Interesting graph (really, three graphs, but hey...)
If there is one thing I have learned about "professional lay ministry" over the years, it is that all the talk about being creative and innovative and caring and sharing and helping others, is really a lot of crap.
Most lay employees in the Church are middle-aged upper-middle-class suburban women with overpaid husbands, who find in their employment an opportunity to indulge their petty agendas. They get advanced degrees from places that don't really teach anything, which is obvious to anyone scrutinizing their positions with sufficient intellectual vigor. They lie through their teeth as easily as you and I breathe, they plot against those who are not like-minded (or in the absense of those, one another), and they make any priest in their midst feel like a patriarchal sexist pig unless they can walk all over him. Which is how they do, leaving a pantywaist shadow of a man in their wake.
Being a "communion minister" is less about assisting the priest in an extraordinary situation, than it is a sort of benchmark of the identity of the "minister." The early morning Mass may only have forty or fifty people. But if some heavy-set woman in stretch pants magically appears at the tabernacle to ride shotgun at Communion -- hey, I know it's cruel, but I keep seeing it everywhere I go -- the laity have indeed arrived. Those who are served are incidental; this is not about them. This is about those who appear to serve. That photo of a woman in an alb or street clothes, doing the orans posture behind the altar during a "communion service," does more for "The Spirit of Vatican II" than feeding a thousand hungry mouths.
I know that a few of you who read this are RC's and will nod your heads so vigorously that you may need medical attention....
Man With Black Hat is the source
I might have to take you to court on this one for the whiplash all that nodding has inflicted.
ReplyDeleteLol. It's funny you have this article, I was just reading a post from a friend about Church Ladyism, which seems to pertain almost directly to this. Here is the link, you may find this interesting...
ReplyDeletehttp://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/10/varieties_of_se.html
Still nodding. I have recently moved to a new church because of this reason. Promptly following the canon, about a half dozen women run to the altar where they knock the priest out of the way and begin there 'entitled' duties.
ReplyDeleteIf the tackle isn't bad enough, they then man-handle the sacraments like cookies at a bake sale. They've literally taken over the second half of the mass and in a few cases following communion, the priest decides to sit while the women 'tidy up' the altar.
Appalling.
I had the misfortune of going to the local parish for Christmas Eve. I hadn't been there in a few years because the first and last time I did, I got scolded in the Communion line by the priest for kneeling to receive.
ReplyDeleteThe usual things happened, like the army of chicks running up to do their EME thing, etc. What was really entertaining was during the readings, the priest must have been telling the deacon jokes, because he was laughing and slapping his upper arm.
I didn't go to Communion because there was no way to do it in a dignified manner.
After mass we were treated to 'the credits', to which everyone applauded. Then the priest said he was really touched that we all came out that night and to give ourselves a big round of applause.
Nasty stuff.