A few hours before the Green Bay Packers trounced the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, the Rev. Quinn Mann donned green vestments and brought the sacred to the secular near Lambeau Field, representing a renewed effort in the Roman Catholic church for believers to step out of the parish and evangelize.continue at Packers News
As far as fall Sundays in Wisconsin go, Mann said it is hard to find a better place to intersect faith and culture than Titletown.
“Catholics are beginning to understand that if you really truly want to engage a secular culture we need to be proactive,” Mann said. “That means allowing the message of the Gospel to really sink into our hearts, to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but then to get back to the, as I like to say, ‘the brass tacks, the root of it’ and that is to go out to all the world and spread the good news.”
About 30 people, mostly teens who spent the weekend with Mann on a Catholic Youth Expeditions retreat, gathered for the parking-lot service in Ashwaubenon, about a block southeast of the stadium.
An altar server swung the censer as the priest convened Mass. But instead of perfuming a Catholic sanctuary, the burning incense mingled with the scent of grilled meat before dissipating above the throng of tailgate parties.
Sunday’s Mass served as the closing celebration for the Door County-based retreat program, which Mann oversees for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay. The service also drew a couple handfuls of passing Packers and Browns fans, who quietly joined the ranks after setting down their drinks to pray.
A well written article, worth a look.
The same priest that was the mastermind behind the "God Squad" car that Best Buy went after for infringement on Geek Squad:
Great priest. Something against saying Mass in a church.
HT GM
2 comments:
Seems like a pretty steep burden to put on the fans to have to stand in the parking lot for mass.
With a little more innovation, they can probably get the Packers to show the instant replay of the consecration on the stadium screen and have the hotdog vendors toss wafers to the fans.
With Dominoes relationship with Tom Monahan, maybe Dominoes could start home delivery of hosts so we can just enjoy the game at home.
I've known Fr. Quinn for many years and he's an excellent priest, doctrinally and liturgically. Spend a week (or weekend) at the CYE camp and you'll be immersed in the Liturgy of the Hours, daily Adoration, Daily Mass with the Propers and Chant, Chalice veils, orthodox homilies, male-only altar servers (usually CYE counselors who are in seminary and/or discerning due to Fr. Quinn's witness), etc.
Fr. Quinn's passion is for Evangelization and his model is very similar to JP2 when he was a parish priest/ campus minister, and frankly to the things our current Holy Father is calling for in terms of taking the Faith out to the streets and into the secular world.
For me personally (and I'm extremely anti- outside Masses, just ask my wife!), if offering Mass in the parking lot draws even one soul back to the Church every Sunday, it is well worth it.
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