The week before my vacation, I was asked by a good friend of mine to sit on a panel with an Anabaptist and 2 Roman Catholics (one a parish priest and the other a Franciscan). The purpose of the panel was to explore the things that unite us in front of a crowd of high school students in Metamora. One of the first questions had to do with what we admire about the other’s tradition. I shared a couple of these that night, plus I added a few:
- I admire that, for the most part, there is officially one answer. I know that emphases may vary parish to parish, order to order, but their theology is much more established than in the protestant tradition, where we’ve yet to find a doctrine that isn’t worth dividing over.
- I admire some aspects of confession. I like the idea, on the parishioners’ side of the confessional, that there’s a mechanism for being reminded that one is forgiven. There are times where I’ve longed to unburden myself of my deepest, darkest sin, and hear someone say, “On behalf of Jesus, let me say, you are forgiven and loved.”
- I admire that in many places, and times, the Roman Catholic Church has led the way (often alone) in being the hands of God to the poor and downtrodden.
- I admire that at the center of the Mass is Jesus. You can’t attend without being reminded of his body broken and blood spilled for us.
- Last (and least), I admire the collar. I think people take you more seriously when you have a uniform.
(tomorrow, I talk about what I admire about protestantism)
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