World Youth Day
August 13, 2007, 4:39 pm
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
When I was in Australia, I got a chance to catch up with a fellow ethicist and lawyer, Bishop Anthony Fisher, OP. We’ve been at the same conferences, and talked about teaching law and ethics.
But he doesn’t have the luxury of leisurely planning his next semester’s courses. He’s now a very busy man: he’s in charge of organizing World Youth Day, which will open in Sydney in less than a year from now.
This is a very big event. They have been very big events in the past. But it occurred to me that we don’t know what difference they make. Does anyone know of any sociologists who have studied long term effects on the faith of young Catholics who attend World Youth Day.?
One statistic:
A fifth of the priests ordained in 2007 attended a WYD: http://www.usccb.org/vocations/ordination/2007/class2007.shtml
More than a third of the priests ordained in 2006 had attended a WYD: http://www.usccb.org/vocations/ordination/2006/classof2006.shtml
(The PDFs don’t have unique web addresses, so one must navigate from these parent pages to the “complete reports” done by CARA.)
It would more interesting to know what percentage of males who attended a WYD later were ordained.
World Youth Day has many of the ingredients of a political event. Parishes are rounded up and expected to send so many. People are paid to go on the trip etc. etc. The songs and “spontaneous” outpourings are staged etc. It depends on who does the estimating. TV stations politely dote. It is all day “Holy Father this and Holy Father that.”
Maybe Bernard Haring has a better idea. http://www.traditioninaction.org/ProgressivistDoc/A_017_HaringNoHierarchy.htm
Joe, unless we pass the hat and commission a study, we must make do with the data CARA gives us. A caveat: the statistics I mention do not apparently distinguish between someone attending WYD as a seminarian or before the seminary.
Bill, I was a volunteer at WYD Cologne. The volunteers slept in muddy tents and travelled for hours every day to do menial jobs. I bailed out of the tent situation, actually, but my teammates did exactly what they were supposed to do, almost always cheerfully. The experience of singing. “Here I Am, Lord,” a song I usually make fun of, became quite different when two of the German girls on the team told us they sang it as their morning prayer, the first thing when they woke up. They also made up a very funny ditty to the tune of the Smurf song about the rather appalling disorder of the volunteer corps infrastructure. Apparently a lot of middle-managers had bailed out and everything was a logistical mess.
They made me wait on a street corner with them to see the Pope drive by. Not exactly my style–but I was glad in the end. The Neo Catechumenate played their guitars so much across the street that day that I kind of wish they had been paid to strike up the band at the right moment. Instead it was music, music, music, cheers of “Benedetto clap clap clap-clap-clap” all afternoon long.
On the last day, I watched a group of kids from either Spain or Italy singing on the big square on the side of the Cathedral. There were 2 or 3 guitarists in the middle, and a circle of maybe 40 people dancing around them in a very simple crossover step. The circle kept expanding as people joined. There was a man who was physically disabled who wanted to join in. He had two helpers, and they all went and joined the circle.
What cracked me up were the Pope’s homilies. They were not exhortations and soundbites. That’s a big difference between these last two Popes. Pope Benedict talked about the Latin and Greek words for adoration–it was hilarious. He developed ideas, right there in the middle of all this cheering.
Btw, my best friend on the team, a great Teuton named Aaron, is now studying for the diocesan priesthood in Germany.
One of the issues for hosting bishops’ conferences is that of cost. If I’m not mistaken, they have to foot almost the whole bill. It’s an enormous expense; and it’s not as though host cities are awash in the cash of free-spending WYD attendees once the dust settles…
I don’t know how you’d measure it.
You’d have to separate out a common prior cause.
It would seem likely that lots of current young priests would be the sort of people who were inclined to go to World Youth Day in the first place. It would be good to ask them whether WYD affected their decision to become a priest, in any lasting way.
I guess you’d need two groups to compare. The non-WYD Catholics,and the WYD Catholics, and follow them over time.
Any sociologists out there?
Cathy, there isn’t a “sort” of person who would be inclined to go to World Youth Day in the first place.
Grant, Bishop Fisher seems to be taking this as an opportunity to make Australian Catholicism better known in the world. There’s a somewhat well-known, funny story about this. In contrast with the previous years’ international hymn writing competitions, WYD 2008′s competition was limited to Australian nationals. Unfortunately none of the entries was good enough, so the organizers had to develop Plan B, which was the solicitation of entries from Australian pop artists. That process produced this winner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwoEU2uVDfw
Poor Cologne was bewildered: the population of the city was doubled, the trains were more than maxed out. Throughout WYD massive construction projects continued, not because of the projected revenue from the pilgrims, but because they were looking ahead to hosting the following year’s World Cup. They (probably rightly) thought that that’s where the money was at.
I am a little confused by the question. What exactly would be looking for that could be measured?
According to His Holiness, John Paul II:
The Days in fact were born, also in response to an initiative of young people themselves, of a desire to offer them a significant “break” on the on-going pilgrimage of faith, which is indeed nurtured by meetings with young people of other nations and sharing respective experiences.
The principal objective of the Days is to make the person of Jesus the centre of the faith and life of every young person so that he may be their constant point of reference and also the inspiration of every initiative and commitment for the education of the new generations. This is the slogan of every Youth Day, and through this decade, the Days have been like an uninterrupted and pressing call to build life and faith upon the rock, who is Christ.
So what result would we be looking for? How could we measure it?
As for the costs – most of what I have read indicates that bishops conferences, cities, etc. actually compete to host WYD.
Actuall, there is a sort of person who goes to WYD, in that by far most of the attendees go as part of trips organized by parishes and dioceses. Especially when it comes to traveling overseas to an event, that makes sense, and is generally the only way many young people could get there. Those groups also include seminaries and their students. So it is a self-selecting audience, and thus is hard to make conclusions about their effect. Cardinal Ratzinger expressed some skepticism about the effect of these large-scale events on the spiritual and religious lives of young people. And as with Billy Graham crusades, there is probably a significant dropoff in enthusiasm the morning after. But I think the value is significant, not so much for the people who attend (it may be wonderful for them–as they say, religion is good for religious people) but in what the presence of the pope at such events says to the wider public who do not attend but who follow or even notice the coverage. That is not so easily quantifiable, except perhaps in the extraordinary events such as the outpouring at the death of JP2.
PS: Re Sean’s point on costs…Bishops do compete to host WYDs. Who wouldn’t want the Pope to visit? And it helps the ecclesiastical career–that is absolutely quanitifable. Yet it is also undeniable that hosting a WYD, like an Olympics, has often proved to be a terrible financial burden, and left many churches with enormous debts. Bishops argue the outlays are worth it–and perhaps they are right. And host countries can afford to pay off the debt, as WYD is almost always held in a wealthier nation. But poorer countries are excluded from hosting them, probably wisely. Yet Catholic youth from around the world consequently do not get to see their brethren in developing nations, and young people in poorer countries do not get to travel to WYD extravaganzas, except for a few sponsored pods of youths. So one must contend with the limited parameters of a WYD.
Actually, the Journal of Belief and Values has an article in the April 2007 issue entitled “Who Goes to World Youth Day: Some Data on Under 18Australian Participants.” Here is the abstract.
World Youth Day (WYD) beginning in 1985 and held internationally every two or three years is amongst the largest gatherings of young people in the world. In 1995, for example, the WYD held in Manila attracted over four million pilgrims. With a high level of participation as well as longevity WYD has become a significant social phenomenon, especially in an era where there is a sustained and widespread disaffiliation of youth from mainstream Churches. Participants at WYD are mainly Catholics although the invitation to take part is extended to all. There has been little empirical work on who attends WYD and their motivations for attending. This paper will report on research conducted on Australian youth who attended the 2005 WYD in Cologne. This research will use both quantitative and qualitative techniques to try and build up a profile of WYD pilgrims and explore some of their motivations for attending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Cathy’s looking for some measurables, and don’t have any. Several of my students have written about attending a WYD, and what they took away wasn’t having seen the Pope but bonding with other Catholic kids from round the world in a safe haven, talking about what it meant to be Catholic.
One student met some Chinese Catholics who talked about the difficulties of the Church there, and that was an eye-opener for her.
I’m sure it’s a lot like a Protestant revival, but I think, from speaking with kids who’ve been there, it’s a lot more because the kids have time to interact and help each other.
I’m not sure that there are measurables that would really get to the heart of how the event might affect or even change individual lives. And sometimes it’s hard to point to a single event that pushes us in a different path.
Kathy’s stats are tantalizing, but, of course, we don’t know whether those priests planned on being priests and then went to WYD or whether WYD helped put them on that road.
I guess, Sean, the basic question I have is whether, in the opinion of people who have been to WYD, years out, it functioned in the way the Pope hoped it would function.
I don’t know how you’d design a study. And I don’t know how you’d find a control group. But I guess I would like to know, one year, three years, five years out, how attendees themselves viewed the affect of WYD on their lives.
Do most of them see it retrospectively as a Catholic Woodstock? Or a good way to see Australia? Or do they think it actually helped shape their faith lives for more than a weekend of enthusiasm?
Does it matter? Yes and no. The benefits of WYD may extend, as David said, beyond the youths themselves. At the same time, it’s a big religious deal–and it seems to me more sociologists ought to be interested in studying it.
From time immemorial pilgrimages have been a source of money and prestige to a region. There were five bodies of Mary Magdalene because each region’s leader had to have one. From Lourdes to Compostela, Medjourje, Jerusalem etc, the natives always welcomed and sought the income that followed.
Even Karol W promised to give some of the funds from the Jubilee year to the poor to mollify the criticism.
Follow the money and one will learn a lot.
A major ally of the status quo are all those conservative Catholics who are on the Church’s payroll or need the channels that the hierarchy opens up to market their books and seminars. These individuals parrot the hierarchy because it will hurt their business not to.
Notice that Commonweal, NCR nor America are linked on those sites. A telltale sign.
Cathleen’s questions is a fair one.
Evangelicals apparently have noticed an phenomenom called the “Great Evacuation.” Some 50 to 85% of evangelical Christian youth abandon their faith when they reach college.
http://www.gazette.com/articles/faith_25972___article.html/conference_students.html
The posted articlc described the steps being taken to reverse or slow the trend. I think the steps described inthe articel are so poorly conceived that they will only hasten the process.
I do not know if there is a similar trand in Catholic youth, but I suspect there is.
WYD may be an effective response.
So my questions:
Are there any studies on the number of Catholic youth who more or less abandon their religion in the early 20′s?
Are there any studies examining whether attendance at WYD affects the percentage of thsoe who abandon their religion in their early 20′s?
I emailed Fr. Andrew Greeley, who is a sociologist of religion and who recently reviewed The Church’s Changing Face, a new and important sociological study of American Catholics, in America Magazine (free with registration for a couple of more weeks) .http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10134
I asked him for a comment that I could post : Here’s what he said:
The Catholic Church really doesn’t believe in evaluation research; Perhaps it is just as well that it is does not because most evaluation research shows that interventions like World Youth Day really dont work, There’s a lot of activity and enthusiasm and that seems to be enough to make the Day a success without the need to ask whether anyone’s life or behavior has changed. One needs before and after data. What were the young people doing and believing, say, a month before the Day and then a month after. The risk in such research is that it often finds no long term impact at all, despite all the work and energy expended. One would want to know for example what the participants thought about “hooking up,” pre-marital cohabitation, birth control, fertility experiments, as well as frequency of prayer, church attendance and volunteer service. I would imagine that the organizers of World Youth Day would be horrified at the suggestion that such matters need to be addressed.
I thought I had seen some studies out there, but I will have to search my files. having covered several WYDs, I aways come away impressed, and I think the kids are genuinely moved. But again, where does it go from there? Having grown up attending Billy Graham Crusades and chalk-talks and born-again bonfire revivals, I am probably too skeptical about the hangover. And when I step back from the moment, I must also contend with the fact that however popular and powerful such events can be–and for all the talk of the JP2 Generation–the stats on observance and belief and all those things the church wants to inculcate in young people have continued to go down. Now that is among the broader population. Again, the question is, is WYD good for those who go? If so, parishes should be loading up buses with everyone in the neighborhood, not just thir own Youth Groups. Or is the effect evanescent for those who attend as well? Or should those who attend be considered the proverbial “choir” to whom the pope preaches?
PS: I just read Father Greeley’s comment, and I have to second him. It’s frustrating–esp to journos, I guess–that the Catholic Church can obsess over stats on baptisms and funerals and such (hey, who doesn’t love to peruse the Kenedy Directory?) yet does so little to measure aspects of spirituality and what works and what doesn’t in terms of faith lives. CARA is a treasure. Yet we see little investment by the hierarchy in such places, and even signs of divestment in places like the Life Cycle Institute. As a convert, I for one am very interested in just who are the 150,000 or so adults who enter the church each Easter, and why. Marriage to a Catholic? Attendance at WYD? The return of Latin? Anyway, I have found precious little in the way of hard data. And this seems to be one of the most basic and important questions we could ask, and asnwer: How successful is RCIA, and why are these people coming? If anyone can enlighten me (with hard numbers rather than personal conjecture and polemic), I would be grateful.
If the idea is to play the numbers game, and to look at how “interventions” have long term effects on behavior – couldn’t we just as well say VII is a “failure”? That is why I ask what the purpose of the question is. As I see it, the tone of the discussion with the notable exception of Kathy seems to take a dim view of the “utility” of WYD. I question whether some of these same questions and criticisms would be asked about other groups or movements in the Church like Call to Action – what’s its utility? Or is this just another JP II issue.
Indeed, one could argue that things like WYD and other aspects of the “JP II generation” have been great successes if we are talking numbers. Although it is correct that the decline in mass attendance and participation in the sacraments continued to decline, at least in the US, the rate of that decline slowed significantly after 1980, and in some areas is slightly reversed in recent years.
BTW, I am not saying VII is a failure, but that’s the point. Numbers are not as important as the Truth. The Church is not a sales organization, and I am leary of relying on sociological data or statistical evidence to assess the value of something like WYD.
Wait a minute, Sean, you’re totally mixing apples and oranges.
1. Vatican II is an ecumenical council of the church-the pope, together with the bishops, articulated and clarified and (yes) developed doctrine. It is the official teaching.
2. Call to Action, or Voice of the Faithful are at their core, organizations that aim to reform the official teaching, or to reform the current structure.
3. World Youth Day is not the teaching itself. Nor is it aimed at reforming Church teaching or reforming the structure.
World Youth Day is a way of evanglizing –of bringing people to believe official teaching. it’s not the teaching itself. It’s a means of conveying the teaching. It is a vehicle to bring the truth to the next generation. It’s akin to CCD, or to adult ed, or to Christ Renews His Parish, or ND Encounter retreats.
It’s an enormous event–it’s an expensive event. I just don’t see why it’s wrong to ask what it’s fruits are. I don’t see why it’s wrong to ask if dioceses should be putting their limited funds here, or to other local programs targeted at Gen Y.
is this this the best way to evangelize? Take Catholic doctrine–straight from the Catechism. Take the description of holy Catholic life –straight from the lives of the saints. Does WYD help people progress toward those ends?
Why not ask those questions? It seems that the pope himself has asked them.
.
While I am no fan wyd it may not be fair to pick on it. There are so many others
1. First of all for those who attend how much is it self serving etc.
2. Children from parochial school stop attendance after 8th grade.
3. A church which is still prejudiced against minority ends up with so many minorities celebrating Mass in all white neighborhoods.
4. How many people are affected by the Euphoria of the moment. Except for Grant all of us at Yankee stadium are in love with each other when Arrod hits a home run.
5 How many have their livelihoods, and therefore their consciences, tied up with the church?
6. Your turn.
Not Jeter.
We also have to be very careful about how we appear to the outside world, apparently, as extensive satanic numerology has appeared in the WYD website’s source code: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdXbKzdwCEM&mode=related&search=
RECEIVE THE POWER…OF SATAN
(Sorry–back to the discussion.)
Who is Jeter? A bishop?
Oh Cathy. Jeter is more like a pope. Even when he makes an error, he is given a pass.
Sean, as for the numbers game. Everyone plays it, but the conservatives tend to play both sides. When numbers don’t go their way, then it’s all about Truth not numbers. Yet when lots of folks show up for Benedict’s audiences, it confirms how right he is.
I agree with Cathy that it’s important to stay on point and not mix apples and oranges. The church can easily become mesmerized by numbers, yet one cannot discount either that great Christian sociologist, the Holy Spirit. Since apostolic age the evangelists were writing with great enthusiasm about the number of people won to the Lord on any given day. Such things tell a side of the Gospel story that is as important in its way as the witness of lonely martyrs.
Cathleen,
I think you are probably too young to remember, but Jeter was Tarzan and Jane’s pet chimpanzee.
Jeter is really very handsome.
Brainstorming about a possible setup for a study: Assuming that the first concern would be of the US, I would suggest finding one (arch)diocese in each of, say, 4 regions of the country. The requirement would be that there was a substantial delegation to several past WYDs and very good diocesan records of attendance.
Questionnaires could be sent to this group, asking about the experience and its impact, and asking questions about point of view and beliefs.
That would be the easy study. A much more difficult study would be comparative between people who didn’t go with people who did.
A middle way might be to do the first study and compare certain data with that of a recent study of an entire age cohort, possibly the Hoge/Dinges/Johnson/Gonzales study of young adult Catholics. That could compare and contrast points of view, belief systems, etc.
Sociology can’t measure intangibles but I agree that it can be helpful.
In the time of my rural Midwestern Catholic youth (the 1940s/1950s) our version of WYD was the parish mission. Rather than all of us going somewhere other than our local parish church, we were visited for a week by teams of Passionists or Paulists of the Billy Graham variety. They were VERY GOOD, even without conductions their meetings in a tent!
We got the full court press of the emotionally-presented popular piety of those days, including our version of the altar call and separate but equal talks on demon sex on different nights with our gender companions.
It all was good fun, quite emotionally uplifting …. and then it was over. What impact it had on us good solid but mostly theologically untutored rural folk was never apparent to me.
We never had but one man go to the seminary and woman enter a novitiate in all of the time that I remained in that parish. I left home and never returned (except to visit) in the early 1960s.
Derrick Jeter is the great shortstop for the NY Yankees and the most sought after bachelor in America for the last decade. More than the pope he can do no wrong. And I protest this arbitrary abuse of Cathleen. How can she watch the sopranos and baseball at the same time?
As for Grant let it be known I have been very gentle with his faded Whitesox. I might even invite him to a Yankee game.
Damn Yankees. Just as I want to blast them in order to make up for my anxiety over my unerringly inconsistent Mets, the Scooter up and dies. I can only stand in silence and respect. Holy Cow, indeed.
Sean, I wasn’t knocking WYD.
I do loathe and detest baseball in all its forms. From the time I was 7, the voice of George Kell droning on about a “laaaaahn draaaaahve inna cennna fiel” used to make me sob with boredom while male relatives sat hunched over a transistor radio on a picnic table talking in hushed tones about The Game while drinking those little keg-shaped bottles of Goebel beer.
I’ll wait for Grant to pull my access to the blog now.
Okay. I don’t know anything about sports–but I do know that I have to root for the Red Sox if I root for anyone. And I know, alas, that means not rooting for the damn Yankees.
Don’t worry, Dad. I did absorb that basic truth.
Jean–I have such great respect for you in so many areas, professional and spiritual. Yet I worry now about the efficacy of your conversion. Baseball is a profoundly Catholic game. It is like dissing the Stations of the Cross.
I will stop now.
Bill: I would rather gnaw off my own arm then set foot in that temple to baseball’s ruin. Feel free to bash my White Sox–we Pale Hose fans can take it, because we know failure. I do hope you enjoy Joba while you can, because he has a date with Tommy John.
Jean…I don’t know where to begin. I hope you don’t think it arrogant of me, but for the time being, I’m going to consider you an anonymous baseball fan. I just don’t think you’ve been presented with the full truth offered by America’s pastime. I can’t speak to the efficacy of WYD–but what I can tell you about baseball’s I can say without doubt. It lasts.
Grant: My husband used to go down to Tiger Stadium (now used for SWAT drills by the Detroit Police Department, I hear) with mostly Catholic guys, come to think of it. He’d come back happy and refreshed. I was happy and refreshed to stay at home and watch the “Now, Voyager “and eat cold cucumber soup, both of which he abhors.
So I suppose it fits into God’s Plan for a Happy Marriage.
David: I suppose you can find some Catholic allegories in the game. I always feel like my life as a Catholic has pretty much been a swing and miss. But I get more than three tries, fortunately.
Which leads me back to WYD. I wonder, instead of quantifying the effect of the event, it might be useful to study what kids see as the primary benefit of the event at the time.
The half dozen or so students who’ve mentioned it in their mini-bios for class use a lot of adjectives (“amazing,” “incredible,”) and I force them to show me a “picture” of one thing that happened that sums up the event fr them. In most cases it’s not seeing the Pope, but meeting other kids and feeling free to talk about their faith. Maybe even finding the language that they need to talk about their faith within their own generation.
Jean, Jean, Jean your conversion is obviously incomplete!!
Baseball is the perfect game. Why?
Like life, until it’s over, everything can change in an instant. A team that is down by 10 runs in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes after losing the first three games in the World Series can still win the series.
Like life, it is full of paradox, and seeming advantages also create risks. A pitcher is in the most danger of having base hit when he has two strikes on the batter.
Please please please tell me you like beer and hot dogs?!?
Back to WYD, my point wasn’t that it is the same as VII or CTA or VOTF, but that measuring the utility something statistically the purpose of which is not to produce statistical results doesn’t make sense.
If the purpose of WYD was to produce a certain number of practicing Catholics at the age of 25, then you should measure it, but that’s not its purpose. Also, how would you measure its effectiveness anyway? Who hasn’t had an experience that you didn’t appreciate the impact of until 5, 10, 20 or more years later?
Again, I think the criticisms are less about the lack of measurable results, and more about the view that WYD is just a wasteful “rock star” opportunity for the pope.
Geez, why don’t they cover this baseball thing in RCIA?
I love beer (non-alcoholic since 1985) and hot dogs. In fact, Michigan imposes the highest standards on hot dogs than any other state in the Union.
I highly recommend Kogels Dinner Franks.
We would serve them at WYD if it were hosted here in rural Michigan. Which I’d say is about as likely as the Cubbies to shake the curse and win the series.
Sean, do you deny that there is any relationship at all among league-leading individual stats, team performance, and ticket sales?
Jean–
I second Sean’s comments about baseball as the perfect game.
And if you want to read sublime writing about baseball–or just sublime writing, period–pick up one of Roger Angell’s books (e.g., “The Summer Game” or “Five Seasons”). You won’t be disappointed.
I have nothing to say about World Youth Day, but I’ve been provoked beyond all bearing by all the talk about Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, etc. who “perform” in that bogus league that uses Designated Hitters. They are engaged in faux baseball for faux fans.
By the way, some years ago, at my school there was an administrator widely known to the faculty as the “Designated Liar.” The adjective (past participle for you Latinists) ‘designated’ does seem to attract an interesting collection of nouns.
“I do hope you enjoy Joba while you can, because he has a date with Tommy John. ”
This is the unkindest cut of all. Blow, blow cool wintry winds. You do not have to frost the grapes because they are surely sour.
And Cathleen!! “Damn Yankees! Talk about wo/man’s ingratitude. After I defended you from the street crowd who certainly know nothing of Proust, Croce or Flaubert. Fathere does not always know best. Should you not worry about more than El Quaida when entering this majestic port.
New Jersey might be safer if you catch my drift.
Bill, how about a Common Ground meeting in CT– the one state where Red Sox and Yankee fans live peaceably together.
Makes the lion lying down with the lamb look downright , well, easy.
Jean, I am trying to get passed the thought of chilled cucumber soup n an effort to assure you that not only is baseball a perfect game, but it has extra innings, surely a Catholic invention if there ever were one. Oh, and as you see, it sparks intense religious fervor.
As for BoSox and Yankee fans living peaceably, I could not care much. With Bernard, I believe their embrace of the DH to put them in, let us say, an ecclesially deficient situation vis-a-vis the one true game.
Though I am willing to entertain the heresy that the introduction of the DH does in many respects mirror the growth of Petrine authority…
Bernard–
Until your slam above at the American League, I had always thought highly of your posts. :)
What about the AL’s 10 wins, 1 tie in the last 11 All-Star games, about half of which were played in National League parks and without the designated hitter rule?
Cathy–
The Mason-Dixon line may have been more geographically precise, but there is a diagonal line running from northwestern to southeastern CT (let’s call it the Mussina-DiceK line) that roughly partitions Yankees and Red Sox fans in the Constitution State. Gatherings of people along that line–in offices, in schools, at parties, and yes, even in parish centers for after-Mass coffee and pastry, are fraught with mortal danger when the topic of baseball comes up. ;)
No game is perfect, but soccer comes closer than baseball.
Baseball distanced itself from perfection when it added the playoff system (with the exception of the World Series).
Baseball would be much more fun if the minors were changed from a farm system to a relegation pool.
Baseball needs a true World Series above Little League. Only Americans with their globo-centrist views would consider their professional baseball and football championships to be world championships.
We are the world, I guess.
Fr. Shawn, are you asserting the ontological priority of the universal sporting community over the local? Or simply over the national federations?
OK, if this has devolved into the theological import of baseball, I’m puttin’ up my recipe for “Now, Voyager” Cucumber Soup:
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 leek (white part only), finely chopped
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
Dill or mint to taste (I prefer tarragon or chives)
Wait until your husband, who thinks cold soup of any sort is seriously disordered, and possibly even heretical, goes to the ball game.
Then dump all this in the food processor and blend. Then add 1/2 cup crushed ice and blend until it thickens.
Get out some hankies and put “Now, Voyager” in the DVD player.
Pull out the good dishes you don’t allow anyone else to handle and pour your soup into it.
Artfully arrange a nice baguette or foccacia slices and some goat gouda cheese, a specialty at the local dairy store here that they make homemade. (I’ve met the goats. Their names are Betsy and Joyce.)
Take the phone off the hook and eat this in front of the movie WITHOUT interruptions and WITHOUT the protective plastic covers on the furniture to add a touch of luxury.
It is not the spiritual experience World Youth Day may (or may not) be, but does provide yu with the reassurance that there are many good things on God’s earth besides baseball.
Jean, it’s only the American league faux fans that wouldn’t appreciate your cucumber soup. Try getting you husband to take you to a Cubs’ game . Then you’ll become a complete Catholic graced with National League sensitivities. And he’ll fall head over heels for your soup.
I’ve copied your recipe and intend to make it this weekend.
Father – Puhleassssse!
You cannot possibly compare the national pastime to that three-hour Euro-weenie snooze-fest called soccer.
Years ago when I was deployed to a small Italian city during one of the many situations in the Balkans, I was disturbed one Sunday afternoon by rowdy and some drunken revelers waving flags and racing motor scooters around the hotel I was in. I asked the desk clerk what the comotion was, and apparently a team from Milan had just succeded in acheiving a 0-0 tie with a team from Rome – and the team from Milan had been favored!
I am sorry, that’s not a game, it’s a pathology!
I must admit – even as a Red Sox fan – the DH does me a bit, but that being said – stats don’t lie, and the AL is ahead in interleague play.
Kathy: Is the moratorium on “ontological” still in effect as it was with “epistemology” and “hermeneutic”? I forgot. No biggie, really, but that string was a hoot.
I speak more on the side of soccer being the victim of American exceptionalism. Andrei Markovits released a brilliant book on this theme within the past decade.
Local/national sports: The All-Ireland championships in both football and hurling are almost upon us. The victors will be great champions, but they need not be called world champions.
Sean: Concerning the pathology: I agree with you completely that there is no justification for insane and violent fan behavior. As for the Euro-weenie snooze fest, watch how players from South America and Africa have completely changed the European game to a more high-octane contest.
Finally, about World Youth Day: I hope that it plants good seeds for many years to come and that those seeds bear good fruit.
I would be impressed by a world youth day in Africa. Is that too much to ask of the church of the crucified?