Cool Catholic Church
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
By Megan Sweas
Comments (5)
Start with one hour of Eucharistic adoration, follow that up with a party in a nightclub-like setting, and you get one hip ancient church.
That’s the model of Catholic Underground, a ministry started by Bronx-based Franciscan Friars of Renewal to take on Pope John Paul II's challenge to keep faith in dialogue with modern culture. It’s caught on among young adults and now has eight locations across the country.
“It wouldn’t work without the Eucharistic adoration,” Michelle Chandy, a 20-year-old University of Illinois at Chicago student told the Chicago Tribune recently. “We pray first and that’s like a source of energy. Then we come in here and it’s loud and crazy. So, we burn of the energy.”
When the Chicago CU'ers moved from the chapel to a lounge decorated as a nightclub, hip-hop artist Yung PK greeted them, rapping, “Everybody in the house throw your C’s up. Throw your C’s up in the air if you’re Catholic.” The young adults respond by raising their hands, cupped like a “C” in the air. (See Tribune photos here.)
Sounds sort of cheesy to me, but it seems work for many young adults. It’s great that they’re connecting to the church and each other. Has anybody been to one of these?
(Photo from Chicago Catholic Underground's Flickr page. You can also listen to some of the music at MySpace.)
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What the .....?
By Sam (not verified) on Wednesday, April 8, 2009The martyrs of the early Church gave up their lives so kids can go bowling and have pizza and think that they are "ok" with God? The Church is soft enough as it is without becoming another tool of secular society.
Who cares where they will go
By Ralph (not verified) on Tuesday, March 31, 2009Who cares where they will go in the future? If it keeps them involved and in contact with the Church for now, then great! The future is in God's hands.
The end justifies the means,
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, March 31, 2009The end justifies the means, huh. Merchandising the church, turning Christianity into a commodity that's redesigned to fit the changing market. Then, all this stuff about "dying to self" that we've been hearing about this lent is just so much BS, right?
Where are they going to go?
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, March 31, 2009Where are they going to go when they grow up and are forced to live with the rest of us in a parish of people who are diverse in every way imaginable? When it's their turn to be the parish leaders do they inflict their likes and dislikes on the community at the Sunday Celebration of The Eucharist by taking for granted that everyone "ought" to like what they like? Sounds like the same old stuff happening, just different folks doing it. I wonder whatever happened to liturgical formation. The answer to "where will they go" is, of course, wherever they can find a church that sells what they want, probably one of the very popular evangelical protestant mega-churches. Because we have failed to form them and inform them in the liturgical life of the Catholic church. After all, it's the liturgy, not the rule book, that keeps us remembering that we're Catholic.
Where are they going to go?
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, March 31, 2009Where are they going to go when they grow up and are forced to live with the rest of us in a parish of people who are diverse in every way imaginable? When it's their turn to be the parish leaders do they inflict their likes and dislikes on the community at the Sunday Celebration of The Eucharist by taking for granted that everyone "ought" to like what they like? Sounds like the same old stuff happening, just different folks doing it. I wonder whatever happened to liturgical formation.
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