Catholics in U.S. Keep Faith, but Live With Contradictions

NY Times ^ | April 11, 2005 | DEAN E. MURPHY and NEELA BANERJEE

[neverdem]

LOL!

[SuziQ]

"As for me, I think I've done a lot of sin and if I go to church, it's better."

At least she recognizes the value of being there. Maybe someday, the truth will finally dawn on her and she'll make better choices in life.

[SuziQ]

You can attend as many Masses on Sunday as you like, but you're only supposed to receive Holy Communion once in a day.

[latina4dubya]

this sickens me... how is living a lifestyle that contradicts the very beliefs of who you claim to be--how is that "keeping the faith?" like Ted Kennedy and other such Catholics, they are Catholic in name only... devout Catholics, rise up and defend your faith and church... many, like the young woman in this article, are making a mockery of Catholicism... (i know--it's the same in the Protestant church.)

[NYer]

By the way, I was a lapsed Catholic and just went back to the Church recently. I attended a church denomination that was more liberal married preachers, women preachers, etc...I thought that was what I wanted and I was wrong.

Welcome Home!

Please freepmail me if you wish to be added to the Catholic Ping List.

[guinnessman]

"As for me, I think I've done a lot of sin and if I go to church, it's better." At least she recognizes the value of being there. Maybe someday, the truth will finally dawn on her and she'll make better choices in life. As long as she goes to confession before she receives Our Lord in the Eucharist.

[guinnessman]

The high school boy whose Catholic school taught him the Church is accountable for the spread of AIDS in Africa? This is why enrollment at these "Catholic" schools are down. Who wants to spend good tuition money sending your kid to a school where you're not even learning the Doctrine of the Church, but are learning political correctness instead?

[Knitting A Conundrum]

You can receive the Eucharist twice in one day if the second time is at a mass and not a communion service:

Can. 917
A person who has already received the Most Holy Eucharist can receive it a second time on the same day only within the eucharistic celebration in which the person participates, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 921, §2.

Canon 921 refers to Viaticum. It is possible that you go to two masses in one day, then are in a situation to receive Viaticum, and that is allowed. It's the only way you can receive the Eucharist 3 times in one 24 hour period!

[cyborg]

Many catholic schools are now staffed by lay people. My old school is almost all lay teachers and changed its name. One thing that bothered me is how some kid's parents wanted to change the tradition from Catholic to a baptist hootnanny with gospel singing and speaking in tongues. I don't think that worked out. I like baptist services but in baptist churches and nondenoms not a RC church. Also, another thing that bothers me even more is the situational ethics that's all the rage now.

[cyborg]

Me too! The only church I felt half way comfortable in was a conservative lutheran church which seemed just like a RC service except the minister was married. I stopped going because it was far away at the time. Now I've started going back to RC church and saying the rosary.

[Varda]

It's not a little thing that this woman recognizes that what she has done is sin. The Church is more assaulted by those who claim the right to declare some sins, sins no more. The problem I see among young people is that their elders cannot tell them why what they are doing is wrong (other than its a sin). Our Church depends on using faith and reason and reason is sorely lacking in the Church at this time.

PS - My own parents were like this, the only reason they could come up with for why illegitimacy was wrong was , "What would the neighbors think!"

[madprof98]

But some younger Catholics say they can no longer live their lives in keeping with doctrine. Adam Williams, 17, goes to Mass at Mount Carmel, the Catholic high school he attends in Baltimore, but rarely goes to church otherwise. The church's prohibitions on "almost everything a kid can do," Adam said, has made him ever more reluctant to identify himself as Catholic.

Oh, man, that mean old church won't let me do ANYTHING! Well, I just won't call myself Catholic anymore. That'll really show 'em!!!

The modern Left's solution to the problem of "sin": Hold regular public celebrations of it.

[The Iguana]

"You have to fit to the wishes of the people because the people are the church."

That's right there with what Paul was saying in Romans, isn't it now?

[SuziQ]

Whoops! I guess I was wrong. When our Festival Choir sings both Masses at Easter, we always receive at only one. This past Easter, the Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist forgot to bring Communion to us up in the Choir loft. They usually do that because there are so many people at Mass, it's difficult for us to get downstairs to receive, then back up again to sing. I'm an Extraordinary Minister also, so I brought it up for us so we could receive before singing the Communion Hymn.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I checked this out cause back when I lived in New Orleans I used to like to go to vigil mass and morning mass on Saturday night and Sunday...or sometimes a mass in the morning and one they had at the cathedral at 6...and I wanted to make sure I could do both...church hopping in a town with a lot of churches!

[JohnnyZ]

Most of them want the church to take a less liberal stance in the US than that which it has taken in the last 10 years.

All we really need is a few good bishops to lay down the law. Unfortunately right now that's just what we have, a FEW. I've got a good one, a new, young one, Bishop Jugis of Charlotte. (He just shot down hand-holding during the Our Father, ha ha ha ha.) And there are a number of other good ones around these days -- but far too many of the other kind, plus the USCCB staff and the Universities which really poison the air of the Establishment.

[SuziQ]

I remember going into St. Louis Cathedral many moons ago. It must be almost 20 years now. I'll have to spend some time in New Orleans and go see it again.

[dfwgator]

>>>> but has had two children out of wedlock. <<<<< Can't be that much of a devoted Catholic

At least she didn't have them aborted.

[oldbrowser]

change the tradition from Catholic to a baptist hootnanny

LOL