Saturday, May 24, 2014

THE PEOPLE WERE HUNGRY. THEY STILL ARE.

Yesterday, one of my haters accused me of being a narcissist because I care about the number of people who view this blog. I will copy here my response to the that accusation:
"If the blog was about me, I'd be a narcissist, but as everyone can see, this blog is about a whole lot of people, a lot of people who have been deeply damaged by the Neocatechumenal Way, or more specifically the Kiko's. The people who log on here do not come to read about Tim Rohr because there's nothing to read. They come to see how others have been wounded. They come because they have no place else to go. On Guam, their bishop has locked his doors to them. He has waged war against them. Priests see what he did to Fr. Paul and rightly fear what he could do to them. So they come here. Not to see me, and not just to gain encouragement from others who similarly suffer, but also to learn about the Neo, and DAMN ARE THEY LEARNING!"
It is the responses from the those who are supposedly "walking" that has driven this blog. The veil has been pulled back, torn down. We know there are many good people who are walking and we are not talking about them, we are talking about the Kiko's. For in their comments we now see what we have heretofore only felt, suspected, were bothered about. The "something that wasn't quite right" is now on full display. And the fact that their default "spokesperson" aka "Diana" is someone who must remain hidden speaks even more loudly about the clandestine, gnostic, and cultic character of the Kiko's. And the vile green pus that they spew on these pages and "hers" tells us that at its core, something is very, very wrong. 

But the question now becomes what are we going to do about it? The answer is we must do what we failed to do which is what allowed the Neo to take root in the first place. We must return to sacrality and solemnity in our worship. We must return to solid catechesis. Our priests must return to their positions of teachers and shepherds and not just administrators who also say Mass. (Sorry, I know that one hurt. Again, not speaking of everyone.) 

Our priests, not just lay volunteers like me must personally offer opportunities for the laity to come and study the faith. Imagine a regularly offered study of the Catechism actually hosted and led by your pastor. The room would be packed. There must be more and regularly scheduled opportunities for confession. There must be more opportunities for adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, and led by a priest. There must be more home visits by priests. Come and see us. Don't wait for an invitation. Christ didn't. Stand at the door and knock. The list goes on.

People were starving to be taught which is why they so easily responded to the "Come and Listen." They want to know because Christ wants them to know (love God with all our "mind"). That invitation must come from the pastors of our church and the person we should be listening to is him. I can honestly bet that 99% of the people who initially responded to the Neo invitation to "Come and Listen" actually thought they were going to hear their pastor or at least another priest.  

Removing the Neocatechumenal Way from our island is not our objective. It came here in the first place because of the vacuum of leadership, sacrality, and solid catechetical instruction. It will fall by the wayside once those things are restored. Many people responded to the Neo invitation because they were hungry. They still are. 

1 comment:

  1. Thank you Tim, you took the exact words from our mouths -- words we've wanted to say all along: PLEASE BE PASTORAL AS OUR PASTORS. PLEASE BE OUR SPIRITUAL NURTURERS! We don't need or want CEO's; we need Pastors in our Parishes!

    Yes, thanks again Tim, because:
    - We direly need regularly scheduled WEEKLY CONFESSIONS heard in the "Confessional Room or Confessional Box" -- not "CEO-style" appointments or brief stints and rushed moments before Mass.
    - We need at least an hour of weekly Eucharistic Adoration for spiritual re-invigoration -- not just on The First Fridays of the month.
    - We direly need our Pastors to visit our neighborhoods regularly -- personally visiting, personally encouraging and personally inviting those of us especially, who don’t see the need to attend Sunday Mass regularly or have fallen away.
    - We need regularly-scheduled Bible and Catechism study – because to know our Faith is to know our God!
    - We need Pastoral involvement, Pastoral encouragement and Pastoral drive to awaken and instill a direly-needed Catholic vibrancy within our Parishes.

    The NCW is not an alternative nor is it a match to the exciting, awe-inspiring and comforting Authentic Catholic Faith Teachings and Practices; not a match to the beauty and the sacramentality, the solemnity and the holiness of our Authentic Catholic Church and Faith, which is very valid and very relevant and always will be because it was founded and instituted by Christ, HIMSELF!

    If our Pastors provide those very basic Catechetical and spiritual needs; if our Pastors buildup a community kinship and Parish fellowship – they will come!

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