The Types of Catholics I’ve Experienced
With many rites around the world, we also have differences within the Latin Rite
The CEO, Editor-In-Chief, and Publisher suggested the above topic for the Catholics contributors to God of the Desert Books.
His challenge:
How many different “types” of Catholics have you encountered over the years? What would a typology of Catholics look like? How many different major ideological/cultural regions do you see among your fellow 1.36 billion?
His interest in the topic was that,
since I was a teenager I've been trying to make sense of the various ideological and theological divisions on the protestant side of things. All my life I've been looking at different forms of Christianity and trying to weigh, "Well, how much of this group of Christians' beliefs and practices sound reasonable and how much seem ridiculous or even dangerous or immoral?" Baptists vs Lutherans. Methodists vs Presbyterians. Anglican vs Unitarian. Mystics vs fundamentalists. Old Testament-centered Christians vs those focused on Paul and the New Testament, etc. And it's always really hard to try to weigh and quantify this.”
I was gratified at this challenge as I would at any invitation to discuss my religion. However, as I initially told David, I do not have a lot of personal experience with the Catholic Church worldwide other than what I’ve consumed in the media. While I've visited many parishes in my travels around the United States, I've never been abroad, and I've never gone to any Catholic churches other than those of the Latin Rite. The Latin Rite, by the way, is the largest rite in the Western world.
But all that said, I can tell you a few things about how Catholics may differ in the United States and other parts of the world.
Differences Between Catholics in the Latin Rite
Within the Latin Rite, there are, for lack of a better descriptive, liberal and conservative parishes. The conservative parishes are more traditional in decoration and generally follow very closely the rubrics on how the Mass is to be celebrated, including the music, when we sit, kneel, and stand, and how Communion is distributed. Liberal parishes can move away from such things in many ways.
In my travels, just to name a few examples, I've attended Mass in parishes that had no kneelers, ones that featured church-wide holding of hands at the “Our Father” and the Kiss of Peace, and one that had a large television screen nearby the altar (used to play a slide show of scenes of natural beauty after communion). These types of things are liturgical abuses, although perhaps well-intentioned. I was not a fan—usually the music is awful as well.
Vatican II and Traditional Catholics
A related and common dividing line comes from the reforms from the 1960s’ Vatican II Ecumenical Council. One of the best-known reforms was replacing the Traditional Latin Mass with the Novus Ordo, the Mass in the vernacular. Many people, referring to themselves as “Traditional” Catholics, love the Latin Mass, and also want to avoid the sorts of liturgical abuses I described above. I agree with them on that point.
While the Latin Mass was encouraged by Pope Benedict and has risen in popularity, especially with the younger generations, Pope Francis has made efforts to curtail it. I believe his motivation is that the Church could see greater divisions between the Traditional Latin crowd and ordinary Catholics. The problem that I see is that there doesn’t appear to be any clamping down on the other extreme where liturgical abuses are running rampant.
For myself, I was born in the midst of this council and only remember Mass being said in English my entire life. I am thus an "ordinary" Catholic who loves and attends the Novus Ordo Mass. Even so, I also like the idea of having the option to attend the Latin Mass should I want to.
A Shining Example of Unity and Diversity in Proportion
One interesting point. Of the many divisions in our culture today is the tension between those stressing “diversity” and those desiring “unity.” One side wants to celebrate and emphasize the differences between groups of people and the advantages that come about from tackling problems from differing perspectives brought to the table. The other side wants to stress unity over differences in that the real strength of a society comes from practicing the values we share together. Both sides could look to the Catholic Church as a guiding light in this area.
Needless to say, unity in worshipping God is stressed as the first principle. In my travels, I am usually struck by how much the same one Catholic church is with another. This is a great gift and a comfort, knowing that I can find a Catholic Church and Mass almost anywhere I go in the world.
But the Church welcomes diversity as well. The Catholic Church is made up of many rites that grew out of the traditions of the local church communities. The seven rites of the Church include the Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean. These religious traditions differ in how the sacraments are celebrated.
And often, in the spirit of welcoming local customs of each country or region, these are often incorporated into their liturgies, including language, garb, and music. And yet, the diversity is always in the right proportions. For example, no practice that is contrary to or would alter the faith in any way is ever incorporated. A good example would be that of local belief practices involving Voodoo.
While I’ve not been abroad, the international diversity has come to me in my local parish. Each year for the past few years running, for example, my parish has held a “cultural fest” where parishioners from other countries show off their own cultures. We are offered excellent international food and exhibitions of cultural art and dance.
A few years ago, also in my own parish, I got a chance to attend a Mass said in the Ghana tradition. Our then assistant priest, from Ghana, said a Mass for Ghanaians living locally, and my family and I attended. It was interesting how much different, and better in many ways, the music was performed. The instrumentation featured an electric bass, drums, and the whole nine yards.