Newspaper Page Text
September 18,1980
PAGE 5
What Do People Want From Parishes?
BY FATHER PHILIP J. MURNION
When the U.S. bishops decided in 1977 to
establish a special project on parish life, one
writer suggested that the project conduct
hearings to find out what people want from
parishes. In point of fact, however, people
have expressed their hopes and concerns for
parishes in many ways.
They have spoken through various
national, diocesan and parish polls and
4. This brings up another point. People
say they want priests and other parish staff
member who are open and understanding.
In one diocese where parishioners are
consulted about the qualities they would
consider important in a new pastor, they
regularly choose warmth and a sense of
humor as most important. Apparently they
feel that good relationships among the
pastor, the parish staff and the parishioners
benefit the whole parish.
Discussion
Points And Questions
1. After reading Father Philip Mumion’s article, list and discuss two
areas in which people want help from their parishes.
2. What do you look for in your parish? Do you know of others who
seek something a bit different from a parish?
3. What is the significance of the story Father John O’Callaghan tells
about the man whose wife dies? What is surprising about the tale?
4. What comparison does Father O’Callaghan make between the
Eucharist and daily food?
5. Why did the first Christian churches meet in homes, according to
Father Castelot?
6. When did St. Paul found the church at Corinth? Why does Father
John Castelot call Corinth the “cesspool” of the Roman Empire?
7. In what way were the Christians of Corinth similar to Christians
today?
surveys as well as in national conventions
and countless discussion groups on many
levels.
What points have people been making
about parishes?
1. Many people have said they want
parish activities that will engage them much
more personally. They may ask for more
home Masses and for help in developing a
spirituality that fits their lives. Or they may
look for opportunities to reflect on the Bible
and for groups of people who pray together.
2. A lot of people hope their parishes will
be able to help with matters very close at
hand: family life and raising children.
Family life often is difficult these days. It is
of such concern that it is the focus of the
international Synod of Bishops which meets
in Rome this fall.
People say they look for help on how to
make their family lives more stable, more
nourishing and more loving. And they want
help with their children; the gradual revival
of youth ministry in parishes is a testimony
to the concern people have about this.
Jiiieie die peupie wno say iney judge a
parish by the. quality of its liturgy and
preaching. Liturgy must offer them a real
possibility for contact with God and for
hearing God’s word in such a way that it
touches their own lives.
Catholics generally support liturgical
changes, but they yearn for a more truly
religious experience in liturgy. The quality
of music can enhance this experience, but
the manner of the priest who celebrates the
liturgy also makes a difference.
Many people seek out parishes other than
their own on Sunday, parishes whose liturgy
and preaching they prefer. This fact argues
against the claim that people no longer care
5. There is a hope on the part of many
people that parishes will reach out to those
who are alienated - those who have strayed
away from the church or who have suffered
some severe loss in their lives.
In one region, parishioners listed ministry
to the divorced and separated and ministry
to single-parent families as the areas most in
need of greater attention in their parishes. It
seems they want the parish to offer
reconciliation and hope to people in need.
6. In some areas, people say they want
their parishes to be active partners in the
promotion of justice. This is particularly
true in poorer parishes. Some remarkable
efforts have been undertaken by parishes to
deal with issues such as health care and
housing, education and job training.
What people want from their parishes is
neither novel nor surprising. They want to
see the love of Christ enfleshed in action.
They want to be helped to live the life of
Christ despite the barrage of temptations
and suggestions to do otherwise.
Many parishioners also say they want
^respect -for their owh' lives < and views.
Perhaps they want to be involved in
decision-making and parish work; often they
say they want neither to be regarded as the
mere recipients of services provided by
professionals nor as anonymous individuals
to be mobilized around a cause.
It has been my experience consistently
that when parishioners feel a parish is vital
to their lives, the pastor and other parish
ministers are spending endless hours trying
to make the parish vital.
These ministers consider the work of the
parish their life. As taxing as this effort is, it
serves as evidence that people are important
and that the mission of the parish is urgent.
lheir Brothers Keeper
BY FATHER JOHN J. O’CALLAGHAN, S.J.
It was close to midnight at Dulles
International Airport outside Washington, D.
C. I was one of a group of about 20 people
who had come to see a friend off for home.
Observers might have noted that few of
us could speak to this friend: We didn’t
share his native Spanish, nor he our English.
Three weeks before, he had arrived in the
United States with his wife seeking expert
medical treatment for her grave illness. He
had known no one, but had a contact with
me as a friend of a friend. Within two weeks
his wife had succumbed to the cancer that
was eating at her brain.
Going home, he was accompanied only
by a coffin. But he was surrounded by
friends.
The human sadness of his wife’s death
was terrible and very real. But the
community that had formed around this
man in a few short weeks was also real - and
profoundly comforting.
It had happened unexpectedly. I had
mentioned the couple’s plight from a pulpit,
asking the prayers of the parish. Inside two
hours people had called offering prayers -
and much more: a place in their home for
the husband during his wife’s
hospitalization, an apartment for their use
during what was expected to be her long
convalescence, transportation and still more.
I was dumbstruck by this outpouring of
KNOW
YOUR
FAITH
(All Articles on this page
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care from “strangers.” It never abated, all
the way to the midnight departure.
As we embraced at the gate, the man
whispered huskily, his eyes filled with tears,
“Look, Father John, at these people! Three
weeks ago I knew no one - now these are
my friends!”
Some days later at a parish liturgy we
were singing, “They’ll know we are
Christians by our love!” It struck me that
what had happened during those weeks had
dramatically brought into focus what we
ought to expect of a eucharistic people.
Catholics take part in a sacrament which
is meant to nourish their lives. It ought to
make a difference.
If someone loses weight and strength
despite regular nourishing food, it is clear
that something is wrong with his or her
assimilation process.
Similarly, if others do not know us by
our love, as earlier Christians were known,
then we ought to ask whether our reception
of the Eucharist is “working;” whether this
food is building up our Christian strength
and helping us love “the brother we can
see.” For this is the Apostle John’s test of
whether we really love “the God we cannot
see.”
Pope John Paul said it loud and clear in
Brazil last July: The Eucharist “signifies and
achieves removal of all that divides
people . . . (and) thus becomes the great
instrument for them to become close to each
other. Whenever the faithful partake in it
with a sincere heart, they cannot fail to
receive a fresh impulse toward relating better
to each other.”
I think I have seen the Eucharist fail to
make a difference. I have experienced myself
as cranky, intolerant and self-centered after
sharing the Eucharist. Many people have run
into examples of “devout” communicants
who are holy terrors at home and at work!
But I think I have seen lives changed by
the Eucharist, too. I have watched parish
congregations grow in the awareness that
they are indeed “their brother’s keeper.”
I have seen programs start in Eucharist
communities, reaching out to the young, the
old, the divorced, the alienated. I have felt
the tangible and growing concern of the well
for the sick, the haves for the have-nots, the
befriended for the lonely.
And I’ve stood at an airport departure
gate among a real community of friends.
THROUGH VARIOUS POLLS, surveys and hearings,
many people have expressed what they would like to see in
their parish. The responses include a desire for parish
activities that will engage them much more personally, such
as Bible discussions and prayer groups. (NC Photo by Ken
Touchton)
Why Paul Wrote To The Corinthians
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
The churches Paul founded on his
missionary journeys were relatively small,
small enough to meet in private homes for
the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and
other community affairs. Larger cities
probably had several such house churches.
Until the early fourth century, as far as
the Roman Empire was concerned
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icueiuii,
Christianity was an outlav
underground movement of sorts. So for
Christians to build a church publicly-could
have invited disaster.
The people of the Pauline churches, much
like parishioners now, represented a cross
section of the city’s social, cultural and
economic life. The church in the city of
Corinth (in what we call Greece), surely was
one of the most typical and interesting of
the Pauline churches.
Paul started this community around the
year 51, toward the end of his second
missionary journey. During this eventful
trip, he revisited churches founded on the
first journey and picked up a new and
faithful companion, Timothy.
A serious, most unpleasant illness forced
Paul to stop in Galatia, in the region now
known as Turkey. However, he took
advantage of this opportunity to found a
church there.
Led by the Spirit, Paul then swung west
(toward Greece) and started communities in
Philippi and Thessalonica, in spite of fierce
opposition. He could not get his foot in the
door at Berea, and the politely cold reaction
of the urbane Athenians was the last straw.
Despite some successes along the way,
Paul was tired and he must have been a bit
depressed. Corinth would be his point of
departure for home, and it was hardly the
type of city to raise his spirits.
Corinth was.a cesspool of immorality, the
sin city of the empire. Paul decided not to
stay long. But God had other plans. In his
own mysterious way, God encouraged Paul
to preach the Good News in Corinth. The
result was a sojourn of about 18 months.
If Corinth was lively, so were Paul’s
converts. The population seems to have been
roughly a third Roman citizens, a third
freedmen and a third slaves. The church was
a mixture of rich and poor and those
between; educated and simple; Jew and
Gentile.
Judging from the account in Acts 18,
even Paul’s non-Jewish converts came at first
by way of the synagogue. Accordingly, they
had a knowledge of the Old Testament and
could understand Paul’s allusions to the
Scriptures.
Paul corresponded with the Corinthians
while in the city of Ephesus on the third
missionary journey. This important city was
just across the Aegean Sea from Corinth in
what we now call Turkey.
Paul got news that the Corinthian church
was having serious problems. He wrote a
letter to which he refers in 1 Corinthians
5:9. Presumed lost, part of that letter may
actually be included in 2 Corinthians
Persistent bad news occasioned another,
more detailed letter - what is now known as
1 Corinthians. The reaction to this missive
was alarming so Paul decided to make a
quick personal visit to Corinth. That turned
out to be a near disaster.
While back in Corinth, Paul was insulted
and deeply hurt. On his return to Ephesus he
wrote a scorching letter, to which he refers
in 2 Corinthians 2:3,9. This, too, appears to
be lost, although many scholars feel that
part of it has been preserved in 2 Corinthians
10-13.
Then, forced to leave Ephesus, Paul met
Titus, the bearer of the “bitter letter” and
learned to his relief and joy that the letter
had brought the Corinthians to their senses.
This good news prompted him to write what
is known now as 2 Corinthians.
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“AS WE EMBRACED at the gate, the man whispered
huskily, his eyes filled with tears, ‘Look, John at these
people! Three weeks ago I knew no one -- now these are my
friends!”’ (NC Sketch by Christopher McDonough)
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