Down around Tennessee, we're told, there's a parish named Spirit of Vatican 2.
They hired, we're told, a "Director of Outreach." His comments are so interesting that they deserve a reading, I think.
Outreach is a means of changing others - making them more like us. The Catholic Church has a long and sordid history of Outreach. First the Church Outreached to the pagans, and killed them in great numbers. Then the Chuch outreached to the Jews, and slew them as well. Then the Church outreached to the Moslem Peoples, and drove them from their lands. If this was not enough, the Church even outreached to other Christian Faiths, imprisoning, torturing, and depriving them of life.
No. It is not Outreach we need, but Inreach. For this is what Ecumenism is. This is what your Spirit of Vatican II calls us to do. To reach in. To reach in to ourselves, to our faith community, and to ask: "What is it that makes us repulsive? What is it that causes us to shun others, to close our doors?"
...Yes my friends, we must Inreach. So that is who and what I am. I am the Director of Ecumenical Inreach. If you must shorten this, as you have with the name of your faith community, then you may call me the D.E.I. or DEI.
Somehow or other, it occurs to me that the above may not be entirely a parody...
In some ways, it isn't really funny because it is *too* close to reality.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for the pendulum to swing back...any day now would be good...