Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Pastoral Planning Notes: "It's Not Rocket Science" said Fr. Paul Soper


Fr. Paul Soper, Director of Pastoral Planning has an article in this week's Pilot unveiling the new evangelization plan for the Archdiocese of Boston.

It isn't rocket science, says he.

They have it all figured out.

"The change in velocity of a rocket is equal to the exhaust velocity of the propellant times the natural logarithm of the total initial mass of the rocket divided by its final mass after the propellant has been expelled...

In the Archdiocese of Boston on any given weekend, about 250,00 people attend Mass. Let's assume 80 percent of them carry cell phones - that's 20,000...40% of cell phone users use those phones to access social media sites like facebook. So, each weekend, some 80,000 people attending Mass are able to post on facebook."

If I understand this correctly, the space cadets want us to pull out our phones during our Sacred Sacraments and post about it on facebook.

"...what would happen? Sixteen million times, people would see *I* am at Mass at..." Our Lady of the Tweeters. Then, he says, "the person who has made the post now beings to adopt the identity of an evangelizer".

"The New Evangelization is not a parlor trick, or some clever strategy that keeps us from needing to really witness face to face...we have tools that are becoming broadly available the very moment we are being broadly called to engage in evangelization. I do not think we should ignore the significance of this."

Heavens no. We should not ignore the significance of the very moment our souls are unifying with the Divinity of Christ.

Now that phones have been invented - these are marketing moment.

Get it?

When you're in the Confessional, fuggetabout focusing on the Sacrament, the Act of Contrition and absolution. Get out your phone, take a selfie and post it to facebook.

When you're loved one is receiving the Sacrament of Viaticum (Last Rites of the Church)-take out your cell phone, "check in" on facebook and tweet about it.

This isn't rocket science, says Fr. Soper. Pull out your smart phone.

Is this guy serious?

Does he know the 200,000 of us left going to Mass are going there for an intimate physical union with our Beloved?

Does he know what we are doing there with the stolen moments of time from the slavery of keeping a roof over our heads and our families fed?

Is he even remotely aware of the magnitude of these sacred moments?

The entering of contemplative prayer with the angels and saints present and adoring Christ?

He wants us to cease and desist, pull out our phones and run a three ring circus?

In case it isn't obvious, I am beside myself.


The idiocy of this plan doesn't bother me.

It is the exploitation of Divinity of Christ that is beneath contempt.

It is duly noted that they don't suggest that the Cardinals, bishops and priests should or will pull out their cell phones when they get into the Sanctuary.

The lunacy of such a suggestion has to be crystal clear to them.


7 comments:

Theresa said...

More flatulence from the archdiocese of Boston

Steve Dalton said...

Soper has waaaay too much time on his hands!

A.D. said...

So phones do not interrupt the Mass, priests generally request parishioners to turn them off. This request is underscored in the weekly bulletin. Perhaps if Father Soper spent more time out in the field, he would realize the absurdity of his proposal.

TTC said...

Theresa, exactly. And this one is no crop duster. A real stinker at the velocity of rocket. Our poor Lord. His Sacramental grace is kicked to the curb for a plan to tether Christ's souls to the pews with a crusade about smart phone apps.

Steve, its some master plan, eh? If there is anyone left in the Chancery who has a handle on what tge Sacraments are all about and how to use that power, they evidently have been superceded for the plan of these rocket scientists. The front page of the Pilot was a story about fixing the Roman Curia.

Do you think they'll turn the Pope into the head of their entertainment empire?



TTC said...

AD, sadly, I don't think what afflicts Fr. Soper's judgmenr can be fixed with a reality tour.

There is much more going on than breathtaking ignorance.

He is blind, and the blind are leading the blind at 66 Brooks Drive.

Think about it.

This plan sounded so good to the hierarchs, they are disclosing the marching orders in the Cardinal Archbishop's newspaper.

It's a bit like having the Boston Police Commish announce they're going to manage the selling of crack pipes at our elementary schools with a police unit wearing rubber noses who will be trained to greet children with a cool handshake.

These people are so out of touch with the mystical, they are clueless.

breathnach said...

Wow. The "New Evangelization" (Soper edition) is insipid. Tweeting and Facebooking Mass attendance is the 21st century equivalent of the Jesuit missions to the North and South American Indians or the heroic Jesuit missions to Japan. Annoying and happy talking someone you don't know at Mass has become a new form of martyrdom. I'm not suprised to learn Father Soper is a Harvard man.

Anonymous said...

Tweet and They Shall Come.
Who ?
Other Zombies who mindlessly Tweet.