For my sins I attended the 6pm mass at St Vincent’s this evening. I counted a total of 14 people in the church, including the two incumbent Neocat “pastors” (No. 2 came in late, but was not publicly castigated for his sin as various members of the community have been), 3 seminarians (one of whom played the guitar and sort of sang), a Neocat couple from Leichhardt, one regular with her little daughter, a couple of locals (Mary and Tonina), another woman I did not recognize, my daughter and myself.
No. 1 officiated, delivering in his inimitable style a homily that was an embellishment of the 10am version. My daughter commented on the eclectic delivery, expressing the opinion that such a stumbling sermon could only have been delivered off the cuff without any preparation. Mary rose to the occasion and left at this point, returning during the consecration. I felt duty bound to stay and observe.
There was even a moment of comic relief when the congregation burst into a sorrowful rendition of “Come as you are, feel quite at home”. Had my heart not been so heavy from the morning’s ordeal, I might have been able to enjoy the humour in this surreal spectacle.
As I made my way out of the church at the end of mass I wondered in awe at the Neocat magnetism that has the capacity to attract such crowds.
Len
I really dont believe this! I am 14 years old, and I am in the 7th community of St. Charles Borromeo, and I really think this is disgusting! What right do you have to prejudice others against us? Just because you do not understand, it does not mean that you should totally stop others from seeing for themselves! You ARE the people that give us a bad name. Your cynism and sarcasm are stopping you from realising that the people who enter the Neocatechumenal Way are really genuinely helped by it! If it wasn’t for the Way, the number of young people attending church in our diocese would probably fall by at least half!
I know that you probably will not show this on your site, as it contradicts what you have been saying, but I am not so naive that I wouldnt be surprised if you published it and used this as an example, twisting my words out of all proportion and say a lot of terrible things about this.
And can I say this as well; would you judge the whole of the Catholic Church on what you see in one parish? I doubt it. So you should not do it here. My anger over this issue has perhaps made me uncivil, but I mean every word of what I say.
Well first of all I would like to thank you all for the persecution you offer verbally to the neocatechumenal way. It shows that Christ is with us! :o)
Secondly I can’t agree with Len praising Mary for leaving the Church during the Sermon. Apart from being plainly rude, it shows disrespect towards the Priest, who represents Christ.
I think that if you really want something done about this; you should write, or in some way contact the national catechists, and ask them to come down to the parish and re-catechise/ talk to them beacause the way you are currently doing this is not goin to solve any of your problems. i apologize for my discourtesy before; i am a bit of a hot-head.