During their meeting last week in Bellevue, Wash., the U.S. bishops agreed to prepare a 50-page document about preaching at Sunday Mass that they will consider at their November 2012 meeting. Five committees are expected to have input into the document.
I’m of the mind that because so many of the bishops’ statements are in file cabinets, not having been read and applied by nearly enough people, there should be a moratorium on writing them. However, because the consequences of bad preaching are so grave and the fruitfulness of outstanding preaching can be so bountiful, if there were a moratorium, I would want the bishops to lift it.
One of the ways we’re going to keep people coming to Mass is by inspiring them to live the Word of God. If preaching improves, and yes, there is room for improvement, we might lead people into the church — or back into the church — because of that inspiration. I hope these 50 pages are the best document the bishops have ever written and that they see to it that what they write is taught, embraced and practiced by them, and their priests and deacons. Otherwise, it, too, will be relegated to the file cabinet, and the faithful and potential faithful will not receive the quality they deserve.
Old school: Last week, John Garvey, president of the The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., announced in the Wall Street Journal that, beginning with the freshmen entering as the Class of 2016, the school is returning to single gender dormitories. His reasoning is that this will help curb binge drinking and “hooking up.”
Will Garvey’s decision have a positive impact? Definitely on the parents of those students, and hopefully on the students themselves.
By the way, in 1980, one could buy a nightshirt in the CUA bookstore on which the following was imprinted: “Sex kills. Go to Catholic University and live forever.”
Get ready: Whether it rains from morning until night, tomorrow is the longest day of the year, officially the first day of summer and National Daylight Appreciation Day. Rain or shine, this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaXzeQoWTko&feature=related could make you feel really good. Or really depressed.
