Although I can’t respond to every blog response to my “Losing My Religion” and subsequent posts, I do want to include the comment I left over on OSV Daily Take this morning because this is my former blog home and because OSV is still family to me. I feel I owe it to them to be sure people see that post and my response to it.
Here’s a brief snippet of the post, but please go read the whole thing when you’re done here:
“If a parish is struggling, talk to one that is thriving. Open conversations to collaboration across the universal Church. If we work together out of love, I believe we can bring about far more change than by walking away.”
Here is my response:
I am not telling people to walk away from the Church. I’m telling them to walk away from a particular parish when that parish continually fails to feed them. I’m talking about trying to bring about change so that people are finally getting something meaningful from their parishes, which is what they deserve.
And, although my writing about it doesn’t sound like I’m doing much, I am. People are talking about it. Mission accomplished.
This was never about one homily, or one priest, or even one parish. This was about a larger, more pervasive problem. People are choosing to focus on the homily aspect because it’s easier than dealing with the hard truth of people leaving our Church in droves. Why are they leaving? I want to keep them from leaving. I want to get back the ones who have already left, and I was willing to put my neck on the line to bring attention to it.
I love my faith. If I didn’t love my faith and my Church, I would have quietly walked away. What I said, I said out of love because we have the Truth, but if we aren’t feeding people and giving them what they need, they’ll never hear it.