When will I ever learn? I asked my congregation last Sunday – all 200 of us (suburban churches have got over 2,000!) – to comeback sometime that day with one tin of food. That would add 200 tins to our takeaway cupboards which are easily depleted.
There’s even an in-house discussion as to whether the “right people” are getting the tins. Such is life in a catholic parish.
Anyway I learned a lesson. You can’t get a congregation of 200 to respond to an urgent plea. An individual, maybe, but not a collective.
I’ve missed out on that lesson over 49 years as a priest. I had thought that if you make your pitch for the poor to your closest church partners and if they are in receipt of good, consistent, pastoral care from you, they’ll answer your urgent appeals, without exception because only you, personally and as pastor, know the nature of the urgency.
I imagined every one of the 200 would leave Mass at 11am, and visit their own cupboard or their grocer’s and return asap to the church they had used for worship that very morning.
The Scripture readings had been by the way, about feeding the hungry even when resources were minimal (known, in the trade, as the feeding of the 5000).
I’m not complaining, despite appearances, just expressing surprise at my own naiveté. From my understanding of what this place was like, 1854 – 1960’s, the pastor’s appeal would have been answered, one way or another, keeping in mind our earliest years were marked by a local catholic poverty. We probably had precious little to feed ourselves.
Organisations sprang up, like St. Vincent de Paul, to do the job in an efficient way. After the social engineering of the 1960’s, which wiped out the parish and drove us back to the de facto status of a catholic mission, we have taken up to today to even begin to understand our predicament. We look like a parish but we walk like a mission.
H Office treats us like a parish, expecting too much institutional and organizational reflex action.
The core leadership group is beginning to understand that we’re fighting well above our weight. And fight we shall in memory and honour of our mission/parish/mission ancestors. We’ll have to manage our collective post trauma stress.
While our sub-leadership management committees are learning their trade, I’ll still appeal on Sundays to the worshipping 200 to rediscover the solidarity of a socio-economically poorer but, perhaps, religiously more robust catholic collective. 3 parishioners, by the way, returned. 2 Twitterers, including 1 from Craigieburn, made the trip. No offence intended.
RJM
Well it’s more than a little bit disingenuous to be a member of a cult which goes to extraordinary lengths to label me “evil” and one of the greatest threats to mankind, and then react by calling someone who disagrees with this stance a “hater”. Pot to kettle: “You’re black!”
As to the “flaw” in my argument… Does religion not promise reward and punishment? If Catholics’ motivation has naught to do with Heaven and Hell, then I assume you have no fear of going to Hell, and do not look forward to going to Heaven one little bit. Would you care to confirm your complete indifference to your fate for me, please?
Why should charity be connected to having a “personal” understanding of the situation? I certainly don’t need to live on the streets for 6 weeks in order to understand there is homelessness. (6 weeks being the length of time which it took your friend to finally understand that poverty exists in one area of the world… does he need to also spend 6 weeks)
You say “Charity is closely connected to having a personal understanding of the situation”. Well you seem to be making a big exception for “Charity”, as personal connection has little to nothing to do with any other Catholic doctrine or practice…
For example, if I agreed with you (which I don’t) that you have to have a personal understanding of a situation to be aware of it, then surely you’re saying that the Pope is either (a) unqualified to lecture about the “evilness” or homosexuality (since he has no personal understanding of it), or (b) are you saying the Pope is bisexual or just a big poof in a frock?
Wow Jonathan, way to be a hater.
Your argument structure is completely flawed, as your premise that religion is about greed and hatred is based upon a hypothetical situation that is unlikely to occur.
I think the main problem with getting people to assist in charity work is that the average church-goer is too far removed from the actual situation.
For example, my best friend had little to no understanding of the poverty and issues facing people in Malawi and did not lift a finger in response to calls for aid. However after he completed a 6week mission trip to Malawi, he has spent much of his time raising awareness and funds for the region.
Charity is closely connected to having a personal understanding of the situation.
Loving your work Father Bob, keep it up.
Here’s a little experiment I propose:
Ask your congregation to write letters to the Government in opposition to gay marriage, and I’ll bet you get 200 responses post-haste!
And you’re *really* surprised they won’t lift a finger to help feed the poor?
It just goes to show that most religion is more about greed (attaining a personal reward in Heaven/evasion of punishment in Hell), and being nasty to those you just don’t like (bashing the gays).
How long have you been a priest? And you’ve only just worked out what’s blindingly obvious to those of us raised outside of your death cult?
Shame, Father Bob!
I think that the problem is that we have contracted out caring for the poor. I am a social worker employed by a large parachurch organisation. The denomination represented is more likely to put a few bucks in the plate than actually interact more personally with what it means to care for the poor. I do think these organisations are beneficial, and certainly when they first formed, were powerfully used to champion the needs of the disadvantaged. But your average church goer is too removed, or would rather leave it to the experts. Even a simple tin of food can be too much. Its sad really.