The YouTube era has produced a few Catholic stars, priests whose performances have inspired scores of web surfers to pass along emails full of grief or glee.<\/p>\n\n
Who can forget \u201cThe Barney Blessing,\u201d with the priest who traded his vestments for a purple dinosaur suit before the final prayer of a Halloween Mass? Then there was the trendy priest whose loopy dance to the altar, accompanied by trumpets and drums, inspired comparisons to Prince Ali\u2019s arrival in the Disney classic \u201cAladdin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
But these were tiny tremors compared with the online earthquake that followed Father Michael Pfleger\u2019s sermon in which he pretended to be Hillary Clinton, sobbing because of her losses to Sen. Barack Obama.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cShe just always thought that, \u2018This is mine. I\u2019m Bill\u2019s wife. I\u2019m white,\u2019 \u201d said the priest, speaking at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. \u201cThen out of nowhere came, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m Barack Obama.\u2019 And she said, \u2018Oh damn, where did you come from? I\u2019m white. I\u2019m entitled. There\u2019s a black man stealing my show.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s natural to watch these cyber spectacles while muttering, \u201cWhat were they thinking?\u201d The answer is quite simple, according to Father John F. Kavanaugh of St. Louis University. Like many preachers before them, they fell for the temptation to \u201cpreach to the choir,\u201d their listeners who already agreed with them.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to be a messenger. You\u2019re supposed to be the person who brings people the Good News,\u201d said the Jesuit, author of \u201cFollowing Christ in a Consumer Culture\u201d and other books on faith and ethics. \u201cBut instead of being the mediator, you can end up putting the focus on yourself. You can become the message and, before you know it, people can start basing their faith on you instead of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Catholic priests, of course, are not alone in this temptation. There are plenty of other preachers, in this media-saturated age, who act like stand-up comedians or performers in their own faith-based reality shows. Many big churches have been known to tremble when a skilled communicator leaves the pulpit.<\/p>\n\n
The Pfleger case, said Kavanaugh, is particularly sad after his decades of service at St. Sabina\u2019s on Chicago\u2019s South Side.<\/p>\n\n
The sandy-haired, blue-eyed priest has helped build a thriving, predominately black parish and parochial school. Pfleger has clashed with gang leaders as well as bishops, while adopting two African-American sons and leading campaigns against alcohol, cocaine, cigarettes and other addictions. He has been hailed as a spectacular preacher, especially on the sin of racism, in an era in which Catholics are not known for their pulpit skills.<\/p>\n\n
The problem is that success leads to unique temptations.<\/p>\n\n
Father Pfleger and clergy who make similar mistakes are not \u201ccrazy persons. But they do have problems of their own,\u201d stressed Kavanaugh, writing in America, a Catholic weekly. \u201cThey are the problems of the preacher. \u2026 I know there are few moments to compare with the affection and approval of parishioners after Mass, especially if you have been helpful in strengthening their faith. But the most distressing moment for me was the one homily I gave that evoked applause. Of course, it was gratifying; but it was disturbing. What was the applause for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s easy for preachers to keep telling the faithful what they want to hear, he said. Preachers must be self-critical and become aware of when they avoid some tough subjects or choose to soften a message, in order not to offend. The flip side of this is when preachers decide to pound away on popular subjects and easy targets, seeking to please people who are already in the pews.<\/p>\n\n
One way for priests to regain perspective, said the Jesuit, would be reading \u2014 in the pulpit \u2014 classic sermons by the saints or popular Christian writers that focus on timeless issues. Another way to keep from \u201cdefanging the Gospel\u201d is to confront a congregation with the undiluted words of a sermon by Jesus, as written in scripture.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhether you are preaching to liberals or conservatives, it\u2019s hard to tell people truths that they don\u2019t want to hear,\u201d said Kavanaugh. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell people to love their enemies. It\u2019s hard to tell people to repent of their sins and to forgive others. \u2026 If your people are smiling and applauding all of the time \u2014 all of the time \u2014 that\u2019s when warning flags need to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The YouTube era has produced a few Catholic stars, priests whose performances have inspired scores of web surfers to pass along emails full of grief or glee. Who can forget \u201cThe Barney Blessing,\u201d with the priest who traded his vestments for a purple dinosaur suit before the final prayer of a Halloween Mass? Then there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[97,1532,1544,678,702,707,944],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-catholics","tag-politics","tag-preaching","tag-pulpit","tag-racism","tag-youtube"],"yoast_head":"\n