BustedHalo: Can the Church change?

Rocco Palmo, of Whispers in the Loggia: [T]he whole goal of the church is to get back to the ideal of Christ, the vision of Christ, the teaching of Christ. Not just to expound that teaching in word but to really live it. And to be out there as the instrument of it. And again, not by beating people over the head with the Catechism but by living it in daily life. And not by some over the top, "I'm so saintly" way but living it so that people just say, "Oh, she's such a good person. What makes her tick?" So the closer we get back to that, the better church we are. And that's the change, with all of these policies about liturgy and ideology, that changes the church for the best.
[read it]

I agree with Rocco on this one. It's part of my "happy Catholic" mission. My goal is not to beat people over the head with the Bible (or the Catechism, which is smaller than most Bibles anyway and therefore less effective). I'm just trying to be as much like Jesus as possible. People rejected Him, too. I don't mean to compare my insignificant struggles with His amazing ones, but even if my cross is only pocket-sized, I'm determined to carry it.

Also from BustedHalo this week is another article on black marriage in America. (I commented on one from the Washington Post last week.) Again, the author points out that it's a crisis of culture.

Andrew Lyke, the coordinator for marriage ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago agrees. "There are too few examples of successful marriage around them. Their expectations of relationships and family go no deeper than what they see" he said.

Lyke, who, along with his wife Terri have been the guiding force behind Marriage Ministry for the African-American Catholic Community of Chicago since 1982, believes the issue also touches on topics that have become taboo. "At the root of the problem is distancing of sex from procreation and moving more toward recreation. No one wants to talk about abstinence" he said. "As long as brothers get sex without commitment this will continue. This is an unpopular idea and too few ministers and other leaders in the community are willing to assert it." [read it]

Yet another reason why chastity is awesome. It seems that, more than other racial groups, black men are getting the milk for free, so they're not interested in buying the cow. Meanwhile, the good cows are missing out and thinking they're somehow inferior, and the cows that have been milked think less of the ones that haven't. I'm no fool. Discerning, and sometimes lonely, but not a fool.

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