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Hear! Hear!

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Sherry Weddell comments on this thread:

I know a number of serious, well-catechized Catholics who are either doing serious "double-dipping" or have left altogether. I wouldn't put Patricia Heaton into that category – but they do exist all over the place. A solid, orthodox, intellectual formation alone is not the sure-fire cure.

It depends upon the person. Some people are tremendously relieved to have left evangelicalism because they feel much more comfortable with the hands-off, introvert-friendly style of most Catholic communities.

Others feel like they have made a terrible mistake and are simply dying for lack of personal and spiritual support. And the Eucharist alone does not touch the need for human community.

I know a number of evangelical converts to Catholicism who have returned to evangelicalism – something that we almost never acknowledge in blogdom. All the ones I've met decided they can't ultimately live without fellowship and/or practical assistance to live the faith in daily life.

I myself nearly left 3 times in the early years – I hung on out of sheer, willed, obedience but the sense of spiritual isolation was excruciating. My vocation has been a huge blessing in this regard – enabling me to meet fantastic, creative, devout Catholic disciples all over the world.

People shouldn't have to choose between the Eucharist and genuine Christian community with fellow disciples; between the great intellectual tradition of the faith and the sort of sustained practical support that ordinary people need to live their faith on a daily basis.

I got tired of trying to talk people into not leaving the Church so I started (with Mark Shea and others) a lay support group for isolated Catholics and or Catholic wanna-bes that provided both fellowship and good formation. It wasn't rocket science but it made a big difference to a number of people.

Imagine what a difference would be made if we had such supportive communities all over the US? How many would return? How many would never leave? How many more enter the Church?

Honest folks. We're talking about a real pastoral problem that can't be waved away by insouciantly declaring (as one comboxer did) that somebody who leaves "just wants to have her plastic surgery and flash her store-bought T&A and not worry about her salvation."

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    Being a Midwest Catholic, I know that regular post-Mass fellowship in parishes is as rare as, say, a full church at every Mass. This is absurd on its face. Just how do Catholics ever really congregate outside rituals?

    My wife, daughter and I lived in the Denver area for a contract job years on years ago. The parish we attended was heavily attended by military families out of one of our airborne divisions. After every Sunday Mass there was fellowship in the parish hall. One organization provided coffee and other beverages for a reasonable price; another organization, donuts and such. Both organizations shared any proceeds with the church poor box. During Lent, the ladies of the parish brought their favorite hot-cross buns recipe, which we all ate gratis, as befits feeding the poor pilgrim on the road to the Holy Land. Lands, folks! Sometimes there were a thousand buns on hand!

    And, large church and orthodox though it was, the Masses were crowded. And, never in my Midwest home state parishes have I known so many fellow parishioners.

    Another contract job more recently had me in Iowa. The parish there in Iowa City held a monthly dinner in celebration of one or more saints. All volunteered to help make food, and tickets were sold to pay all expenses, and then some. And, the parish feasted together, on a grand scheduled fellowship occasion.

    Again, in this orthodox parish, the Masses were crowded. Being an older widower, I found myself in flattering company of older widowed ladies at these feasts. At least, after I helped make about a ton of mashed potatoes . . .

    Absence of such fellowship is just plain stupid. Perhaps Cardinal Francis George of Chicago needs to get on the stick. He can lead exemplarily with his archdiocese into a regular deluge of fellowship activities all over the country.

    Your Eminence, Cardinal George – are you reading this?

    I remain your obedient servant, but God’s first,

    Pristinus Sapienter

    (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or …yahoo.com)

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