pedophile scandals, priests dipping into the funds and what seems an epidemic of ignorance, complacency and idiocy in the pews.

Too often this is what it is like dear friends. If you want one man’s recipe for improving the liturgy, Fr Newman’s written down his recommendations.

But beneath it all remember what you’re looking for. People said to me when I became a Catholic, “Well, do you like the Catholic Church?” My answer: “Not really, If I was choosing a church I liked I’d still be an Anglican. They have all the nice buildings, all the nice music, all the nice table manners and all the nice people. I became a Catholic not because I thought it was the perfect Church, but because I thought it was the true church.”

Mark Shea has a good post about the church mediocre. He says it better than I can: it’s down to this–don’t join the Catholic Church because you are against gays or women priests. Don’t join the Catholic Church because you don’t like Baptists or Anglicans. Certainly don’t join the Catholic Church because you think you’ll find fine liturgy, excellent preaching and enthusiastic congregations (with certain notable exceptions of course) Join the Catholic Church because you are convinced that it is the Church Jesus Christ really did establish on his friend Peter.

If you’re there, come and join us. We can always make room for one more sinner in the boat. If you’re not, maybe you’d better put up with what you’ve got.