[ArrogantBustard]

You're in ADW, right? Next time you feel adventurous, try a trip to Virginia Beach. I could recommend a few parishes down there, where the behaviour at Mass and the architecture of the newer 'worship spaces' would curl your hair. I could also recommend a few parishes in NoVA, that would demonstrate that Washington has room for improvement.

I've lived in all three dioceses in the past 20 years.

[sitetest]

Dear ArrogantBustard,

"Next time you feel adventurous, try a trip to Virginia Beach."

LOL. Actually, I've spent many, many Sundays at St. Bede in nearby Williamsburg. Have you seen their new facility (I hesitate to call it a "church")?? Ouch. I almost passed out when the army of 20 extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist tromped out to assist the priest and the deacon. In fairness, there were over a thousand folks at Mass that day, and the priest would have needed some assistance. But he could have easily cut the number by half just by eliminating offering the chalice.

As for Northern Virginia, it isn't part of the Archdiocese of Washington, so I bear no guilt. ;-) Since the death of Bishop Keating, No. Va. isn't what it used to be, it seems.

And I suppose that one can certainly find abuses here and there in the 140+ parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington.

But the point of my post was that we have all these things, which wideawake seems to suggest leads to abuses. Yet, our "abuse level" isn't particularly high. That's all.

Now in the neighboring Archdiocese of Baltimore...

But even there, things seem to be on an upswing. At a church where we occasionally attend Mass, a faux-marble tabernacle-less backdrop behind the altar has recently been replaced with a beautiful, ornamented wooden structure featuring dead-center, right behind the altar, a beautiful, gold tabernacle. Will wonders never cease.

Now we'll have to see whether the parish up the street (Archdiocese of Baltimore) gets rid of the "theater seating" and installs kneelers. Do I hope for too much?


sitetest