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Embracing the People
By Fr. Frank DeSiano, CSP
Identity, Faith, Culture, Catechesis
60 Years Ago…
What was our catechesis accomplishing?
?
?
Identity
Identity with very local systems (family, more extended than now)
Identity with local systems (neighborhood, place of parish, relationship with nuns and clergy)
Identity with larger systems (diocese and broader Catholic Church)
Identity
How did we accomplish that identity?
EthnicityInner-group dynamicsOuter-group dynamics
Reward and Punishment
60 Years Ago…
How many people saw themselves as very involved with the discipleship elements of Catholicism?
How many people went to Holy Communion?
How many people “drifted away” from the practice of their faith right after 8th grade?
120 Years Ago…
Catholics went to Communion once or twice a year.
Catholics went to Confession once or twice a year—note the role of missions back then.
Catholicism was practiced as a folk-religion reinforced by distinct elements of popular religion.
120 Years Ago…
Church was alienated from modern world (modernism, Americanism, Syllabus of Errors).
Church was alienated from large number of men working for national independence or social rights.
Church operated in a society that revolved around early marriage and lots of children.
Mid-Twentieth Century
Emergence of a liturgical movement, inspired by a lot of monastic liturgical renewal.
Emergence of a renewed interest in, and reading of, the Holy Scriptures.
Emergence of more mature patterns of social moral teaching (Pacem In Terris, etc.).
Renewal of catechesis.Emergence of an openness to modernity
John XXIII
“I don’t agree with the prophets of doom. They always talk as if the present, compared with the past, is getting worse and worse. I see mankind entering a new era, and I see in this a divine plan. This plan, in the course of time and in and through what man does, pursues its own purposes, its own goals, and they are far, far beyond man’s expectations.”
Mid-Twentieth Century
Overcoming the alienation that hadgrown up between the Church and
modern culture.
An acceptance of modernity as thesphere in which Christians lived, served,
and prayed.
Why Embrace “The Modern”
Christianity has grown only by embracing what seemed new, even alienJewish HellenisticHellenistic RomanRoman TribalMonastic “University” theologyScholasticism RenaissanceEurope AmericaEurope Africa/Asia
Ultimately it has no choice
Embrace the (Modern) People
What does it mean to be “MODERN”
in our world today?
Christendom vs. Modernity
Christendom stands for a vision in which the Church (faith)
defines the values of all of life, and Church structures, directly or indirectly, run through all of
life.
Christendom is an optimistic reading of a world where state and church (culture and faith)
are not separated.
Modernity represents a vision of life in which humankind,
through the application of reason and resources, gradually takes
control of the basic processes of life, particularly health,
government, learning, and economy.
Experience, and rational processes, determine the shape
of society.
Christendom
Modernity
Contrasting Styles
Modernity
Belief in science’s goals, particularly with reference to health.
Belief in the autonomy of the state through democratic processes accepted by all.
Belief in autonomous markets driven by economic impulses that can be known.
Belief in a growth of knowledge through experiment and experience.
Is there a conflict?
Data Dogma
Faith and Culture
Apparent Tension PointsVision of human body—health, gender, sexVision of the social body—capitalist,
communist, inherently communal, or something else
Vision of the state—secular, semi-secular,religious
Vision of the spirit—information, immediate sensation, pragmatism, transcendent
Crisis in Catholic IdentityAll the pieces that we invented between
1880-1950 to facilitate the passing onof the Catholic Faith are now under pressure.
The elements of that former Catholic societyhave or are disappearing.
As a result, Catholics today do not have a readily-formed social culture with which to identify.
This has implications for identity withfaith for modern Catholics.
Crisis in Catholic Identity
Formation still focused on children.Formation of children still driven by a desire to
receive the sacraments.Concrete elements of Catholic life are missing
in daily life (prayer, faith sharing and growth).Disconnect between certain moral teachings
and widespread Catholic practice (sexuality and, to a less extent, social teaching).
Crisis in Catholic Identity
A “good Catholic” is one who . . . I can be a “good Catholic” even if I don’t . . . My idea of a “good” Catholic is someone who . . .
Where Are the People?
Embrace the People
Pre-1960 cohort largely populates our churches on Sunday
Post-1960 cohort is largely missing (over 60% mostly not worshipping)
Millennials are even more absent (80% tend not to be in church)
15% of Americans claim “none” as their religious preference
Patterns of Modern Life
Suburbanization: we now live in a world structured by choosing among many options.
Maturation: we live in a world in which people construct their identities from a variety of images (rather than receive identity from their families or cultures)
Toward a Modern Catholic Identity
Choice, consistent choiceConversion, personal experienceAccepting the external patterns of modernity (the
world as it is)Identifying inner patterns of belief within our modern
experienceFocused on the person of JesusSupported by a community of faith
DISCIPLESHIP
Core Identity
Gospels, Scriptures, Teaching
Sacraments, prayerCommunity
involvement with othersService to the Kingdom
of GodEmbodied in patterns
of witness
Particular pious devotions
Marian-centrismExternals like
medals, etc.Particular
movementsEthnic practices
Non-core Identity—Supports Core
Embrace the People
A. Constructing the elements of a viable modern Catholic identity
B. in tune with the externals of the modern world,
C. but based on the internals/externalsof Catholic discipleship.
Embrace the People
Catechesis of children is fundamentally catechesis of the family. Need for serious work in developing family patterns of faith.
Catechesis of youth is fundamentally instilling elements of a disciplined discipleship, and keeping youth in contact with a community of faith.
Embrace the People
Catechesis of young adults involves providing the resources for securing the identity of young people around core values of discipleship, and leading people into patterns of commitment.
Catechesis of younger families involves rooting married love into patterns of discipleship (the Paschal Mystery).
Embrace the People
Catechesis of the parish means involving the whole parish into patterns of faith formation that spring from, and support, Sunday worship and daily prayer.
Catechesis of modern Catholics means instill patterns of personal choice and sharing faith with others (=small groups).
Embrace the People
We must situate catechesis into a
framework of evangelization which
involves constant invitation and
outreach to those not involved in a
community of faith.
Embrace the People
Elements of welcome, acceptance, hospitality,
involvement, and journey-in-faith have
to be part of every parish’s skills.
Embrace the People
Even the most successful, large, suburban Catholic parish is missing
over 60% of its Catholic people, not to mention the large percentages of
unconnected Americans who have no faith family.
Embrace the People
Catholic parishes can drift into a kind of modern “congregationalism” that can make
it very inward-looking. We do not see people who are “different” from us—either because they do not go to church, or do not speak our language, or do not look like us.
Embrace the People
Parish is not about “us” but about our ability,
through the grace of the Holy Spirit,
to reach beyond ourselves and more clearly
embrace all people.Parish is for the
Kingdom=for God’s transformation of the world
through Jesus and the Spirit.
Church
The “shrinking” church of the “purer” or “more committed.”
The status quo church of “those who come” and get their needs filled.
The dynamic church of mission, engaged in involving as many people as possible in the Kingdom of God.
“Many are called, but few are chosen.”
You don’t have any “chosen” unless you are constantly calling to the
“many.”
Ministry of Jesus
Liberation of people in their “stuckness”Opening of the Jewish imagination to broader images
of God, God’s mercy, and God’s actionsDeliberate outreach to those who were “excluded”
from “established” Jewish normsConflict over overly-restrictive images of God on the
part of the leaders of his dayGenerating religious patterns in the daily, social lives
of the people of his day
Embrace the People
Do we look too rigid?
Do we look too “cheap” with God’s grace?
Do we look too self-preoccupied?
Do we look preoccupied with the Kingdom of God?
Embrace the People
Kingdom
Kingdom does not exclude the modern world, but engages, dialogues, and potentially transforms the modern world.
Kingdom is not “another sphere” apart from our “saeculum”—our worldly, human existence
Kingdom emerges within the “saeculum” by pulling it forward into God’s purposes
“God will be all in all.”
Paulist Evangelization Ministries
“Reaching the Unreached in Faith”
•Seekers/Inquirers • Inactive Catholics
•Evangelization Training
Paulist Evangelization Ministries
“Reaching the Unreached in Faith”
•Parish Renewal
•Parish Organization
Paulist Evangelization Ministries
“Reaching the Unreached in Faith”
3031 4th Street, NE
Washington, DC 20017
202-832-5022
www.PEMDC.org
You’re Invited
Wine and Cheese Reception
Tuesday, 5-6:30pm
Sunset Room
Paulist Evangelization Ministries
