"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
A long time favourite of this blog, Msgr. Pope, recently published an article looking at morality from an atheistic perspective. The list of questions at the end of the article are particularly good material to chew over.
I also recently saw this video on the same subject:
Quite some time ago Msgr Pope from the Archdiocese of Washington DC wrote a blog entry about the wages of Catholic employees, noting that a recent study at that time suggested that their pay now finally comes close to matching that of their non-Catholic counterparts. Great news!
However, unfortunately in my personal experience I have found this not to be the case. Many of my friends are employed by the Church in some capacity or other and the question very often isn’t whether their wage is competitive, but as to whether it is even a living wage.
When Christians get together there’s really nothing we love to do more than to complain! In my experience, what we especially like to do is to have a good whine about the problems we have with our parish. In response to this, I would like to write a series of short posts about some common complaints I’ve heard. Today I’ll begin with one of the most common criticisms:
“Our priest’s homilies are boring…”
As I say, this is a very common complaint. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard people say something like this. Unfortunately, it’s often a reason given as to why someone left to join a Protestant congregation. 🙁
It’s been quite amazing how quiet the media has been concerning the recent March For Life in DC, given that approximately 200,000 were in attendance:
Below is the video of someone I’ve mentioned before on this blog, Msgr. Pope, who gave the homily at the Mass that day in the Verizon Centre:
I think I’m going to try and make it to this next year…
“Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants” – Blessed Mother Teresa
No, not that Pope. There is a priest in Washington DC whom I have long regarded as my Virtual Chaplain, completely unbeknownst to him!
During my years of wandering I lacked a spiritual director or even a regular parish (this blog isn’t called “Restless Pilgrim” for nothing!). During those wilderness years I had a three month stint in Washington DC and, towards the end of my time there, I discovered Msgr. Pope’s parish.
I greatly enjoyed my visits – my exposure to gospel music until then had been limited, but I loved the enthusiastic singing I heard there. What impressed me most though was the preaching…
Msgr. Pope’s homilies were of good length, exegetical, impassioned and practical. I had often been critical of the standard of homilies in the Catholic world and hearing this kind of preaching was a breath of fresh air.
After my visa expired I left Washington DC and continued my wanderings around England and the USA. Fortunately, I soon discovered Msgr. Pope’s blog, together with his homily recordings and podcast feed. This meant that whether I was living in London, San Diego or somewhere in between, I received the same teaching. It was like having a regular pastor again 🙂
Tell me, are you smarter than a sheep?