Good Morning, and Welcome to the Eucharistic Celebration Here In Our Parish Family Community of Saint...

 I was at a funeral once where a ne'er-do-well son showed up last minute and insinuated himself as chief mourner to a father whom he had abused and abandoned; and to the deceased's deeply bereaved sister, (who had wept, organized and out of her poverty paid for everything,) had unctuously purred, Oh, thanks so much for coming, Aunt Eleanor. 
I thought for a minute she was going to strike him as his presumption stirred her momentarily out of her sorrow into righteous anger.
I knew a bit of what she was feeling.
I have always disliked being "welcomed" to Mass, as it seems to me a claim of ownership by one group of people, and a labelling of others as... well, "other." (It strikes me as particularly goofy when a visiting priest on holiday says it to the nailed-down weekday Mass-goers. No matter.)
Further, I think it privileges the parochial over the universal, and we are Catholics, not congregationalists.

Hence, I find this an excellent blog:

I would like to think that I am a good house guest. I clean up after myself, I graciously thank my host, I offer to help, and I respect the life and lifestyle of my hosts. I used to think that is how I should show up to church. ...

But God is not calling us to simply be a house guest, a temporary visitor, or an old friend who stops by on occasion.

He has called us to truly dwell in His house...ask questions, have tough conversations, kick up your feet (figuratively) and get comfortable because this is not a three-day weekend, this is your life and soul—for eternity.

I'd quibble with the use of the word "comfortable," but I get it - she means the kind of "comfort" with which St. Paul reluctantly endured the thorn in his side - become accustomed, even resigned, create a worn spot in the pew varnish in the shape of your hind quarters.

And so like here, we should all proclaim,

I am rolling up my sleeves and taking up space.

"Destination Parishes"

Am I being all judgey, or is there something inherently dishonest in presenting only one side of a contentious question, and attaching a survey to it, to see how people think?
In any case, the author who takes issue with parish shopping is in Chicago, so I'm pretty well acquainted with some of the "destination parishes" to which he may be referring.

Wonder if he takes equally dim views of St John Cantius and St Sabina's.....

 I don't know what the demographics are, but I think the urbanites, with the ideally "walkable" parish may be outnumbered by the suburbanites and rurals, to whom the "drivability" of a parish is more relevant.

And young, practicing, Catholic urbanites often work, play and live in the territory of several different parishes. SOME kind of choosing is going to have to take place, who is he to say on what basis it should be? (And we won't even get into the choosing on the basis that it makes it harder for someone on whom one is working ones wiles to turn down the invitation to accompany one, and I'm not saying how that situation came to my mind.)

And yes, sometimes one is not within the "territory" of a parish that one finds is actually walkable.

And since the idea of a universal liturgical language is in equal measure risible and abhorrent to a large part of the power structures in modern parish life, the generosity behind bishops allowing so many of those old "national" parishes is still needed, rather, needed more than ever now, (the priest/author doesn't even touch on languages issues.)

And finally, having spent quite a bit of time in his neck of the woods and in other densely populated, multi-ethnic, at least at one time heavily Catholic, urban areas - Chicago ain't Newark, which ain't Boston, which ain't Jersey City, which ain't Brooklyn, which ain't.... you get the picture.

Anyway, as always, one should keep in mind that there are reasons that "parochial" means what it does, and "catholic" means what it does, and I'll let you guess which trait I value more.

Trying to explain incense to children of a minimalist parish...

.... whose only encounters with its fragrances are likely through the hippie-slash-beachcomber denizens of this area?
Not easy.
And myrrh?
Eeeeeeeeeeew, you mean they were going to touch His body???!?!??$?%????!?!?!!? (I employed the upper case for the pronoun, it was almost certainly not inherent in the line reading of the little heathen who asked the question.)
Nearly hopeless.
This, by Peter Leithart caught my eye:

JPM Sweet points out that the Greek word “Smyrna” means myrrh, the perfume given to Jesus by the magi and, importantly, part of the mix of spices used for Jesus’ burial (John 19:29). Jesus... now sends a message to the church of myrrh,. which is also facing death but promised resurrection.

Myrrh was a component of the holy anointing oil for the priests (Exodus 30:23), and was one of the perfumes that created an aromatic cloud around the king (Song of Songs 3:6) and grew in the garden that was the bride (Song of Songs 4:14). With a church at Smyrna, Jesus is the myrrh-anointed Priest, the holy Lover, and the suffering church is also a priest in Him, the perfumed beloved.

Of course, the notion that what happens in the Smyrna where Christianity is in such danger might be of any interest to them, when there is another Smyrna just a hop and skip from Disney World would be an even harder sell than the value of myrrh....

I'd forgotten that it's not just on Sundays that Catholic think they "own" their seats.

Our church is being painted so for weekday mornings, Mass is in a smaller chapel. The past few days there have been several young mothers with several young children a piece, perhpas some kind of  usual daycare they shared has come to an end?
In any case -- they are attentive and quiet, and I turned to a gentleman whom I know, (although not by name,) and smiled, "A lot of children!"

Yes, he hissed, and yesterday some of OUR people had to stand...

"Our people"?

We're Catholics, I thought ALL of us are "our people."

Please, Lord, I'm already crankier than I ned to be, I can see myself doing it as I get older, don't let me turn into one of them!

(I will NOT complain about the blue paint they've chosen....)

The Era of the Ethnic Parish is Over

We're trying hard not to have racial parishes.
And we know no one gives a fig about geographic parishes anymore.

Instead, we now have the Lifestyle Choice Parish, at least according to one "Catholic" periodical.

The newly appointed pastor of San Francisco's largest gay parish, Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in The Castro District, says he has no marching orders and comes only to "be present, to be pleasant, and to love of the people of God."

Yes, according to NCR there is such a thing in the Catholic Church as a "gay parish."

"[The new pastor] definitely was not a 'yes man' for the bishop," [a former parishioner] said. "He always put his parish first with whatever was thrown at him. He looked out for his parish well."

Heaven forbid anyone takes any vow seriously, especially that of obedience...
Although as an order priest, is there, strictly speaking, any "vow" to ones bishop?
There's a picture of the new pastor and an already-in-place associate, who "see themselves working as a pastoral team," that was surely intended to look like... well, follow the link, and you tell me what you think it is supposed to look like, (no clericals, of course.)
Apparently, it is rather soon for a new pastor.

After the San Francisco archdiocese announced its annual clergy appointments Wednesday, some local Catholics expressed concerns that Most Holy Redeemer's pastor, Brian Costello, who came to the parish in 2012, was being pushed out to bring in more conservative priests. 

Costello says this is not the case. Rather, he said, he requested a move in August. 

"It just didn't work out. I did the best I could. My best was just not good enough for a lot of people here," he said. "There are real challenges here, and the truth is I just didn't have the gifts to meet those challenges." 

"This is not the archbishop coming after me and bringing in some archconservatives from Kansas City, although I suspect some people might see it that way," Costello said.

Archbishop Cordileone certainly has a tough row to hoe...
Pray for him and his flock,

This parish is know, NCR tells u, for its tradition of "rich" liturgies.
This is not a picture of one of them.


It is, however, a picture of a non-Catholic cleric who has led liturgical celebrations, (no, not Mass, praise the Almighty,) there, at a more personally meaningful rite in which he was involved.

Pray for the new pastoral team, and pray for the archbishop, and pray for the members of Holy Rosary.