Posted on 03/05/2006 5:45:57 AM PST by NYer
The last thing Sally Mews wants to remember is her violent childhood in the Midwest, marred as it was by alcoholic parents and constant abuse, made worse, she said, by the ridicule of nuns in school who had no idea what she and her siblings were going through at home.
"We were always considered problems, always held up as examples of how not to behave," Mews said. "When you're young and vulnerable, that's painful."
But Mews' spiritual journey has taken her from that rocky start - and a long estrangement from the Catholic Church - to the creator of a national program to help people ease their way back to the faith.
"How did I do this? I guess the Holy Spirit just grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and pushed me into it," said Mews, who now lives in a Chicago suburb with her husband, Harvey.
In the late '80s, Mews was tired of drifting and searching for a denomination she felt comfortable in. She decided to return to the traditions of her own faith, but on different terms. She was determined to get more than bad memories out of her faith.
Her next step was to start a movement - Catholics Returning Home - "because no one else was doing it," she said.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has approved Mews' program. Many parishes are jumping on her bandwagon to implement it, including St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Bensalem. That program will include four weekly sessions from 7-8 p.m. on Wednesdays, beginning March 8.
The meetings will be held in the church rectory, 1200 Park Ave. Prospective participants may call 215-245-6122 before March 8 for information, "or they can just show up," said Sister Mary McGarrity, a member of the parish team presenting the program. All sessions will be held in strict confidence, McGarrity said.
Discussions will include "Stories of Faith from Catholics returning home, "The Church Today: Changes since Vatican II" and other topics.
"The team is made up of people who had been away from the church and have made the journey back. They first listen to concerns of people and find out what can be done to facilitate their desire to return," McGarrity said.
Mews said that people wonder "what's the big deal?'' about just going to church, but it can cause a lot of anxiety for those who have had marriage difficulties, or who, like her, have wrestled with deep-seated anger because of her own bad experience.
"For a long time I considered myself non-denominational. I wouldn't read anything about the Catholic Church. I had such deep hurts and, when you're wounded like that, it takes the Lord to touch your heart," Mews said.
The movement is just getting started in the Philadelphia area but is already seeing results, said Mary Ann Korpics, a member of the evangelism team at St. Joseph Parish in Downingtown. St. Joseph has held three sessions a year since 2004, resulting in about 50 people "coming home," Korpics said.
"Some people have always felt that tugging. Others developed apathy from not going to church [regularly]. In many cases, all they needed was the invitation."
The whole "coming home" think strikes me as a bit syruppy.
Ping!
It is a real mistake when people focus on the human imperfections in a church rather than their faith in Christ. Churches are filled with really awful and stupid people and we don't go to church to worship people. Christians need to keep their eyes on the prize.
Many thanks for the ping !!!
Trust me, it's not. Sometimes it's a very difficult thing to do.
My local priest in his sermon today said that there's more ex-catholics in this country than Catholics. This would be a good start to hopefully get some back into the fold. The worst issue right now is people who leave the Church without ever understanding what the Church stood for in the first place.
If by "syruppy" you mean laid on a bit thick, I can see your point. In my area, I have seen several people "return" to their local parishes after many years of absence, and they don't recognize anything. So they are a bit disoriented, and it's understandable that a "group sharing session" would be instrumental in helping them to "feel good" about "coming back."
But that's because such a session would be laying it on a bit thick, by working toward convincing them that what they see is not what they think they see: that it might LOOK different but it's NOT different - it's THE SAME.
But sometimes appearances don't lie, and this is a case in point. What you see is what you get. The communion rail is gone, the tabernacle is moved away or removed entirely to a broom closet or whatever, the very words of the Consecration are changed, Veterum Sapientia is abrogated against the express pronouncement of Pope John XXIII, the "presbyter" faces the congregation like a Lutheran and the whole scene resembles some kind of entertainment spectacle. People behave differently, there are no more genuflections at the aisle, no more overt signs of the cross, no more people making stations, no more long lines at the confessionals, etc., etc. So why wouldn't one "returning" feel like he's a fish out of water?
On the other hand, a few of such people I have known, have found an independent Latin Mass chapel nearby, where the same Faith of our Fathers they knew as a child 50 years ago is still taught and practiced. Those people, having seen the conspicuous change in their local parishes, have found no such change in the chapel. They can kneel for Low Mass in all the places they recall having done so in their youth. They can approach the altar recalling the words they memorized long ago to serve Mass: Introibo ad altare Dei ~ Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. I will go to the altar of God; to God Who giveth joy to my youth.
And with tears in their eyes, they finally understand what they memorized in their innocence, before the great apostacy set in...
You're welcome!
well said, I totally agree.
If by "syruppy" you mean laid on a bit thick, I can see your point. In my area, I have seen several people "return" to their local parishes after many years of absence, and they don't recognize anything. So they are a bit disoriented, and it's understandable that a "group sharing session" would be instrumental in helping them to "feel good" about "coming back."
But that's because such a session would be laying it on a bit thick, by working toward convincing them that what they see is not what they think they see: that it might LOOK different but it's NOT different - it's THE SAME.
But sometimes appearances don't lie, and this is a case in point. What you see is what you get. The communion rail is gone, the tabernacle is moved away or removed entirely to a broom closet or whatever, the very words of the Consecration are changed, Veterum Sapientia is abrogated against the express pronouncement of Pope John XXIII, the "presbyter" faces the congregation like a Lutheran and the whole scene resembles some kind of entertainment spectacle. People behave differently, there are no more genuflections at the aisle, no more overt signs of the cross, no more people making stations, no more long lines at the confessionals, etc., etc. So why wouldn't one "returning" feel like he's a fish out of water?
On the other hand, a few of such people I have known, have found an independent Latin Mass chapel nearby, where the same Faith of our Fathers they knew as a child 50 years ago is still taught and practiced. Those people, having seen the conspicuous change in their local parishes, have found no such change in the chapel. They can kneel for Low Mass in all the places they recall having done so in their youth. They can approach the altar recalling the words they memorized long ago to serve Mass: Introibo ad altare Dei ~ Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. I will go to the altar of God; to God Who giveth joy to my youth.
And with tears in their eyes, they finally understand what they memorized in their innocence, before the great apostacy set in...
got it. both times. ;)
Woops.
Woops.
There are worse things than being "syrupy" if it helps lead people back to the church.
It is very real. People are hungry -- sometimes just for the Church, maybe for the Eucharist, maybe just to receive Communion again, sometimes it's for the children!
Our church uses a program entitled Catholics Can Come Home Again.
We have been doing it for three years -- reached over 52 returning Catholics. It's nothing to laugh at or label "syrupy".
Sorry, but that's just the way it is. St. Ignatius of Antioch said that to celebrate the liturgy "behind the bishop's back" -- and what does an independent chapel do, if not that? -- was equivalent to devil worship. Take it up with him if you like, unless he's now considered to be too "conciliar" or "modernist" (a stretch for someone who was ordained by an Apostle).
I don't agree with the abuses you describe any more than you do, and I would probably hold a party if Rome approved the universal Indult, so I'm hardly dancing with the altar girls in the bare ruined choir. The church I go to is Novus Ordo (no indult TLM in my diocese, yet), but the tabernacle is front and center, there are no altar girls, and the choir frequently sings the ordinary in Latin.
Whoa, back! The synthesis of all heresies was likely never imagined by him, unless, of course, he made a good end-run around the Apocalypse. But I wonder what he'd have to say if you were to invite him to join you at the N.O. liturgy? Perhaps, "what in tarnation is THIS?"
It isn't just the abuses, my friend, it's the reticence of Rome in doing a whit about them, and furthermore the penchant of the Holy See to reward the abusers and punish anyone who denounces them. Do you suppose St. Ignatius would sit still while Cardinal Law moves in to St. Mary Major? Fireworks would be more likely than silent suffering.
No, it's not just abuses, it's outright heresy in the highest places. I know several "priests" in this area who deny the Real Presence in the Eucharist, and guess what happened to them? You got it: they were promoted. (Note: I put "priests" in quotation marks because if they deny the Sacrament, they likely have abandoned the INTENTION, and therefore do not confect the sacrament, and have likewise forsaken the basic rudiments of their office, and therefore might have ceased to occupy that office, since they are apostate and without the Faith.) So, what with the apostacy at hand, it behooves some more fundamental souls than I to simply stay home and pray their rosary, etc. They know their soul is in danger when they fraternize with heretics.
Don't get me wrong: I appreciate your misery, and I was once there myself. But I'm here to tell you that once you can find it in your heart to remove yourself from that environment, you will find much greater peace not having to battle daily the onslaught of frontal attacks against your practice of the Faith.
When was the last time you genuflected in the aisle without someone snickering or murmering nearby? Do you kneel for communion? What do you do when the Ordinary (sic) Eucharistic Minister insists that you stand and take the host in your hand? Do you say anything to people who carry on in normal tones conversing in front of the tabernacle? What do you do when they pour the "extra wine" down the drain, or worse, consume it "backstage" as they tell jokes and have a little party?
If you're going to do it, you ought to keep in mind what St. Ignatius would do. Would he just take it on the chin and subsist in the odor of heresy, or would he not stand for it for one minute?
If a man admires Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and he wants to pay attention to what she SAID, here is a good opportunity. When asked what is the biggest problem in the world, she answered: The most terrible thing in the whole world today is Catholics receiving Holy Communion in the hand.
Believe me, if enough of us would get together and kneel, the progressivists would have to concede. They are in the wrong, and they know it, but they get away with it because Catholics are in the habit of doing what they're told, out of a desire for virtue. But when the command is immoral, we ought to know better.
It's far too easy to bemoan the dwindling numbers of people in the pews. (It's better to do that though, than to deny the numbers are dwindling!) But step back and take a look at WHY. The corruption has begun at the TOP. The local bishops are nearly unanimous in their wanton destruction of everything holy. If you have a good parish priest, count yourself not just lucky but conspicuously blessed. And you had better keep in touch with him because you could wake up one day to find him quietly removed.
Before 1962, the Church was in its heyday. Seminaries were turning away applicants for lack of space. Now, they are turned away because they are not "pastorally sensitive to homosexuals" (as if pastoral sensitivity will do anything about the crushing debt from pederasty lawsuits). There was standing room only in church on Sunday. I know, I was there. A common problem was getting the cars out of the parking lot after the 9:00 Mass in time for the 10:30 crowd, because so many liked to arrive a few minutes early to prayerfully get into the proper disposition and to get their missals ready, and then stay a few minutes after Mass for additional prayers of thanksgiving. Now, they rush in and rush out because they don't want to miss the ball game on TV or whatever. (Desperate Houswives?) The music was tremendous, and the envy of many. Today, the many wonder what happened. I have heard of more Protestant choirs singing truly Catholic repertoire than I have Catholic choirs lately.
Before the novelties of the aggiornamento, it wasn't any special problem to return to the Church, because that's what the Church is for, it's for people to come home. The Mass does the work practically for you if you let it. I'm talking about the Mass we had before the novelties crept in like rats.
I think I understand now why some priests look positively disappointed when I put out my hands (left on top, just as I read in the little booklet)...I was very curious about that.
This is how catechesis takes place...one little bit at a time. I don't know how it used to be (which is why it always seemed strange to me when they said, "welcome Home" -- sure, I was baptized, but the Church had never been my home consciously) but when the RCIA class that I began to attend started deconstructing the Scriptures (invoking myth theories), I stopped putting myself through that after the third visit.
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