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Fr. Brian Hess's avatar

As a pastor who has used multiple organizations like CCO to provide coverage when I'm away, I've heard all the stories-good and bad-from my parishioners. This is super interesting that CCO hires third party "secret shoppers" to grade the priest on their support of CCO, now I'd like to see a Catholic secret shopper program that grades the visiting priest on his observance of liturgical norms.

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Michael Blissenbach's avatar

I worry that this “secret shopper” evaluation thing has or will have the effect of reducing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in general and the priest’s homily in particular to a consumer product or entertainment. There’s already a problem of what I would describe as “liturgical consumerism” among some lay Catholics in the USA, and I worry that stuff like this “secret shopper” method will have the unintended effect of making this problem worse, especially if the evaluators are not well-formed Catholics.

We do not attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to “get something” out of it, but rather to worship God and enter into more intimate communion with Him, especially through receiving His Sacred Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, and also entering into more intimate communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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