Conservative Catholic Churches? (Roanoke, Lynchburg, Bedford: school, architecture, area)

[crabcake]

Does anyone know of any conservative, traditional Catholic churches where they don't hold hands during the Our Father and don't play guitars and sing almost every prayer? I am not comfortable in either of the Lynchburg Catholic churches and am willing to drive a distance to find a more traditional parish.

[PaperTrail]

From my experiences, there isn't any in the Roanoke area.

A lot of people forego the Lynchburg churches and come to the Bedford church for just the reason you mentioned, though I think the Bedford church still doesn't fit the traditional mold. They do sing some of the prayers in Latin, so there is an "old-school" vibe, but hand-holding and whatnot is there.....and pretty much everywhere else I've been these days.

Sorry, that's just the wider shift that's been going on.

[seanpecor]

What about Saint Andrews in Roanoke? I'm not Catholic but if there were a more traditional Catholic church then it would seem to be that Saint Andrews would be it.

Sean

[PaperTrail]

Looks can be deceiving.

I've been to St. Andrew's several times, and despite what the architecture suggests, they're more modern, especially in the more hand-holdy and other similar ways.

[crabcake]

Thanks for the responses. I come from Southern Maryland and I haven't seen any of those things yet there. Oh, well.

[mccamp]

Actually, St. Andrew's is more conservative. The hand-holding thing isn't necessary. If you don't want to do it, then don't do it. We don't. (Only about half of the congregation holds hands.) They didn't hold hands in the more liberal Boston catholic churches. I'm wondering if that's a southern thing instead of a modern thing.

We looked at Our Lady of Nazareth and that was too modern for our tastes. (It was like worshiping in the big box store.)

St. Andrew's has an organ and the choir is beautiful. More traditional hymns and prayers. It is considered a conservative catholic church.

[PaperTrail]

The thing that struck me particularly about the hand-holding at St. Andrew's was that so many people actually stood in the aisles to connect both sides of the church. I had never seen it gone to those lengths before.

Hand-holding in general also takes place in the Midwest. Maybe, to elaborate on mccamp's statement, it's a Bible Belt thing rather than a modern thing.

Additionally, at St. Andrew's, I think the speaking aloud of parishioner's names during the prayers is a pretty modern twist. I suppose it's all eye-of-the-beholder interpretations.

[PaperTrail]

After a little more consideration, I'll step back a bit from my initial gut reaction to St. Andrew's.

Aside from the obvious Syon Abbey, St. Andrew's is probably the most conservative Catholic church in the area, but knowing what I grew up in and where I recently came from, the service itself for reasons I stated above doesn't really feel like one I would have called conservative -- though that term is constantly being redefined. The church building itself definitely goes a long way to making you feel like you're in a conservative environment.

Maybe I'm thinking that St. Andrew's is more of a middle-ground sort of place, which may be as conservative as one will find in Southwest or West Central Va. There are elements I like there, and ones I don't.

[WillV]

I'd be more concerned about the Preist giving my teenage son the eye than playing the guitar...but that's just me...

[Eeeee22895]

Crabacke,
Two things that shocked me when I moved here. 1) The Catholic Churches were not as conservative as what I grew up with. I am talking about strong stands affirming life. My friend was talking about meeting with the leaders of the area Catholic church youth groups. They were planning a rally following the "Life-Chain" event in Roanoke. My friend's church wanted a pro-life theme, and some of the other churches didn't like the anti-abortion aspect of that theme. That was truly amazing and appalling to my friend. 2) The local paper, the Roanoke Times, is about as far-left as any paper in the country. Not surprisingly, the wife of a former Times editorial page editor was in charge of the youth group from one of the churches that opposed the pro-life theme.