A Young Man With 'Old' Ideas, Vatican II, and the AmChurch

I'll use a comment I left on another blog's post, to introduce a rather remarkable video.

A remark about "the old ways" in that comment needs a little intro, itself. The blogger whose post I commented on was under the impression, I discovered, that the young man was discussing Catholic beliefs which had been done away with by Vatican II.

I can see how someone could get that impression.

Some parishes have been treated to - imaginative - ideas: presented "in the spirit of Vatican II." In America, "in the spirit of Vatican Two" is a phrase that seems to mean something like "I heard about something called Vatican II that changed everything, so I'll say this groovy idea is 'in the spirit of' Vatican II."

That's where we got 'find the Tabernacle' church designs, flower pots being used as chalices, and once - so I've heard - the host sewn into a banner. All very groovy, all done "in the spirit of Vatican II," and all seriously not what the Holy See had in mind for the AmChurch.

If you've heard a priest say that some weird practice was a Vatican II thing: I believe it. We've had quite a bit of trouble with a (mercifully small) number of priests over the last few decades. (April 11, 2010, for starters) And it hasn't all involved trouble with their zippers.

Me? I'm not a professional theologian, so I actually read the Vatican II documents, as issues came up. Which is another topic.

That Video About a Young Man With His Head Screwed on Straight: Didn't Think I'd Get to It, Did You? ;)

Here's that comment:

"As you said, *he gets it!*

"This was a good way to spend 8:16.

"One point, though: I don't know that these are, strictly speaking, 'the old ways.' They're God's ways, as taught by his Church. These ways were introduced to time quite a long while ago, and in that sense they're 'old.'

"On the other hand, the last I heard, God isn't 'in' time the way we are. And I'm not sure that we have a word for the 'direction' God is from 'now.' The closest we seem to come is phrases like, 'Who was, and is, and is to come.'

"Just a thought."

And here's the video:

"Crazy Catholic Guy talking...

GabiAfterHours, YouTube (April 8, 2010)
video, 8:16

"For some reason I look more tired with every video, but I feel the same... Guess its called getting old."

If the video doesn't play back well: Try viewing it on YouTube. I've done a little formatting to make it fit in this blog's format. My code and a few browsers don't play well together, so: like I said, try it on YouTube.

Am I surprised? Not really: I remember being around the age of this young man. Several decades back. I wanted to find a system of belief that made sense, along with quite a few other people.

GabiAfterHours found the right answer a whole lot faster than I did, but maybe he had a better starting point that mine.

Which is okay: It's been an eventful ride. Which is yet another topic.

Not-completely-unrelated posts:

• "Oddly, Not Everybody Reviles and Despises the Pope"
  (April 13, 2010)
• "Relgion isn't Bad?"
  (April 12, 2010)
• "Jesus Christ, Tough as Nails"
  (April 7, 2010)
• "Not Saying the Culturally-Normative Things About Pedophile Priests"
  (April 2, 2010)
• "Just Who is This Jesus Person, and Who Does He Think He is?"
  (January 17, 2010)
• "Why Did I Convert to Catholicism?"
  (November 24, 2009)
• "Caritas in Veritate: Charity is More Than Thinking Lovely Thoughts"
  (August 8, 2009)
  • Which reminds me
    • It's high time I get back to studying "Caritas in Veritate"
• "Catholics Don't Believe the Bible: Who Knew?"
  (September 26, 2008)
• "Catholic Beliefs and Practices: Don't Believe Everything You Read"
  (September 16, 2008)

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A tip of the hat to AncientSoul and alwayscatholic, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this video.