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Strong institutions keep the richness of Catholic tradition

Short essays about observed trends in Roman Catholic life - Pastoral trends

Unity, not uniformity. We live in a time of choice. We have many choices, and people are likely to make different choices at different times regarding religion and their Catholicism. Some call this cafeteria Catholicism: Give me a little more social justice, a little less sacrament of Reconciliation, and lay off that bit on Mary, please. We are now realizing that this way of doing things is simply how people go on constructing their religious meanings and how they have done so all along. Catholics of different ages, genders, education, ethnic backgrounds, occupations, and all sorts of other forms of social differentiation emphasize aspects of the tradition in different ways. Yet all are Catholic. Rather than a new phenomenon, it is something quite ancient, quite typical. For much of our history, such meanings were constructed at a group level, at the level of families, towns, and nationalities. Now they are constructed more at the level of the person, and that person might even say, if asked, that he or she rejects certain aspects of the Catholic tradition. But they give this answer really because he or she was asked. Without being asked, one tends to focus on what engages and gives life rather than a critique of what is weak or uninspiring. The key is that the tradition and the local church and Catholic institutions be robust and varied enough so that all the elements that make up the richness of the Catholic tradition, all the elements that might be creatively understood and assimilated, are thriving and present. The key is to create strong institutions and strongly networked institutions. © 2008, Bryan Froehle

Authors Bryan Froehle

choices cafeteria catholicism tradition

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Word of the Week

17 November 2024

Presider’s Chair

\'pri-sīd-ərs 'cher\

Also known as the presidential chair, the seat in a parish church from which the celebrant leads the assembly during Mass. Its meaning derives from the chair, or cathedra in Latin, from which the diocesan bishop presides (from Latin meaning “to protect” or literally “to sit before”). The chair is a liturgical symbol of authority and pastoral leadership.

Pronunciation Read more

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