It takes what it takes for each one of us to reach that point! I am not sure I am there yet, but I have a quite impressive frown which can communicate extreme displeasure and I used it across the church today at my pastor during his sermon, briefly. Thanks for sharing this!
Your story reminds me of an incident of 50+ years ago while attending Mass with my Folks/sister. We attended the Newman Center/Church that was, of course, built primarily for use of the Students/Faculty at the U of A but was near our home. As you might expect, even decades ago, it tended to be Liberal and much more so than St Joseph's across town where I went to Catholic School. Anyway! They had this Spanish Priest that was taking classes at the U on some exchange program or other and he would say Mass and Preach at St Thomas. He spoke broken English and me/most daydreamed during his sermons. His sermons, as we discovered later, were full of anti-USA Rhetoric. A Family of long time parishioners with lots of kids sat in the pew in front of us. Apparently they were of the few that were actually listening to this Guy. In the middle of the sermon the husband arises and storms out looking mad as Hell!! What's with that we wondered? A minute or so later the Wife stands up and starts "Reading the Riot Act" to the astounded Padre and then storms out with her gang of children. We never saw that Family or Padre again. I think we learned later that the Family had kin fighting in Vietnam. It's probably not a good idea to PO Mom! When Mom's not happy ... Nobody is happy!!! I just remembered another Story at St Thomas that involved my old Dad. Our Pastor then, during his sermons, would walk up-n-down the main aisle and sometimes ask questions of the parishioners. This was probably right after Vatican II .. all that! .. and I have no recollection of the sermon or the question but if I had to guess it was probably some Liberal Kumbaya BS. The Padre expected the Old Man to agree with whatever his point was but he, to his astonishment, got the "wrong answer"! The Padre tried to recover by asking another guy what he thought and that guy said he agreed with the Old Man! I don't remember but I expect that the Sermon came to a rapid conclusion and the Old Man never got asked anymore questions at Mass. My Dad was a 30 year Navy Captain/Pilot, three years in the Pacific WWII , and a Curmudgeon! Sooooo .... if Ya got any problems with me being an Old CrewDog Curmudgeon .... blame The Old Man! Oh!! Never ask questions in a crowd unless you are prepared for "Wrong Answers"!! GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
Funny Denis, all of our family are Irish fighters, nearly all the menfolk were in prison during the war here. But I would rather face a bullet of bomb than face a big scene. We were all brought up to be...well ... a little bit to fade into the background. I will have to toughen up. Funny as you mention I think women can have more gumption than men about this kind of stuff. I just want to crawl under the ground and die.
I have not made a scene in Church on what I hear, but I have done my share of writing priests, bishops, papal nuncio's, and even the pope on abuses over the past 40 years, which I have encountered in the Mass. One time our diocesan news paper had an editorial, "save your stamps to Rome they don't help". Well a few weeks later I got a call from the head of the local Vicariate (head of priests in our area) and he was asked to follow me up on a letter I wrote to Rome. It is prudent to not knee jerk things, but it is also prudent to speak out when the Lord wills. I have a feeling we will all be speaking out soon or we will succumb to the many errors taking place in our churches.
I used to be very forthright in calling out errors. That was then this is now. I say very little. I don’t know if I have become a coward (very likely) or if I have learned prudence (if only it could be so!!) but for whatever reason I tend to stay silent. Not always. Sometimes I just open up and speak and I’m always astonished when that happens. I admire the courage of those who do call out sins and errors. I pray for fortitude but..oh well. (Women don’t always have more gumption Padraig. Sigh.)
I think it may well be a time when the Holy Spirit calls us forth to call spades , spades. To enkindle a fire in our bellies.
AED, I think 20 years ago, we may have felt our concerns were that of our Bishops. Not so today in most places. Because of this, we either find a different Church, endure the abuses, take it all to prayer or as the lady did at Padraig's church..... give em an ear full. Once you give them a piece of your mind you might want to have a contingency church to attend, because these priests and bishops today have hardened their positions just as the remnant faithful have. The lines are being drawn.
You are right Fatima. I do consider that. Everyone tiptoes around these days. I think since this papacy we all feel very untethered and unprotected. We can’t always be sure how our words will be perceived. Or if in speaking we do more harm. I have some experience with this. So I guess I’ve learned to stay silent more often than not. I pray God will not judge me harshly for this. I was a clear devout Catholic and outspoken to family and friends. I saw from some of my forthright speaking some damage. I believe my fierce adherence to the words of Christ and the Magisteriym caused my sons to react strongly and leave the Church. You call out someone’s actions even in your authority as mother be prepared for some tough consequences. I live with that now. Now I take a gentler approach. Too late probably but I guess that is where prayer comes in.
A recent article by David Warren pointed out that prayer is not a lack of action, but a superior type of action, whereby one delegates the solving of a problem to those with better qualifications for the necessary action.
Don, Your welcome. I have read at least three articles about the exhortation, I think it is good to read as many perspectives as possible. I have read a portion of the exhortation itself and I may go back and try to read the whole thing at some point - it might help for me to use a highlighter. BrianK, Thank you for posting this. I noticed that a "completely revised and updated edition" to The Dictator Pope will be available on April 23rd. I suppose that at the rate things are going there may be an update every four months or so, yikes.
Very interesting article. I had no idea that there was strong and highly placed opposition in the USA Hierarchy https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-unborn/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9c5947222803
The 5th paragraph down speaks of a small group of U.S. cardinals who have written about their concerns with Amoris Laetitia.
These are the same types, at Catholic universities here like Georgetown I believe, that agreed to cover over Jesus when Obama came to speak. And the U.S. hierarchy has a history of favoring the liberal/Dem types, afraid to point out individuals by name, running, who are abortion supporters except the general listing of what voters should maybe look for. They haven't been supportive of our immigration laws being actually carried out....like vetting....esp. during these confusing times where Obama deliberately ordered officials not to comply due to the desire of raising the Dem future vote numbers that must then include illegals.
'Conservatives in the church, in particular a small group of U.S. cardinals who have written about their concerns with Francis’s 2016 apostolic exhortation that gestured toward a more forgiving stance on divorce and remarriage and other issues regarding families, will probably not be appeased by the new document.'
There are bound to be good Holy Cardinals; filled with the Fire of the Spirit. There are bound to be. This time reminds me of the period after the death of Jesus when the Apostles hid and stayed quiet, But then the Fire of Pentecost arrived and the Church was born. We need the same Fire to be poured out anew on our dear Brothers, the Cardinals.
