So here\u2019s something I was thinking about:<\/p>\n
So as I mentioned yesterday, my oldest son plays trumpet in the teen choir at church, which meant that we waited around after mass was over for him to pack up his trumpet and music and help put away the music stands and other equipment. \u00a0And in that time we, my husband and I, that is, talked to three or four families, parents of kids our kids\u2019 age, or people we know from CFM (Christian Family Movement \u2013 monthly small-group meetings), or Boy Scout families.<\/p>\n
And afterwards I thought about the fact that, when we first moved into town, we knew no one, and now church, and coffee and donuts afterwards, \u00a0is full of familiar faces. \u00a0Now, to be sure, I\u2019m not a social butterfly by any means, and, with respect to many of the people we know, they\u2019re Scout families where my husband is better acquainted with the boys, and the parents, than I am, but it still makes a difference.<\/p>\n
Now, part of it is a matter of the passage of time, and the fact that having kids in the parrochial school lends itself to getting to know other families, but there\u2019s also a circularity to it: \u00a0the more you go to church and get to know people, the more \u201cat home\u201d you feel there, which reinforces the likelihood that you\u2019ll go to church.<\/p>\n
And if that \u201cfeedback loop\u201d is lost, if church is not where you find community, and, in fact, you just don\u2019t know anyone who goes to church, then you won\u2019t, either.<\/p>\n
On CNN last night, though I didn\u2019t make it past the first couple minutes, was a show about Iceland, which was profiling the country as a place where 2\/3rds of children were born to unmarried parents and, the implication seemed to be, everyone was just fine, with the narrator suggesting that marriage would disappear for the next generation of Icelanders. \u00a0And, certainly, when no one you know is getting married, it can be a powerful discouragement: \u00a0\u201cdon\u2019t you trust your boyfriend to stay faithful to you? \u00a0No one else is getting married, after all, so why should you?\u201d<\/p>\n
In that context: \u00a0somehow, without my noticing, there\u2019s developed an Easter tradition of posting pictures of one\u2019s family, or one\u2019s kids, dressed up for Easter, and, for a fair number, in or in front of the church itself. \u00a0Which is at least something, communicating one\u2019s churchgoingness.<\/p>\n
And consider young adults: \u00a0it seems to me that it\u2019s fairly common for college students to continue attending church away from home, if<\/em> they happen to land with others who do so as a group. \u00a0Of course, it requires someone taking that first step, of \u201chey, I\u2019m going to mass tomorrow; who wants to come with me?\u201d but if you do end up with such a group \u2014 and eating lunch, or breakfast, or dinner, afterwards \u2014 then you\u2019re a lot more likely to become a regular church-goer. \u00a0And where \u201ckids these days\u201d flounder is often after college, when they\u2019re missing that same social group.<\/p>\n The Archdiocese of Chicago is in the middle of a project called \u201cRenew my Church<\/a>,\u201d which includes a survey that they announced at church yesterday. \u00a0What\u2019s it all about? \u00a0A few months ago there were reports<\/a> of a major reorganization plan, aimed at closing or merging large numbers of parishes, to manage the financial difficulties many parishes found themselves in, as well as to plan for a decline in the number of priests. \u00a0Is this survey just a means of getting\u00a0parishoner acceptance of such a plan, or will the responses, and lay feedback in general, have a real impact on the direction of Archbishop Cupich\u2019s plan? \u00a0I don\u2019t know. \u00a0I\u2019m sorry to report that when I filled out hte survey last night, I didn\u2019t have much to say, other than \u201call of it\u2019s important.\u201d Truth be told, I am skeptical of Cupich, and\u00a0I sometimes feel that Cupich\u2019s dream is\u00a0for middle-class and wealthy parishes to be the providers of outreach and, let\u2019s face it, funds, for the poor, especially the poor parishes, rather than having needs of their own. \u00a0While it would be nice to presuppose that every such middle-class or wealthy Catholic, and Catholic parish, is already doing just fine, and already in a place where they can reach out to others, it\u2019s simply not the case. \u00a0One thing that\u2019s been eye-opening over the past several years in CFM discussions is how many parents have watched their kids walk away from church, and how helpless they feel.<\/p>\n And similarly I suspect that some would denigrate the idea of seeing friends and aquaintences at church \u2014 \u201cchurch isn\u2019t supposed to be a social club,\u201d and \u201cyou should be focusing on God, not who\u2019s in the next pew or who you\u2019ll talk to at coffee & donuts afterwards.\u201d \u00a0But it matters, and it reinforces the feeling of connectedness and belonging, and the absense of community destroys this.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So here\u2019s something I was thinking about: So as I mentioned yesterday, my oldest son plays trumpet in the teen choir at church, which meant that we waited around after mass was over for him to pack up his trumpet and music and help put away the music stands and other equipment. \u00a0And in that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,360,8,92,314],"class_list":["post-4204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archbishop-cupich","tag-archdiocese-of-chicgo","tag-catholicism","tag-church-attendance","tag-church-closings"],"yoast_head":"\n