The Catholic Church Is Not Attractive

Crossed the Tiber ^ | 9/17/2010

[markomalley]

As Pope Benedict was heading to the British Isles he was asked if he thinks the Catholic Church needs to change to be more attractive to an increasingly secular British culture.
This is what he said:

“A Church that seeks to be particularly attractive is already on the wrong path.”

I appreciate these words of the holy father as he states very clearly what Jesus had told the disciples. You will be hated for my name sake and persecuted. The church that seeks to become more attractive to present itself in a "new and different" light to be more acceptable to the changing society is not what Jesus had in mind. The early church was cursed and persecuted and thought to be cannabalistic because of its strange and counter-culture beliefs. The early church fathers didn't change their theology or practices to fit into the secular culture of the Roman world. The modern Catholic Church continues to be maligned because of its counter-culture beliefs and practices such as anti-abortion, anti-contraception and hetero-sexual marriage.
I think of the seeker-friendly churches and the mega-churches in our country that have done everything they can to emulate the high-octane, American entertainment industry in an effort to make their churches more "relevant."
I'm sorry but I don't want to go to a "relevant" church.

As GK Chesterton has said: "I don't want to go to a church that changes with the culture. I want a Church that changes the culture."

He also said :

The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man
from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age."

[Grunthor]

“His medical terminology is overwhelmingly Greek.”

I know this. My point was that if he wants me to understand what he’s talking about, he speaks english.

[AnAmericanMother]

But he still uses the Greek terminology, even if he has to explain it.

Similarly, the Church still uses the Latin, and it is cleverly explained for you in the facing page of the Missal -- and every parish with a Latin Mass has a great big stack of Missals in the back for visitors.

Our local Latin Mass parish not only has Missals for visitors, they have a leaflet explaining every word and action in the Mass so that you can follow along from the very first visit.

And since the words of the Ordinary never change, after you've attended 2-3 times you understand pretty well. A lot of it you have heard in Christmas carols and classical music and so forth since you were a little kid ("Gloria in excelsis Deo" "Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth"). It's not as if you come into this completely cold.

And of course the basic reason for doctors' terminology and Latin Mass is the same -- precision and stability. The doctor and the priest both need to be sure that they are saying exactly what they mean (and mean what they say). Because Greek and Latin aren't subject to the alterations in meaning of slang, changing times, etc. they avoid misunderstandings.

We're particularly sensitive to this because the Mass had a dreadful English translation dating from the horrible late 60s and early 70s, with all the trendy stuff in it that now looks so dated, plus something called "dynamic translation" that is just an excuse to change the meaning. Thank goodness it will be replaced this year. Certain translations of the Bible have the same problem.