What does it mean when a parish drops
catechesis and a Mass on a Sunday and celebrates a cultural festival with film
songs and dance numbers? This is purely spiritual worldliness lurking behind a
fascination with social and cultural gain, or pride in their (believers)
ability to manage such cultural programmes. My personal opinion is that it’s like going to the level of a culture club or a social institution.
This is now happening in many of our parishes.
I won’t blame the clergy. For, in parishes, it’s the laity which takes the lead in conducting such programmes. And very often, this originates from a concern to be seen, in a social life full of appearances, meetings, lunches, dinners and receptions. Often clergy is forced to accept and approve such insidious worldliness propounded by closed and elite laity groups. To borrow the words of Pope Francis, they all have the same pretence of “taking over the space of the Church”.
These laity groups raise funds for music, dance, shamiana and lavish spread of food without any murmur or protest. Ironically, these groups are nowhere to be seen when a charismatic retreat or a prayer meeting or adoration is conducted in the church. The priest runs from pillar to post to get people and money for spiritual programmes. This is what provoked me to write this stuff.
This is now happening in many of our parishes.
I won’t blame the clergy. For, in parishes, it’s the laity which takes the lead in conducting such programmes. And very often, this originates from a concern to be seen, in a social life full of appearances, meetings, lunches, dinners and receptions. Often clergy is forced to accept and approve such insidious worldliness propounded by closed and elite laity groups. To borrow the words of Pope Francis, they all have the same pretence of “taking over the space of the Church”.
These laity groups raise funds for music, dance, shamiana and lavish spread of food without any murmur or protest. Ironically, these groups are nowhere to be seen when a charismatic retreat or a prayer meeting or adoration is conducted in the church. The priest runs from pillar to post to get people and money for spiritual programmes. This is what provoked me to write this stuff.
The organizers of cultural programmes may
have 200 reasons to justify their cultural extravaganza in place of catechesis
and Mass on a Sunday. My personal opinion is that they are replacing religious
fervour by the empty pleasure of self-indulgence and hedonism. In the name of
culture and tradition, song and dance numbers were belted out.
Do we need to teach children about culture or Jesus? The principal beneficiary of such cultural programmes is not God’s people but the institutionalised church.
Do we need to teach children about culture or Jesus? The principal beneficiary of such cultural programmes is not God’s people but the institutionalised church.
Please don’t think that I’m quoting Pope out
of context or extrapolating his comments to justify my opinion and beliefs.
Maybe or may not be. As a writer and a journalist I have the freedom to choose
my words.
To quote Pope Francis again, “the mark of
Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present” during such programmes.
As he says, closed and elite groups are formed, and no effort is made to go
forth and seek out those who are distant or the immense multitudes who thirst
for Christ. Moreover, expectations and hopes of children are given a different
orientation, leading to the loss of spiritual fervour. Instead of opening the
door to God’s grace, we exhaust our energies in arranging cultural programmes,
receptions and lunches.
I think we can consider such tendencies as “manifestations
of an anthropocentric immanentism” so forcefully expressed by Pope Francis. The
church, as Pope says, shows a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby
instead of evangelizing, one analyses and classifies others, and instead of
opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and
verifying.
There’s no wonder when the same church organises
a charismatic retreat or a prayer meeting or adoration, only a handful of
people turn up.
We see an ostentatious preoccupation for such
meetings, programmes and dinners and for the Church’s prestige, but without any
concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the
concrete needs of the present time.
“In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few,” Pope Francis said in ‘Evangelii Gaudium’. “If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life,” it says.
“In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few,” Pope Francis said in ‘Evangelii Gaudium’. “If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life,” it says.
