The term “jargon” refers to language, especially the vocabulary peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group. The word is synonymous with unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing, gibberish, or any any talk or writing that one does not understand.
Jargon is often is characterized by uncommon or pretentious vocabulary and convoluted syntax intended to be vague or meaningless.
An example of such gibberish was evidenced when more than 3,500 attendees from parishes and Catholic organizations around the country gathered to attend the "Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America" event which took place in Orlando, Florida in early July.
Here are some examples of what attendees heard during this much anticipated gathering.
Regarding the demographic changes the Church in the United States is experiencing (especially in the Hispanic communities of the South and West), attendees served up this heap of drivel when it was suggested that “Catholics reimagine their relationship with the public square.”
What in the world does that mean?
In another instance, Jesuit Father Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, explained that according to CARA's research, nearly a third of U.S. Catholics are not connected to a local church.
While this disparity is a sign for needed improvement, Father Gaunt suggested that “this gap can also be seen as a resource.”
The loss of the next and future generations of practicing Catholics should be considered a “resource"?
And the gibberish continued.
Helen Alvare, professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, pointed to the great strides the Church has made both in promoting its view of the human person in the public square.
What the Professor failed to note, however, is the fact that, in almost every instance, the Church has failed to influence or sway public opinion and policy regarding many of the issues confronting society today.
At the same time, however, the Professor encouraged Convocation attendees to “articulate the fullness and meaning of the faith, and not rely purely on constitutional and legal arguments. We have to tell them what we're going to use our religious liberty for.”
Huh?
But perhaps the most remarkable nonsense the attendees were served up was by Franciscan Father Agustino Torres, CFR, who works extensively with Latino youth in New York City,told conferees that “Latino youth don't want just a program, but an example of the Church's message”. He pointed to the Church's teaching on love and sexuality as a concrete example of doctrine that youth are hungry to apply to their lives.
Is it really possible that this Priest is honestly suggesting that today’s youth (Latino or not) are “hungry” for the moral implications and consequences of Catholic teaching regarding human sexuality?
Talk about living in a world of your own making? Talk about being irrelevant to young people.
Father Torres, “Wake up!”
Daniel Owens, who spoke with his wife Melanie, told Convocation attendees of the powerful “encounter” of love provided in the Church's message of chastity, echoed Fr. Torres' insights.
Saying that they see a "real opportunity" in sharing the message of the Gospel, the couple added that Pope Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body has the “unique ability to speak to the questions many youth face today.”
Really! Young people are looking for answers regarding their sexual awakenings and awareness based upon the former saintly Pope’s Encyclical?
Is there any evidence anywhere in this Creation to even suggest that is true?
And, of course, Father Torres, along with Owens and his wife, stressed the importance of
“encounter” (whatever in the world that word has come to mean), particularly when reaching out to young people.
Over the course of two millenia, the Church has confronted and responded to a humanity wounded by sin, to a humanity unable to order the passions and appetites of the will to the moral demands of a conscience formed in the clarity of the Evangelical Counsels of faith, hope and charity as well as the sound and consistent moral teachings of the Church.
Those clear counsels and that sound moral teachings have been obscured by the jargon and gibberish which is so commonly heard in Church circles today.
Perhaps, the attendees at the Convocation could have been better served and prepared to go back to their respective dioceses with something concrete and practical to offer in their effort to evangelize the world and former Catholics.
Even if they just had been given copies of the Baltimore Catechism and the Bible instead of being fed the nonsense they were being asked to digest at the convention, they would have been better served.
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