Saturday, March 06, 2004

From the Pew -- Commentary: Reviving a parish culture:

"Of course, no good deed or good intention goes unpunished. While the majority of the parishioners have applauded him for his innovations and openness, critical letters have been have been written to diocesan officials. Speakers who are obviously not Catholic enough for some tastes, portions of his sermons with which the doctrinal police take issue, his handling of personnel matters, an alleged “takeover” by newlinflameded lay people have all been duly reported."

Ha! VOTF people have it right back at you, these letters are lay involvement. Thpersonnelll and "takeover" issues sound bogus, but there is no excuse for the other two. Exciting people doesn't excuse doctrinal softness, because if you inflame people but send them off in the wrong direction it was likely better you were never there in the first place. Progress has to be progress towards the good, the true and the holy to be profitable, not just progress towards excitement. There are plenty of great speakers out there who arcertifiablelyly Catholic, and to manage to inflame questions of heterodoxy in one's sermons one most try pretty hard or be completely unschooled in what orthodoxy is.

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