Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Cattle Time: Every spring I seriously revaluate whether running cows compliments the demands of my priestly vocation or not. As far as I can see, it agai...
I at first linked it in here, and then in pondering on it, I commented on the original post as well. I'm adapting my comments to this here, and greatly expanding on them.
I've known a few Priests over the years, and been friends with a very small numbers. I found that the one that I related to best, on a personal level, was one from a radically different foreign culture, which was in part due to his intellect, but which was in part also due to the fact that he came from a highly rural background, as do I.
I've said from time to time that "I like men to have the bark on", by which I mean I like men to be men. When I was a kid, I recall my father being good friends with a Catholic Priest who would come to the house fairly often, and who shared a rural Nebraska background with my father. Their topics of conversation tended to be about bird hunting and fishing.2 Likewise, I recall my father stopping to pick up the Bishop and a priest traveling with him on the highway, as their car had died. The Bishop piled in our single cab truck and asked, "was the fishing any good?"
In contrast, at least one Priest I tried to reach out and be friendly with was absolutely unapproachable, as he seemingly couldn't talk about anything other than the Faith in an immediate context, and was hesitant to do even that in a ranging way.
Don't get me wrong, but what I think is that Priests have to be relatable to be effective. Christ went out amongst the tax collectors and the publicans. Peter was a fisherman. Paul was a tentmaker. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that if I'd run into Paul in context, I probably could have asked him "what's wrong with the seam on my tent" and have gotten an answer.
All of which is a long roundabout way of saying that I suspect your work as a stockman enhances a priest's calling as a priest, where it's genuine.
As do other (dare I say it?) manly things. Hunting and fishing, going to baseball and football games, having a glass of Old Bushmills at a tavern.
At an upcoming synod, Pope Francis will have women religious vote for the first time. I'm not going to second guess the Pope on that, but I'd note that one of the significant problems that "main line" Protestant religions, which are dying as the Reformation falls and fails (more on that later), have is that they've become highly feminized. Setting aside the theological nature of this, it's a practical problem as it emphasizes a feminist view that there's no difference between men and women, when men and women know that there are. This process attaches to the motherly, or sisterly, role of Christianity and diminishes from the fatherly in a way that frankly weakens it. While I've seen no data on it, I suspect it also contributes to men dropping out of their parishes.
Catholicism isn't immune from this, although at least in the US it's pulling away from it. For years, the Faith has struggled in a quiet struggle between the very orthodox and the Boomers, with the Boomers often taking a pretty liberal view. Parish councils are often packed with Boomer women who look to the 60s and 70s as a golden era. Younger Catholics do not tend to. And, even though the rules pertaining to Extraordinary Ministers provide that they're only to be used if there's an absolute need, at almost any Mass an army of middle-aged to elderly women will pop up as soon as it is time to administer Communion.3 Protestant Churches that tend to retain a very strong male presence tend to be "Evangelical" Churches, although this is certainly not universal.
All of this is not to discourage a role for women in churches, but rather to encourage a male one. Not every guy wants to be in the Knights of Columbus (I don't), but quite a few might enjoy taking a priest fly-fishing, bird hunting or go out for a beer. Indeed, it's easier to relate to a guy on a guy's level if you know that he has some of the same interests that you do, other than the Faith.
When my father was in the Air Force during the Korean War, he played cards regularly with a group of friends. My father, like his siblings, was a great card player. His friends included a group of other Air Force officers, including at least two other dentists, and a Catholic Priest. They were a mixed group, only my father and the priest were Catholic, but they were all united in their love of card games.
During that same era, the Korean War, Marine Corps general Chesty Puller actually received a complaint from a Protestant Chaplain asking the general to order Catholic chaplains to quit playing cards with enlisted men, as it was causing them to convert to Catholicism. The general didn't do it.
There's something to think about there.
Footnotes:
1. I've seen the no hunting for Orthodox priests somewhere in print, but I also have that impression from the fact that two Russian Orthodox priests stayed with my aunt and uncle for a time, while touring the US. This was in the 1970s, long before the fall of the Soviet Union. They told my aunt and uncle that.
They also left an English language book that I scanned at some point, which was very carefully measured in its tone, particularly regarding the Russian Orthodox views about ending the schism.
2. A lot of their conversation was fairly intellectual.
One random comment that stuck with me was the priest's comment about the spread of deodorant use by men, which is now universal. The priest was bothered by it as he recalled how at the end of the work day, men came home smelling of the sweat of their honest labor.
3. This fits in the "pet peeve" category, although I actually heard a guest Priest mention the same thing on a recent episode of Catholic Stuff You Should Know.
Extraordinary Ministers are just that, extraordinary for extraordinary conditions. However, since their introduction they've become common place and even at a Mass at which there is only a normal amount of parishioners in attendance, they tend to be used. Priests in earlier decades managed to conduct a Mass to a full congregation without ever needing to use them, and for the most part, they are unnecessary now. However, like other such accommodations, once introduced, it is hard to reverse, and the people who are Extraordinary Ministers are sincere Catholics whom the Priest no doubt does not want to turn away, even from a volunteer mission.
Having said that, I actually witnessed at a recent Mass a Priest turning a volunteer Eucharistic Minister back. I don't know what to make of it, as he usually does use them, but he's highly orthodox and had the services of a deacon on that day. A middle-aged/older woman stood up at Communion time and with a wave of the hand, he sent her back.
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