Lakeland’s Burning

I used to live in Lakeland, Florida, and honestly, all the good stuff happened after I left: housing prices doubled (as in - I could have sold my house for double of what I did sell it for even 3 years later)…GirlFights on YouTube (No, that’s not “good stuff.” I know, I know)…and now…

The Florida Outpouring!

Over the past month, during our occasional forays through the channels, we’ve noticed that one of the religious channels has frequently been broadcasting some kind of revival live from Lakeland. Last Sunday night I stopped and watched for a while - the broadcast was coming from Joker Marchant Stadium, spring training home of the Detroit Tigers and the rest of the time the single-A Lakeland Tigers.

(Christopher’s first employer. He worked in concessions for about a month, occasionally coming home afterwards with boxes of leftover hot dogs. Pleasant.)

The preacher was short, stocky and tatooed. He was on fire in typical Pentecostal fashion. At one point he was informed that a woman who’d come out to see him from California had brought a bag of charcoal, and she wanted to take it back to California to distribute to everyone, so she could spread the fire. The revival preacher then prayed over the bag of coals for a while, praying that through the coals, the fire of the Spirit would spread..

…and at this point, I’m thinking, like I always seem to… yup..you can run but you can’t hide from sacramentalism. Keep running. Just keep running…

I finally got curious enough to wonder what was going on and found out that this is being hailed as a new Pentecost event, categorized by some in the same mode as the Toronto Blessing and its various manifestations in Brownsville, Pensacola, and other places.

The evangelist’s name is Todd Bentley, a Canadian who has a dramatic conversion story and interesting things to say about his present spiritual life. He is apparently tied into a bunch of prophetic types associated with Kansas City, the complexities of which are sort of beyond me. His has his very strong critics - those from evangelicalism who are cautious or even more than cautious about Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, and those with specific criticisms of the visions he claims to have, conversations and encounters with angels and Jesus himself, the purported “signs” of the Spirit’s presence, which include gold and silver dust, and so on.

So, you’re saying, why Lakeland, that small city in between Orlando and Tampa? Well, Lakeland has been a center of charismatic Christianity for a while, both in itself - with the old Carpenters’ Home Church - and its proximity to various manifestations in Orlando and Tampa.  From the news stories I’ve read, this revival, which has been going on for a month, has moved around, beginning in churches, then to the baseball stadium or Civic Center when available, and even to the airport grounds.

Here’s an article from the Tampa Bay paper about it

Mark Byron- a long-time Christian blogger who lived in the Lakeland area for a while, has several posts here.

If you do a blog search you can find lots of blunt critiques and views of what’s going on. I’d be really interested in hearing from anyone who lives down there for some perspective on what’s going on, how the other Christian churches are responding, if anyone is actually noticing this, if it’s being ignored, and so on.

There are a number of different ways to talk about this style of religion, but what always interests me the most are the ghosts of ancient historical Christianity within these great-great-great grandchildren of the Reformation (some might say third cousins thrice removed, since it’s a sure bet neither Luther nor Calvin would claim them).

* The persistence of a sacramental sensibility,  both through using objects as vehicles to touch God - or let God touch you and as signs of God’s presence.

The other night, I watched my old friend Paula White for a few minutes. She was on her knees praying and behind her was a huge cross with hundreds of papers - prayer petitions - pinned to it. Her assistants were facing the cross as Paula prayed, waving their hands up and down and around this cross laden with prayers, as if seeking to draw God’s power, to direct it.

* The individual minister as a conduit for God’s grace. In a tradition founded on the priesthood of all believers, it is impossible, apparently, to escape the scandal of particularity - that this guy, this person, is the agent, somehow, of God’s presence.

My internet meanderings on this topic took me to this video, of part of a service presided over by one Dr. Cindy Timms. I think what interested me even more than the mass slaying in the Spirit was what she was saying during all of this - which seemed to go further than say, commanding spirits to leave in Jesus’ name (a Biblical practice, after all). She uses the phrase “I decree” - as in “I decree that every invisible barrier is now destroyed” “I decree that the kingdom of heaven comes with force” - she says, “I assign angels to your ministries…” and so on. Now maybe I just don’t get the lingo - maybe what they’d say was happening was that her words represent what God was saying through her.

Even then.

Well, anyway, it’s all pretty interesting, and I’d like to hear more from anyone who has encountered this or anything related personally, especially anyone who’s living in the area and has insight as to how churches down there are responding or saying.

 

Creator, Sanctifier and Redeemer

A good explanation of why that doesn’t cut it from Christianity Today - because reinforcements in these discussions are always helpful.

Furthermore, it is a mistake to focus only on the phrase “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” without noting the two words that introduce it in the Great Commission: ” … the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Whenever God reveals his name, he reveals his character. We see in God’s name his communal nature and desire for a personal relationship to his people. “I Am who I Am,” he told Moses. “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob … This is my name forever.”

Almost all the recent alternatives to the Trinitarian formula undercut the personal significance of God’s name by replacing it with words of function. As many have noted, “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier” encourages modalism, the heretical teaching that God’s threeness is more about his modes of operation, or our perception of him, rather than something intrinsic to the divine essence. Biblical Christianity teaches that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in creation, redemption, and sanctification. A document “commended for study” by the Presbyterian Church (USA) explicitly rejected a modalist understanding of “Creator, Savior, Sanctifier,” but still encouraged its use, along with “Mother, Child, and Womb,” “Sun, Light, and Burning Ray,” and other troubling triads.

As theologian Robert Jenson has noted, “Such attempts presuppose that we first know about a triune God and then look about for a form of words to address that God, when in fact it is the other way around. … [T]he phrase Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is historically specific and can be what liturgy and devotion—and, at its base, all theology—must have, a proper name of God.”

God is serious about his name—which is why he took the trouble to reveal it to us in Christ. To create an alternative according to our cultural sensibilities is at best parody and at worst idolatry, even if it is constructed from the good metaphors God has given us. Most idols, after all, are created from God’s good gifts.

Myanmar

The toll is growing and fears of catastrophic disease are mounting in Burma.

Gashwin is keeping a list of relief efforts and agencies updated.

This blog - Myanmar Relief - also seems to be a good place.

From the Weekly Standard, “Abetting Burma”

Indeed, the same U.N. institutions that have accommodated and “engaged” the Burmese government are stupefied by how sluggishly the regime has responded to this disaster. Meteorologists in India say they warned Burmese officials at least 48 hours before the cyclone slammed into the country. Yet state-run media failed to issue timely warnings to villagers in the storm’s path. As thousands of tons of relief assistance sat idly along its border, the government dithered over whether to issue visas allowing relief organizations into the country. A U.S. offer to divert three Naval ships in the Gulf of Thailand to assist relief efforts was rebuffed. Earlier this week, many aid workers were still being denied visas.

“Running the country on a combination of internal repression and xenophobia,” writes Kenneth Denby in the Times (London), “the junta seems not to have made up its mind that this is a tragedy that it cannot remedy on its own.” The government’s craven disregard for the survival of its own people in the midst of this catastrophe, the worst since the 2004 tsunami, should surprise no one. It is the easily predictable reflex of a brutal and paranoid regime–aided and abetted by U.N. apologists and a culture of human-rights hypocrisy.

Cleaning out the email box

…and a few random reads, quickly noted.

Fr. Philip Powell wants to spread the word about MTS Travel

These folks specialize in travel for priests, religious, missionaries–all sorts of church-related activities. Diane Houseman helped me yesterday get a ticket to Rome at an incredibly reduced fare. I think they deserve our support. With air fares rising rapidly this summer b/c of fuel costs everyone is going to feel the pinch. We don’t want something as mundane as $$$ to keep us from spreading the Gospel!

Carl Olson has a 6000 word treatment of Deepak Chopra’s The Third Jesus.

New blogs: Popin’ Ain’t Easy

Via Andrea Duda, who runs the Catholic Blog Directory - The Catholic Cuisine Blog, which is great, and is getting us all ready for Pentecost!

Related, from my bookshelf:

Published 1965

Published 1949 by the National Catholic Rural Life Conference

 Check out LoveToBeCatholic for videos.

Do you want to read my “Bringing the Mass to the People” post in German? Well, here you go - thanks to a German blogger who liked it and translated it!

Thomas Merton: The Taming of the nous - an excellent post from Brian Visaggio

The Summoning of Everyman - a film version of the moralitly play, filmed around the Cloisters in NYC

Which brings to mind John Farrell’s excellent version of Everyman - information and trailer here.

 Most of you know that the Anchoress has emerged..

 Parish Network: From the developer:

I am in the process of beta-testing a new social networking Web site called ParishNetwork (www.parishnetwork.org), which is intended to help people meet others in their own parish/diocese, and I was hoping your readers might be willing to give it a try and send me some feedback.

Right now, parishes in the following dioceses are supported: the Archdioceses of New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington (D.C.) and Baltimore, and the Diocese of Wilmington (Del.) — more dioceses will be added soon.

Finally, Michael Spencer, better known as the Internet Monk, is a Baptist minister working in a school in KY, has been in ministry for decades and an Internet presence for a long time, carving out a unique niche, a niche marked by a lot of battle scars.  What has been bothering him for a year now has been obvious to anyone who passed “Reading Between the Lines 101,” but he comes out with the full storyin  this post at the group blog of which he is a part, the Boar’s Head Tavern (which does not take comments, and be warned, has a pretty anti-Catholic vibe going - not Michael’s doing, but it’s there) and posts on it on his own blog, where comments are allowed.

In short: his wife is starting RCIA. 

 Okay, no book notes. That’s enough for today.

(Except perhaps a note on my books - go shopping!)

 

Talkin’ about clericalism

Over at Inside Catholic, Russell Shaw has an article about clericalism. The indication is that it is the first of many, which is good, because the article doesn’t exactly confront clericalism directly, but does an end run via the growth of ecclesial lay ministry.

Clericalism, however, is not an affirmation of these sacred realities but a caricature. It fosters an ecclesiastical caste system in which clerics comprise the dominant elite, with lay people serving as a passive, inert mass of spear-carriers tasked with receiving clerical tutelage and doing what they’re told. This upstairs-downstairs way of understanding relationships and roles in the Church extends even to the spiritual life: priests are called to be saints, lay people are called to satisfy the legalistic minimum of Christian life and scrape by into purgatory.

Even while absorbing these clericalist views, of course, the laity traditionally have entertained certain contrary perspectives. Think of the robust anticlericalism of Chaucer. Or consider a line in Edwin O’Connor’s splendid pre-Vatican II novel The Edge of Sadness. “Probably in no other walk of life [besides the priesthood],” the priest-narrator remarks, “is a young man so often and so humbly approached by his elders and asked for his advice. Which, by the way, is almost always received gratefully and forgotten promptly.”

So, where does Catholic clericalism come from?

At bottom, it comes from erroneous thinking about vocation. The fundamental, and profoundly mistaken, idea behind it does much to explain the apparent shortage of new vocations to the priesthood and religious life and the persistent failure of carefully planned programs to recruit them. (As I’ve remarked elsewhere, there’s no shortage of vocations in the Catholic Church. What we have today is a shortage of vocational discernment, with accompanying disastrous results. But that’s another story.)

The bad idea at the heart of clericalism equates “vocation” with “state in life.” A state in life is a large, overall framework of commitment within which different people choose to live their Christians lives. State in life is one meaning of “vocation,” but not the only one.

Starting from that mistake, bad thinking about vocation then makes the great leap of supposing that the only real vocation worthy of that name is the clerical state in life. Those whom God doesn’t call to be priests (or, by extension, religious) — the laity, that is — may have a vocation in some weak, analogical sense, but they don’t have the vocation that’s the gold standard for everything else — the vocation to be a priest. All other callings are evaluated by how well or poorly they approximate the clerical norm.

So what Shaw is saying here is that by establishing priesthood (and, I’d add, religious life in general) as the norm of holiness and vocation, all other roles in the Church as well as expressions of living out one’s baptism are imagined in relationship to that.

The consequences which Shaw deplores in this article are those which have occupied him consistently: the implication that so many of us have lived with, the understanding that the ideal Christian way of life is one that is “involved in Church.”  Three stories:

1) When I was in college, I was super-involved in the college campus ministry. Those of us who were in leadership were consistently frustrated with one of the priests on staff who was never around that much, who spent his time out on campus, in the dorms and frat houses and so on. One day he said to us, “Not everyone is a Church Person. You guys are, and that’s great. But not everyone wants to spend all their time at church activities. They need to be ministered to, too.”

A lightbulb moment for me that stuck - even (gasp) 30 years later.

2) Later in life, when I was an adult and at some probably useless meeting at church, a woman in her 50’s said to the gathered group, “I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve done everything. I’ve been on every committee, I’ve helped plan liturgies, I’ve volunteered in the office…but I still feel like there’s something missing spiritually inside me…”

3) Yet a few years later I was sitting in Mass on a Sunday designated as Ministry Sunday. Outside, on one side of the church, were arrayed the various parish ministries with their picture boards and sign-up sheets. At the end of Mass, the priest got up and said sternly, “The Ministry Fair is on the south side of the church. Some of you will choose to exit through the north doors and avoid the ministry fair. If you do that, I am telling you - You may not consider yourself a Catholic Christian.”

You think I’m kidding? That I’m making it up? Swear to God, I’m not. It was the closest I’ve ever come to walking out of Mass. That and the Easter Sunday Mass six years ago in which the presiding Franciscan ad-libbed the entire Mass from beginning to end, an astonishing feat. Again, not kidding.

MInd you - none of that is told to disparage lay ministry, either professional or volunteer. Heck, that’s what I do. Those who sniff at the very idea of lay ministry are living in a dreamland in which children are magically catechized, music simply materializes in the air during Mass, and the homebound and hospitalized in a parish of 2,000 families are visited by one of the two (if that) teleporting priests on staff.

No, what is at issue is that sensibility that formed those of us who came of age in the 70’s - the idea that the greatest expression of the Christian life is to be “involved” in your parish or diocese, and that that is the measure of the “strength” or “vitality” of a parish - how many committee meetings fill up how many meeting rooms every night of the week - rather than the idea that the greatest expression of the Christian life is to listen to Christ and bring his love and truth to wherever you are, whatever you are doing in the world. 

Which is Shaw’s point, exactly. By measuring ourselves against religious, and using that as our yardstick, we are buying into a clericalist mindset.

I have a couple of quibbles. Not quibbles exactly, but points I think need deeper exploration.

If we’re going to grapple with clericalism as Shaw defines and expands on it, we have to face the fact that historically, this promotion of the clerical state as superior is not anything new. It is woven deep into Catholic sensibilities, reaching back to the beginnings of asceticism in the fourth century, if not earlier. I’m sure we will have some commentors argue (and feel free to do so) that Shaw is wrong in this sense and that the Catholic tradition, neatly summarized in the old Baltimore Catechism illustration in which the caption below a picture of a married person says “Good” and that under a religious says “Better” makes complete sense.

That was, in fact, one particular target of the Protestant Reformers, especially vivid in Luther - to dismantle that theology which privileged celibate vowed religious life as automatically and unquestioningly one which brought one closer to God and God’s will than the lay state.

In other words, this is not a recent development, it is assumed in much of Catholic theological and spiritual thinking and to confront that makes some nervous, convinced that the next inevitable step to that kind of reconsideration is giant puppets looking over my shoulder as I’m forced to clap a new Church into being next time I go to Mass.

My other point relates more to clericalism itself. As I said, focusing on the “clericalization of the laity” is good and important, but really not the center of the problem, as I’m assuming Shaw’s forthcoming book Nothing To Hide: Secrecy, Communication, and Communion in the Catholic Church will make clear.

I actually don’t think truly helpful discussions about clericalism in the Catholic Church can happen without considering:

1) The reality and shape of clericalism in other Christian denominations. The primary point of comparison would be with those bodies that have some sort of hierarchical structure and ordained ministers for whom a sacerdotal function is primary - Orthodox, Episcopal, even perhaps Lutheran. But I think it’s worth talking about in the context of bodies with looser structures and less liturgical emphasis as well. What is the shape and form of clericalism in evangelical churches?

2) Mandatory celibacy has to be taken into account - which is where #1 becomes important, again. Clericalism exists in churches with married ordained ministers. How does the reality differ in a body in which celibacy is a mark of (most) ordained ministry? It would be even instructive to look at Orthodoxy and Eastern Rite Catholicism in which bishops must be celibate. How does that work into a clericalist stew?

3) The flip side - or perhaps just another dimension of clericalism in its contemporary form is, in my opinion, the infantilization of the clergy, both by bishops who treat priests like children and the laity whose attitude towards priests is often marked by a sort of pity and an implication that they are somehow, not fully formed adult human beings.

4) I was quite struck by one of the comments on Shaw’s article over at Inside Catholic in which a commentor said:

It always concerns me when an issue is presented as something to be solved. Shaw’s image of the sick man, as clear and expressive as it is, does not serve this particular issue well. Clericalism will always be with us. It can never be “solved.”

Trying to “solve” it can only feed the frenzy of anti-clericalism. It is better to identify its characteristics and seek to lessen them, in a word, contain them.

I thought that was pretty smart, and it fits into my theory that “everything will get screwed up eventually. Our job is not to seek perfection, but be aware of and honest about our limitations and the possibility of sin and failure and try to mitigate against it in our structures and methods.”

5) Finally, this: We’re all talking about clericalism. We’re mostly laity. I’m pretty interested in hearing about clericalism from, you know..clerics.  Are we just imagining things? From the inside, is what we’re calling clericalism perceived as a problem, or just business and usual? Is this conversation missing anything from your perspective?

 

Popcaks on Sirius!

Congratulations!

 Beginning Monday, May 19th, Lisa and I will be hosting a new show for The Catholic Channel Sirius 159.  The new show, Fully Alive! with Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak, will air weeknights from 10p-Midnight Eastern (7-9pm Pacific).

We’ll have the opporunity to interview the best and brightest secular and Christian authors on marriage, family and general psychology topics and relate their work to the Catholic vision of the human person.   Plus, we’ll take your calls to help you find faithful solutions to the problems that stand in the way of your coming fully alive in Christ. 

The HMS show will continue as well…it’s beyond me how they do it. Holy Spirit I guess!

 

Speaking of Faith

A few weeks ago, I told you that the public radio program Speaking of Faith was looking for Catholics to talk about being Catholic.

The program airs this week, but you can listen to it online and even, to save time, read the transcript.

Among the other resources, the program’s web page has a nifty Google Map of respondents beyond those on the program - click on the “pin” to read what people from your area said. Maybe you’re even on it! It’s an encourging spot to dwell for a few moments.

One of those featured in the program is long-time blogger and now Inside Catholic contributor Steve Skojec. Congratulations, Steve!

 

Trent Gillis, online producer of the show, comments that the map is dynamic and you can still participate - so go add your two cents!

Call to…Puppetry?

Last week, the West Coast Call to Action had its conference in San Jose. This blogs links to a video of the Closing Liturgy.

Here’s a direct link to the video.

Playing “spot the liturgical abuse” is not the point. Nor is snarking at the average age of the participants. (Just heading off the predictable commentary at the pass here. Let’s go deeper.)

What I am just not grasping, despite my pretty strong powers of empathy, is the gestalt at work here.

Why does everyone think the giant liturgical puppets are so awesome?

This has got to be one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen.

The victims of Nargis

Gashwin has a post with links to information on the deadly impact of Cyclone Nargis.

Fort Wayne has a substantial Burmese population, so the local paper gets reactions:

 

Monday was a long day for Minerva Gyaw – the first of what will likely be a long week.

 

The 86-year-old Fort Wayne resident, like many other Burmese in the area, spent most of her day waiting to learn whether her extended family had survived a devastating cyclone.

Every few hours, calls went out.

But the landline telephones, Internet, even cell phones couldn’t connect Gyaw and many of her friends in northeast Indiana with their families in Southeast Asia.

“We’re all concerned,” Gyaw said.

Gyaw said her relatives live in one of the hardest-hit parts of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Many live in Myanmar’s delta area, the country’s rice-producing region, where towns were reportedly flattened.

Fort Wayne is home to an estimated 3,000 to 3,500 Burmese.

The silence from Myanmar has been difficult for Gyaw to bear because of her mistrust of Myanmar’s government and any information it provides on the cyclone’s aftermath.

snip

On the south end of town Monday, cars crowded a circular drive in front of a house. Dozens of shoes piled outside the screen door.

The television in the Jetavan Vihara Buddist temple on Sylvia Street remained the main source of news for residents inside whose calls to Myanmar had been met with maddening silence.

Aye Htwe heard his relatives in Yangon had their roof blown away, but that small bit of news is all he’d heard by Monday afternoon. He plans to try to send them some money via his sister in Thailand.

“They have a lot of trouble right now,” he said.

A report from AsiaNews

 

Good News

A couple of years ago, after our one and only Trip to Rome, a fellow wrote to me and asked about the apartment we’d stayed at. As things turned out, he and his family were traveling to Rome and were going to stay in the same apartment.

A couple of days ago, this same man wrote me again, asking about the famed “Pope in Shades” pic, and he also described life in his new parish in Denver. I was struck by what he’d written, and thought it worth reprinting on the blog. So with his permission:

Coming from Chicago, all I can say is the Catholic scene in Denver is incredible.  Our parish is Church of the Holy Ghost, where they offer the Novus Ordo in Latin.  The priests are of the Oblates of the Bl. Virgin Mary and are very young, energetic and orthodox.  They offer daily Mass, followed by the Angelus, Exposition of the Bl. Sacrament, Rosary and Confession.  The parish is packed with young, very friendly families.  Our school, St. Vincent de Paul, is run by 4 Nashville Dominicans - the average age is about 35.  My favorite scene from this winter was one of the sisters, in full habit, standing in the middle of the street during a major snowstorm directing traffic as parents dropped off their kids.  A group of 4 parents started a Jeff Cavins Bible study last year and it’s grown to 20 couples.  We met last Friday night  - casual dinner, beer and then the videos.  I couldn’t believe it.  Just wonderful.
 
Archbishop Chaput offers Mass on Sunday at 6:30 in the Cathedral (which is a magnificent structure).  However, he hears Confessions before Mass and vests in the back of the church.  Sort of shows you that what he considers important.  His homilies are strong, very evangelizing and very geared towards teaching the faith.

…because of the beauty of the church, the reverence of the Mass and the availability of the priests, I’m going to almost daily Mass.  In fact, more than ever, I WANT to attend Mass as frequently as possible.  Obviously, I’m a weak Catholic and need everything the Church can offer to bring me to Christ - smells, bells, statues, artwork, stained glass windows etc.  Second, these Oblate priests are unbelievable in the Confessional.  They disappear and I feel like I’m talking directly to Christ.  They offer mercy, but also practical points on how to conquer sin. 

…Third, the parish is very friendly.  We have 5 kids (one on the way) so often my wife or I are standing in the back with one or more kids during Mass.  Other people noticed we were new and introduced themselves to us.  Older people often compliment us on the behavior of our kids, even when it’s not justified.  It’s their way of saying, “Keep coming to Mass as a family!”  After Mass, there are donuts and coffee in the basement and it’s packed with families and kids.  People linger and talk. 

 Fourth, the church is located downtown and has a strong outreach program for the homeless.  There’s a soup kitchen etc.  So this shows you can combine so-called “conservative” Catholicism with vibrant Catholic social teaching. 

 Fifth, the church is beautiful and has a wonderful history:  In the 1930s/40s, an heiress commissioned an architect to design the church in honor of her parents.  She first had him travel throughout Europe to study famous churches.  As a result, Holy Ghost has a mix of styles, but it rivals the most beautiful churches I’ve ever been in, including Rome.  I’ve attached a picture of the altar.  Finally, it’s right downtown, surrounded by a couple of encroaching skyscrapers and across the street from the federal courthouse.  It offers a powerful counterpoint to what society says is important.  I always pray for the soul of this heiress.  Just think, her generosity in the name of her parents continues to save souls and change lives in ways she never imagined.  It’s just amazing to me.
 
I know I sound a little too enthusiastic to be real, but I didn’t want to move to Denver.  I felt like Jonah being pulled to Ninevah.  I turned the job offer down twice, even though it was a much better job with much better compensation.  But now I know we’re supposed to be here and it is just fabulous from a Catholic perspective, in my opinion.  Not once have we gotten the daily Chicago comment, “Are those all yours?”  My wife is already in a Rosary league with other moms.  There are informal doctrine classes for men at our kids’ school.  My boss is a practicing Catholic whose wife homeschools their six kids.  I’ve met half a dozen converts - all of whom said something dramatically changed as a result of World Youth Day.  It really is incredible here and I’m not one to be overly optimistic or hopeful about the Church in America.  I keep telling people here that they have no idea how great it is and they just look at me like I have two heads b/c this seems so normal to them.