When I became Catholic it was to say the least the time period after Catholics migration patterns to the burbs had happened. For whatever reason, Catholic migration patterns or other, it seemed the Catholic devotion to "Parish" had slipped some.
I sort of took up this attitude when I was amazed that I had so many "choices" in the city as to the Mass I could attend.. That is I could go to Mass from 4 Pm on Saturday to pretty much all the way to 6 pm on Sunday. Looking back that was a very bad habit to get into and it got ingrained early. I did not set my life around the Mass or my local community but set the Mass and local community around my secular wants . Further I, like a good many people, "Priest shopped".
The downfall of the geographical parish I think caused a what now seems a predictable set of problems. It is still there but not like we saw in the days of "Fortress Catholicism".
The downfall of the local parish was partly because you had no choice at times. The Liturgy was so against the rubrics or the Priest was basically ranting against the Church that you had to leave. If the Bishop was pretty much in the Priest's Corner well what could you do. However with the trend of more Orthodox Priests , Bishops and the errors of the " Spirit " of Vatican II dying down it's time to be a LOT more self critical of our actions.
Which is why I think the Anchoress has the must read Catholic reading of the day on this subject.
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