Musing on Our Church’s Re-Opening

I was sitting at my computer earlier today, responding to a few emails, doing some on-line shopping and taking part in a FaceTime visit with two of my granddaughters, when I overheard on the news playing in the background that our President has declared that Houses of Worship are essential “businesses” and that all should re-open as soon as possible.

For us Catholics, oh, if it were only that simple.

Just as the reality of “working from home” may have undergone 5 years of forward progress in 3 months, so our Church may have undergone 5 years change in just the past three months.

Consider, that parishes that would never have considered the validity or even possibility of livestreaming a Mass are now livestreaming Sunday and weekday Masses on a regular basis and even investing in quality video and sound equipment.

Those same parishes that couldn’t figure out how to go about developing an evangelization program are without explanation finding more people “attending” their streamed services than attended their live services. And, they are often younger than the average parishioner.

As Bishop’s across the country re-instate the Sunday obligation, will some pastors take the position that attending a streamed Mass isn’t really attending Mass and stop live streaming, or will they take the position live streaming is a way of evangelizing, reaching out and possibly changing people’s lives for the better – perhaps even making them better Christians.

Or, how about someone over the age of 70 (how did I get this old) who may opt to avoid the crowds of Sunday for the quiet of Tuesday to fulfill my obligation; at least for a while anyway. How will the meaning of our day of obligation will change?

The live streaming of Mass has also given Catholics a tremendous number of other freedoms. With so many Masses being live streamed; one has choice. One no longer have to listen to what they know will be a boring homily when they can as easily listen to one of the church’s most gifted homilists. I make no particular judgements as to who or what is good. After all, that is in the eye of the beholder – isn’t it.

This past week, America magazine offered an article on the importance of print media as a means of communication. It suggested that the printed medium is more impactful than social or digital media; even among younger people. I tend to agree with the premise of the article.

Unfortunately, if you take a sampling of diocesan newspaper, I do not think you would characterize many as beacons of transparent information about the financial state of the diocese, the number or cost of sex abuse settlements during the current opening in the statute of limitations, or the impact of COVID-19 on diocesan staffing.

Yet each of these issues has been pushed forward 5 years in the past several months. How will our Church survive financially in the coming years? How will we be able to provide Pastoral Service support without staff? What kind of religious education will replace closed Catholic Schools?

Lest you read these musings and begin to feel depressed, I would suggest that a re-opening does not mean that things will go back to the way they were. Thankfully, I do not even think that is possible. Things can and will be different. Things can and will be better. How different and how much better may be a function of what are we willing to settle for?