I received a couple of comments about errors in my blog of June 6. I have made sure that the link to The Catherine of Siena Institute is correct and I added a link to Jim Herrington's blog. As you can see I've put them both here as well. Refer to the blog of June 6 for the original context.
I haven't posted anything recently because I was made pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish and I'm still settling into my new role.
Also, please pray for my father who was married this past Friday. His wife's name (my stepmother) is Diane.
Please feel free to leave a comment if there are any questions or issues you'd like to see my address. In particular I want to address what the mission of the lay person is and how best they can discover and prepare for that mission.
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The Jim Harrington blog is interesting. I went back to see the definition of a "cultural Christian" and do see that in many main stream protestant church's and see some in the Catholic Church, but more on parish the parish level than in church doctrine. From the brief parts of what I read in his blogg, what he is looking far is in our faith (Catholicism).
You asked about the role of the Laity in Ministry. To the young adults I instruct in Faith Formation and in Confirmation, at the beginingand through out the year I instruct them that they are the body of Christ. That it is through their involment within the various parish ministries that the work and message of our Savior is accomplished and spead. Futher that they must spread his word far beyond the boundries of the parish and into their daily lives.
We often ask for ministers, but I believe in the minds of most people that they see it just as another job that needs to be done and they don't have the time, instead of them seeing that their work is part of the mission of Christ. It has been a hard message to get out to the faithful that the work of the church is not in the hands of the priest, deacons and sister, but in theirs. This is a matter of continual education as well as exiting ministers being open and welcoming.
I know at Mt. Carmel we have been lacking in adult Faith Formation. This is a opportunity that we have been working to remedy but only in the past couple of years. We have had some success, but also complaints for parents having to attend the session given as part of the Faith Formation with their childrem.
I think this is were the idea of "culteral Christianty" comes into play with the faithfull. Not that the Church is trying to bend it's doctrine, but that individuals don't want any more involvment that just an hour on Sunday.
I do fault the Church in the past, and do applaud the Pope for saying and putting the Catholic back at the top as the one true church of Christ. I think we have Catholics have not fullfilled this mission of evangelization for several reasons, and one is that it has not been heard from the Magisterium. As a result the idea has set in that one church is just as good as another and "shopping around" has become a habit leading to many of the faithfull becoming "culteral Christians"
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