Comments for Picking the Low-hanging Fruit at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 16 out of 16 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 21 May 2013 18:00:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13635 Matthew you raise a really great point. I did not offer any solutions but yes I agree that it has to be community based rather like the Church itself strangely enough. Also I think that we would get many more vocations as we demonstrate to the day to day world what being a Church means. I suspect that we are not even vaguely aware of what individualism has done to the priesthood and to religious life and to the Church 'community'. Yet it is the presupposition of our culture. - Fr. Bramwell Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:39:37 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13582 Father, I think the only realistic way for a priest to serve more than 20% is by getting a good portion of that 20% active. If even a tenth of them went out and reached 15 others the priest couldn't, the percent would jump from 20% to 50% served. Not perfect but better. I agree that we clergy (or soon to be clergy in my case) can-t waste our time on stupid networks. However, with one priest for every 3,000 or so Catholics, we can't serve each one individually and survive to 65. - Matthew P. Schneider, LC Wed, 26 Sep 2012 05:55:32 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13545 All that is wrong with our beloved church can and must be cured with the HOLY ROSARY.It may seem so irrelevant,but I am not the one promoting the cure.Our HOLY MOTHER asked this from us when her SON sent HER to FATIMA in 1917. This is a mandate from GOD HIMSELF. - chris Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:24:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13544 Senex - agree with you a hundred percent. One of the issues in the US Church is not viewing the full consequences of a concept. If one teaches that abortion is immoral then one should offer women an viable alternative. If one introduces RCIA then everything else in the parish has to shift accordingly to fully use the great power that lies in the RCIA. If there is a papacy then there must be a routine way of getting papal teaching to every last member of the Church - Fr. Bramwell Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:13:00 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13542 Fr. Bramwell -- I agree with you about the religious orders. The papacy has been tirelessly teaching against philosophical modernism since modernism first appeared; many religious orders for a long time considered themselves a second or counter-Magisterium. I hold back from naming a few of the more egregious offenders. Still, the care of the general Church falls to the bishops and diocesan clergy -- who didn't act sufficiently well when heterodoxy appeared, who acquiesced to laity when they should have been teaching them, and who did nothing about Land-o-Lakes or the HV scandal. But it should be pointed out the laity have tolerated and, in many cases, fostered the lax climate. So now we laity have to pray and sacrifice that the priests can rise to the Holy Father's requests for the New Evangelization, for his requests are His requests. - Dave Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:58:52 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13532 What we forget is that Christ did NOT "blend in with the culture" and certainly did NOT "not make waves", everywhere he went. Our Lord was accused of eating and drinking with the low class "taxmen and fallen women"; not keeping the sabbath; and starting local dissention among the people against their church. We have all fallen into the trap of aquiesance and tolerance of the secular in the hopes of gaining their trust and bringing them into the fold. This has backfired on us so that we now find ourselves more secularized than they sacred. This leads me to think that a more authentic Christ must be presented in our liturgy. A Christ of love for the underpreviledged, etc., is a must, but also the Christ who was impatient with smuggness, piety and pride should also be shown. The Christ who came to save "those who had been lost", was a warrior on our behalf and not just a child loving, peace giving or healing man. The Christ who tore through the temple with a whip was not showing us that he was just a peaceful man either. Christ was not ready to aquiese to, nor be tolerant of secularism, why are we so ready to do both? - mary Sun, 23 Sep 2012 23:56:42 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13530 my dear Manfred,Sister Lucia,one of the three children that was told by our HOLY MOTHER about HER son's chastisement, passed away in 2005. FATHER,continue your chastisement.please though,LORD, in the name of YOUR SON,JESUS CHRIST be merciful. - chris Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:38:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13527 David I appreciate your comments about religious but history is against you I am afraid. As a really general comment that will not be just to everyone I think that religious, except for some to be found in the more recent orders, have as much to answer for as other clergy. - Fr. Bramwell Sun, 23 Sep 2012 13:29:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13525 Fr Bramwell -- thanks: I remember last Sunday's article! And I agree with your article here, too: we have been ill-served by senior clergy, going back decades. The Land-o-Lakes Agreement was a key capitulation, as was the acquiescence -- or was it that, or something else -- to the dissent around Humanae Vitae. Cardinal O'Boyle was told -- by Rome -- to stand down from his defense of HV and his disciplining of dissenting clergy. Roe v. Wade came our way in just about the same timeframe. And the principles that animating Land-o-Lakes had been taught and learned by those who became senior clergy long before they were prelates. All this of course takes us back to Leo XIII and his dire warnings about Americanism and modernism -- warnings that were blithely ignored. Still -- we laity get the clergy we deserve: we need to pray for our holy priests and religious, for those who are not so holy, and for the young, that they may respond to the call; and we need to let our bishops know we will work and pray patiently with those shepherds seeking to change things -- for change does not come quickly. - Dave Sun, 23 Sep 2012 11:16:35 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13523 I've never understood the shocked Catholic reaction that followed Washington's actions this past January. The Church has been ceding ground for decades. It's depressing to hear a life-long Catholic (and I'm a convert) say that her previous pastor didn't want to run a parochial school. Perhaps ending all war forever and ever; creating a nuclear-free world that, you know, won't have war for ever and ever; and ending poverty while opposing economic development and building giant pinwheels has to be more interesting. Where does it say anywhere that Mankind would create Peace. And as we abort our country into senescence Church leaders do not want to hurt the feelings of the President or his unthinking and unfeeling supporters. When you read Paul you don't get the impression that diplomacy was high on his list of concerns, yet many of his successors appear to be a diplomatic corp more comfortable at Foggy Bottom than the pulpit (which has become a dusty piece of furniture anyway). There are Sundays when I enter Mass late and leave as soon as I've received the Sacrament. It isn't because I want to. I want to avoid an occasion of sin. At least in thought. Perhaps this is what Blessed Fulton J. Sheen and others refer to when speaking of "suffering in the Church." How many good servants have been driven away? You read yet another call in the Sunday bulletin for eucharistic ministers or lectors or other work in the parish but hesitate. You simply never know what kind of response or attitude you will meet. You pray, you go to Mass. But it doesn't seem much like a community -- another word I'm weary of seeing and hearing. At some point you have to make a connection between Church insiders' obsessions and the alienation and decline you see around you. As for ceding ground -- ever tried to find an open church when you wanted to pray somewhere other than your bedroom or on a walk? The Church is closed even to its own people. The Adoration Chapel is critical but does all prayer have to be organized by the Church? It was the one thing I liked about New York -- there was always a side chapel you could duck into when you needed to get away. But I bet every parish in this archdiocese has a robust recycling program... - Graham Combs Sun, 23 Sep 2012 09:36:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13522 Dave my last column was on discipleship. This time I have tried to put it in the ecclesial context. The Catholic Church could have made this nation a much better one if it had not largely decided to simply acquiesce to the things that occupy the culture and to not go beyond them. Some people write about a new religion - it happens in many countries - that really mixes sacred and secular elements so that the churches blend in with the culture and do not make waves. - Fr. Bramwell Sun, 23 Sep 2012 07:06:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13520 Father, if I may, it strikes me that rather than being an institution, the Church is a society within a society; and, like any society, is supported by internal institutions that give structure and direction to its movement. Mr. Mayeux's comments are interesting, but, sadly, the number of religious orders and congregations that have not been faithful to the Magisterium, and to the person and office of the Holy Father, are legion. The Church and all of her institutions -- her organs of governance, her religious orders, congregations and institutes, her exterior works of mercy (hospitals and schools, chiefly) exist for one purpose and one purpose only: to introduce people to Jesus Christ in the fulness of His Gospel and to the sacraments that conform us to Him. This includes giving people the formation to pick up the Cross and follow him -- to engage in ways of knowing God, the world and self that are counter-intuitive and that cut against our desire for comfort -- a comfort which, in the end, is nothing more than stasis. We have allowed the institutions to become ends in themselves; and we have allowed ourselves to become dependent upon and therefore captive to public largesse -- through direct and indirect grants, through tax breaks, and other mechanisms -- in order to finance the operation of our institutions. Most notably, and harkening back to the infamous Land-o-Lakes Statement, we have given in to human respect. Thus we are acting against our own raison d'etre and only its rediscovery will help us clear the cobwebs and pick up the Cross. Our Lord said those who were not against Him were for Him. He also said those who were not for Him were against Him. We clearly are living in times that harken to the latter saying, and so we Christians -- laity too, and, perhaps, laity especially, for we get the priests we deserve -- need to step up to the plate and pay the price of discipleship, come what may. - Dave Sun, 23 Sep 2012 04:01:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13519 The Blessed Mother, after they had been prepared for a year by the guardian angel of Portugal, appeared on July 13, 1917 and showed three young children a vision of Hell and souls and devils in it. The point: Hell exists, people's souls go there. Devotion to Our Lady of Fatima flourished for forty years. In 1957, one of these children, now Carmelite Sister Lucia, told Fr. Fuentes, her confessor, that "a Divine punishment was imminent." Shortly, a theory of Hell was introduced by certain theologians (Rahner?) that: "while we have to believe that Hell exists, we do not have to believe that anyone is sent there." This deliberately contraverts the message of Fatima. We live in the period of "diabolical disorientation" which Lucia also foretold. As Fr. Bramwell points out so well "Many people have been entrusted to us. We will answer for how we serve them." In my opinion, the punishment of the leadership of the last sixty years will be horrific. - Manfred Sun, 23 Sep 2012 04:00:30 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13517 Father, Well, if all those priests have been praying the Liturgy of the Hours and thus reading Augustine's Sermon on Pastors of late, they wouldn't need to be reminded of their duties! But I wonder if your keen insight on this, in part, stems from your consecration to an order of priests and brothers. While all priests carry the obligations you mention by virtue of their Holy Orders, belonging to an order such as the OMI, a Benedictine Abbey, Augustinians, Dominican or Friars Minor, etc, by vows of obedience to a Rule of life gives priests the discipline and perspective to see exactly what your writing on. St Benedict's Rule comes particularly to my mind for it frequently exhorts the Abbot to care for his flock, reminding him that he shall answer not only for himself, but for all the brothers in his care at the Judgment. - David Mayeux Sun, 23 Sep 2012 02:30:33 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13515 No there is no joy comparable to that which the truly poor in spirit experience." "Hay worker throws flowers on my lap,perhaps believing these will inspire poetic thoughts" "I do not have the joy of FAITH ,I am trying to carry out the works anyway" -ST Therese, (Our little flower) "help us Priests,so that we can remain the person beside the persons entrusted to us IN THIS DARK NIGHTS." Father you provoked my memorys of reading "our little flowers" words of her "Dark Night of the soul",Do we have a Country suffering from a "Dark Night" of the Soul? Father I read your article x3, it was so riveting! I want to thankyou for saying what you said so plainly, just as St Therese would have. Lord we all seek spiritual perfection? NO we do Not! WE HAVE SOLD OUT AND WE NEED TO COME BACK TO OUR LORD! God bless,Have a wonderful sunday all. Jack - Jack,CT Sun, 23 Sep 2012 01:15:35 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/picking-the-low-hanging-fruit.html#comment-13514 A good place to start might be to re-emphasize the idea of the territorial ministry. In France, it is common for a priest to distinguish between his parishioners and his congregation, the former including everyone living in his parish.In this way, he acknowledges that he owes duties to both. - Michael Paterson-Seymour Sun, 23 Sep 2012 01:03:13 +0100