The question which is raised for us in the Year of Faith is: How do we bring the truth of the Catholic faith to these men? (A similar concern has been raised from time to time by James Preece.)
Some gentlemen supporters of Milwall Football Club
A useful point to make is that if people think that religion is not for men, why not take a walk in the vicinity of your local mosque after Friday prayers. A parishioner who did this by accident said that she thought that there must have been a football match nearby, and then realised that the young men were on their way home from the mosque.
If we don't think in terms of these men, then the New Evangelisation will be nothing much more than a superficial makeover - the spiritual equivalent of a new kitchen and some expensive paint in tuscan truffle ochre or whatever from one of those posh shops. Christ did not hide from the hoi polloi, after all.
Perhaps "No one likes us - we don't care" would be a starting-point on the virtue of fortitude and dying to self in witness to the truth. (I also use this as an example when trying to convince boys that they are quite capable of chanting responses.)
14 comments:
I think these men like processions.
Very well said Father. These are the forgotten people. Please find a way to bring Christ to them.
Dear Fr.
Three points, if I may ?:
One: Thank you for this most interesting Post, which raises some searching and challenging questions. In these Modern (and/or Post-Modern) times, it would appear that religion/evangelisation is ever more required in our British society.
Two: I thought the caption to the photo was exceptional.
Three: I've just bought a new car in Tuscan Truffle Ochre. Should I change it ?
Father
Many sports clubs have training for children on Sunday morning and this clashes with Mass (there are evening Masses though) and with the First Holy Communion progamme.
It would be good if the programme timetable could allow for this. I appreciate the challenge this presents. Our local rugby academy is very good: the salesmen of kit maker Kukri said that it is the envy of most clubs in England.
Of course the Holy Communion programme gets priority but I wish that we could do both.
Peter - the standard pattern for Masses in one man parishes is to have one Saturday evening and two Sunday morning. In my parish we have Sunday evening as well. There is not usually a need to make a choice between mass and football.
But if it really came to a choice, Mass must come first for the good of the child. Their spiritual life is more important.
The feminization of the liturgy is the problem. There is something masculine about low Mass for priest and server read master and apprentice. This dynamic is now lost for ever.
Yes, Evelyn Waugh described the priest and server in that way. It is being slowly recovered in at least some places ...
There is also the feminisation of adult education with sharing your feelings round a pot plant etc. I hasten to add that many women of my acquaintance abhor this kind of thing but I think that the point is still valid.
Father thank you. I did say that "Of course the Holy Communion programme gets priority" for exactly the reason you say.
My daughter won the player of the match in the (mixed) Junior Siam cup in April and so it is a sacrifice to miss the training. A couple of the boys from the club are there with her. Presumably their parents take the same view.
As a side issue I would mind less if the programme did not involve going to a guitar Mass but instead was one vetted by our new Bishop Philip Egan.
Some programmes are more Egan than others.
I recall passing through Preston in Lancashire one Sunday evening back in the 1970s. I encountered such a crowd, crossing the road and stopping all the traffic, that I presumed that a football match had just finished. In fact mass had just finished a what must have been a very large church. As I recall they were mostly men.
Processions might well be the way forward, especially if they have something really heavy to carry: http://dioceseofsalford.org.uk/diocesan-news/70-latest-news/3688-miracle-in-south-manchester (manly men to be seen throughout).
Pity you can't spell Millwall, Fava!
Doh! Thanks.
What does the Church/ church have to say to these men? It barely represents them and when it tries to (such as in Caritas in Veritate) it is pooh-poohed by those types who think free-market Capitalism is the Christian version of economics, whereas to the average Joe, it functions as a bad idea, badly applied by nasty, power-hungry people who want him to work and consume like an animal, to kill his off-spring so he can work more, for longer, for less benefit so he can die lonely and impotent but with a Malibu tan.
Until the Church (the Pope does, but not many people listen) and churches speak to men as men, people as people, who live, work, love in the actual world, everyday, people whose lives are hard (not coal-mining hard, but exhausting, anxious, fearful nonetheless) these men who sing for Milwall will never sing a Sanctus. Because it doesn't speak to these men, it cannot speak for them and therefore cannot represent them, religiously nor politically. Thus it cannot act for them as men in the world and thus they do not act for it. The Faith is a relationship with God and with his Church, a relationship which operates on a number of levels but is reciprocal. This has to include the physical, practical, the everyday.
Love of Jesus and the saints and sheer bloody mindedness keeps me going but I yearn for a priest to stand up and call his flock to practical morality, to act well for their individual and collective benefit as a Catholic community.
Millwall v Charlton at the Den tomorrow is a good starting point for your prayers Father Tim. I'm sure Millwall's C of E Chaplain Rev Canon Owen Beament MBE All Saints Vicarage, 22 Erlanger Road, London, SE14 5TG Tel: (020) 7639 3497 will join together with you in this brave Churches Together in London initiative. I've supported Millwall since childhood, but I also once for played Charlton Athletic in the same team as Benjamin Odeje the first black boy to play for England Schoolboys at U/15. You will see from the comments on this Timeline photo http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150212137514569&set=a.10150212134119569.369903.540164568&type=3&theater that I have suggested that the story would make a good film,. John Berylson Millwall's American Chairman should be aware that the idea has won support on facebook from the organisers of Global Entrepreneurship Week UK, and from Vanessa Jansen of What's your story Understanding Commissioning in South Africa http://www.facebook.com/GlobalEntrepreneurshipWeekUK/posts/195364760600769?notif_t=like. My eldest son Michael Roy is also a Millwall fan and last night on Steve Bunce's last sports show broadcast for BBC Radio London 94.9 Michael got two mentions. Here is the first two hours of Steve Bunce's last show for 94.9 which included two texts from me linking the broadcast to my son Michael Roy and St Mary's University College Twickenham too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p010vn9y
Buncey's last hour on 94.9
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p010vnb0
Michael is a young lecturer at St Mary's and he also sent a text inviting Buncey to St Mary's University to contribute to his module on global studies in PE & Sport.
Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us!
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