Manly Catholicism
Posted by: tony on 05/14/2009 01:00 AM
Updated by: tony on 05/14/2009 01:00 AM
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Expires: 06/14/2009 12:00 AM
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The political liberals have spent so much time trying to eliminate gender roles, that they have completely lost what appeals to authentic men with regard to worshiping God.
Todd Flowerday writes:
Some in the blogsphere have argued that traditional Catholicism and its trappings would be more appealing to men, but there’s no evidence men congregated in churches any more fifty years ago than they do today.
Since the "traditional Catholic trappings" were all that the men were exposed to fifty years ago, there's not a lot to compare it to. Church attendance as a rule was up by a substantial amount. I know that correlation does not equal causation, but it would seem to me that if we had a massive decline in church attendance after changing the liturgy dramatically, one would look there for the reasons for lack of attendance.
One thing I do know is that the number of men who are attracted to the priesthood have declined in the past fifty years. And that is declining ratios to the number of Catholics who need to be served. One wonders what has perpetrated this decline. It doesn't suffice to say that it's because priests can't marry, they have not been able to marry for generations. It must be something else.
When you see seminaries bursting at the seams in dioceses led by orthodox bishops, and vocations withering on the vine in dioceses where the bishop plays fast and loose with the rubrics, the reason presents itself.
I wondered if manly religious folks would offer something like camo cassocks or clergy wear. I searched the web for fifteen minutes looking for stuff like that, but I found far more outlets for women’s clerical wear. And one guy (not the pope!) dressed in a white cappa with dark shades.
This is silliness. Some of the manliest men I know dress in kilts. And some of the manliest priests I know sport cassocks. But I figure Todd might be snarkily poking fun at priests in traditional garb. I guess he likes his priests in polo shirts and shorts and his nuns in pantsuits.
Real men, I suspect, want something with depth, not the peripheral frillery offered by the reform2 movement.
Todd seems to believe that "peripheral frillery" is all that is offered by the "reform2" (reform of the "reform") movement. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cancerous "spirit" of Vatican II has turned our focus away from God, and onto ourselves. We have gone from a Jesus who challenged us to put aside our sinful ways and turn toward Him and grow toward holiness to a Jesus who doesn't judge us, and loves us all unconditionally no matter what we do. Jesus doesn't challenge us to be better, and men want to be challenged to become better men.
Real men want the Mass that Jesus gave us. Not some watered-down, kumbaya feeling-fest. Men want to follow other rightous men. Men don't want to glue together felt banners. Men want to see a suffering Jesus on the cross, who gave up His life for those he loves. Men want to follow that example of Jesus. Men want to see images of the saints like Sebastian shot full of arrows, or Stephen stoned to death, or Ignatius of Antioch eaten by lions.
Men want to sing songs about worshipping God, striving and succeeding, men like chanting Latin with other men. Men want to be nourished with the true body of Christ on their knees.
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