Yes, there IS a good priest in L.A.

And some good Catholics, too!

I had to steal this from Amy Welborn's blog because there was no way to post a comment on it over there, and it deserves a comment.  This is from her comments box, written by a fellow Los Angeles liturgical martyr:

Last week you reported a survey of Catholics saying on only 40-something % still believe in the real presence.  Well, this Sunday our Father Willy Raymond polled the congregation.  He reviewed all three questions first.  Then he asked, "who thinks the Eucharist is a great symbol?"  One person raised their hand.  Next, "does anyone think it's more of a 'memorial'?"  Another single congregant raised his hand.  Father Willy was stunned at this point, since the only question left was "who thinks Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, that it is the body and blood of our Lord?"   To that question about 600 raised their hands.   Father Willy smiled and stared at them for the longest moment.

We're talking Los Angeles.   Worse, the West side.   St. Monica's to be exact.  600 to 2.   We're talking the "youth friendly mass."  Teenagers mostly.  Graduates of Catholic Religious Education.  600 to 2.

I'd like to say our Religious Education is pretty good, but I'm more inclined to attribute this to the tears of St. Monica.  That's what brought me in the Church.

Of course, the cynic in me wonders how many people told the truth.  But still...

And God bless Fr. Willy for asking!  I love Fr. Willy.  He a Holy Cross Priest and the national director of Family Theatre Productions, headquartered on Sunset Blvd.  Familly Theatre Productions was started by "Rosary Priest" Fr. Patrick Peyton. . You can see a video of Fr. Willy here. 

Fr. Willy is also my confessor, if we still use that archaic term.  I know I can trust him not to be a wacko moral relativst who will let me get away with anything short of murder. 

I spend a lot of time ranting about everything that is wrong with being a Catholic in Los Angeles, so it's only right to point out the things that are good about it.

Speaking of which, the 6 p.m. Mass at Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills was really terrific, as always.  We had a guest priest who told us that he's a retired bishop, but never mentioned his name.  (I think he was being humble, rather than trying to avoid being googled.)  He had a great booming voice and a really good homily, and communion was as poetic as it is meant to be. 

My only complaint with that Mass in general is that the music is almost non-existent.  There is a very good cantor who sings to us, usually songs we don't know.  So I miss singing.  But for a Mass in L.A., it is consistently good.

As I've said before, if anyone has found a great Mass in L.A., please let me know. But no 7 a.m. Mass, unless it's being held in my back yard.

Comments

[Quintero]

I hear that there is a very good priest at St. Gerard Majella Parish on the Westside (Mar Vista), not far from St. Monica.

[jay]

I've been to Masses presided by Father Willy, and I like him too. That said, I'm afraid that the results of his little survey are highly suspect. People don't want to stick out like sore thumbs, so the crowd waited for the last choice before committing. If the order was reversed, the results would have been much different

true story: When a pigeon flew into the sanctuary during one Mass, Fr. Willy said, "That's not the Holy Spirit - I think."

You're probably talking about Fr. Martin Slaughter, the pastor of St. Gerard Majella. He is definitely orthodox in theology, but even he puts a few twists into the Mass. My problem with him is that he, and by implication Cardinal Mahony, have done nothing about the disturbed individual who gives a 5-minute speech after everyone has received Communion. I know it's about religion, but not much else, since it's in Spanish.

[Ben Eicher]

I've taught religion for two Spring semesters at St. Thomas More High School in South Dakota, and I have my own view (which may or may not coincide with some of your experiences) about "problems" with Catholic religious education. At STM the bishop and the latest priest/chaplain (who also serves on the school board) have been hard at work "weeding out" what they consider to be "fundamentalists"---what most of you would actually consider orthodox Catholics---from teaching religion there. In real terms this means no more Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio grads; no more members of Catholics United for the Faith; no more supporters of Fellowship of Catholic University Students [FOCUS]; no more Scott Hahn fans; etc. (Our bishop gave a talk in April to a Women of Faith group, during which he said "Joan of Arcadia" was a "bad TV show." He did that to specifically undermine me because I was associated with the show, and because my students came out in a newspaper article saying how much they loved the show and how important it had become to their faith lives.) Last year he sent word down to the STM religion teachers that we were to be careful not to "offend" the non-Catholic students (1/3rd of the students are non-Catholic, and that of course translates into a money issue because the non-Catholic kids are all sons and daughters of doctors, bankers, lawyers, etc.). His version of "don't offend" means that we are to water down the Catholicism we teach, and instead give a kind of "Jesus loves you" version.

Oh, and as for the polls that show Catholics not supportive of the dogma of the Real Presence, take a lot of that with a grain of salt. A famous such poll came out in 1995. It was shown to have been purposefully worded to get Catholics to answer in such a way that it looked like Catholics didn't believe in the Real Presence. The poll was really an Evangelical-backed way of trying to deny the Real Presence, to trash Catholicism generally, and to convince Catholics to leave Catholicism. Polls done by Catholic organizations with clarity as to what is being asked and which answer shows full support in the belief in the Real Presence overwhelmingly---maybe along the lines of a 600 to 2 percentage, even---reveal that Catholics are solid in such beliefs.

Anti-Catholicism is indeed "America's last acceptable prejudice."