The Church Mediocre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/02\/the-church-mediocre.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Church Mediocre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/02\/the-church-mediocre.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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{"id":3280,"date":"2007-02-25T16:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-25T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/02\/the-church-mediocre\/"},"modified":"2007-02-25T16:12:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-25T16:12:00","slug":"the-church-mediocre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/02\/the-church-mediocre.html","title":{"rendered":"The Church Mediocre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here you thought it was the Church Militant and it seems like the Church Mediocre. It has what Fr. Newman calls, \u2018living room liturgy\u2019 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\u2019s Prayer\u2026(Awww, aren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Too often this is what it is like dear friends. If you want one man\u2019s recipe for improving the liturgy, Fr Newman\u2019s written down his recommendations.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

But beneath it all remember what you\u2019re looking for. People said to me when I became a Catholic, \u201cWell, do you like the Catholic Church?\u201d My answer<\/span>: \u201cNot really, If I was choosing a church I liked I\u2019d 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Shea has a good post <\/span><\/a>about the church mediocre. He says it better than I can: it\u2019s down to this\u2013don\u2019t join the Catholic Church because you are against gays or women priests. Don\u2019t join the Catholic Church because you don\u2019t like Baptists or Anglicans. Certainly don\u2019t join the Catholic Church because you think you\u2019ll 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.<\/span>
<\/span>
If you\u2019re there, come and join us. We can always make room for one more sinner in the boat. If you\u2019re not, maybe you\u2019d better put up with what you\u2019ve got.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"