Gibbsboro, NJ
October 28, 2007
I decided to attend this church because I had read in the Catholic Star Herald that they would be having a Mass of African Tradition and Celebration. Having just seen two very nice Ugandan priests, and having seen the video of the African mass that Father Grace loaned me, I thought that this sounded great.
Unfortunately, there was a typo in the article. It said the celebration would take place on “Sunday, October 27.” Since October 27 was a Saturday, I thought they meant Sunday, October 28. But the typo was the other way around – the celebration was on Saturday, October 27. I should have looked into this more carefully.
When I arrived on Sunday morning I heard African music coming out of the loudspeakers in the church – but it had been recorded the day before. Today was going to be an ordinary mass, albeit conducted by an African priest, because this church, like St. Thomas and the Stockton campus ministry, is served by a priest imported from overseas.
The building is one of those big modern structures, with a large skylight over the sanctuary, and lots of angular modern wooden carvings on one wall. There are about 250 congregants, in a sanctuary that would seat 500-600. The most notable thing to me is a holy water fountain in the lobby, which seems huge, and has water flowing on three levels. I had never even imagined that you could have a holy water fountain (I guess I had only seen little basins that people dip their fingers in), but why not?
Once again I find myself in the middle of a congregation that is 99% white, listening to an African priest.
His homily is interesting. It’s about self-righteousness, and follows the reading about the tax collector and the Pharisee. He asks the congregation if they think they are better than other people because they are Catholic, and if they think that being Catholic will get them into heaven. No, he answers. We are not justified by works, and being Catholic is a kind of work. He notes that we can easily assume superior attitudes about our faith – but that doing so is itself a sign of ignorance and lack of compassion. Like the Pharisee in today’s lesson, we can bring this attitude into our prayer life.
He asks us to consider a single mother with two jobs, trying to finish her education, who becomes pregnant. He notes that pregnancy is a far different thing for her than for most of the women sitting in the congregation. He asks us to be compassionate about her choice to turn to abortion – he’s not saying that abortion is okay in this situation, just urging us to avoid condemning the woman facing this difficult situation.
Well, that’s a homily I didn’t expect to hear in a Catholic church.
It’s a lovely day, and when I go outside I notice that they have set aside, rather sensibly, a smokers’ station for people who want a cigarette after church.
Later, looking through their bulletins and materials I see that this church is very active in compassionate ministry of various types. They visit men and women in prisons in Camden weekly, and have helped several women during their release and re-entry into society. Once a month they send people to mentor troubled teens in Camden. They collect household goods that people need, and visit the VA hospital. Seems like a nice group, and if I were a Catholic living near Gibbsboro, I would check them out.
Short answer: NO!
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