Here's A Missionary-minded Priest!

[LouisvilleFan]

Got this off the Relevant Magazine news reel: [url="http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/04/22/priest_holds_mass_in_arcade/9495/"]Priest holds mass in arcade[/url].

It's a short news story about an Italian priest named Fr. Duilio Testa, age 78, who got tired of waiting for young people to show up in church, so he apparently decided to walk into a busy video game arcade and say Mass there. This right here says it all:

"At the start, they were all a bit surprised," he said. "But then they stopped playing and helped to prepare an altar and volunteered to read bits of the Gospel. Everyone paid attention throughout the holy mass."

I can just see them laying down a white linen cloth over an air hockey table... take the secular and make it holy, baby! Hopefully he was misquoted about the kids reading parts of the Gospel, but assuming the GIRM was followed, this is exactly the "get your hands dirty" kind of thing the Church should be doing!

I found [url="http://www.euronews24.org/Italy/article_short.php?link_id=280"]another article[/url] that gives a little more info on the priest and his experience as a missionary in the Congo. It says the bishop gave is blessing, but the priest doesn't plan on saying arcade Masses on a regular basis. He says, "Things done on the spur of the moment work better." This one also concludes by saying a research firm hired by the Church reported only 17% of young Italians attended Mass regularly in 2006, down from 25% in 1992.

By comparison, [url="http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=57507"]30% of young Catholics[/url] in America go to Mass weekly.

[jeffpugh]

Wouldn't he need an altar stone? Coolio, though. Great that the kids had reverence.
What did the owner think? lawl

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='Sacred Music Man' post='1507586' date='Apr 23 2008, 04:41 PM']Wouldn't he need an altar stone? Coolio, though. Great that the kids had reverence.
What did the owner think? lawl[/quote]

Sounds like the owner was losing money

Not sure about the altar stone... imagine they're pretty heavy, but I think they have smaller stones with a relic inside that are more portable. It's not uncommon to have Mass in someone's home and I'm sure many priests don't around a 20 lb. stone every time.

[CatherineM]

I'm for anything that brings kids in.

[LouisvilleFan]

"We cannot spend too much time weeping over some men without losing time suitable and necessary to procure the salvation of others."

That's a quote from [i]Finding God's Will for You[/i] by St. Francis de Sales. He's teaching how we should not be discouraged by our failings and discusses how the early Christians first preached the Gospel to the Jews, but eventually had to move on to the Gentiles. They didn't obsess over their failure to convert Jews to Christ, but rested in the knowledge that God is the only One who can stir their hearts to faith.

The thing that I noticed is how St. Francis seems concerned about "losing time" in procuring peoples' salvation. He's like the manager of a business concerned over the productivity of those on his payroll. I think the Church lost its sense of urgency somewhere between then and now. This past Monday, I was in an Assemblies of God meeting all about preaching the Gospel in the 10/40 Window, the area between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude where most of the world's poorest and most restrictive Muslim countries lie, and most have merely a scant Christian presence. While listening to their stories and testimonies about planting churches and converting souls in those countries, I couldn't help but sense the urgency they feel to get out there [i]now[/i] and go to work.

And here, I'm reading St. Francis this morning and can't help but notice he clearly worked under a similar sense of urgency. Is it any coincidence he brought something like 70,000 Calvinists back to the faith, largely with the help of religious tracts? (which is why he's the patron saint of writers... and, yes, Jack Chick stole his big idea from a "Catlick!")

That's what I admire about this priest, even though I know nothing else about him. I've been lazy and apathetic about sharing my faith, and it's easy to do that when our lives are so comfortable and we are blessed with religious freedom and only the kind of persecution that kills our pride. But I want to be like Fr. Duilio, St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Francis de Sales.

Hmm... guess I'm putting Fr. Duilio in some pretty good company... but, isn't sainthood everyone's vocation?

[CatherineM]

I have trouble sharing my faith as well, but I'm not sure it is out of laziness, but habit. I worked so many years in an ecumenical setting, that I had to be careful about what I said and when so as not to offend my boss. It takes so much courage to go into a strange place and just start proclaiming the Gospel. I admire people who can do it.

[CatholicWing]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' post='1508229' date='Apr 24 2008, 08:13 AM']"That's what I admire about this priest, even though I know nothing else about him. I've been lazy and apathetic about sharing my faith, and it's easy to do that when our lives are so comfortable and we are blessed with religious freedom and only the kind of persecution that kills our pride. But I want to be like Fr. Duilio, St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Francis de Sales.

Hmm... guess I'm putting Fr. Duilio in some pretty good company... but, isn't sainthood everyone's vocation?[/quote]


I really love to St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis Xavier.
I appericiate yours this post.