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Monday, February 7, 2011
It is a well known phenomenon that children of immigrants with a minority language, culture and religion will lose that language, culture and religion within the first 2 or 3 generations in a new country.
How much of that phenomenon can be used to explain the choice of so many of today’s Americans to change or abandon their religion of origin?
Many aging parents blame themselves for the religious choices of their offspring and wonder what they could have done differently to influence those choices.
What is often missing is a realization that the very culture we live in puts Christianity and in particular Catholicism, in the position of being an unsupported minority religion within an alien culture.
We are immigrants in our own country.
Where We Have Been
One hundred years ago, parishes were local and in many cases, ethnic. People lived within walking distance of their church, parochial schools were affordable even to those with large families, and a majority of the parishioners came from the same ethnic background, which influenced and colored the feasts and festivals throughout the year.
One hundred years ago, parishes were local and in many cases, ethnic. People lived within walking distance of their church, parochial schools were affordable even to those with large families, and a majority of the parishioners came from the same ethnic background, which influenced and colored the feasts and festivals throughout the year.
Lack of modern transportation and communication technology meant that many raised their children in the same neighborhood in which they themselves grew up. To leave the religion of one’s childhood meant leaving an entire cultural and familial experience.
Today things are so different as to be almost unrecognizable. Church shopping is de regueur with the ease of transportation and internet research possibilities. At the same time, it is often difficult to find a comfortable parish home in part because of the lack of common cultural ties among its parishioners.
Feast days are no longer a time for bringing parishioners together because many are on the road travelling to visit far off family members, and feeling out of place worshipping in their parishes, or, often, desperately Googling Mass times for a strange city, hoping to get to Mass with a minimum of “good-natured” teasing from family members.
Catholicism today is becoming a minority religion in America. Culturally it is an accepted practice to publically demonize the Church either in a veiled way through humor or in a more direct way through endless posting, forwarding and discussing the bottomless pit of negative stories about the Church in the media. This would be unthinkable in the same circles with other religions.
Where We are Headed
Pope Benedict XVI has said that he thinks the future of Catholicism will be stronger but smaller, and I agree. The cultural supports that held it in place a century ago just do not exist anymore, and the current challenges are many and severe. Christianity is a way of life. Those who cannot abide its precepts will not stay in the Church merely out of respect for its culture. Those who do stay must do all they can to follow the teachings of Christ and become Christ to others.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that he thinks the future of Catholicism will be stronger but smaller, and I agree. The cultural supports that held it in place a century ago just do not exist anymore, and the current challenges are many and severe. Christianity is a way of life. Those who cannot abide its precepts will not stay in the Church merely out of respect for its culture. Those who do stay must do all they can to follow the teachings of Christ and become Christ to others.
Dangers
What we need to guard against, though, is the temptation to become more aggressive as we feel more isolated. The challenge will be to insist upon respect for our beliefs while still giving respect to others for theirs. Jesus would do no less and expects no less of us.
What we need to guard against, though, is the temptation to become more aggressive as we feel more isolated. The challenge will be to insist upon respect for our beliefs while still giving respect to others for theirs. Jesus would do no less and expects no less of us.
Solutions
To make Christianity into a political weapon is to enter into dangerous territory that Jesus never intended for His followers. Individual political issues should be pondered thoroughly and debated calmly and rationally. To use coercion of any kind as an excuse for converting others is dangerous and decidedly anti-Christian.
To make Christianity into a political weapon is to enter into dangerous territory that Jesus never intended for His followers. Individual political issues should be pondered thoroughly and debated calmly and rationally. To use coercion of any kind as an excuse for converting others is dangerous and decidedly anti-Christian.
Prayer and confession are powerful. Beginning with poverty of spirit and true humility, they connect us with God and help to clarify His will. Prayer and the Sacraments will help us to navigate these difficult and rapidly changing times as we see Christianity go from being a part of the cultural air we breathe, to being an almost underground, or at least, a type of second-class culture within the larger culture which seems to be built around rebelling against its values.
Christianity is needed now more than ever.
Labels: Catholicism, Christianity
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