***
Speaking of wondering what is going on... I surely cannot be the only one pondering the whereabouts of Father John Corapi. He was a sort of personal hero to me and both my husband and I spent hours listening to his talks. He is such a gifted speaker and made the Faith simply come alive. We haven't heard a peep out of him, and God only knows where he is now and what he is doing. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he has repented of any wrong doing that may have occurred and has already long since been to confession. I hope he is living his life out in silence and obedience and has not left the Church or turned his back on his priesthood. I was working my way through his 50 volume Catechism series CDs when the scandal broke in 2011, and haven't been able to finish listening to all his CDs since then, but don't want to part with them. At some point, I will probably listen to the rest of them. Right now, it's like he is completely invisible and in fact doesn't exist. It's sad because Catholic media can't really discuss it, and can't really endorse him by playing his recorded talks, even though they are incredible to listen to. God please help him wherever he is...
***
So, this weekend we were running late as usual, the kids were in very rare form, and none of us had nice clothes to wear, so we had to settle for the "Church down the street" (that I don't prefer to go to Mass at, but, it is literally right down the street and super easy... so we seem to often end up there.) It makes me squirm, because there are probably 20 Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. (A Sidebar: I used to call them "Lay Ministers" as to make them all sound less important, but the correct terminology is actually "Extraordinary Minsters of Holy Communion" - not to exalt the role in any way, but to purposely stress the fact that they are not supposed to be the norm, (it is an extra-ordinary thing after all) and you are handling the Body and Blood of Our Lord! (Not to diminish anyone who does this, but it is really overused and abused at my local parish. It is like a casual social event rather than a solemn Miracle.)
Also, at this church, I have noticed that the Father has stopped reciting the Nicene Creed and the Cantor has stopped singing along with the Gloria. It is the strangest thing, as we have been used to having the backup. (You know how it is when you kind of "know" that popular song, and it's easy to sing along with when it is playing on the radio, but without the vocals to fall back on, there is no way you can sing the words on your own?) Well I guess that is what was happening because the silence was deafening. Pretty embarrassing. It was so obvious that nobody around me knew the words, and worse yet, they didn't know exactly where to flip to in the little red book, and nobody was saying or singing a thing. I was actually embarrassed for all of us! I felt like I was the only one saying and singing anything! I started singing louder to fill the void, but it was only even more obvious that nobody was singing... (There were a few people in the front who were chiming in, but the HUGE VAST MAJORITY were just standing there and not saying a thing!) I kept thinking "Whoa, people.. you better make some noise!" It kind of seemed like the whole point was that the priest intentionally decided to be silent so that we could feel and hear for own selves the ignorance and hypocrisy evident in our congregation. And boy did I feel it. Is this happening at your parish too?
