The Absent Men

Dave DiNuzzo over at TrueManhood.com recently posted on a topic that has always troubled me. The "Absent Male Syndrome." The Modern Catholic Church has suffered from the horrible effects of relativism and feminism. Both of these flawed philo-sociological "belief" systems have corrupted our society and wreaked havoc on the Faith. You can read his article "Where are the men?" below:

Tonight, we went to Mass at a local parish we had never been to. I’ve been wanting to go to a Mass there because I know several people who are parishioners at the parish who really like it. After tonight, I’m confused as to why. Besides the typical architectural disaster that this building was, the misplacement of the tabernacle and the lack of Catholic art (good statues, stained glass, etc.), the sense of what was about to happen was not Mass… it wasn’t sacred… it wasn’t important… it was just a thing. That’s what I got when I first walked in.


As Mass started, I was highly disappointed in what was taking place… a jazz concert masked by the appearance of a worship service. Between the really obnoxious singers (all mic’d up individually, ouch!) and the electronic drum set, I couldn’t figure out what was happening… was it about the music group? or about the Mass? In my mind, the music was winning, although it didn’t have much of a following in the congregation. As Mass continued, I realized what the problem was. It was shouting at me loud and clear…


There were virtually NO MEN in servant-leadership roles! The vast majority of the servant-leaders were women, which has almost nothing to do with the women, and everything to do with the men. When men don’t actively serve in parish life, specifically in the Mass, a parish is going to suffer. Here’s the scenario at this parish; these numbers are typical for most parishes around the country.

• When we walked in, three women greeted us, no men were to be found. 0-3.
• There were 3 altar servers, 2 were young girls. 1-5.
• In the rockin’ jazz/pop/r&b, happy happy clap clap band there was 1 man, 7 women. 2-12.
• There were 4 ushers… all women! 2-16. (Men weren’t even ushering, ahhh!!!)
• Out of the excessive 9 Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, 2 were men. 4-23.
• The ‘commentator’, lectors and cantor were all women. 4-27.
• Oh yeah, the priest was a man. 5-27.

So, out of 32 servant-leadership positions, (31 really, when you remove the priest from the list) only 4 were filled by men! And one of those 4 was a 12 year-old boy altar server! This is despicable. Again, this has nothing to do with the women, and everything to do with the men! I’ll explain myself in more detail, in the next post… you’ve got to come back!


TrueMan up!

I think quite importantly Dave points out that: "...this has nothing to do with the women, and everything to do with the men!" What feminism has done, at least in the Church, is that it has prevented men, and caused men, to neglect their calling, and their natural tendency at leadership. Certainly there are parishes that push women into servant leadership roles above men for improper reasons (ie a false belief in feminist theory) but that isn't always the case. Many times the men simply choose not to be involved.

What causes this? The easy answer would be to just say that it is apathy, and that the men don't care. So the women step up, and should be applauded. But what if the reason the men don't step forward is that the problems listed in the first part of Dave's post prevent them from wanting to be involved. Is it possible that men don't want to involve themselves in a faith that they don't recognize or identify with? It is very possible, but what is the cause and what is the effect? At some point the faith in this country has to be reformed, and no offense to the women, but it can't be done with them alone. Remember, this isn't about the women, but completely about the men. The heads of our families, the leaders need to lead. The men need to step up and choose to reform the reform and take our true authentic faith back.