Stop Parading; Start Praying
Embracing Calls for Holiness on a Saint's Feast Day
By Stu Nolan
Monsignor Charles Pope, a thoughtful writer who pens a column for the "blog" of the Archdiocese of Washington DC and whose columns are routinely re-printed (with permission) here at Veritatis Splendor, recently attracted attention from a wider circle than is normally the case. He did so by stating the suddenly controversial idea that a saint's feast day ought to be a time to focus on prayer and a deepening of holiness in our lives, rather than a time to parade around in public displays of drunkenness and celebrations of immoral or otherwise scandalous conduct.
In case you missed his suggestion, I quote the good priest, as follows:
***
"The time for happy-clappy, lighthearted engagement of our culture may be nearing an end. Sometimes it takes a while to understand that what used to work no longer works. Let me get more specific.
Decades ago the Al Smith Dinner was a time for Republicans and Democrats to bury the hatchet (even if only temporarily) and come together to raise money for the poor and to emphasize what unites us rather than what divides us. But in the old days the death of 50 million infants was not what divided us. We were divided about lesser things such as how much of the budget should go to defense and how much to social spending. Reasonable men might differ over that.
But now we are being asked to raise toasts and to enjoy a night of frivolity with those who think it is acceptable to abort children by the millions each year, with those who think anal sex is to be celebrated as an expression of love and that LGBTQIA
(I=intersexual, A= Asexual) is actually a form of sanity to which we should tip our hat, and with those who stand four-square against us over religious liberty.
Now the St. Patricks Parade is becoming of parade of disorder, chaos, and fake unity.
Lets be honest: St. Patricks Day nationally has become a disgraceful display of drunkenness and foolishness in the middle of Lent that more often embarrasses the memory of Patrick than honors it.
In New York City in particular, the parade is devolving into a farcical and hateful ridicule of the faith that St. Patrick preached.
Its time to cancel the St. Patricks Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other Catholic traditions that have been hijacked by the world. Better for Catholics to enter their churches and get down on their knees on St. Patricks Day to pray in reparation for the foolishness, and to pray for this confused world to return to its senses. Lets do adoration and pray the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet unceasingly for this poor old world.
But dont go to the parade; stay away from the Al Smith Dinner and all that old school stuff that hangs on in a darkened world. And as for St Patricks Day, its time to stop wearin the green and instead take up the purple of Lent and mean it. Enough of the celebration of stupidity, frivolity, and drunkenness that St Paddys day has become. We need penance now, not foolishness. We dont need parades and dinner with people who scoff at our teachings, insist we compromise, use us for publicity, and make money off of us. Were being played for (and are?) fools.
End the St Patricks parade. End the Al Smith Dinner and all other such compromised events. Enough now, back to Church! Wear the purple of Lent and if there is going to be a procession, let it be Eucharistic and penitential for the sins of this age.
For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!
How say you?"
***
I whole-heartedly endorse Monsignor's recommendations, which strike me as quite common sensical and not at all controversial. How say you?
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