Francis, the Early Years

HeavenlyHosts · Oct 21, 2019

AED said: ↑

I think this is a good plan. I am considering withdrawing my automatic monthly payment to the parish but I struggle with this because my parish is not Rome and what would I do without them. We have good serious priests. It is a conundrum.
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I have a good pastor
He’s not perfect but he is striving to bring Jesus to his flock
So we are donating to the parish but not other stuff if I think it’s heterodox
For example
Our Catholic Charities is very focused on social issues and not so much on feeding and clothing the poor
I think it subsidizes legal help.

Dolours · Oct 21, 2019

Praetorian said: ↑

My personal opinion is that if you have good priests you shouldn't withhold money going to the parish.
Encourage the good. Out with the bad.
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I think that even good parishes will change over time; that it will happen gradually under the "social justice" banner. Young people who rarely or never go to Mass will be organising parish ecology events. Faithful parishioners on parish councils will be sidelined and eased out, making way for those who will turn every parish into just another NGO. That seems to be the Jesuit way and it seems to be this Pope's management style. Faithful priests will be just one voice among a plethora of voices running parishes. Looking at the influence wielded by that lay group in Germany, they seem to be the role model for the universal Church.

A priest at a Mass I attended one day last week told us that while Jesus is the only means of salvation, there are many paths to Jesus. Nothing wrong with what he said, but imagine how that teaching can "develop" now that God wills a plurality of religions.

There was a collection for the missions today in all our churches. Old habits die hard so I couldn't bring myself to withhold my contribution but I have serious misgivings about where and how the money will be spent now that we've seen what the Franciscans and Jesuits have been up to in Latin America.

AED · Oct 21, 2019

HeavenlyHosts said: ↑

I have a good pastor
He’s not perfect but he is striving to bring Jesus to his flock
So we are donating to the parish but not other stuff if I think it’s heterodox
For example
Our Catholic Charities is very focused on social issues and not so much on feeding and clothing the poor
I think it subsidizes legal help.
Click to expand...

I wont give to them either OR Peter's Pence. I'm giving locally as I can afford it.

HeavenlyHosts · Oct 21, 2019

AED said: ↑

I wont give to them either OR Peter's Pence. I'm giving locally as I can afford it.
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Same here

maryrose · Oct 21, 2019

SteveD said: ↑

Some of the few clerics to have publicly opposed what is happening in the Church have said that it is up to the laity to save the Church. One obvious reason is that a priest or bishop is definitely 'putting his head on the block' and risking the goodwill of his superiors by being too frank (sorry unintended pun). They risk being sent away 'for a rest' and some re-education and then being sent to some 'out of the way' parish/diocese and being shunned by their peers, possibly being deprived of the right to undertake some/all the normal duties of a priest etc. etc. A superior will certainly have enough information to establish which 'buttons to press' and then proceed to do so in the case of a sufficiently troublesome traditional priest/bishop.

It is depressing that even some lay bloggers whose views I previously held in high regard (but who sell various wares for their living) have been noticeably reticent about mentioning/criticising pagan gods being worshipped by shamans and indigenous people (and clerics?) in the Vatican itself (God help us), 'What does it profit a man....'.

There's not much that they can do to us laypeople who are not employed by the Church and not dependent on selling religious goods or music, except call us names and/or pretend that our complaints/observations are invalid and so are being politely ignored. If sufficient numbers get involved their pretended indifference would become real concern. I once asked a British MP (in pre-email days) how many letters he had to receive about any particular problem before he knew that he had to take it seriously and possibly urge government action. I was surprised to hear that it was only 'about 100'. Because, apparently, for every one that wrote there were several hundred others who also felt strongly about the matter but who hadn't bothered to get in touch, so 100 could probably be translated to another 10,000 who felt strongly (if slightly less so) and maybe a further 50,000 who might be even less strongly concerned but still wished that some action be taken. So raising the matter with government and getting the local press to mention that he had done so might please 60,000 of his constituents, a very healthy proportion of the electorate.

I once emailed a well-known, atheist, British journalist about a piece he had written about religion. I received an automatic response saying that he could not guarantee to read all emails, however, if the recipient wished to write to him at a given address he would undertake to read the letter and, if appropriate, to respond. I wrote to him and, in passing, asked why he did this. To my surprise, he sent a chatty and pleasant response saying that 'if someone actually writes to me, I know that they genuinely feel strongly and wish me to consider their views and that the sender is much more likely to be calm and thoughtful about the contents, he also said that only a very few of the emailers subsequently bothered to put pen to paper so he saved an awful lot of time (and the reading of rants and insults) without alienating the few who genuinely wished to exchange views.

So I am going to write a fairly short, thoughtful and polite letter to my bishop and expect the correspondence to become lengthier over time and to continue until the replies stop coming which in my bishop's case might be fairly soon. Then I write to the Archbishop, then the Cardinal then Rome.
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I guess a letter is a good idea to the bishop. I have previously written and e mailed my bishop on issues pertaining to the churches silence on the proposed sex education program in Catholic schools and the abortion referendum. I'm still waiting for a reply. I'm probably labelled as crank mail and binned.

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