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diff --git a/data/pages/en/article/1955-the_american_parish/text.txt b/data/pages/en/article/1955-the_american_parish/text.txt index b360b1d..0e90c51 100644..120000 --- a/data/pages/en/article/1955-the_american_parish/text.txt +++ b/data/pages/en/article/1955-the_american_parish/text.txt @@ -1,409 +1 @@ -# The American Parish - -In a modern city parish many people do not find what they are looking -for. Many of those who are dissatisfied never voice their disappointment; -many do not even realize they are disappointed. Some put the blame -for their dissatisfaction on the pastor, the bishop or the trustee of the -Church. The pastor again and his assistants, if ever they become conscious of their people’s criticism, put the blame on their parishioners’ -unreasonable requests or ungenerous help. - -Do people look to their parish for things the parish could not offer or -does the modern city parish fundamentally not offer what it should? -More practical inquiries might be directed toward the study of methods. Here we ask the more fundamental “what” should be offered and -leave the “how” to other articles. - -Take Jose, I met him one Sunday when, during the eleven o’clock -high Mass, I went out through the main door of our Church. There I saw -him among five darkaired and bronzekinned people. From far away -you could have guessed their origin, the origin of 37% of the baptized -Catholics in New York City, Puerto Rico. Why had they come to Church -and then remained outside? Had they gone in or were they waiting for -the next Mass? They were all standing in a little group and talking lethargically. I went up to them and said “que tal” which means “Hi,” and slowly -they turned around, looking at me. After a few more words their eyes -began to sparkle. Before they had been completely unrelated to the surroundings: their dresses were almost imperceptibly differently cut from -those of the other parishioners, their language was different and while -the others were in Church they were outside. Now suddenly, through -a few Spanish words they seemed related to their surroundings. They -started to speak: they all came from Moca, a little place in the hills of that -beautiful island; they had arrived here in New York just a few weeks ago. -They had found out where the Church was, and when they looked at it -they would not believe that it was a Catholic Church: a Church had to -be in the middle of a plaza, in the middle of the village, the center of a -community. Here they had found a building with some strange pointed -arches in the middle of two tall houses right on a booming street. -The Church inside was dark, with light strangely colored from -stainedlass windows, instead of the simple, whitewashed structure— -with wide openings for windows to let in as much air as possible—that -they were used to. But they had recognized this as a Catholic church, -because, upon an inspection, they had found the picture of Our Lady -of Perpetual Help on one of the altars; and that much they knew, where -that picture was, there had to be Our Lord. They had discovered the -picture on a weekday evening, and now on Sunday they had come back -to the Church, they had wanted to go to Mass. Now why did they not go -in and follow Mass? I asked them, and got an answer which baffled me. -They said, because of the ushers. They had never been accompanied to -a pew by an usher. Oftentimes they had no pews in Church. Here they -saw parishioners paying their way into Church. They didn’t realize that -these people—or their parents—had built this church by themselves, that -they now felt responsible for its support and maintenance, that it was -not like Puerto Rico where the government had built churches until the -Americans arrived. So they had turned away from Church because of the -ushers, as one of them said; because Mass starts so much on time, the -other said, Our Lady was there, they said—but the warmth and the life -of the people seemed lacking. - -I could not help thinking back to Puerto Rico; my first Sunday there -in a big parish, in the mountains. On Saturday the pastor asked me say -Mass the next day in the mountains, in three different mission chapels -(he had twelve altogether), since he would have to say the Masses in the -main village. If there was a priest around to help out, every four weeks -Mass was said on Sunday in every chapel. The first Mass I said at about -six in the morning, after I had slept all night on the altar steps of the -chapel, then I travelled on, by horseback, to the next chapel. I heard -confessions, said Mass, baptized, married . . . and off I went to the third -chapel, on horseback still, where I arrived after noon. People were sitting -around in Church eating their bananas and chewing cane, and on the -Church steps they had lighted a little fire to cook something. They continued their conversation in Church while I heard confessions; for Mass -everybody was silent and most of them knelt on the crude floor while two -lonely dogs ran around among them, and when I started to baptize the -conversation resumed. In the evening, I was amazed at the answer I got -from the pastor, a Puerto Rican trained in a United States seminary, to my -question as to whether he thought this behavior slightly disrespectful: -Our people believe that God is their Father, and they want to behave in -Church as they behave in their Father’s house. There are no ushers in -Jose’s Father’s house. Dinner does not start on time, probably he has no -watch, he goes to Church when everybody else goes to Church. Mass is an -important happening in the family’s life—a happening which brings him -together with all his neighbors. The Church is the center of his village -even if he seldom goes into it. The rare Sunday when the priest comes to -his chapel, the Mass is a big event, even if he does not attend. He knows -almost everybody whom he meets at Mass. Mass is easily understood as -a family dinner—as the “communion” of the community. - -## Another World - -No wonder that he is confused at this big, clean, Gothic building where -an usher assigns him his place next to some unknown lady, where he -is allowed to go into Church only five minutes before Mass starts, and -has to leave as soon as Mass is over—where hardly anybody is standing -outside the Church after Mass since there is no plaza—and where there -are so many Masses that you cannot see Mass as a family dinner, a house -built around you, to suit you. - -Standing there on that cold winter morning during the eleven o’clock -high Mass, I realized how hard it will be to explain to Jose and his friends -that this is the same Church which, under another climate, appears so -very different from at home. It will be hard for Jose to understand that -he will be known to God alone in Church and hardly anybody else will -recognize him. It will be hard for him to understand that you can go to -Holy Communion every day in a Church where there are several Masses -every day, and hard, too, to understand the English Gospel the priest -reads, but even more difficult than to understand will it be for him to -feel at home in English. I might be able to make him understand some -of the features of parish life—but to understand a world is far from being -at home in it. And how strange that a man should not feel at home in -the house of his Father. How strange to each other two Catholic worlds -can be. It is not always easy to see how beautiful it is that the universal -Church can look so different in different cultures. - -Or think of Maria, Jose’s sister: she came with him to Mass, and with -him was frightened away from the Church. Now she cannot believe that -this is the communion mass of the Children of Mary. Where are their -white veils? Why do they not sing, does nobody here know the song of -Our Lady of Guadalupe? And why do people now start to come out of -Church, and without talking to each other go straight across the busy, -dirty street headed for home? Why do they not hang around and talk to -each other? Jose and his friends cannot well avoid being bewildered. - -## Dissatisfied Children - -This is but one of the many instances into which you run continually, as -a parish priest, of people who do not find in their parish what they came -to look for. Jose’s problem is not from this point of view different from the -bewilderment of the convert, who during instructions has found faith in -the reality of the Mystical Body visible in Christ’s Church—and then finds -himself socially isolated among faithful churchgoers. And it is not different from the problem of the mature layman exposed to years of sermons -taken from Father Murphy’s Three Homilies for Every Sunday Gospel—or of -the young couple recently moved into a new apartment, who had hoped to -find in the parish an atmosphere in which spiritual friendship is fostered, -and found perfect distribution of sacraments, ritual and Catholic school -education, but not the spirit they had hoped for. - -To all these this parish does not give what they expect: to Jose it -does not give the atmosphere of his home, to the convert it does not -give the new human community he thought would be a consequence of -spiritual communion, to the man yearning to grow it does not give the -adult education program he hoped for, but only an endless repetition of -what he has become insensible to through yearly recital in grade school -catechism. It forces the young couple to make their own home a shelter -for friendship without adequate help from the pastor from whom they -expect it. - -All these people come to the parish because there they find what -seems to them most important: Mass, the confessional, and catechism -for their children. Objections are directed not against the things they get, -but rather against the frame within which they get them: Mass remains -the sacrifice even if it is said quickly and adorned with a hasty sermon. -Your sins are forgiven even if the priest is too rushed to give advice—and -most people are so used to a silent confessor that they might be surprised -at an instruction. Catechism remains true even if Sister has sixty children -in her parochial school class. Marriage remains valid even if all the bride -remembers of prenuptial instruction is that an overburdened priest, in -ten minutes, asked her under oath a few strange questions, such as: had -she ever been to a psychiatrist, would she be faithful to her husband, -would she promise to avoid contraception, while at the same time he had -to answer the phone on a sick call and take care of a staggering visitor at -the door. - -Is there something which could be interpreted as a criticism of the -whole system underlying all these objectionable details? Criticism of -detail is directed mostly against the officiating priest, not against the -parish as such, and therefore is not pertinent to this discussion. - -## Criteria for Criticism - -Could it be that there is something fundamentally wrong with the parish -in modern America? And if that be so, may Christians, especially laymen, -criticize their Church, of which the unit most real to them is the parish? -Many are afraid to do so out of a double misunderstanding: they do not -distinguish between criticism and blame—and they do not distinguish -the human from the divine element in the Church. - -We cannot remain forever small children and take our parents for -granted; only after the teens can a mature love for a parent develop. It’s -the same with Mother Church: an understanding of her humanity in -her human weakness will only strengthen, not diminish our love. Those -who blame the Church mostly shrink from the personal responsibility -which grows out of the realization that we are members of the Church. -Blame is a fruit of laziness and perpetuates what is deplorable. Criticism -brings about change, either in him who criticizes or in the Church criticized. It is always the fruit of hard work and prayer. A critical attitude -toward the parish is just one of the areas in which Christian love for the -Church can develop. But since criticism is always an implicit invitation -to change, we have to pass to the second point and see to what degree the -Church, or, concretely, the parish, is subject to change. And there are two -attitudes toward change, equally unChristian, among Christians. One -is the refusal of any development. This has its roots in a deep mistrust -of human nature, as if God had not entrusted men with the power to -make His institutions practicable, as if the mandate given to the apostles -had been withdrawn. This mistrust lies in this error: necessary historical -developments are taken for divine institutions. Manade frames are -taken for divine works of art. This attitude can be remedied by the study -of theology and history. Theology will show us the seed of divine revelation and will teach us what God has done Himself; history will show us -what men have done under God. - -Opposed to the refusal of any development is the attitude of those -who always want to change, who are like children who do not want to live -in the dusty home their family built over centuries, and prefer to live in a -quickly built shack on the edges of the property. If this attitude does not -have its root in the unstable character of its proponents, it is based on an -over estimation of human inventiveness within God’s supernatural plan. -The remedy to this inclination toward inorganic and sudden changes lies -in an education toward humility. Custom always offers an assumption -for wisdom, at least practical wisdom. Criticism of the modern parish -therefore presupposes some knowledge of theology and of history, which -often becomes visible in custom. - -## Follow the Man to His House . . . to the Upper Room - -Unless we know how a country grew, we do not know what it really is -like. Unless we know what the parish was meant to be by God, and what -it looked like when men first made God’s idea visible, we will not have -the basis to judge the parish we have today. How did the parish start? -Certainly not with the apostles. - -Christ did not make the parish. He made priests, and He needed a -roof over His cenacle. (The priesthood is instituted by Christ, not the -boundaries to His priesthood, expressed in modern parish limits.) For -centuries, the Church was expanding—conscious that the end of the -world was nigh. Every bishop grazed his flock, and whenever possible -had a flock small enough that he himself could say Mass for them. The -imagery for pastoral care as well as the relationship between pastor -(the bishop was the only pastor) and his faithful was taken from the -vocabulary of shepherds, Mediterranean shepherds, who have no fixed -home and wander with their sheep from pasture to pasture—from earth -to heaven. Christians considered themselves as strangers in a strange -world, children banned from their country. The word “parish” came from -a Greek verb meaning: to live like a foreigner—to be without a home. - -## The Cenacle Among Nonhristians - -The twelve apostles found it necessary to ordain one man in every community to the fullness of the priesthood. This man, the bishop of the city, -made the rounds and celebrated the sacred mysteries in the houses of -different Christians. In the Stationhurches of Rome we have a remnant -of this usage: the oldest among them carry the names of private families, -and their name expresses nothing but the address at which the Christians -would meet for Mass. In these homes Mass would be said regularly, and -often the room in which Mass was said slowly developed into a chapel— -the family ceased to use it as a dining room and the cenacle grew into a -Church. The number of Christians too, continually was growing. Soon -one pastor, the bishop, was not enough for the community, and so we see -several popes ordaining priests—priests who would say Mass where the -bishop could not go and who would preach whenever the bishop would -not find the time to do so. Often these priests attended one particular -Church in preference to others, but we cannot yet say that they were -pastors. The bishop still was the only pastor in the city, and these priests -were his assistants. Pope Innocent I in 417 tells us that he was in the -habit of breaking his host, when saying Mass, into small fragments and -sending one of these fragments to every priest celebrating in the city of -Rome, that he might let it fall into his chalice and might realize that it -is really one Mass said throughout the city, the Mass of the bishop. The -breaking of the host into three parts today is a remnant of that custom. - -## The Parish as the Heart of the City - -From the beginning, Christianity developed faster in the cities than in -the country. But by the end of the 5th century Christianity had expanded -into new mission territories, and the last strongholds of paganism in the -rural areas of southern Europe were falling by the 7th century. Always -more and more bishops asked their priests to take over independently -the exercise of their ministry. No more was the bishop the only father -and the priest nothing but his helpers; the priests themselves had to take -over under their bishops all three realms of pastoral duties: the administration of the sacraments, the teaching of the Gospel and the guidance -of the people. - -Of old when every city where Christians lived had its own bishop (or -“angel” as St. John calls him in his seven letters to the seven “Churches” -in Asia Minor), dioceses had been multiplied easily and eagerly. This is -the reason why there are so many of them in the countries which came -to the faith before the 6th century. Now the bishop made every one of his -priests responsible for a welletermined part of his people and slowly, -clearly assigned the limits to the territory for which a priest was responsible—boundaries which often on one side remained open toward the -virgin soil never yet touched by Christian preaching. - -The parish as a living cell of the diocese had been brought into existence by the Church. Christ had instituted His priesthood for His people. -In apostolic times the Church found it necessary to assign a given part of -her Mystical Body to a given bishop. He alone is priest in the full sense of -the word, he alone belongs to the teaching Church, he alone is a successor -of the apostles, he alone wears the wedding ring to show that he is married to the Church. And later on the Church found it necessary to allow -the bishop to subdivide his territory and to make his representatives, -other priests, fully responsible for a parish. -This is how the territorial parish was born, to which belong all those -who live in a given territory, and for whom the pastor assumes responsibility: to feed, teach and guide those who are in the Church and to -convert those who are outside. It went so far that in Europe the word -“parish” became the word for “village.” - -Human factors contributed not less than supernatural faith to make -the parish the heart of the community in Catholic countries. The priest -quite often was the most educated person in the village, custom and folklore centered in the Church and civil life was regulated by the progress -of the liturgical year as the life of every individual was deeply connected -with the Church in the middle of the village. Often also—sometimes -unfortunately—the church became a center for political action. Later -a breakdown in these human factors threatened to remove the parish -from its central position in the hearts of the people. And then came the -Reformation, and with it the Catholic community of Europe was broken -down. From then on we can hardly speak of a common development of -the parish in different countries. We cannot make it our objective here -to study the reasons which brought about the “loss of the masses” in -France, or the motives which made the German parish so susceptible to -the “liturgical movement,” or the final juridical organization that Pius X -(the first pastor in a long time to become pope) brought about in 1917. -Our objective is to understand historically only those elements common -to the American parish—and not those minor elements, as important -as they might be, which shaped the characteristic face of this or that -national parish. After all, we are in search of the common denominator— -if there is one—of most criticism voiced by Catholics against the Church -in this country. - -## The Protective Parish - -The American parish—if we can speak about such a thing—was always -established as a center around which a minority rallied: people who used -the parish to defend what they had. The Church always had reasons to -be concerned for the protection, not only of the faith of her children, -but also of their old Christian customs with their strong symbolic power -to evoke occasions for the profession of faith. The Church always had -been made into a bulwark of tradition and continuity. At the moment -of the big migration of Catholics to this country, the Church had reason -to be overoncerned. Poor migrants who left their country to find a -living came into a highly competitive society, heavily influenced by the -Calvinistic faith that the good succeed, and in the joy of its newound -independence, somewhat set against the newcomers. They brought their -priests with them, pastors of a migrating flock, rather than missioners -to a civilization in need. They were more concerned to conserve the -faith of their people than to convert a new nation. Heavy stress was laid -on meetings among “our own,” associations which would foster marriages among Catholics, and education which would equip the child to -remain a Catholic. The Church became a tremendous bulwark for the -Catholic. Never before had the Church had to perform this task, or at -least never before had it succeeded. Small numbers of missioners had -converted whole countries. Some Catholic minorities had withstood the -Reformation—and tiny little groups of Catholics had been able, along -with the language of their homeland, to conserve the faith in the interior of the Balkans and the Middle East. But never before had a group -of immigrants changed their national allegiance and remained faithful -to the Church. And they did it through their schools and parochial societies: which willyilly constituted another chance for Catholics to feel -themselves a minority in an alien culture. Repeated insistence that you -can be a good American and at the same time a good Catholic only contributed toward this feeling. - -## The Budding Parish - -Catholics may belong to a minority, but the Church cannot be a minority. -She is always the leaven: a minority lives in an enclave—the leaven penetrates. To separate the leaven from the flour means uselessness for both. -If Catholics ever lose their concern for those who do not have God, they -lose also their charity. Many a contemporary parish has contributed -towards this separation by preserving an atmosphere which was once -necessary but is no longer so. -In the sheltered atmosphere of a Church which continues the traditions of a geographically isolated Catholic community within a -nonatholic society, the parish has developed into a most efficient center -for the administration of the sacraments and the imparting of religious -instructions. In fact, never has there been a period in Church history -that saw such a high percentage of baptized Catholics so well instructed -and living such an intense sacramental life. Without a knowledge of the -historical background of today’s parish it would be impossible to account -for the one surprising shortcoming of this Church in America: the lack of -influence of Catholics among nonatholics, or, to say it in other words, -their lack of missionary spirit. Only by realizing that this lack is a characteristic left over from a struggle for survival do we understand that it -is not a direct refusal of responsibility—but rather a sign of immaturity. -A century ago, a newly arrived immigrant was often socially confined to his own national group—without denying his background, he -could not associate with “the old American.” That was the time when the -Church had to protect him from contact with nonatholics in fear that -through his “otherness” he might lose his faith; and the immigrant in -turn could not feel responsible for neighbors he did not know. Today it -is rare for a Catholic not to be accepted because of his background. Many -Protestants have become his neighbors, associates and friends. It is often -under the influence of a long past competition that today the Catholic -fails to meet the new missionary challenge. - -It is as if God had allowed a strong seed to mature in the earth during -the winter and now the time has come for it to bud: wellrained Catholics -all over this country are willing to risk responsibility for those outside -and are waiting for specific preparation in their parish. The word “parishioner” should not refer only to the Catholic. The parish must become -and is becoming in the consciousness of the Catholic the spiritual home -of all who live within its boundaries—even if many do not know where -their home is. This is happening all over. The Legion of Mary is growing; -these are laymen who consecrate two evenings a week to the conversion -of their neighbor. The Christian Family Movement, Cana Conferences, -the changing of oldype Church societies, and the lifeong struggle of -many a priest prepare the spirit into which converts, the fruit of various campaigns, can be welcomed. Even the Catholic outsider like Jose -is meeting with a reception on which former Catholic newcomers could -never count. - -Years ago the challenge of a new mass migration of Catholics would -have been met with the establishment of national parishes. The average -American parish had not yet started to be either American or missionary. -Today, very slowly, the way is opening for a newcomer to be a Catholic -in his own way without having to insist on it, without having to “protect” -his human background in order to save his faith. -Special Mass with Spanish Sermon? - -That Sunday when I met Jose and his friends at eleven o’clock on the -Church steps I could not help asking: should we have a special Mass -for him with a Spanish sermon? Might not such a Mass develop into -a Jim Crow meeting? Should we introduce Spanish devotions? Special -Spanish social groups? Should we allow his sister’s friends to wear their -white veils or should we prudently introduce the traditional sign of the -Children of Mary into our established congregation? Or should we hope -that a national church be established for him in our neighborhood with -the danger that his children will reject their faith with their inevitable -rejection of Spanish culture? - -## Understanding and the Future - -These questions about Jose, and many more about others who do not -find in our parishes what they seek, must be answered with some background of history and theology, and with a prudence which judges the -unique living situation. These questions must be asked courageously -and answered always anew. Criticism of the parish will thus become an -examination of conscience for everybody who engages in it: layman, -priest and outsider alike. And if it is not criticism of the clergy or the laity, -but of the institution itself, it will mostly revolve around the idea that the -protective parish is a thing of the past almost everywhere in this country. -During the winter it was good that the seed remained hidden in the -earth, but in spring, if it does not bud it rots. +../../../../../contents/article/1955-the_american_parish/en.txt
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