Hacker News Reader

Comment by rsynnott | Hacker News Reader

Well, the other thing is that many, perhaps most, religious people don't know very much about their religion. Very few Catholics would know the difference between a cathedral and a minor basilica, say (which is what started this thread off in the first place). Actually, I'd argue that this isn't a religious question, anyway; it's administrivia.

View on HN

This is correct. Catholics pretty much gave up on talking about the faith to anyone, whether to the general public or even their own children during the 1960s.

And it’s not only administrivia, for example only half of US Catholics have heard about transubstantiation and only a third believe in it. [1]

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/08/05/transubst...

> only half of US Catholics have heard about transubstantiation and only a third believe in it

That's a startling figure, but I've been out of the church for a while. I recall that being taught during first communion and confirmation.

> only half of US Catholics have heard about transubstantiation and only a third believe in it.

The USCCB is trying to work on this, we're almost 2 years into a 3-year Eucharistic "revival" (that word has weird connotations for me, but it's the word they used), https://www.eucharisticrevival.org/

Is that true? I wouldn't know what a minor basilica is per se but I definitely know what a cathedral is. I'm orthodox but I think nearly all lay orthodox christians can name their own bishop and the cathedral of his seat, the definition of cathedral being kind of implicit in that administrative awareness. Maybe it's different for catholics? I'll ask some, I am curious now.

I don't think most Catholics would know what a minor basilica was, and I'd expect most to misidentify the Sagrada Familia as a cathedral.

And that's before you even get into pro-cathedrals and things...

70% of Ireland is nominally Catholic, and look at the confusion over this, say: https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2023/06/22/dublin-...

Like, the church had to come out and clarify that Dublin didn't have a cathedral.

Yeah I'm ready to concede this, mostly based on a poll I just saw showing half of canadian catholics not knowing what transubstantiation is.

But still I think these are bad examples. If asked before this thread I would have said sagrada familia is a cathedral. But that's out of ignorance about that building, not about what a cathedral is. The dublin confusion looks similar to me: those people may know well what a cathedral is and just thought the pro-cathedral was one.

What on earth is going on in that picture of St Andrew’s Church?

Luxury mass.

Nah, some event, I assume. It's a big church in the city centre, and I'd assume it has virtually no parishioners these days, so wouldn't surprise me if they use it for other stuff.

The Orthodox Church wasn’t nearly as affected by modernism as Catholicism was.

You can see it directly in church architecture. Compare Catholic Church interiors from the early 20th century and ones now. Now do the same comparison for Orthodox ones. It’s clear that the former desperately don’t want to be Catholic anymore.

I was with you until the last sentence.

The seminarians have shifted very far ideologically away from the cohort who moved the altars, ripped out communion rails, and stripped the ornamentation. That's pretty much consistent with the cohort of Catholics who attend mass weekly (a bare minimum requirement).

Those rails, altars, and decorations are being renovated back into place in some places.

That's true for nearly all folks who would tell you they're part of a certain faith. As in any time, only a few minority ever seem to want to contemplate creation, the nature of god, the particular logics behind faith, etc etc. That's not all bad - people come in a million types.

For most, faith and culture are intertwined as they go about their day. You fast because of course you do, not because you know the thousand-year history of that practice and the relevant scriptural phrases.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com