'So What Should “church” Mean for Catholics?'

This, from Chris Smith, resonates:

A lot of things are blamed for the state of religious belief today:  The Reformation, The Enlightenment, Modernism, Post-modernism, Secularism, and on and on.  I can see how all of these things have contributed, with varying degrees, to the lack of religious fervor we are witnessing today.  We have, as Cardinal George of Chicago once wrote, “replaced a provident God with the myth of human progress.”

We now see ourselves as controlling God along with everything else (e.g. nature, history, technology) and since

we control God, he cannot make any demands on us.  Religion has become a hobby, something we do for an hour on the weekend in between going to sporting events, BBQs with friends, and mowing the lawn.  Faith is now a leisure activity, not a way of life.  We squeeze it in where we can.

Now since God is powerless, going to Church (if we go at all) has become another weekend activity we do to connect with friends.  Since other weekend activities are seen as on par with going to church, more and more churches refuse to mention anything about objective truth because that would conflict with our feelings about our subjective freedom.

Therefore some parishes devise plans to have people feel welcomed while, perhaps unintentionally, reaffirming their small ideas about the meaning of life.  These parishes believe this will lead to people staying in the pews.  Any assertion of authority or sermons about reforming one’s life could be interpreted as overbearing, hostile, and offensive; therefore, they are avoided at all cost.  Cardinal George states in his book, The Difference God Makes: “…we have focused too much on belonging and not enough on conversion.”

So what should “church” mean for Catholics?

He gives an excellent answer.

Read it all.

Carry on.