Living Catholicism

First of all, your duty as a parent is first and foremost the proper education of those children you already have (and the openness to more children, but that is here irrelevant). If it weren't the fact that most parishes require that children go through PSR/CCD, I would say continue at the parish in order to work for its betterment (while educating your children in the faith at home), unless God specifically leads you elsewhere. I am also here using the assumption that most children do not pay attention during homilies. However, your children's minds and souls are at stake, and you cannot risk them. It would behoove you to find another parish. Do not "be a church-hopper", but once you have found a parish which will provide the spiritual nourishment your children need, remain there.
Second, write a formal, typed letter to Archbishop Gregory. I wrote one to Archbishop Donoghue when he was the Archbishop of Atlanta, and actually got two responses. One was a simple response, and the other was several weeks later, an update on what I had asked of him.
Third, I'd kind of like to know what parish this is, so I can simply avoid running into this sort of trouble myself.

I would say something to the bishop airing my concerns, but be prepared for nothing to happen, and be pleasantly surprised if something does. Pastors and priests are often left to tend to their flocks, and as long as anything is not preceived as being taught incorrectly, nothing is said to them when a complaint is filed.

Your best bet, no matter how unpleasant it might be, is to find a different parish, if this puts you off enough (and it should, we as Catholics either believe we are the way and the true church, or all of our religious practice is for crap and a waste).

If your kids are like mine were/are, they don't listen too well to the homily, at least not until 6th grade or so...so take heart.

Hang in there, unfortunately there are priests and deacons who make mistakes, too, and not every parish is for every person (also unfortunate). Getting someone to do something about it is another ordeal altogether.

I understand the concern for our children but I wish to draw from my own past.

I, like the two of you, am from the Atlanta diocese. Over the years we have had to put up with some rather "suspect" homilies and religious education programs. My parents refused to subject their children to this "formal" Catholic education, choosing rather to teach us our Catholic faith at home (a tradition my wife and I intend to imitate as well). For a brief time we did leave the parish, driving an additional 20 minutes to find a parish with an elderly priest who happily embraced the sacramental life and the teachings of the Church. We left, but shortly thereafter the elderly priest at the other parish retired and the new priest resembled more of what we had seen at our previous parish. My mother and father, after much prayer and discussion (both together and with all of us children) decided that we should return to our original parish. We reached the conclusion that God calls each of us to a given place and that, wherever we find ourselves we must witness to the Gospel. We persevered and have remained to this day.

Now we have grown up, faithful to the truth and witnesses to many other families in our parish. We live sacramental lives, living it out on a daily basis, and witnessing to others the goodness of living a live of obedience and fidelity to the "full" teachings of the Catholic Church. None of us have ever questioned the Church's teaching on such things as women's ordination, contraception, abortion, fornication, etc. because we had been catechized by our parents in "spirit and truth". Our birthday and Christmas gifts included things like the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Encyclical Letters of Pope John Paul II, good Catholic fiction, rosaries, holy cards, and so forth. We prayed the rosary as a family daily. We read Scripture together as a family daily. We went to Mass every Sunday and often during the week as well. We spent time in adoration before our Lord in the Tabernacle in our parish. We went to Confession every month. We had a family spiritual director, Fr. Joachim Tierney, a Cistercian monk. Our mother, God bless her, stayed at home with all of us and homeschooled most of us. My father was, and is, a man of prayer and a man dedicated to studying the faith daily. We consecrated ourselves to Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother. We practiced the Corporal Works of Mercy: writing and visiting prisoners (a former assistant pastor had given my parents the names and addresses of two men on death row who had experienced a conversion), visiting and ministering to the poor and the sick. In our home Catholicism was radically lived.

Did we fall sometimes...certainly. Did we ever dissent from any aspect of our Catholic Faith....NEVER! It was the one thing we knew, with absolute certainty, to be completely true. I do not say all of this out of pride or in an attempt to receive praise but rather to serve a direction sign to all families....this is the way to raise holy children and in doing so achieve holiness ourselves. I could care less if my son ever serves on a parish council, but I pray that he will go to Mass faithfully, not our of a sense of duty but rather out of a deep love and need for our Lord Jesus Christ.

In fighting the "good fight" we can not only work toward our own holiness but we can lead others as well. My wife and I want our son (and all the other children God will bless us with) to have the courage and the love of the martyrs. In these times of indifference, confusion, and deception we must stand for truth, for love, ultimately for Christ and we must teach our children to do the same!

We are called to pray for our priests, offering up prayers and fasting for their sanctification. We should befriend our priests, knowing that they are fellow brothers in Christ in need of love and affirmation. Love conquers all untruth.

On a side note, I completely agree with forwarding that nonsense about the Holy Spirit being "she" to Archbishop Gregory. That is the kind of "false" teaching that he needs to be made aware of.

In Christ, Joe

In RCIA we were taught that it is each person's duty as a Catholic not to go "parish shopping" but to try to change your own parish ... even if that was only by a good example to others. I don't have any experience of this, being a fairly recent convert, but I think that Joe's story amply illustrates the point.

Also, what we have found is that our kids regularly come up against plenty of times when they are being taught the wrong thing in their Catholic schools ... and, perhaps because they have a rabid convert for a mother, again follow Joe's family's example of standing up for the right teaching.

This comes down to an issue of being "in" the world but not part of it ... and that's something that none of us can avoid.

That said, I also am a rabid letter writer and would be letting out my frustration as gracefully as possible about the HS being "she" and any other things that came up. If you don't tell them, how will they know?

Thanks Joe at "Deo Omnis Gloria" for supporting my suggestion to write to His Excellency. My personal and direct experience in dealing with Archbishop Gregory has been that the teaching and reference to the Holy Spirit as "she" would quickly and appropriately be addressed. You should write him immediately regardless of whether or not you decide to stay at the parish. I believe this constitutes "being taught incorrectly"; Heaven forbid we refer to the Holy Spirit as she, and then say that Mary is the spouse of the same Holy Spirit.

Pax Christi sit semper tecum

I have been a Catholic from birth and this type of agnositic preaching is damaging to the Catholic Church, especially at this time in America. The media has damaged the image of the church enough without more help from the clergy.

There are a couple points I would like to make. The first being; I have never believed in church jumping or shopping. We need to be very careful what we do to our local parishes. We also are not to find a church that feels good and agrees with our point of views. But this is not the case here from your letter. I would not make a move until God tells me to move. We get into trouble when we move ahead of God. We must remain prayerful and patient to the Will of God. That is easy for me to say when I am not in the middle of the situation. If God truly wants you there, then there you should stay. Pray for His guidence in this situation, and wait on Him. He will tell you what to do in his time.

I also would follow the advice of someother readers and write the Pastor first, then if you get no response, write the Bishop, and finally write the Archebishop. We must allow the local leaders a chance to respond first.

It is very important that our pastoral leaders stay true to the scriptures and church doctrine. This is a confusing time of strong secular influences on the American churches and our leaders are supposed to be albe to discern through all the lies of the enemy. But they are humans too, and satan gets to them as well.

As we pray for our church leaders, and deacons, ask the Lord to help them see thru the lies and deciet that is running ramped in our nation.

Our children are very quick to pick out differences in what they hear and see. As paranets we need to stay ontop of the misinformation that they will hear, and always answer all questions come up in conversation. Initiate conversation at lunch or supper when you hear a disturbing homily. Take that oportunity to show what scripture says and what the church really teaches.

I will pray for you and your family at my weekly bible study and at our night meal.

God bless you and your family.

My parish church is dreadful. Without getting into detail I knew there was no way I could sit through a garbage homily and irreverant Mass every week so I registered at another church. I'm much happier and I think it was the right thing to do for my innocent family.

Wow...so much good advice here. I have had problems at my parish with some things our pastor does, and at one point, I wouldn't attend Mass at our parish until I was pretty sure he wasn't going to say some of the outlandish things he said in one homily (weekday Mass, thankfully while my children were at vacation Bible school - he practically recommended reading the gnostic gospels and the DaVinci Code, presenting them as "different points of view" on the Gospels, never pointing them out as heresies). I am recently upset because he's taken to having "rap sessions" in the middle or at the end of the homily lately. It seems a cop-out, frankly, when he makes a few comments, poses a question or two, then tells us to talk to each other for five minutes. (Not only that, but it seriously gets my younger daughter, not quite four, off track for the rest of Mass!)

Interestingly enough, just when I'm feeling most like leaving, the director of CCD for grades 6 to 12 announces she's leaving her post and I start praying that we get someone orthodox who wants to assent to Church doctrine to get the position. I get this voice in my head that says, "Why not you?" THEN my DH tells me he got the same idea as soon as they said it. Now I'm thinking that perhaps God might want me to stay, try to change things there, and make a difference. Should I add that I have felt the call to be a Catechist since I was a young girl? (Of course, I try to think that I'm fulfilling it by homeschooling, but God might have other plans.)

So I might write to my bishop about what's been happening during Mass, stick around, and perhaps look into being a CCD director! (Yikes!) And PRAY, cuz I'm really needing some insight here!

your a Dumb [ed: word removed]!!!!!!

Bill,
Typically, when you jump in with nothing but an obscene name it indicates a low level of intelligence. I'd prefer that you explain why you think I'm incorrect (a big word, but if you try you can remember it) and we can have a normal dialogue. You'll never get me to change my mind by simply hurling insults with no rational argument behind them.

And I did remove the obscenity - this is not a porn site, Bill, it's a family site.

God bless,
Jay

By the way, in case you read my earlier message, I have decided to put my application in for Director of Youth Ministries at my parish. I will turn it in (most likely) tomorrow morning, unless I can get a hold of someone today about that third reference. (All my references are in another state.)

Please continue to pray, though, since I only want to do this if it's God's will. If not, I pray that I am not offered the job. If they do offer it to me, I pray that it is only because that is God's will.

Thanks, all.

Blessings,
Chris