Catechetical and Parochial Concerns

I would like to mention that my pastor and I had a great talk last night with the proprietor and a few of the wait staff (all family) of a local Italian restaurant about why people have stopped coming to church. We focused on the youth, specifically. Hopefully, we will see this issue come closer and closer to the main focus of the Church in America as time goes on and the problem continues to get worse. Here's the experience of a Catholic youth (me):

Despite whatever you may hear from some groups in the field, I don't get the impression that there is a resurgence of youth interest in the Church. Not yet, anyway. I think a lot of that has to do with the nature of contemporary youth. Yes, contemporary youth spend a lot of time deeply abosrbed in a world of pseudo-communication and electronic media. However, they are also a skeptical, inquisitve bunch of people who don't appreciate being force-fed what they can plainly see to be a bunch of malarkey. Most of the adults working in the youth and catechetical fields like to talk about the "glory days" of the Baltimore Catechism and nuns who would crack you upside the head with a ruler if you got out of line.

I can see, very clearly, the underlying thesis of that nostalgia: First, it's a shame we can't just force kids to memorize articles of the faith and regurgitate them on command. Second, it's a shame we can't use physical force to scare them into obedience. I do not look at my grandparents' generation as the glory days of the Church in America. The people who lament our present time complain that kids today have no faith. I, on the other hand, believe that, if they had to be forced into memorization and scared into compliance, then my grandparents' generation may not have had much faith, either. Let's face it, they went to Mass because they had to, and they followed all the rules (and memorized every question in the Catechism) mostly because some old Irish (often) nun scared them with stories of hell and a vengeful God looking to catch them in slip-up and condemn them to hell. Were those really the good old days?

No, today's kids represent a true challenge. How do you get them to be interested in the faith, to want to learn more about it, and to understand its inner workings and the answers to the dozens of questions that they ought to be asking, all of which begin with the word "why"? How do you get them to care? How do you get them to live exemplary Christian, ethical lives without threatening them with eternal damnation? That's the challenge. I think we live in a fabulous time, because I think we live in a time that calls for a true reform. Whoever comes up with the solution to the problems faced by this day and age will go down in history with the ranks of Benedict of Nursia, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Pius V, Pius X, and a score of other Church-reformers who saw the challenges of their day and owned up to them.

Unfortunately, youth and catechetical ministry are not the only problem. A lot of people ask me, "Why aren't there any vocations today?" Well, first of all, I'm not so sure that the vocations aren't there; it may be the case that they're being ignored. However, I do like to tell people that there is no one reason. The lack of vocations comes from an entire society that is crippled and disfigured. I'll talk to you about that some other time. For now, one might also observe that part of the problem is the nature of parish ministry:

None of the priests I know is an accountant, yet they are solely responsible for the accurate keeping of the parish's financial books (sometimes working with budgets of millions of dollars). None of the priests I know is a licensed therapist, and yet they are often the only people asked for advice. If that advice fails or makes a certain emotional problem worse, it is not unheard of for someone to threaten to sue for giving unlicensed therapy. None of the priests I know is a contractor, engineer, or architect, and yet they are solely responsible for the state of their parish buildings. When the foundation settles and the walls crumble, it's the pastor's sole responsibility. None of the priests I know is actually trained in business or management, and yet most of their day is consumed with exactly such tasks. The point I'm getting at is this: Priests, in general, are trained in only two things, philosophy and theology (including liturgical practica). In other words, priests have little opportunity to truly exercise the fields in which they've been trained, and are (unfairly, if you ask me) constantly required to show proficiency where there could be no such reasonable expectation.

Ask almost any priest, and you will find that they are dissatisfied with the fact that they are very often unable to truly exercise their sacramental ministry. It's because they get caugt up in worrying about flower arrangements, electric bills, etc., etc. Priests are unnecessarily pulled in too many directions. Many of them look forward to retirment as the day when the can finally start being "real priests," whose principle ministries involve what? Bringing the sacraments and the Gospel to the people of Christ. That's why we have priests, and, too often, that's not waht priests do. As their numbers continue to decline, this system is not going to be sustainable for very long.

I would like to close with the words of our current Holy Father, "The priest is not asked to be an expert in economics, construction or politics. He is expected to be an expert in the spiritual life."