Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

WCR Letters to the Editor

Faith must be practised

However, I believe that this issue signals an even larger and more urgent crisis in the Catholic Church today in our part of the world, a problem that, unfortunately, we have barely dealt with at all.

The real crisis that we face is that at least 75 per cent of Catholic youth do not practise their faith in any way. To see this crisis first hand, all one needs do is visit any Catholic high school, and witness the vast numbers of students on whose lives the Church has little to no impact.

And the main reason they have disassociated themselves from the Church: irrelevance. They do not see what God, Jesus, the Bible, the sacraments, have to do with their lives. This having been the case for a number of years now, the problem has become generational: the vast majority of baptized Catholics do not practise their faith.

Of course, this crisis is at the root of a number of problems the Church suffers today, not the least of which is the vocation shortage. God is indeed calling many young people to the priesthood, but because they are not in Church, they are not living in a context from which they can hear that call. In fact, we will not likely see them in Church again until they come back to us years later - to have their own children baptized.

So this is the real crisis. And this crisis is serious, it is urgent, it is an emergency. However, urgent though it is, at this time, very little is being done to combat the problem. Old models and conventions and ways of thinking, which may have worked for us but are clearly not working any longer, are still the dominant practice.

And the general feeling of resignation about the problem, and of judgmental displeasure at those dismissively regarded as "C & E Catholics," only pushes them further away.

In this crisis, each and every practising Catholic has a role in finding the solution. It will require adopting new understandings of liturgy, new focus on community, new ways of making personnel decisions, and new emphasis on relevance in preaching and on equipping Catholic teachers to answer the questions our young people are asking.

It will require that we make room for all of our disenfranchised brothers and sisters, not only in our churches, but in our minds and hearts. This is our calling. This is how God calls us today, each and every one of us, to go forth and spread the Gospel to a new generation.

Fr. Mike Mireau
St. Theresa's Parish
Edmonton

Are there no workhouses?

Indeed, I, usually a social conservative with a Christian background, believe that Christ sadly shakes his head when he sees how many "Christians" are neglecting society's most needy.

Those who are familiar with the teachings of Christ will know that he, although not a sexual liberal, is biblically described as being as far from capitalist-minded as one could be: During his physical existence, he despised gratuitous wealth and taught that one should acquire only that which one needs to live; also, he was an adamant proponent of his disciples selling their assets and giving the proceeds to the poor.

From my perspective, too large a portion of Christians is capitalistic and somewhat callous towards society's most needy. Some hold the belief that God blesses his people with the right to own three cars, a swimming pool; that everyone is responsible for him or herself, and that one only need become a Christian and ask God for what one needs. This despite Christ's teachings that God gives to the needy through his followers; and it's not enough for Christians to give a certain small portion of their earnings to their churches and then go home feeling they've done their moral share.

Without doubt, capitalist Christians can be enough to make many cynical about the faith.

Author Charles Dickens expressed his dismay with such Christians through his delightfully-sarcastic novel Oliver Twist. One of its pompous characters, Mr. Bumble, the headmaster of a poor house who also professes to be Christian, treats his impoverished subjects with contempt while he feasts on steaks with oyster sauce and porter.

And after a starving, homeless man with his wife and large family come to him seeking assistance, Mr. Bumble states indignantly to a colleague: "Give 'em a apron full of coals today, and they'll come back for another the day after tomorrow, as brazen as alabaster."

The day after the hungry family man warns that he'll starve to death in the street - an act which Mr. Bumble forbids him to carry out - Mr. Bumble notes that "he went away; and he did die in the streets. There's a obstinate pauper for you!"

I hope society is not returning to such inhumane times as written about by Dickens. More "Christians" - to a large extent, myself included - need to get back to the Christian basics: Care for one another as you'd care for yourself.

However, rather than rightfully valuing people and their efforts based on each one's needs and capabilities, capitalism is saying: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

Frank Sterle, Jr.
White Rock, B.C.

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