Are We Winning Yet? Spring 1999

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For a Catholic, choosing a church should be a no-brainer. We are divided by location into "parishes." Where you live determines where you go to church. In some ways, no further choice should be necessary. Catholic churches are remarkably similar one to another—in every parish throughout the world, the same Scripture is read, the same feast days celebrated, the same doctrines (for the most part) upheld.

But we do have a choice. There is no hard-and-fast rule requiring Catholics to attend their "official" parish church. And for all the similarities, differences in style, disposition of the priests, and even theology are rampant.

For me, the choice to attend my current parish was quite elementary. My official home parish has a choir that is unbearably (and I do mean unbearably) out of tune, parish activities run the gamut from casino nights to bingo games, and sometimes the priest brings his dog to come and sit beneath the altar during Mass. Moreover, the people in the congregation unintelligibly mumble their liturgical responses, seeming just not to want to be there.

In contrast, the parish I now attend has a renowned boys' choir, Bible studies and prayer groups for young adults, and a High Mass which brings me to the edge of heaven, where I can almost see the cherubim and seraphim crying "Holy, Holy, Holy." And the congregation consists of—for lack of a better phrase—"people who seem to care."

For a while, I was quite proud of my choice to attend my current parish. Proud mostly of how discerning I was, how enlightened my musical tastes were, and how much more "alive" my current parish was (though how much I was equating "alive" and "young" I am not sure).

I was proud, that is, until I started praying about the parish I had rejected, ...

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