Something amazing has happened with the Whispers in the Loggia. The guy who writes it has grown up over the last few months. The whole tone of the blog has changed for the better. In this post he writes aboout Vietnamese Catholics who have a ginormous Marian festival every year. He ends the post with the words, "US Church, this is your future....Welcome it."
Well um.... no. Bless his heart but US Catholics (white Catholics to be blunt--- sorry if this irks anybody) are very insular. At the sight of a group (10 plus) Catholics of other races in the room the average US Catholic will quietly ease out of the back door.
Last night I saw a little bit of this. After the Assumption Vigil Mass Rocky and I noticed that there was a stunningly beautiful statue of Our Lady in the chapel. The Hispanic parishioners were celebrating the vigil by spending an evening of prayer with our dear mother. With their own money they completely transformed an ugly modern little chapel. Banks of pink and white flowers and pink and white candles were all around the altar. The chapel was packed. Everyone was decently dressed (sadly I can not say the same about the Americans in the main church) and even the kids were silent. Other than Rocky and I not one American set foot in the chapel. The non Hispanic parishioners stopped, peeked in, saw all those Hispanics and quickly moved on. Even the priest seemed hesistant about going in. That's the future of US Catholicism. I'm not happy about it, I'm just pointing at the pooping elephant in the living room.