A market-driven church

The Manila Times cartoon on 21 February 2024

"A Market Drive Church" was also published by The Manila Times on 21 February 2024.

Asked which commandment in the law is the greatest, Jesus Christ replied: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." The increasing number of mall chapels, like many innovative reforms that are in the works in the Catholic Church today, is indicative of a ministry that tries to keep in touch with the times. However, the other somewhat dissenting commentary may also suggest of signs that we are loving our God with half of our heart, a third of our soul, and a fourth of our mind.

Two years ago, the Archdiocese of Manila launched a mission chapel at Landmark, right at the heart of Makati's business district. In a mass, His Excellency Manila Archbishop Jose F. Cardinal Advincula told the chapel goers:

"Although your residence is not here in the mall, your “lived space” is spent here because of work or because of the mobility of your lifestyle. The church wants to be close to you. She wants to accompany you where you are and whenever you need her maternal guidance."

By "work" Bishop Advincula could be referring to entrepreneurs and wage earners who must work on a Sunday and are therefore unable to attend Sunday masses in their respective parishes. Firms in service-oriented industries like parlors, restaurants, grocery stores, payment centers, clinics, among many other outlets, get most of their customers on weekends; opting to close these establishments on the Lord’s Day can mean leaving so much money on the table. The unspoken word is that money is God, to be loved with all our heart.

Globalization has further reshaped the workplace. Call center agents, for example, who are attending to overseas clients need to work outside "normal" working hours. Companies with offshore counterparts adjust to work hours and workdays in other countries.

By "mobility of lifestyle" the bishop was probably referring to several things, including what has been called "mall culture." The country is home to a thousand shopping malls. These malls have dominated the urban landscape and captured the fancy of city dwellers. It is indicative of how consumerism has transformed the local lifestyle. For decades now, the country's economy has been propelled in large part by domestic consumption.

The theological basis for the church mission in malls shifts from a focus on people going to places of worship to one that brings the ministry to people. The church sees a community in malls; therefore, it must send its ministers to attend to the spiritual needs of the flock in these communities. Where the COVID 19 pandemic has given rise to the phenomenon of virtual worship, changing lifestyles are giving occasion for redefining physical space and the way the communities are making the places of worship evolve.

It used to be that the physical structure of worship stands out at the center of the town, often across the municipal hall. Such a landmark symbolizes the community’s unequalled love for God. Mall chapels, being a fixture within a larger structure of commerce, symbolize the subjugation of the love of God to the love of money.

But one can find redemption in holy masses being heard in malls. Not too long ago, believers went to mass in their "Sunday's best." Now, in my local parish, I can see parishioners coming to mass in sandals, wearing shorts and tees, not much unlike the one who just bought suka from the sari-sari-store. This is not by any means a way to judge anybody, because how we praise God cannot be measured by how we look. But if I were hosting a party, I would prefer the partygoers to show more respect. And the Lord our God is host of every eucharistic celebration. In that sense masses in malls are to be uniquely valued because people tend to dress better inside malls than inside a local parish church. 

Again, how we dress up and how the physical structure of the church is built are just symbols that do not necessarily reflect the true value of our relationship with God. But if we go solely by them, there is doubt if indeed we love the Lord Our God with all our heart, our soul, our strength, and our mind.

Bringing the ministry of the church closer to the people justifies how Jesus reached out to all, sinners and saints alike. He did not wait for people to come to him, he delivered God’s word to them—from village to village, from house to house, from hilltops and beachfronts to synagogues.

On the hunt for the one lost sheep, today’s mission chapels mimic the early years of evangelization. Perhaps it is impossible to match the zeal of the early missions as they were driven by the pre-Second Vatican Council preaching that there was no salvation outside of the Catholic Church, but one cannot discredit as ungrounded the totality of church reforms that had taken shape under the present papacy.   

Yet finding piety in a house of commerce is a hypothetical proposition at this point. Here is an idea, from the perspective of the church, that hopes for the conversion of a commercial experience to one that is spiritual or, from the perspective of mall owners, that foot traffic generated by the chapel can be converted to sales. The complementarity remains to be proven in the same way that risks of chapel goers moderating their spending sprees to save something for the poor may hurt businesses in the end.

Can Peter’s successor, in whose hand’s Jesus has accorded such a wide latitude of discretion that “whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven,” consider more tweaking of the rules, such as in assigning the Lord’s Day to whatever day in the week, depending on a person’s day-to-day inclination?  

The church, of course, has been flexible throughout the ages. Asked why Moses allowed divorce, Jesus said: "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way." In other words, Moses adapted to the wishes of the market.

Contraception and homosexual acts used to be taboo, but Pope Francis recently decreed that a form of sub-sacramental blessing can be given to those who seek it for same-sex unions. Nothing can pre-empt and frustrate procreation more effectively than same-sex unions. In the context of the LGBTQ+ community’s fair lobby for recognition, equality and respect, the pope preaches understanding, compassion, inclusivity, and openness. He urges his church to open its doors to all, sinners and saints alike. Like Moses, he unsettles the norm to satisfy the market.