AmericanPapist Comments
Numbers still seem kind of low regarding those that are voting for the pro aborts. And my I'm just a pessimist, but i don't really see things getting much better before they get worse.
I would agree that things are not suddenly worse; the problems are just in greater relief because of the election and the choices we face.
We now have at least two generations of Catholics who are not familiar with what is meant by a sound formation of conscience. It's become an underworked muscle in a culture that no longer makes regular use of the confessional.
The active vocal Catholic minority is unfortunatly blocked by their own bishops, who know the minority will be obedient out of moral obligation.
I sure wish we had some common counter-cultural worship activity. Hey, maybe the mass shouldn't resemble the surrounding so completly in most places.
As a young Catholic-- part of why "young catholics" are less likely to be involved in the Church, and knowledgable of her, is 1) response to our attempts to be involved and 2) horribly bad catechesis.
For 1) in my admittedly limited and specific experiance, a lot of times younger folks are just brushed off when they try to, say, have a Church wedding or get a confession. No idea what it's like for older folks, but I'm so sick of the "ooh, tell me your troubles" aproach to confession that I could nearly puke-- I SCREWED UP. I'm wrong. I want to tell you, as a human stand-in for God, what I did so that you can tell me yeah, it's bad, do this, you're forgiven, try not to do it again. Don't try to justify me. Please.
For 2) ugh. I've learned more from researching after reading jimmyakin.org than I did from my CCD teacher. Brief touching on the ten commandments, and a bunch of feel-good picture coloring otherwise. -.-
(sorry for lack of spellcheck, my computer is having fits)
1 question, are you sure they are blind spots & not intentional obfuscation?
I with Al. I studied in a Lay Ministry course (not because I wanted to go into Lay Ministry, but because I was hoping to attain more knowledge in a classroom setting. It turned out to be a heretical course. A sister of mercy, who was also a professor at a local Catholic college, taught us that she was happy that VII did away with what appeared to be the worship of Mary and that she was ecstatic when they removed the lone statue of Mary from her convent; she did not believe that Jesus had a bodily resurrection; she sided with the purely historical-critical liberation theology Jesus (the radical activist "community organizer"). There was another professor teaching on Scripture who stated that the Old Testament up until Abraham should be read purely as myth. None of the signs and miracles were historical, rather they were all allegory. Adam and Eve were not the first human beings their sin did not attribute to the fall, rather, Adam and Eve were metaphors for an entire race of humans that just evolved and the story of the fall was them turning their collective backs on God (polygenism, specifically refuted by Pope Pius XII). There was more, but that was enough.
I would argue in the classes with these professors, using the Catechism, papal documents, and the Early Fathers. Each time, I was made out to be a fool. After a while, all of the orthodox Catholics left the course. I was the only one left in a classroom full of feminists and liberals. I brought up the nun's teaching on the (lack of the) Resurrection to the director. That prompted a nun in training to start shouting obscenities at me in front of the whole class.
It was pretty bad. I stopped going to the class when I realized that I wasn't welcome. The sad thing is, those people that remained were to get certified to teach CCD, RCIA, and hold teaching positions in Catholic schools.
Joseph: wow. That's amazing. I guess I've been lucky to have orthodox adult education.
My seminary philosophy teacher also taught that some of the Bible was myth, but taught us to rethink our understanding of the word "myth". That is, the story may not be historically accurate, but they definitely are theologically accurate. I was taught something along the lines of "this is what God wanted to teach us so we understand Him better." Personally, I consider them akin to parables being told to us by the Holy Spirit.
I'm not going to claim the stories to be historically inaccurate, though. God knows and I don't.
Getting back to your experience, I find that shocking. But, if I were the enemy, I'd be placing heterodox teachers instructing catechists, too. Definitely some spiritual warfare going on.
Gw,
That is the norm in most places.
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