Synod Listening Session – March 20, 2022
Johanna Campbell
What breaks your heart?
That the St. Patrick community will be split up and torn apart, especially with how much the community helps each other. Johanna said she looks forward to mass every week.
She said it’s like being promised Thanksgiving dinner and you get peanut butter sandwiches instead.
The archdiocese is on a power trip, their priorities are so screwed up.
There is so little in this world that is caring and now they are tearing the community apart.
She thought it was like Jesus in the temple – throwing the tables of the money changers, the destruction of the temple.
They are creating a lot of pain for a lot of people. It is cruelty to the little ones, who will care for the least of our brethren. God will be the judge and she expects God will say “when you did this to the little ones, the least of these, you did this to me.
What fills your heart about the Catholic church?
The tenets of our faith, the creed. The warmth and caring of the community. The music.
Johanna loves it when Deacon Dennis and Fr. Bryan wave to those people connecting from home, she feels a part of things and feels present.
The archdiocese are acting like naughty children, operating from an emotional place, can’t evaluate and reexamine their decision and change.
Andrea Hoekstra
What breaks your heart about the Catholic church?
The institutional church rewards bad behavior. Their emotional growth and faith formation is halted.
What fills your heart?
The triumph of the least of the brethren, when they have prevailed. Specifically, the nuns and other instances like canon law challenges that have been successful.
Jackie McWalter-Huff
What breaks your heart about the Catholic church?
Church closures and there are examples of how to solve the issues they are facing yet they don’t see how it adds to the decline of the Catholic Church. They know scripture, Matthew 18:20, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them but do not honor it. Bigger parishes are not always better. Jackie’s husband has gone to larger parishes where they have parts split off. The issues with decline of priests and they don’t open it up to all those called to be leaders in the church. They say their primary objective is the care of the souls and they know that 20-50% of people leave the church in a merger, yet they choose the easy thing of closing churches and not the right thing which is value every community and work with every community to operate with less clergy.
What fills your heart?
Jackie enjoys the rituals and traditions of the Catholic church. The community of St. Pats and how they have supported her daughter, Lily. How encouraging they have been, welcoming, encouraging her to participate.
The call to be led by the Holy Spirit and she wishes the church would follow this.
Loves the music, various kinds of music.
The commitment to interfaith of St. Patrick’s and other churches too.
Loves the Synod call to the faithful and the world to better discern how the Spirit calls us.