"It's all political at that parish!"

I hear people say all the time in the Catholic world something along the lines of - "I don't get involved at my parish because it is all political"

By political they of course mean it in the sense that you have to know certain people and be "connected" and "political" in the sense that certain people have more influence at the parish than others.

"I don't get involved at my parish because it is all political" is the mantra of the person who: 

1) is looking for an excuse not to live out the Gospel in community and/or

2) doesn't understand human nature

GET OVER IT!!!!

There are a lot of ways to become an active Catholic outside one's parish, but if you avoid the parish structure because it is "too political" that's just crazy - of course it is political - politics in that sense of the word means "what happens when you get people together in the same room to work on things."

If you want to see something happen, you have always had to be able to persuade people that it is the way to go forward.  People who hate that fact are usually people who don't have the desire to put in the work to try to persuade people that their way is the best.  They are people who typically just want to come in and have everyone listen to them and recognize the brilliance of their ideas and their desired direction for something, and are shocked when people don't instantly recognize their brilliance.


The things going on at a Catholic parish are always going to be "political" and the Catholic Church will always have a "political" element to it on this side of heaven - if you don't like that, my advice is to quit whining, get involved, and be the change you want to see happen at your parish.