I was a facilitator for one of Pope Francis' listening sessions last night. That's where Catholics get together and talk about what they like, don't like and hope for the Church. Here in San Diego, we're doing it in small groups with one facilitator and one note-taker. We had a group of 8 people.
The comments of the parishioners will be synthesized into general themes from the parish which will then be synthesized into themes for the diocese which will then be sent to Rome where the Pope will take another rip from his bong and talk absolute nonsense. Whatever. The Church isn't the hierarchy, it's the Mass, the Catechism, the works of the Doctors of the Church and, most importantly, us normal Catholics, the laity.
One of the things we discussed was whether or not the Church needed to get with the times. What was interesting to me was the inability of the people in my group to be able to quickly and succinctly support the Church's positions with logical argument. For example, the acceptance of all manner of sexuality was discussed, but no one, outside of myself and I kept quiet, could make a case for traditional Catholic teaching.
You can either get with the times or you can make a case for the times getting with you. To do the latter, your customers will need to know your value propositions so they can sell your product. If they can't do that, you're screwed.
As I watch my daughter be slowly poisoned to death with testosterone, the idea of the Church "getting with the times" nauseates me. The times don't care about dying girls, dying blacks or low-skilled Americans competing with illegals and living in unending poverty. You'd think that the Church would be at least mildly concerned about these, but you'd be wrong.
It's not that we're cynical connivers making a buck off the misfortunes of others, it's that we've been captured by modern, secular politics. We're not even trying to make the case for protecting girls from deranged ideas like modern gender theory. Our potential Church leaders in the laity, almost all of whom come from the laptop class, are just as much detached from reality as Pete Buttigieg. Creatures of our time, most of us are unable to escape the moral tarpits of 2022. They're different than the tarpits of the South in 1861 or Germany in 1618, but they're just as tarry and just as pitty.
Such is the fate of us all, to be blinded to the evils of our age because we marinate in the culture that spawned them. The Church is supposed to be timeless. The words of Jesus certainly are. We need to be able to recognize where our timeless values clash with the values of our time and be able to make a cogent case for the Church.
Anywho, that's what I learned last night.
If you haven't seen it, here's the Pete Buttigieg reference. He's either a complete idiot or an utter mountebank. Watch Joe Kernan's reaction around 2:00. His exhaustion with Pete's gibberish is priceless.
Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Pelosi’s claim that spending reduces the national debt: “it is true” pic.twitter.com/xdo1zbJDp0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 15, 2022
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