Friday 29 June 2007

Reality check


This morning, in a plastic envelope, I received a magazine which I assume many of my colleagues also received.
As you can see, it's all black, with a silhouette of a young man walking away from us towards a bright light, rather like the mother-ship in a sci-fi movie. The magazine has its title 'REALITY' blazoned across the top, and in smaller letters 'Let's get in touch with God's feminine side'.
This edition is titled' Goodbye to all that: Why young people are leaving the church and what the church is doing about it'.

I reached for the bin. Obviously a scientology rag, I thought. But, I paused. I was short of entertainment, and it might be interesting to see what the scientologists were paying all this money for. The mag fell open at the editorial page. There's a picture of the Editor in brown jacket and open-necked shirt and I scanned down for his name. There it was, with CSsR after it. He's apparently a Redemptorist priest, and the publication is some sort of Redemptorist magazine. I'd completely missed the tiny 'Catholic' word on the front cover.

In his editorial, Fr Moloney appeals for opinions about his mag; it's content and design. Well, I'll give it a read, though if he thinks that the reason young people are leaving the Church is because they don't hear enough about God's feminine side, then he doesn't know the young people I know.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh dear. He'll be delighted to hear about the MP on July 7th then, won't he?

Mulier Fortis said...

Fr Justin, that magazine ought to carry a health warning...

Caution: Reading this magazine can cause spiritual death.

Father John Boyle said...

Didn't your postie join the strike? I got no mail this morning - bliss!!!

Anonymous said...

He looks as though he's going from the Church into the light - ought to be flames there, really!

Paulinus said...

Same old same old....

Anonymous said...

There was that Irish bishop who decided not wear his mitre to get young people to Mass - same school, I think.

Anonymous said...

Spot the misprint in this mag on the 'Sacred Space' article page!!!!!

Fr Michael Brown said...

Fr Justin, I got back from being away and found this dreadful rag in my post. I put it beside the computer with a view to writing a blog entry about it but you have saved me the bother.I would like to think it was a spoof.

Cathy said...

Like I commented at Orthfully Catholic, it's a great irony that that rag is called "Reality."
"Delusional Heresy" might be a better name.

On the side of the angels said...

Whatever happened to the redemptorists ?
We used to get Mission weeks with Fr Robert Louis Stevenson [I kid you not] and it was fantastically orthodox and awe inspiring [but with a heck of a lot of Blood and Thunder too]

But now?
They just seem like pragmatic, situationist neo-protestants whose only fervour or ideal is anti-traditionalism...

WhiteStoneNameSeeker said...

Oh dear. I suppose it would be too much to expect that anyone actually ask young people why they don't go to Mass.
As a younger mum (I'm an ol'bag mum now ;) ) I thought I should take the kids to the childrens/teen Masses to keep them happy coming to Mass. My boys got fed up and didn't want to go any more.
"It's sloppy" "It's too fussy" were the complaints among others.
We started attending the 11am -sung Latin once a month, bells'n'smells every week 'normal' Mass and they have been happy ever since. They both serve.
My daughter has had little experience with the youth masses-but what expereience she has had she hated.
That's the 'REALITY' here.