The Catholic Church Gets Hip (well, sort of)

Catholics, remember the Folk Mass? Big choirs and the organ gave way to small bands of folkies with guitars. Yes, some of the music was pretty lame. Remember "Sons of God?"

Brothers, sisters, we are one
And our life has just begun
In the spirit we are young
We can live forever!

Sons of God, hear his holy word
Gather 'round the Table of the Lord...

One of my Religion professors was a musician, and she would mock that one, saying the only reason it was used was because it had a good beat, and kids like rhythm. Also, Folk Masses were not Dress for Success events; street clothes were the norm (although some kids used the service as an opportunity to impress and meet the opposite sex).

But, tacky music aside, the 70s were a period when the RC Church was really trying to make itself relevant to a skeptical time, when many people questioned its position and importance. And to some extent, they succeeded. I went to a Catholic high school and undergraduate college. The Brothers were a pretty sharp crew, very knowledgeable about current affairs and deeply concerned about issues like human rights. They saw the Beatitudes as quite relevant to our world. And, just as important, they respected, and promoted an understanding of, other faiths. It wasn't like the nuns I had during the 60s in grammar school, who told us that our parents should vote for Bobby Kennedy because he was Catholic.

"Sister, my mother likes Hubert Humphrey," I protested.

"Humphrey is a good man, but he's a Protestant.."

Yeah, there was the embarrassing issue of the Pope's teachings on birth control," but the Brothers never made a big deal about that. And I knew of at least one college chaplain who counseled young couples to use it, if they couldn't afford kids. There was also the whole Ecumenical movement. It was OK, even good, to hang out with Protestants and Jews, even to marry them! You had the Church's approval, and they'd even do a joint wedding.

College was different, somewhat. Most of the priests there were hard-liners, although they tried getting our attention and respect through jokes. I had one class called "Marriage and the Family," in which the instructor tried giving us the party line about contraception in small doses, interspersed with lots of slightly raunchy humor. Didn't work, of course, although we all learned we'd flunk if we didn't pretend to believe what the prof taught. Another theology teacher got canned because he dared to question some of this stuff. Still, these hard-boiled old guys were into the Ecumenical spirit as well. There was a sense that something great was happening.

Things seemed to be changing as our decade ended and the Backlash Era began. But that story will wait until I have the time to set up an Eighties blog.