Seized by Christ

They are experiencing Christianity as joy and hope, having thus become lovers of Christ.

Category: Parish & Community Life

The structure of belonging, the necessity of small groups (Microspheres), subsidiarity, and brotherhood.

  • If Love Is the Main Christian Message, Why Does the Church Seem So Strict at Times?

    Understanding how Church discipline flows from love, not contradiction

    This question gets to the heart of a common struggle: If Christianity is centered on love, why does the Church often feel like a place of rules, restrictions, and prohibitions?

    Pope Benedict XVI anticipated this very question in Deus Caritas Est, where he asks bluntly:

    “Doesn’t the Church, with all her commandments and prohibitions, turn to bitterness the most precious thing in life?”

    The answer, as Benedict explains, is not to dismiss the rules—but to reconnect them with love. When love is forgotten, rules can feel cold or burdensome. But when love is central, even the strictness of the Church is revealed to be a form of protection and guidance.

    1. Benedict’s Challenge: Love Must Ground the Rules

    Rules lose their meaning when disconnected from love. That’s why Benedict insists the Church must re-anchor every commandment in God’s love.

    Christian morality, then, is not a burdensome legal code—it is a path of grateful response to the One who loved us first. It flows from relationship, not performance.

    2. Rules as Protective Boundaries, Not Arbitrary Limits

    Church teachings are not random restrictions. They are moral guardrails, meant to preserve human dignity and protect the possibility of real love.

    Safeguarding dignity: Certain behaviors wound ourselves and others. Catholic teaching identifies and warns against them to prevent harm.
    Map to freedom: The Church teaches that true freedom is not doing whatever we want, but doing what is good. Love needs discipline in order to grow.

    3. Loving Discipline from a Spiritual Parent

    The Church sees herself as both mother and teacher. Just as a parent sets boundaries for their child’s safety and growth, so too the Church offers moral discipline for our spiritual development.

    Spiritual fatherhood and motherhood: Rules shape conscience and virtue. They help form people capable of real, sacrificial love—not just fleeting emotion.

    4. Historical Roots: Guarding the Faith

    From the early Church to the present, moral clarity has been essential:

    Councils and canons fought heresy and spiritual confusion.
    Medieval moral theology gave believers a practical roadmap to holiness.
    Today, Pope Benedict invites us to rediscover that path—not as cold rules, but as love in action.

    The goal is not legalism. The goal is love that is wise, ordered, and enduring.

    Follow-up Question:

    Can you think of a Church teaching or rule that felt restrictive at first, but later you saw how it protected or deepened your experience of God’s love?

  • Building a Welcoming Parish: A Call to Action for the Knights

    How Knights of Columbus Can Strengthen Parish Community Through Outreach

    A strong parish is more than just a place of worship—it’s a spiritual home. Yet too often, new parishioners go unnoticed, never truly connecting with the faith community. As Knights of Columbus, we have a unique opportunity to change this by creating a more welcoming and engaged parish environment.

    The Problem: A Disconnected Parish

    Currently, our parish’s welcoming process is limited. Once new members are added to the collection envelope mailing list, there is little follow-up. Even our parish business director rarely sees their faces. Many new parishioners attend Mass but struggle to feel like they truly belong.

    As Knights, we are called to serve. By taking an active role in welcoming others, we can foster a sense of belonging and deepen the faith experience for all.

    A Vision for Parish Connection

    Imagine if every parishioner were part of a small group—similar to our Lenten study groups—but based on neighborhoods. New members would automatically be connected to a group near them, ensuring they find fellowship from the start. As groups grow, they would naturally divide, maintaining strong, personal connections.

    While the Church cannot share personal information without permission, there are still many ways we, as Knights, can integrate new members into the community.

    What We Can Do as Knights

    1. Be More Intentional in Greeting Others

    • Welcome parishioners at the church doors before and after Mass.
    • Engage in conversations at the donuts and coffee area after Mass.
    • Ask, “How long have you been part of the parish?” If they are new, introduce them to others.

    2. Help New Parishioners Connect

    • If someone has been a parishioner for over a year, ask if they’d be willing to help welcome and get to know new members.
    • Gather basic location information (such as neighborhood) to connect parishioners with nearby Catholic neighbors.
    • Encourage active members to invite newcomers into existing groups or ministries.

    3. Introduce New Members to Others

    • If a parishioner has been in the church for less than a year, personally introduce them to several people at the same Mass.
    • Make an effort to engage with them regularly—it takes about eight interactions with the between a person and the new parishioner over several months before he/she feels truly connected.
    • Learn about their work, hobbies, and background to foster genuine relationships.
    • When the time is right, ask if they’d like to meet other parishioners from their neighborhood and help facilitate those introductions.

    Next Steps

    • Identify Knights willing to take an active role in greeting and introducing parishioners.
    • Develop a simple system to track and connect new members to others in their area.
    • Work alongside parish leadership to enhance the overall welcoming strategy.

    Conclusion: A Parish Where Everyone Belongs

    By taking these small but meaningful steps, the Knights of Columbus can be the driving force behind a more connected and engaged parish. Welcoming new members is not just an act of kindness—it is an act of evangelization that strengthens the entire Church. When people feel seen, heard, and valued, they are more likely to deepen their faith and become active members of the community.

    Let’s step forward in our mission as Knights and make our parish a true spiritual home for all.

    Written in collaboration with ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025).

  • Microspheres Key to Church Renewal

    I am dedicated to helping to promote the Kingdom of God in my parish and in my diocese. My goal is to find a way to promote the faith such that by 2030, the Archdiocese would be 4 times its current size, and have 1 priest for every 100 men.

    Although my view really doesn’t  matter, I see nothing wrong with the Teaching of the Church, the Hierarchy, or the Magesterium. As far as I can see, the shortcoming is in the gap between the priests and the lay people.

    Although a parish may be the size of several brigades, it is as useless as a mob without some structure, network, and relationships.

    Unfortunately, most of the time, it seems that the only thing that separates Catholics from the rest of the world is that 1 hour on Sunday when they actually separate themselves from the rest of the world.

    If you know a tree by the fruit it produces, then you would have to say that most Catholics are unaware of the treasure that God is. They have been given a gold mine, but they act like it’s just yellow plastic.

    These days most people prefer interacting with media, rather than with other human beings, often even in their own families.

    I believe that the “Sense of Community” one has with his church or parish is directly related to the number of microsphere relationships (average of 30 minutes per week per person) he has within that church.

    Would it take a network of 5, 10, or even 20 microsphere relationships experienced as shared lives, shared service, and shared support to create that sense of community? This would create the kind of environment where Catholics could find God and respond to their vocations.

    If we could develop within the Church support groups for everyone, many of the problems that the Church now experiences would disappear.

    It was the communities of brotherhoods that allowed Civilization to survive the invasions of Europe that occurred 1000 years ago. Something of that kind will be required to survive the current assault on our faith.

    I do not believe it is necessarily the Church’s responsibility or even within their capability to bring about this change.

    Tom Neugebauer

    Seized by Christ

  • Neighbor Definition

    I am in the process of trying to analyze what the Bible refers to as Neighbor.

    The Bible says to Love your Neighbor. It also says that whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me. In the days of the Bible, if it involved a distance of more than 20 miles, the best you could hope to do was send a package or a gift.

    The word Neighbor translates to Vecino in Spanish. Vecino is like the word Vicinity. And the direct literal translation from Spanish to English is Near.

    A Neighbor is a person who is near. I would say that a neighbor is a person within your Microsphere.

    The Bible says to whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me. The least of these would extend to those who you see regularly, but who are considered less by society.

    That includes children, women, the poor  and the infirm.

    It also extends to strangers and your enemy. But even in these cases, it refers to a stranger that comes to you. And it also addresses an enemy who is near to you.

    None of these references for neighbor, least of these, Stranger, or Enemy is a reference to significantly beyond your microsphere. I think this also brings in what the Catholic Church says about subsidiarity, that we are to focus on taking care of things at the most local level.

    If we want to deal with what takes place in a foreign land, Jesus sent his disciples out with just their sandals, and not even any food to eat. He did not send  them out with goods as gifts that might influence the receivers.

    This model seems most like how the Amish and Mennonites live. The Mennonites have missions, but they mostly go live with the people and be an example. The Amish model does not allow for traveling great distances

    Regards

    Tom Neugebauer

    Seized by Christ

  • From Redemptor Hominis to a Synod on Subsidiarity

    In Redemptor Hominis, one of the first encyclicals of Pope John Paul VI, he made reference to the fact that every man is the way of the Church. This statement is to imply that Christ has entrusted to the Church the salvation of every man, so it is the duty of the Church to reach out to every man, and show them the way to Christ.

    In Gratissimus Sane, Pope John Paul II makes reference to the fact that every family is also the way of the Church.

    In addition, he said that the Family is the way that the way that the Church walks with every individual, because every person starts out as a member of a family that establishes their character, and makes them a unique person.

    However, in the last 50 years, the family has disintegrated, with more than 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce, and many children growing up without fathers. This actually creates more people with additional needs, and poorly formed character.

    100 years ago, before mobility was so common, more people lived with extended family, that provided the moral and spiritual support of an individual and of a family. It could to some extent pick up for broken family situations, but that is generally no longer the case.

    Even nuclear families are much smaller, so that is so much less the local support and council available.

    And it was typical for a family to have within it, an uncle or child or cousin that was consecrated to the priesthood. Or sisters or aunts that were consecrated. One of the most devastating effects of the reduction of the priesthood was the loss of their  moral and spiritual guidance of the family.

    With one priest for 4000 parishioners, substantially reduced family and reduced extended family, how can the Church realistically expect to walk with every family, much less every individual?

    Many years ago, I compared the organization of the military with the Catholic Church.

    In the military hierarchy, every group of 2 or 3 has a higher level to go to for support.

    Military                       # of Individuals            Catholic Church

     

    Region / Theater         1,000,000 +                       Diocese

    Army Group                    250,000                         (Deanery Group)

    Army                                   60,000 – 100,000        Deanery

    Corps                                   30,000 –   80,000        (Sub Deanery)

    Division                              10,000 –    20,000       (Parish Group)

    Brigade                                 2,000 –      5,000        Parish

    Batillion                                   300 –      1,000        (Priest Group)

    Company                                   70 –         250         (Deacon Group)

    Troop                                          25 –          60          (Small Community)

    Patrol                                            8 –          12          (Fire Patrol)

    Fire Team                                     4                          (Fire Team)

    Fire & Maneuver                         2                          (Prayer Partner)

    Soldier                                           1                          Parishioner

    I believe that the military has through many thousands of years developed the optimal efficient hierarchy structure, to provide support from the top, and successful execution from the bottom.

    For sake of reference, I added in parenthesis suggested groups where groups do not, or do not seem to exist in the Church.

    I am not suggesting that we imitate the Military, but I would like to suggest that we could do better than we are now.

    I have heard, for example, a deacon mention that there is discussion of housing priests in parish groups or subdeaneries so that they can have appropriate support and fellowship.

    I am focused on the lower levels from the deacon group and down. That is why I am working to assemble a “catechesis” related to providing support to the individual, the family, and to small communities. I’m not trying to make up anything. I am going to try to gather from the teaching from the Church. I will also make reference to articles that support it, that appear all the time in the media.

    On the other end, I am trying to inspire a Synod of Bishops to discuss Subsidiarity in general, and the sub-parish level in specific. Synods on Youth and Family  have established ongoing research of those topics. It would be worthwhile to define a starting point for developing a catechesis of Subsidiarity.

    I believe that it could, for example, lead to new projects for religious orders.

    I believe the current shape of the Church has everything to do with the resources available to work with. One can consider how many more resources would be available if the Church figures out how to walk with every man.

    Sometimes I think about the fact that if there are 7 Billion people in the world, and 1.16 B Catholics, then there are 5 persons in the world for each Catholic. That approaches a manageable group size, comparable to Christ and the 12 apostles. If only we knew how to carry that out, then we would really be able to have the Church walking with every man, in Love.

    Regards
    Tom Neugebauer
    Seized by Christ

  • Amour Laetitia Section 196 – 198

    Amour Laetitia Section 196 – 198 (Pope Francis)

    These passages talk about how the family’s small community, made up of extended family and close friends, should work.

    196 A big heart

    196.1 In addition to the small circle of the couple and their children, there is the larger family, which cannot be overlooked. 196.2 Indeed, “the love between husband and wife and, in a derivative and broader way, the love between members of the same family – between parents and children, brothers and sisters and relatives and members of the household – is given life and sustenance by an unceasing inner dynamism leading the family to ever deeper and more intense communion, which is the foundation and soul of the community of marriage and the family”.223 196.3 Friends and other families are part of this larger family, as well as communities of families who support one another in their difficulties, their social commitments and their faith.

    197.1 This larger family should provide love and support to teenage mothers, children without parents, single mothers left to raise children, persons with disabilities needing particular affection and closeness, young people struggling with addiction, the unmarried, separated or widowed who are alone, and the elderly and infirm who lack the support of their children. 197.2 It should also embrace “even those who have made shipwreck of their lives”.224 197.3 This wider family can help make up for the shortcomings of parents, detect and report possible situations in which children suffer violence and even abuse, and provide wholesome love and family stability in cases when parents prove incapable of this.

    198.1 Finally, we cannot forget that this larger family includes fathers-in-law, mothers-in-law and all the relatives of the couple. 198.2 One particularly delicate aspect of love is learning not to view these relatives as somehow competitors, threats or intruders. 198.3 The conjugal union demands respect for their traditions and customs, an effort to understand their language and to refrain from criticism, caring for them and cherishing them while maintaining the legitimate privacy and independence of the couple. 198.4 Being willing to do so is also an exquisite expression of generous love for one’s spouse.

    NOTE 223: John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 18: AAS 74 (1982), 101