There was a Protestant publishing company in England that used to produce smart publicity materials that you could buy for your parish events. They would do overprinting–putting your details into their nice artwork. They had rules though. You weren’t allowed to use the word ‘Mass’ in any of your publicity materials because they couldn’t be seen to be supporting Catholicism.
I was always tempted to order some posters for a ‘Mass Evangelistic Rally’ to see what response I would get. Anyhow, in this day of the ‘mega-church’ it is healthy to see the Catholic Church lay on some big events for the Pope. Call me triumphalistic, but I think we need to remind the world that the Catholic Church is still ‘the big old one’. Apparently the organizers of today’s Papal Mass said there was twice the demand for the number of available tickets.
The size of the crowd is secondary, of course, to what it means. The crowds mean there are still an awful lot of faithful, enthusiastic and committed Catholics in the USA and worldwide. No other single celebrity, sports star, politician or world leader can draw such numbers and command such respect. Certainly there is no other religious leader who can do so.
Thank God for his Son Jesus Christ, his Church, the Apostle Peter on which that church is founded, and his successor Benedict XVI.
Amen to that.
Meant to post this here:Well said indeed. I think we need to look at a lot of the positives from today’s Mass and see how they can help us move forward.It has been a bit of a beef of mine that so many blogs are whining and screaming about all the bad music and such at the Mass (in fact, the music seems to be the only complaint). But I think so many people miss the WHOLE point. It is not to say that good music doesn’t have its proper role, it does! The Pope knows, though, that the Mass will be more properly celebrated when holiness is a profound reality in our lives. That is what he was going for, and wanted others to hear.My mother was telling me today about how one of the CNN commentators, a Baptist, was just totally moved by today’s Mass. The Mass does evangelize, but that is in the preaching and the Eucharist, and the simple fact that we have so many news outlets playing all the Papal ceremonies and talks and such tells me that this Pope is starting at the root of it all so that those other things come into their proper order.-Harrison