What's in a name?

Nothing if you are one of the 35 or so parishoners of St. Patricks in Wilkes-Barre that attended a special meeting to discuss "Called to Holiness and Mission" yesterday.

Father James McGahagan, new parish "administrator" officiated the meeting yesterday in which nothing actually got done. The popular opinions of the attendees swayed from one viewpoint to another like a sapling in a strong breeze. The meeting was often derailed by Father McGahagan's long winded explanations as to why he felt we should accept whatever Bishop Martino decided, including the changing of the name of our church.

We'll get back to that in a moment.

I wasn't even going to go to this meeting, because I had a feeling how it was going to go, and besides, I was still pretty pissed over a meeting I had with Father M. over two months ago.

He and I sat down for a formal discussion of things at the parish. I spoke to him about the lack of parish life, I told him what I feel was and still is the truth, that the spiritual life of the parish was dead. There is no Eucharistic Adoration, no devotions to Saints, no novenas, no rosary before Mass, no anything.

He told me about his protestant music director at his former parish, and how the protties love our music. I had to laugh, considering the piss poor "catholic" music in our parishes today. He told me how big his church had become and how much money they made at their bazaar.

A true glimpse of the modern Catholic Church in America. No true spirituality, just feel good about yourself and have a strong bottom line.

So, as our conversation went on, I made my formal request for the ExtraordinaryForm to be celebrated at St. Patrick's.

He did not reply.

I also told him that I thought St. Patrick's should, since we were going to be the church left standing when all is said and done, offer the FSSP our church facilities to celebrate the EF.

Again, he said nothing.

At the end of our meeting, I asked him to think about what I had said and to pray over it. And about what a boon the EF would be for St. Patrick's.

Again, nothing.

It seemed to me Father has an agenda. A no latin mass agenda.

So I went in yesterday with certain expectations: 1, it would be a waste of time, 2, it would be a disaffected catholics lovefest, and 3, nothing would be accomplished.

I was right.

It started out with Father McGahagan talking about population shifts, the lack of current seminarians (3), and other such items. Then the good stuff started.

I was planning on mentioning the "further recommend" No. 2, "You re-evaluate the need for the "extraordinary form" of Mass in the Wilkes-Barre area." But another parishoner brought it up for me. One of our female lectors asked that since Holy Rosary was closing, if we were going to get the latin mass.

Father did not want to speak of the extraordinary form yesterday. He said he did not know.

Then I started to speak, much to Father M.'s displeasure, for he knows he has a "traddy" on his hands.

I read the "further recommend" to the group, and made several points, saying Pope Benedict had already identified a need for the Mass, throughout the entire church. Wherever the Church reaches, the EF is to be there too. I told the group to ask the 60 or so people that attend the EF at Holy Rosary if there is a need. I mentioned that the recommendation by the planning committee stated that the hispanic ministry be located at St. Patrick's. I made the logical comment that if the hispanic ministry is to be relocated, why not the EF of the Mass as well? Then some people mentioned that they didn't know there was an EF at Holy Rosary. I told them the Mass was at 8am Sunday morning.

Then Father M. saw his chance and took advantage of a .037 second lull in the conversation to turn the floor over to someone else and end the EF discussion.

Then conversation turned to the name change. Some guy in the back I have never seen before started talking about how we need to go out of our way to be a welcoming church, to treat the closing of churches as a death, and treat the displaced parishoners with love and compassion. That we have to become a new parish to embrace and love and show our respect for and on and on it went. Everyone nodded and voiced their assent.

And my suggestion to fight the name change obviously meant that I was some kind of onomastic ogre.

Bishop Martino has stated that we are "inordinately attached to structures of the past." Funny because I thought the Church was the past. Our history and traditions are part of what make us Catholics. As Catholics we have 2,000 years of tradition and history to look back on.

St. Patrick's is not just a name. St. Patrick was chosen as the Patron Saint of our church. He's our protector, someone for us to model ourselves after, someone who intercedes for us and prays for the Church. His relics used to lie in the high altar. The parish and St. Patrick are linked together.

Are we now, in the name of progress, going to forget the history of our parish and do a disservice to our patron saint and the founders of St. Patrick's church, just to appear to be welcoming, because someone thinks the Mexicans or the Germans or the Italians won't go to an "Irish" church? It goes far beyond the close-mindedness of people that think we need to change to be welcoming. It goes far beyond ethnicity or a simple name. And come on, how many Irish really go to St. Patrick's? How many Slovak's really go to St. Joseph in Nanticoke? How many Germans really go to St. Boniface? Give me a break!

I call bullshit when I see it.

And the parishoners at St. Patrick's who refuse to stand up for their patron saint are covered in it.