Ping!
I did get a chance to visit Paris a while back and attend mass at Notre Dame cathedral.
It hasn't become a mosque ... yet.
“No one is obligated to remain at a parish that makes a soul feel uncomfortable or marginalized.” or angry?
God will allow us to feel these things at times to help us see our areas we need to turn over to Him and let Him grow us.
Though I no longer attend Catholic Mass, I have had difficulty finding a church because many times I was the one needing to grow and humble myself and accept some things that I maybe should have stayed put because they cropped up in the next church too! I’ve learned sometimes I need to speak up or talk to more than one leader about a situation I’m experiencing at a church.
But I did also experience churches where leadership was truly not looking out for as the author writes having the service be Christ centered instead of people centered, IE: entertainment instead of solid teaching. Leadership telling em we’ll set up a talk and then canceling repeatedly with me and not referring me to anyone else (totally felt like they could care less about meeting, but I loved the sunday teaching there, decided I could not put my tithe where they were not concerned about me as a person on days other than sunday)
I have thought there are such wide variety of catholic and christian churches maybe because God gave us all varying perspectives? Some people want to stay in beginning christian beliefs and some want to truly root in Christ and allow Him to change and grow them as big as God’s vision can take them in doing things for His glory and to help local and world wide.
Some churches just want to entertain and make people feel good so they come back, others want to truly teach and equip for daily life and more.
just my few cents opinion.
Having been career Army, every new assignment meant ‘church shopping.’
We looked at a lot of local churches before choosing our Carmelite-run parish. Church in the round; no crucifix front and center; baptismal font that looks like a hot tub; feel-good priest; confessions that last 1/2 hour weekly - these are all signs, to me, of a liberal parish where they pick and choose THEIR preferred theology. Run screaming. The Lord must be #1.
We Greeks have an old saying, “Priests come, priests go. We stay! “
If you accept Vatican 2,
you think your church is alive.
If you reject Vatican 2,
you know your church is dead.