Saturday, January 11, 2014

REGULAR CATHOLICS

Our pointing out that Redemptoris Mater was a "missionary" seminary has led to some interesting things. 

  1. It led to the creation of a whole new seminary (albeit yet only a boarding house for only one seminarian). 
  2. It led to the revelation that the Archdiocese of Agana can no longer qualify for mission status relative to the requirements of the Catholic Extension Society.
  3. It led (or maybe it was going to happen anyway) to the actual sending of four RMS trained priests to other places, with probably more to follow.
  4. And it is already leading to many more people second guessing their contributions to anything having to do with the formation of priests or the seminary, and probably now beyond that.

But actually none of this was really necessary. A simple admission of how the Neocatechumenal Way views our diocese, as well as the rest of the diocese-parish-based Catholic Church world, would have sufficed.

When the NCW uses the word "mission", it doesn't mean the traditional mission outpost type mission, the kind we used to read about in our mother's subscription of the Maryknoll magazine with those pictures of hungry black babies. "Mission" in NCW parlance means any Catholic parish or diocese that is not yet converted to the Neocatechumenal Way. They mean us. 

Of course, the NCW also inserts itself into traditional mission situations here and there, but the main thrust of their "mission" is to convert us, those of us who are Catholic already, but just "regular" Catholics - you know, like your grandparents who suffered the brutalities of World War II and centuries of hardship and disasters knowing only how to pray rosaries and novenas and (poor people) ignorantly attend Mass in Latin. 

But of course, there's some truth to our modern need for conversion. "Regular" Catholics these days (emphasis on "these days") on Guam are a mess. We abort a child nearly every day. We brutalize and neglect our children at a rate twice the national average. We lead the world in divorce. We lead the U.S. in rape. We have nearly twice the suicide rate of the rest of the nation, twice the out-of-wedlock birth rate...I could go on...and I can document everyone of these. And of course we are leaving our Catholic churches in droves for the storefront and gas station churches or for no church at all. 

But when did this all start? Guam wasn't always like this. Older Catholics know exactly when this deadly decline started. And they've been crying for help for nearly three decades! The cries are getting louder...and angrier.  






2 comments:

  1. I was a parishioner of Maina and a year and a half ago left. Now I float between St. Jude and Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. The Gospel that very last Sunday I attended was about better to lose and eye, an arm etc. He gave his homily and the punch line was "if your children have sinned, cut them off". It just shows that there is no compassion in his heart whatsoever. I see it as him saying a sin is a sin and there is no ifs, whats, or buts about it. He really should go back and take a refresher course on Forgiving.

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  2. No wonder the flock is seeking greener (non neo capuchin / diocesan parishes) pastures!!! God bless the priests who preach properly and keep us within the fold!

    St. Michael the archangel defend our faith!

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