From
the Deer Hunter to Franz Jägerstätter. Why do so many working class men feel alienated
from the Church?
The day in day out lives of the main
characters presented in this film are distinctly American, yet, it also feels
as if they still have one foot in Europe .
The small town steel works set in the middle of a rural landscapes could be Wales , Motherwell, Yorkshire or Greenock . To me, the culture shown in this movie has
especially strong similarities to the culture of places like Gelsenkirchen
in the Ruhr valley and the Industrial towns around the Cologne
area of Germany
in the 50’s. (Gelsenkirchen
being the place where our own Father Hilgers at St. Ninian’s came from) These
are areas which were known for three main
things…
1. Catholicism
2. Heavy Industry from Mining to Steel Works.
3. Beer (See blog on Kolsch)
As such, many different Catholic working men’s
associations and guilds rose up around this area (See blog on Kopling) the
point is that their identity and social life was defined by many different
things including the Church, it was not a choice between one and the other. Men
could still be men without feeling out of place at Mass. So the question has to be, when did
this all change? When did so many
working class men stop going to Mass?
One theory I’ve heard suggests that the
reforms of the Vatican II meant that more women rightly took on more roles
within the Church. From Parish council
members to altar servers, from readers to children’s liturgy leaders and
Eucharistic ministers etc…As is they way of things, these tasks fell mostly to women.
Another theory suggests that women felt compelled to take on these roles since
they could not become Priests? Regardless of how it happened, you sometimes hear a wild claim that "some Sanctuaries look like a meeting of the Women’s Guild".
Certainly, if you go to some Churches now you’ll find that it is mostly ladies who continue to occupy many of these roles today. Again, nothing wrong
with this you might say, and you’d be right as these wonderful women do a great
job keeping the place going, nobody else is going to serve God and the
community in this way? Indeed, they are literally the salt of the earth and the
light of world. That is unless you hold to the theory that such female dominance
over Parish life has subsequently driven men away from Mass? You might say, well
these men who left over such issues are lazy and chauvinistic. The theory goes on to ask, subconsciously or consciously, what males in adult life really want to continue to be bossed about the Church by
their Mums and former high school Home Economics teachers? (Especially if you hated Home Economics) Personally, I don't agree with this idea, I think it is truly a sexist idea. There are only women running the church if you are looking for women and not identifying such people as individual Catholics. To make such a claim is to defy personalism. It's like a racist identifying Black and Asian Catholics as somehow different. Plus, plenty of my former teachers, both male and female now perform various roles within the church. They are wonderful people who serve us well, so that theory can be ignored too. Rather I think the reason for the male exdous can be found in outside societal pressures and the lack of a strong male catholic cultural identity.
So what is the answer? Well there are a few
(tongue firmly in cheek) options…
1.
SOME PEOPLE THINK THAT THE
ANSWER IS TO CHANGE THE LITURGY INSIDE THE CHURCH AS TO MAKE IT MORE FUN FOR
KIDS AND RELEVANT FOR ADULTS. IT’S NOT THE ANSWER! SUCH ACTION WILL ONLY RUIN
THE LITURGY. THE ANSWER IS TO CHANGE THE CULTURE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH
2.
We could ignore the Temperance
movement within the Church. Leave this to the Puritans; our monks have been
brewing beer for a thousand years. Beer is a gift from God and drunkenness is a
gift from Satan
4.
The one exception to this trend
is the great body of fine parish men within the St. Vincent De Paul and the Knights of Saint Columba (Not sure AOH,
perhaps more interested in Irish republicanism than anything else) Join them?
5.
What would also be good
would be a male pilgrimage to Carfin rather than the retreats which are
normally offered. Again, diocesan pilgrimages to Carfin are generally all female
affairs.
6. Support our Priests when they gentley challenge our lapsed Brethren
who think it’s okay to just turn up for Weddings and Christenings then behave
however they like outside (and even sometimes inside) the Church. This is cultural
Christianity at its worst. Yes it may mean that we are a smaller community but
we would be a more faithful and sanctified one
Also, interesting to note that the decline of working class Christian identity is not just an issue in our own Catholic Community. I read recently that Church of Scotland are making cuts (who isnae) and sadly closing a few local Parishes. The suggestion is that they are making them in the poorer areas leaving the posh areas like the west end alone. From the outside it all looks pretty blatant unless someone inside this community can tell me otherwise? This is the last thing the Kirk should be doing, it's most important work must ALWAYS be in the heart of the community with the biggest problems. There was even a g
Conscientious
objectorThird Order of Saint Francis and worked as
a sacristan
at the local parish church, Jägerstätter
was sentenced to death and executed by the Nazis. He was later declared a martyr and beatified
by the Church. Franz Jägerstätter. In his youth, Franz gained a reputation for being a
wild fellow, but, in general, his daily life was like that of most Austrian
peasants. He worked as a farmhand and also as a miner. Later he got married and
joined the
Come back
to me with all your heart. Don't let fear keep us apart
Hosea
"I do not know the names of the members of the Consilium or, even more important, the names of their consultors. But after studying the so called Normative Mass it was clear to me that few of them can have been parish priests... At home it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to Mass. If we were to offer them the kind of ceremony we saw yesterday in the Sistine Chapel ... we would soon be left with a congregation mostly of women and children." Cardinal Heenan
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