<< I'm so buried in my studies and my other duties right now that I haven't had time to follow closely your postings regarding social dancing. But I am very glad you're doing this. I have had my run-ins with people arriving in NNN. from other trad parishes who have tried to impose the teaching they receiv…
<< I'm so buried in my studies and my other duties right now that I haven't had time to follow closely your postings regarding social dancing. But I am very glad you're doing this. I have had my run-ins with people arriving in NNN. from other trad parishes who have tried to impose the teaching they received elsewhere that social dancing between the unmarried is intrinsically evil. They cite the Scriptures, certain saints, and certain decrees of the American hierarchy from the last 150 years. This has caused no small amount of commotion in a parish of farmers who have grown up on barn dancing. I have been careful to formulate clear rejoinders to these arguments in order to leave no doubt that I have strong reasons for disagreeing with them and am not just (as has sometimes been the accusation) skirting the issue out of a fear to proclaim the truth.
For me, social dancing is no small matter. It plays into the larger issue of the problem of making our Catholic faith impossible to live -- to paraphrase St. Francis de Sales, insisting so forcefully that people become angels that they never get around to being good men. I will continue to thunder from the pulpit that parents must keep electronic devices out of their children's hands, but when it comes to dancing, get them out on the barn floor! >>
A traditional priest wrote to me:
<< I'm so buried in my studies and my other duties right now that I haven't had time to follow closely your postings regarding social dancing. But I am very glad you're doing this. I have had my run-ins with people arriving in NNN. from other trad parishes who have tried to impose the teaching they received elsewhere that social dancing between the unmarried is intrinsically evil. They cite the Scriptures, certain saints, and certain decrees of the American hierarchy from the last 150 years. This has caused no small amount of commotion in a parish of farmers who have grown up on barn dancing. I have been careful to formulate clear rejoinders to these arguments in order to leave no doubt that I have strong reasons for disagreeing with them and am not just (as has sometimes been the accusation) skirting the issue out of a fear to proclaim the truth.
For me, social dancing is no small matter. It plays into the larger issue of the problem of making our Catholic faith impossible to live -- to paraphrase St. Francis de Sales, insisting so forcefully that people become angels that they never get around to being good men. I will continue to thunder from the pulpit that parents must keep electronic devices out of their children's hands, but when it comes to dancing, get them out on the barn floor! >>