ASHWAUBENON - Students from every area Catholic school district took the day off from class to attend a historic mass Thursday at the Resch Center. Led by Bishop David Ricken, it was the largest service ever held by the Green Bay Catholic Diocese.
"I think it's really great that we can all come together and worship what is most important," said Sophie Pierquet, an 8th grader at Holy Rosary Catholic School in Kewaunee.
Organizers estimate 10,000 students were on hand for prayers and singing. The event was also about promoting the Catholic school system.
Bishop David Ricken presided over the service. He says Catholic schools provide students with a good education and a religious foundation.
In 2002, there were about 16,300 students attending 85 area Catholic schools. In just eight years, enrollment has dropped by about 25%. There are now only 12,600 students at 61 schools.
The rest from Fox11
Warning... rant alert. I'm not a fan of the Mega Mass; the Catholic version of the Protestant Mega Church. It seems like our liturgy continues to be a place that Wisconsin Catholics have no identity. If I lived in the Green Bay area, this .... financial campaign/ Catholics are cool / carry a banner.... Mass would assure me that I would never send my children to a diocesan school. ...Did anybody kneel? Why pay for private Catholic education if it looks and feels and "thinks" ... Protestant? Any homeschoolers in the Green Bay area want to comment?
How about a Mass in a church that students' grandparents and great grandparent painstakingly built - a church they can IDENTIFY with. It could be televised; the children in choir singing the same chants of the church that their ancestors sang. Not enough room for everybody? How about having more than one Mass. What if the Catholic school emphasized that daily Mass was the most important part of the students day.... uuuhhh, no daily Mass.... well I guess if they don't have daily Mass anymore we could just cut out sex-ed to make time(or "social studies" or health or... don't get me started).... What if the education was authentically Catholic in thought, and not just modern mush with some paper mache Jesuses?
What if what I just saw made me proud to be Catholic.
3 comments:
Umnnhhh...that 'humungo-Mass' thing was done every couple of years in Milwaukee back in the 1950's/'60's.
As a "one-off" kind of event, held once/year for the schools, I have no problem with it at all. It's a unifier--just like Corpus Christi processions are.
Assuming, of course, that there are no Polka tunes.
This wasn't a Corpus Christi procession though... or adoration or group prayer or the rosary or even a science fair... things better suited for this purpose("unity") IMHO.
Catholic schools were successful prior to the humungo-Mass. I have a hunch Catholics could in past years identify with the school and its mission. I don't think the same can be said today. The Mega-Mass seems to be an indication of that.
We all are present at the same time/place during Mass. Don't we kind of miss that point when we cram people in a stadium...
Well.....
You're right that 'Catholic Identity' doesn't need humungo Masses and you're right on the theology.
Having said that, I think that some Bishops are metaphorically 'waving the flag' for two audiences: first, the Catholics who are keeping the Faith as a private thing, not for discussion in polite company; and secondly, for the atheist/agnostic Statists who are present in all levels of Gummint.
It was not for nothing that JPII re-started those displays. It's a method of evangelization, albeit a minor sub-set of the whole.
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