A Swiss monastery is organizing a unique kind of pilgrimage. The Benedictine monstery of Einsiedeln is bringing in lapsed Catholics for three day retreats to help people reconcile their loss of faith. I wonder how long lasting the effects will be or what makes this kind of evangelization different.
When the discussions came to an end on Saturday, Huber said she was very impressed with what she described as a “wonderful experience” and that it represented for her a big step toward rejoining the church.
Still not entirely convinced by the Roman Catholic Church structure, she said “it cannot be changed from the outside. You have to go inside”.
Not exactly the best reasons for returning, but then again conversion is a journey of a thousand steps, not one. At least she’s taken the first one.
This is a pastoral initiative by this monastery and those who come will react differently. No one can say that it is wrong to do so but one can say it is right that they (those in the monastery) are right in extending their pastoral activity to those who were baptized catholic. Christ himself went after the lost sheep. For this reason it is not right to say that this does no one any good. People have left for various reasons and we have to continually enjoin our pastoral ministry to the grace of God. It is necessary to teach docility for only in a docile soul can one hope to achieve peace whereas a soul preoccupied with various idealogical battles has not the fertile terrain for the seed of holiness/peace to grow. People must be taken out of the idealogical realm and brought into the essential aspect of Christianity which is belief in Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah and our Savior and all that this belief implies. Just a thought.
What if only one comes back? Would it be pointless or an exercise in semantics and public relations? What if no one came back? Would it still not be a pastoral activity? Would that exclude this as being a first step for someone (who may come back in a few years)? Is all pastoral activity guaranteed to bear fruit? Also, I’ll call the good monks at the monastery and convey your concerns about everything. Perhaps you could email me a list of concerns and I could take it to them so that they keep these in mind before taking any actions and kind of use it as a standard for everything they do. I’m sure they have a list of ways in which they intend to mislead the faithful but with your list… maybe your list would supercede their list and we would have a perfect Church near the monastery. Thanks for all your help. ; ^)