WobLog

Dr. Philip Blosser reflects on the challenges faced by Protestant coverts to the Catholic faith:

These [Protestant converts] are generally souls who come from backgrounds already well-rooted in evangelical Christianity, in a life of Bible reading, prayer, and personal relationship with God. When these souls discover the truth about the Catholic Church, they fall in love with her. They are thrilled when they finally come, at least on some level, to apprehend the Catholic vision of the Church and to see and and understand her glory -- "ever ancient, ever new." They love the Church that spans the ages, the Church of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Newman, Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict XVI. They love the moral courage of the Church, which stands like an adamantine bulwark against the evils of abortion, pornography, and relativism. They love the magnificent beauty of her ancient European cathedrals, her basilicas, her paintings and sculptures, her Gregorian chant and polyphony (readily accessible in any music store). They love her theology, which they encounter in the writings of great doctors and theologians of the Church. They love her incarnational vision of life, which they encounter in the writings of numerous Catholic novelists.

But then they join a local Catholic parish ...

The process usually begins with a desert experience called RCIA (Rite for the Christian Initiation of Adults) -- a series of meetings and classes in which they are treated more like preschoolers than intelligent adults, spoon fed pathological doses of hand-holding and introspection, and treated to ample quantities of shared feelings. If they survive that, they're welcomed into an Amchurch parish, whose music is Haugan and Haas, whose homilies are psychology tips from Dr. Phil, whose art and architecture is a combination of bog Bauhaus and degenerate Art Deco, and whose members never read traditional Catholic authors but whose discussion groups can't stop talking about Richard Rohr, Thomas Groome, Anthony Tambasco, Sr. Joan Chittister, Andrew Sullivan, and John Dominic Crossan.

Some will protest that you can't tailor a parish to the narrow needs of a few converts seeking "smells and bells" and the Church Fathers; if you do, you run the risk of losing the majority of the people in the pews. I disagree. Today, many Catholic parishes in the U.S. (most, in my experience) forsake "bells and smells" for "Barney the Dinosaur"-inspired liturgy, substitute happy-clappy "Haagen-dazs" tunes (music by Marty Haugen and David Haas) for centuries of Catholic music, and preach pop psychology rather than two-millenia of theological reflection from the Doctors of the Church — all because "that stuff turns people off." If a parish has to give up the deposit of the faith for fear of losing the people in the pews, does it really have them to begin with?

H/T Shawn Tribe