Polling the Laity is Always a Bad Idea (Polling of Catholic Dioceses)

The Catholic Thing ^ | November 15, 2013 | Austin Ruse

[ebb tide]

This was transmitted to the synod of bishops, i.e., the people who exercise Magisterial authority.

But, again, why was the survey submitted in the first place? Whether meant for bishops only, all Catholics only, or the general public; it is a poll concerning faith and morals, topics only the Pope is infallible on.

P.S. Who's going to tally the votes and announce the results? Will the results lead to a change in doctrine?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Perhaps they are checking to see if their doctrine is being properly communicated to the congregation?

[ebb tide]

I think because he doesn’t want to get his information from the skewed polls of the press. He has to know what he’s up against in order to figure out the best approach.

Instead of polling about contraception, homo unions and divorce, how about a poll like this:

1.) What percentage of your churches offer perpetual adoration?

2.) What percentage of your churches offer Holy Hour of Adoration?

3.) Please list the hours allowed for Confession per week, by church?

4.) What percentage of you churches have May crownings of the Blessed Virgin?

5.) What percentage of your churches have Eucharistic processions on the Feast of Christ the King?

6.) What percentage of your churches announce upcoming Ember Days in their Sunday bulletins?

[livius]

I’m sure those questions are being asked. Pope Francis is very big on bith private devotions and public devotional acts.

[ebb tide]

I’m sure those questions are being asked.

How can you say that? The full survey has been made public and none of those questions were asked.

[ebb tide]

Pope Francis is very big on bith private devotions and public devotional acts.

Really?

One is the Pelagian current that there is in the Church at this moment. I share with you two concerns. are some restorationist groups. I know some, it fell upon me to receive them in Buenos Aires. And one feels as if one goes back 60 years! Before the Council... One feels in 1940... An anecdote, just to illustrate this, it is not to laugh at it, I took it with respect, but it concerns me; when I was elected, I received a letter from one of these groups, and they said: "Your Holiness, we offer you this spiritual treasure: 3,525 rosaries." Why don't they say, 'we pray for you, we ask...', but this thing of counting... And these groups return to practices and to disciplines that I lived through - not you, because you are not old - to disciplines, to things that in that moment took place, but not now, they do not exist today... Pope Francis

[livius]

They weren’t on the survey but they are obviously something some office is asking bishops about, judging from what I have heard. Are you involved in any of these things in your own parish?

Does your parish do Adoration? Do you have Rosaries or devotions to the Sacred Heart or novenas? If not, make your clergy get cracking. Even my relatively liberal parish here has taken them up in a big way, particularly in the last few months since Francis has come into office. If you don’t have them, ask, and I bet you’ll get them.

Pope Francis has consistently supported public devotional practices in action and in speech, and even when he was in Argentina, he led Corpus Christi processions, devotions to Our Lady, etc.

[ebb tide]

Are you involved in any of these things in your own parish?

Yes, all of them.

Does your parish do Adoration? Do you have Rosaries or devotions to the Sacred Heart or novenas?

Yes, to all of the above. But it's not a Novus Ordo parish; it's FSSP.

[miserare]

Well, good then. If Francis thinks he has had enough rosaries said for him, I will say no more for him.

Instead, I will pray my rosaries for Syrian refugees, for displaced Filipinos, for the youth of our nation, etc.

Arrogant, he is.

[steelhead_trout]

I’m all for polling the active, mass-attending laity. Their input is valuable. Polling CINOs or the “Easter and Xmas mass only” crowd, not so much.

[steelhead_trout]

Actually, some lay input on appointment of bishops wouldn’t be a bad idea. Sadly, most bishops are not appointed from parish-level clergy, that is, the clergy that is closest to the laity. All too often, bishops are selected from an elite group, groomed right out of the seminary, that though they may be good holy men, have never been in the proverbial trenches as the parish priests have.