Catholic Mass today seemed to endorse austerity and anti-SNAP benefits?

[Anonymous]

OP, how long have you been Catholic? It’s very surprising that you were unaware that all Catholic churches use the same readings every week and that they are on a three year cycle. When I was a child, we had a one year cycle, so we had the same readings on the same Sundays each year, but we’ve been on the three year cycle for many, many years now.

A friend of mine who is a Methodist pastor told me that her church frequently uses the Catholic lectionary for their Sunday services. So, it’s not even just the Catholic churches using the same readings each week.

And it’s a homily, not a sermon. A homily is based on the Bible readings for that week, which means that a priest can’t just pick any random topic that’s in the news to discuss.

[Anonymous]

I think that taking care of yourself and your family is essential to everything. I see nothing wrong with his speech. If everyone focused on providing and feeding their family, we wouldn’t have half the problems we have now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't sound New Testament compliant to me.

Lots of churches have "sermon idea" type publications. Sounds like that might have happened.

It's a sad state of affairs when Christian churches give up on compassion for people who are imperfect. That's kind of the whole point.

I'm sorry, OP.

You are thinking of socialism not Christianity, nowhere in the Bible does it say help people that are stealing and lying about EBT. And the Bible says plenty about not being lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree.

I’m OP. The priests didn’t literally say “SNAP” or “welfare” or “EBT” or any other gov assistance terms in the news and viral on social media the last few weeks — that was me reading between the lines. It just seemed awfully coincidental two Catholic churches which are totally unaffiliated with each other had the same reading and two priests had similar interpretations and expansions essentially demonizing poor people on welfare as lazy, idle, and lacking dignity — albeit the hometown priest was much more aggressive and even used some old school urban “welfare queen” dog whistles.

Every Catholic church in the US, maybe in the world, uses the same lectionary (a document that assigns readings to days), so it's not really a "coincidence" that two Churches would use the same readings this Sunday. But the priest didn't choose them.

I'm not defending his choice to interpret it that way. The Catholic church is very much in favor of feeding people, and does a lot of work towards that goal. This is MAGA infecting the church, and not the position of the church as a whole.

Here is a statement from one of the top Catholic archbishops on the SNAP issue.

https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/archbishop-broglio-urges-funding-lifesaving-programs-and-end-federal-government-shutdown

I disagree with the USCCB on many things. But not on this.

Interesting. I didn’t know the readings were the same everywhere. I guess I've never attended Mass twice in the same weekend or day. It was totally random that I just kept listening to the live feed of my hometown church.

I remain suspicious this reading was chosen for this weekend with everything in the news. I didn’t feel comfortable with the reading and the even crueler sermons after. It didn’t feel Catholic to me. And I know my husband and I weren’t the only two people in the pews side-eying what we were hearing.

Remain as suspicious as you like, but current events had absolutely nothing to do with that reading being this Sunday.

Okay, we’ve covered that. I guess the more concerning part would be priests in different regions of the U.S. taking that allegedly random assigned reading to launch into racist or at least classist welfare queen tropes and demonizing the modern underclass as lazy moochers with no dignity. While those same tropes are being trafficked on the news, on podcasts, used by politicians to shut down the government, and racist videos with those themes are going viral on social media at a scale I’ve never witnessed in my life.

It isn’t “allegedly random”. These readings are on a 3-year cycle, as someone else has already posted. They are published WELL ahead of time.

Also, did the priests actually say all that stuff, or are you simply assuming they did?

OP, can you post the videos, if they were recorded? I’d love to see what was actually said and not what PPs assume was said. I’m guessing it’s Biblically-based and not some lecture about current events.

Yes, OP, please post links to the videos. Or at least let us know the name of the local parish here. Maybe one of us reading this thread was at the same Mass and can add to the discussion.

I will say the homily at the 11:00 Mass at Nativity Catholic Church today was not anything at all like the two you have described, so that’s good news for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree.

I’m OP. The priests didn’t literally say “SNAP” or “welfare” or “EBT” or any other gov assistance terms in the news and viral on social media the last few weeks — that was me reading between the lines. It just seemed awfully coincidental two Catholic churches which are totally unaffiliated with each other had the same reading and two priests had similar interpretations and expansions essentially demonizing poor people on welfare as lazy, idle, and lacking dignity — albeit the hometown priest was much more aggressive and even used some old school urban “welfare queen” dog whistles.

Every Catholic church in the US, maybe in the world, uses the same lectionary (a document that assigns readings to days), so it's not really a "coincidence" that two Churches would use the same readings this Sunday. But the priest didn't choose them.

I'm not defending his choice to interpret it that way. The Catholic church is very much in favor of feeding people, and does a lot of work towards that goal. This is MAGA infecting the church, and not the position of the church as a whole.

Here is a statement from one of the top Catholic archbishops on the SNAP issue.

https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/archbishop-broglio-urges-funding-lifesaving-programs-and-end-federal-government-shutdown

I disagree with the USCCB on many things. But not on this.

Interesting. I didn’t know the readings were the same everywhere. I guess I've never attended Mass twice in the same weekend or day. It was totally random that I just kept listening to the live feed of my hometown church.

I remain suspicious this reading was chosen for this weekend with everything in the news. I didn’t feel comfortable with the reading and the even crueler sermons after. It didn’t feel Catholic to me. And I know my husband and I weren’t the only two people in the pews side-eying what we were hearing.

Remain as suspicious as you like, but current events had absolutely nothing to do with that reading being this Sunday.

Okay, we’ve covered that. I guess the more concerning part would be priests in different regions of the U.S. taking that allegedly random assigned reading to launch into racist or at least classist welfare queen tropes and demonizing the modern underclass as lazy moochers with no dignity. While those same tropes are being trafficked on the news, on podcasts, used by politicians to shut down the government, and racist videos with those themes are going viral on social media at a scale I’ve never witnessed in my life.

It isn’t “allegedly random”. These readings are on a 3-year cycle, as someone else has already posted. They are published WELL ahead of time.

Also, did the priests actually say all that stuff, or are you simply assuming they did?

OP, can you post the videos, if they were recorded? I’d love to see what was actually said and not what PPs assume was said. I’m guessing it’s Biblically-based and not some lecture about current events.

I’m certainly not going to dox two priests and two churches my family attends, so don’t ask again.

It is your contention that priests are totally oblivious to current events and the government shut down and its impact on SNAP? They are also oblivious that a major theme being pushed by the MAGA right wing is low and middle class Americans are lazy and entitled and if they can’t afford soaring food costs — or soaring housing, college and student loans, health care, a car, kids or a wedding — it’s their own fault because they don’t work hard enough? Compared to model immigrants who will sleep on a floor and work 100 hours a week. President Trump just this week told Fox News this week Americans are lazy and talentless and that’s why we need millions of foreign visa students and workers annually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree.

I’m OP. The priests didn’t literally say “SNAP” or “welfare” or “EBT” or any other gov assistance terms in the news and viral on social media the last few weeks — that was me reading between the lines. It just seemed awfully coincidental two Catholic churches which are totally unaffiliated with each other had the same reading and two priests had similar interpretations and expansions essentially demonizing poor people on welfare as lazy, idle, and lacking dignity — albeit the hometown priest was much more aggressive and even used some old school urban “welfare queen” dog whistles.

Every Catholic church in the US, maybe in the world, uses the same lectionary (a document that assigns readings to days), so it's not really a "coincidence" that two Churches would use the same readings this Sunday. But the priest didn't choose them.

I'm not defending his choice to interpret it that way. The Catholic church is very much in favor of feeding people, and does a lot of work towards that goal. This is MAGA infecting the church, and not the position of the church as a whole.

Here is a statement from one of the top Catholic archbishops on the SNAP issue.

https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/archbishop-broglio-urges-funding-lifesaving-programs-and-end-federal-government-shutdown

I disagree with the USCCB on many things. But not on this.

Interesting. I didn’t know the readings were the same everywhere. I guess I've never attended Mass twice in the same weekend or day. It was totally random that I just kept listening to the live feed of my hometown church.

I remain suspicious this reading was chosen for this weekend with everything in the news. I didn’t feel comfortable with the reading and the even crueler sermons after. It didn’t feel Catholic to me. And I know my husband and I weren’t the only two people in the pews side-eying what we were hearing.

Remain as suspicious as you like, but current events had absolutely nothing to do with that reading being this Sunday.

Okay, we’ve covered that. I guess the more concerning part would be priests in different regions of the U.S. taking that allegedly random assigned reading to launch into racist or at least classist welfare queen tropes and demonizing the modern underclass as lazy moochers with no dignity. While those same tropes are being trafficked on the news, on podcasts, used by politicians to shut down the government, and racist videos with those themes are going viral on social media at a scale I’ve never witnessed in my life.

It isn’t “allegedly random”. These readings are on a 3-year cycle, as someone else has already posted. They are published WELL ahead of time.

Also, did the priests actually say all that stuff, or are you simply assuming they did?

OP, can you post the videos, if they were recorded? I’d love to see what was actually said and not what PPs assume was said. I’m guessing it’s Biblically-based and not some lecture about current events.

I’m certainly not going to dox two priests and two churches my family attends, so don’t ask again.

It is your contention that priests are totally oblivious to current events and the government shut down and its impact on SNAP? They are also oblivious that a major theme being pushed by the MAGA right wing is low and middle class Americans are lazy and entitled and if they can’t afford soaring food costs — or soaring housing, college and student loans, health care, a car, kids or a wedding — it’s their own fault because they don’t work hard enough? Compared to model immigrants who will sleep on a floor and work 100 hours a week. President Trump just this week told Fox News this week Americans are lazy and talentless and that’s why we need millions of foreign visa students and workers annually.

How can anyone discern what was actually said at the Mass if we can’t hear it for ourselves?

And I don’t believe it’s “doxxing” a priest to put a link to a publicly available video. Most of the Catholic churches around here have pretty big congregations, so no one is going to know who you are if you just give the name of the local parish.

[Anonymous]

All these fake "Catholics" who seemingly never know the first thing about their religion. They don't know to cross themselves, that it's called a homily and not a sermon, that the readings aren't decided on a whim by each church. You all just out yourselves in the very first post every time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that taking care of yourself and your family is essential to everything. I see nothing wrong with his speech. If everyone focused on providing and feeding their family, we wouldn’t have half the problems we have now.

I frankly don’t want my church pushing bootstrap crap, austerity, or demonizing the poor for struggling to afford groceries. The only utopia that produces is a wealth gap where rich ruthlessly hoard everything and we launch more multi-trillion wars where poor kids get slaughtered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree.

This.

We had the same reading without a MAGA spin at both the vigil Mass I attended with my mom and Mass with DH.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like OP is reading waaay too much into this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All these fake "Catholics" who seemingly never know the first thing about their religion. They don't know to cross themselves, that it's called a homily and not a sermon, that the readings aren't decided on a whim by each church. You all just out yourselves in the very first post every time.

I’m OP. I’m baptized Catholic but not involved with our church any deeper than weekend Mass with my family. I genuinely didn’t know the reading was the same everywhere. And I used homily in my first post, not sermon. Quote:

“The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are trying to create a schism in the church. The American Catholics are cash-rich and are being heavily influenced by Vance's group - MAGA politics. The Italian Catholic church has a lot of expensive real estate but no cash and is heavily influenced by Pope Leo/Pope Francis and traditional Catholic values like care for the poor. One of the reasons Pope Leo was chosen was to keep the American Catholics from taking their cash and going. The fight is going to get ugly and from your report, it seems Pope Leo might be losing.

This, exactly. My only hope is that my son and his friends who are embracing their faith are not conservative in this manner. They're conservative in other ways, but even they see the error of what the American bishops are doing to the Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All these fake "Catholics" who seemingly never know the first thing about their religion. They don't know to cross themselves, that it's called a homily and not a sermon, that the readings aren't decided on a whim by each church. You all just out yourselves in the very first post every time.

I’m OP. I’m baptized Catholic but not involved with our church any deeper than weekend Mass with my family. I genuinely didn’t know the reading was the same everywhere. And I used homily in my first post, not sermon. Quote:

“The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.”

It's not just you but so many fake Catholics posting here who make these obvious errors and think they won't get noticed. You've been going to mass for years but clearly not been paying attention for years, until today apparently, because you wanted to get political.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree.

I’m OP. The priests didn’t literally say “SNAP” or “welfare” or “EBT” or any other gov assistance terms in the news and viral on social media the last few weeks — that was me reading between the lines. It just seemed awfully coincidental two Catholic churches which are totally unaffiliated with each other had the same reading and two priests had similar interpretations and expansions essentially demonizing poor people on welfare as lazy, idle, and lacking dignity — albeit the hometown priest was much more aggressive and even used some old school urban “welfare queen” dog whistles.

Every Catholic church in the US, maybe in the world, uses the same lectionary (a document that assigns readings to days), so it's not really a "coincidence" that two Churches would use the same readings this Sunday. But the priest didn't choose them.

I'm not defending his choice to interpret it that way. The Catholic church is very much in favor of feeding people, and does a lot of work towards that goal. This is MAGA infecting the church, and not the position of the church as a whole.

Here is a statement from one of the top Catholic archbishops on the SNAP issue.

https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/archbishop-broglio-urges-funding-lifesaving-programs-and-end-federal-government-shutdown

I disagree with the USCCB on many things. But not on this.

Interesting. I didn’t know the readings were the same everywhere. I guess I've never attended Mass twice in the same weekend or day. It was totally random that I just kept listening to the live feed of my hometown church.

I remain suspicious this reading was chosen for this weekend with everything in the news. I didn’t feel comfortable with the reading and the even crueler sermons after. It didn’t feel Catholic to me. And I know my husband and I weren’t the only two people in the pews side-eying what we were hearing.

Remain as suspicious as you like, but current events had absolutely nothing to do with that reading being this Sunday.

Okay, we’ve covered that. I guess the more concerning part would be priests in different regions of the U.S. taking that allegedly random assigned reading to launch into racist or at least classist welfare queen tropes and demonizing the modern underclass as lazy moochers with no dignity. While those same tropes are being trafficked on the news, on podcasts, used by politicians to shut down the government, and racist videos with those themes are going viral on social media at a scale I’ve never witnessed in my life.

It isn’t “allegedly random”. These readings are on a 3-year cycle, as someone else has already posted. They are published WELL ahead of time.

Also, did the priests actually say all that stuff, or are you simply assuming they did?

OP, can you post the videos, if they were recorded? I’d love to see what was actually said and not what PPs assume was said. I’m guessing it’s Biblically-based and not some lecture about current events.

I’m certainly not going to dox two priests and two churches my family attends, so don’t ask again.

It is your contention that priests are totally oblivious to current events and the government shut down and its impact on SNAP? They are also oblivious that a major theme being pushed by the MAGA right wing is low and middle class Americans are lazy and entitled and if they can’t afford soaring food costs — or soaring housing, college and student loans, health care, a car, kids or a wedding — it’s their own fault because they don’t work hard enough? Compared to model immigrants who will sleep on a floor and work 100 hours a week. President Trump just this week told Fox News this week Americans are lazy and talentless and that’s why we need millions of foreign visa students and workers annually.

How can anyone discern what was actually said at the Mass if we can’t hear it for ourselves?

And I don’t believe it’s “doxxing” a priest to put a link to a publicly available video. Most of the Catholic churches around here have pretty big congregations, so no one is going to know who you are if you just give the name of the local parish.

I’ve already listened twice, as I went back to listen and confirm the reading. I have not mischaracterized the dialogue. And again, the priest located several states away was worse than the local.

[Anonymous]

It's too bad the Catholic church doesn't go after the large corporate and government entities that don't pay living wages like Walmart & the US military. Someone shouldn't work full time and not be able to afford food.