Monday, December 05, 2005

relevant words?

This probably happened in other parishes in the US. There are three of us living in the parish house--the pastor, a resident priest, and myself. And the homilist this past weekend was the resident priest, whom I will call Fr. Chips.

Well, he focused his homily on the Congregation For Catholic Education's new Instruction on admitting guys with homosexual tendencies in the seminary.

I'd say ninety-five percent of the homily was on the Instruction--what it says, what it means, the implications, the politics.

It was towards the end of his homily that he connected how this Instruction spoke to the laity as well--as a call to affective maturity.

I was sitting there as presider, and I thought to myself, "Hmm....poor people….I wonder if this document really speaks to them as Father apparently thinks it does."

I mean, I would imagine this document would particularly speak to the men in the pews considering a vocation (whether they be gay or straight), the parents perhaps of these men, rectors (no, we don't have rectors in my parish, sad to say), major superiors of religious orders (we don't have them here either), gay Catholics (now, this is a possibility, and I have met a few here).

After the Mass, I wanted to say something to Fr. Chips...but I just didn’t have the words.

The reception to his homily however was by and large good, judging from the comments I heard after the Masses. Some of the words used by the parishioners to describe it were, "relevant," "timely," "gutsy," "good."

Really?

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