Monday, August 22, 2011

Americanism

Not a lot of people out there (other than the Trads) are willing to breathe the word "Americanism".

Interesting.

I wonder if we took a poll how many Catholics out there would ever have heard the term.

Though in my own experience, the British Catholics are much worse about the things Michael is mentioning.



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5 comments:

Tom Ryan said...

Real trads are not afraid to utter the "A" word. But the sedes are often deep in this heresy.

Teresa B. said...

It will be interesting to see what the dress will be like in Rio! I hava a friend who was thinking the next WYD he daughters could attend - but with it being in Rio - she is not sure.

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

I certainly wouldn't send a teenager unaccompanied to Rio. Not after doing a bunch of research into human trafficking.

Colleen Hammond said...

As the mother of teens...I wouldn't send a teen unaccompanied anywhere. And who picked Rio for a WYD event anyway?

Jessica said...

I know this guy/channel/program bugs me, so I don't want to rush in here just because "somebody's WRONG on the internet!!!" but...his experience of WYD was totally different than mine. We had a strict dress code for the group of American teens I led (shoulders & knees covered) and I found that very few attendees from any country followed this code. Our Spanish hosts certainly didn't.

Also, there wasn't communion distributed at the Sunday Mass with Benedict. The original plan for communion was for 20-some parishes from Madrid to host Eucharistic adoration in tents around the perimeter of the WYD site during the night, and then distribute communion from those tents during Mass. However, high winds damaged a few of the tents, and so all the tents were closed down and the hosts returned to the home parishes in Madrid. All this to say...I'm not sure what event he attended where he noticed Americans receiving communion less respectfully than other nationalities. At the English-speaking catechesis sessions I attended (with lots of Indian, Chinese, and African attendants), most people seemed to receive in the hand, and nobody knelt.
And yes, it was sometimes difficult to concentrate. "Going" to the stations of the cross meant sitting in the middle of a closed-off road with thousands of other people and watching the events on a screen. I was impressed that nearly 2 million people were silent during the moments of Eucharistic Adoration...I don't think you can reasonably expect much more than that from such a big crowd.

Anyway, I think some of the issues with WYD are honestly worldwide, and have to do with age more than nationality. I just don't see the point of being so critical of an event that does such good.