Papal Visit Brings Out Dissenters

Various dissident groups within the Church are preparing to use Pope Benedict’s visit to promote their pet causes. And, although the media are blowing it out of proportion, I’d wager that many of these groups are pretty small and graying. The tactics to grab attention are funny, but demonstrate a certain desperation, kind of like saying “hey, notice me…please!!!” For example, a group of women promoting priestesses is giving Benedict, for his birthday, the gift of “women.” Of course, Benedict has that in abundance in the form of the many female saints, martyrs, faithful theologians, nuns, sisters, and everyday Catholics. Of course, they don’t count for many feminists.

What bothers me the most is how some think the Church is a democracy subject to whims of activism and advocacy. The silly tactics to draw attention to pet causes simply seem cheesy and are definitely out of line for God’s one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. I’m sure many of these protesters would be shocked that some of us actually love the Church and strive for obedience. Although it is tempting to get upset at these dissenters, we must remember that for every angry protester there will be hundreds if not thousands of Catholics who are proud to see the holy father visit our great country and many more non-Catholics who will perhaps look deeper into the Faith.

Source:

Unruly Americans Vie for Attention (from National Catholic Reporter, aptly titled)

This entry was posted on April 9, 2008 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Catholic, General. Tagged: , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Papal Visit Brings Out Dissenters”

  1. asimplesinner Says:
    April 9, 2008 at 4:08 pm

    These folks simply don’t win… and more than a few of their number are getting grey and disenfranchised. Catholic youth - if they are going to bother with faith at all - aren’t going to jump on the “Call to Action” bandwagon. Don’t take my word for it, let’s go on a roadtrip to some of the many burgeoning seminaries in the US that are packed with young, healthy, dedicated, Mom-lovin’, apple-pie eatin’, Pope-respectin’, rosary prayin’, young guys.

    We will always have dissenters. They will always get some press. I haven’t really found them to wield the influence they fancy they do… What influence they had is weigning, and even when it was in full swing, for a lot of it, it could be called out by the book for what it was - illicit abuses.

    (I think of whole diocese that for a decade or more had parishes that baked their own communion bread, used unapproved eucharistic prayers, and allowed the non-ordained to adopt liturgical positions suggesting concelebration.)

    Protestors just don’t move or inspire me all that much. If anything, I often wonder how they have so much free time.

  2. Scott Says:
    April 9, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    asimplesinner,

    Yeah, Voice of the Faithful is another group. They had a full page ad in the NY Times yesterday. They claim 35,000 members.

  3. asimplesinner Says:
    April 9, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    35K members out of a Church with 65+ Million?

    Honestly, little secret here - getting $10 from each of those members, or $100 from 10% of them is going to afford you a nice $350,000 newspaper ad. I can’t imagine a full page add would be much more than that during a weekday… Anyone know?

    But 35,000 members…. I am not impressed.

  4. Scott Says:
    April 9, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    Yes, that’s what I meant…a small number.

  5. asimplesinner Says:
    April 9, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    Eh, it is a function of representation… Now if I could get all 35,000 members to agree to direct deposit $5 of their paycheck every two weeks into my bank account… I would be a little more impressed by it…

    Hey VOF members, would you be interested in impressing me?

  6. Jason S Says:
    April 10, 2008 at 9:09 am

    Simple:

    That gives me and idea…we need to get you in a suit with some slicked-back hair and some moving organ music and have us a Telethon (’tis the season it seems.)

    “With out your help, they’re gonna PULL PER CHRISTUM OFF THE SERVERS! For just pennies a day you can keep this blog on the ‘Net! And if you call now, you’ll this month’s love gift: a Per Christum Can Cozie, suitable for holding your favorite sub-standard malt beverage!”

  7. asimplesinner Says:
    April 10, 2008 at 11:37 am

    I was thinking we would go the classier PBS route and offer tacky canvass totes with out logo on it for love offerings of $100 or more. $200 or more you get the tote AND an apron.

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