Catholic Liturgy - What We Lost, And Why We Need It Back

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The above videos are extreme examples of just how bad it can get. History will not write well of the Catholic Church during this era, and most of it will center around the Church's failure (in the western rite) to uphold the sacred liturgical traditions passed down through the centuries. In most places around the western world, especially in the English-speaking nations, the Roman liturgy has become nothing short of a free-for-all for any type of innovation and invention imaginable. However, these extreme cases do not happen all by themselves. They are the product of a cascade of events, spanning years of liturgical abuse, which usually starts out quite subtle.

The United States is particularly prone to liturgical abuse. Why? It began in the most subtle way with our particular English translation of the Novus Ordo missal. Ours is probably one of the worst English translations in the world. The text of the liturgy is so paraphrased in the American English version, that it's virtually a commentary on the mass, rather then the mass itself. So poor is the American English translation, that the Vatican was prompted to call it "defective" and revoke permission for the American bishops to continue using it. So the American English translation of the mass is set to expire some time in 2010, soon to be replaced by a more accurate rendering of the original Novus Ordo liturgy.

The defunct American English translation in many ways emulates the Episcopalian liturgy of the Episcopal Church USA. Yes, that's right. When you see an Episcopalian liturgy, and compare it to the current American English translation of the Novus Ordo, the resemblances are striking. When the American bishops decided to go this way, they may have unwittingly sent a signal to the laity that we should imitate the Protestants in even our most sacred celebrations. So when the Protestants went "hippy" in their own services, many U.S. Catholics quickly followed suit. It wasn't long before all sorts of hippy, New Age and folk practices ended up a part of so many Catholic masses around the nation. While most parishes are not so extreme, a good number of them still engage in innovation and liturgical abuse, even if it's subtle. Sometimes it might be as simple as the priest adding words to the liturgy ad lib. His intentions may be sincere, but his actions are still inappropriate. Sometimes it amounts to nothing more than a simple abandonment of traditional Catholic customs. Maybe in your parish the tabernacle is off to the side, or maybe there are no alter rails for kneeling. Maybe in your parish, the priest never uses incense, or maybe the alter servers never use bells. Maybe your parish prefers contemporary pop music to traditional sacred chant. These subtle changes are exactly what Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) warned us about in the videos above. Liturgical innovation and abuse can start very small, in a seemingly harmless way, but it has a way of "one thing leading to another."

We Catholics must be diligent to rediscover and zealously protect our Catholic liturgical heritage. We must be charitable toward those who oppose us, but at the same time we must also be stubborn. It is not hard to request that some traditional practices be brought back into our sacred liturgy, and when appropriate, we should seek to help make that a reality in whatever way possible. Can you sing? Offer to start a Gregorian chant choir in your parish. Don't know how to chant? There are plenty of resources available to learn on the Internet. Do you think we should bring the bells back into the liturgy, and use more incense? Volunteer to become an alter server and make your desires known. Do you think the tabernacle should be at the front and center of the chapel? Get on the parish council and start lobbying for it. Don't like some of the things going on in the mass? Respectfully and charitably explain your concerns to the priest - on a regular basis if necessary.  

Let's face it, the innovators and modernists have gone to a lot of trouble to bring about the liturgical abuse now common in English-speaking Catholic parishes. They spent the greater part of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, getting on our parish council boards, becoming "liturgical coordinators," and taking over the choirs. There aren't going to be any positive changes back toward historic tradition, if tradition-minded Catholics don't do anything about it. It's time we start taking our parishes back; one-by-one.

LIFETEEN Founder Excommunicated

Teenagers Gather Around the Alter During the Consecration

As Was A Common Practice In LIFETEEN Masses Some Time Ago
Only A Few LIFETEEN Parishes Still Continue This Practice

(AP) - Phoenix's Catholic bishop has excommunicated a priest who started a nondenominational ministry after the priest was charged with misdemeanor sexual misconduct.

The action announced Monday against Monsignor Dale Fushek, once the diocese's second highest-ranking administrator, was a response to his creation of the Praise and Worship Center in Chandler....

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: It's time for Catholic parishes around the nation to rethink what they're doing. Yes, as Catholics we MUST reach out to the youth in our own congregations, but we need to reconsider how we're doing it.

For starters let's look at the English version of the mass itself. We're currently using a translation of the liturgy that the Vatican has labeled "defective" (read more here), and has revoked our permission to keep using it. That's why a new English translation has been approved by the Vatican and the USCCB, which will be put into use sometime in 2010.

The pope has also made it clear that we should expect more changes to the Ordinary Form of the mass, that will reintroduce traditions long since forgotten by most Catholics. For example, we can expect to see the use of high alter candle configurations, wherein the priest always faces a crucifix, and sometimes (when appropriate) the use of the ad orientem posture, where the priest faces east. We can expect to see the reintroduction of bells at the consecration, along with the use of more incense. The pope has also suggested the use of Latin at the consecration itself in all masses, no matter what language it's celebrated in. He is also planning on moving the "sign of peace" closer to the creed so as to create a greater atmosphere of solemnity during the eucharistic prayers. He has already indicated he would like to see greater use of traditional sacred music (such as Gregorian chant) during mass. The list goes on and on.

What's the message being sent here? It should be obvious. The Catholic Church needs to start being "Catholic" again, embracing our historical traditions, and giving them new life in the modern world. The changes coming out of the Vatican should serve as a guide for the average parish liturgist and choirmaster. We're heading toward a period of greater solemnity, greater reverence, and more tradition. Parishes that resist this change will only get left behind and ultimately hurt themselves.

But what about the youth? How will they be able to relate? Those who seriously ask such questions are operating on a template that is about 30 years old. The pop culture folk masses (which are epitomized by LIFETEEN) are an antiquated relic of the last generation. Youth may still be seeking out loud contemporary music, but mass is not where they really want to find it. Contemporary Christian music is a huge industry now. There are radio stations around the nation 100% dedicated to playing these songs around the clock. Youth can listen to these songs on their car radios, iPods and MP3 players. In fact, they often do. Over the last 30 years a new phenomenon has developed called the "Christian rock concert," wherein Christian youth can scream, dance, wave their hands in the air, etc. This didn't exist in the 1970s and 80s, but it does now, and it's bigger than ever. The youth hear this music all the time, outside of mass, and in fact, it's usually a lot better than anything the local parish choir can produce. Yes there is an outlet for Catholic youth in contemporary music, and Catholic parishes SHOULD be promoting it, but not at mass!

The point is the youth of today can get their pop culture music, in Christian variety form, anywhere they want. There is even a "Catholic flavor" of Christian pop music -- believe it or not. What, you've never heard? Ask any Catholic teenager. Many surveys are now perplexing Church leadership with results finding that the majority of practicing Catholic youths are more "pre-Vatican II" in their mentality. How could that be? and why? For starters, Vatican II has nothing to do with it. What it really has to do with is the sense of solemnity. When Catholic youth visit mass, they're not looking to hear the same thing they can get on their iPods and MP3 players. They're looking for something completely different. They're looking for a sense of the sacred. They want mystery. They want other-worldly. They want to escape the trappings of this earth to meet the Lord in sublime reverence and awe. That's why so many of them are flocking to the Extraordinary Form of the mass. It has nothing to do with Latin. It has nothing to do with the 1962 Missal. It's about solemnity, mystery, reverence and transcending everyday reality. That's something they can't get on their iPods and MP3 players. That's something they don't hear on the car radio, and it's something they will never experience at a Christian rock concert. It's something that only the Catholic Church can give them, that is, IF their local parish is willing.

The excommunication of LIFETEEN founder Dale Fushek should be an eye opening watershed to most LIFETEEN parishes, and contemporary Catholic parishes in general. Fushek's excommunication had nothing to do with LIFETEEN, directly, but it did have a lot to do with the attitude and mindset of the man who created LIFETEEN. It was an attitude and a mindset that got him into trouble with the law, and ultimately led him to create a "nondenominational worship center" outside of the Catholic Church -- effectively a schismatic act. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying LIFETEEN is schismatic, but I am saying that it was produced by a schismatic mind, and that in itself should be cause for alarm. When you compound this with the obvious problems associated with the current English mass translation (soon to be retired), and a general loss of historic Catholic traditions, you can begin to see the possible dangers. The tragic and saddening event of Dale Fushek's excommunication should be a wake-up call to Catholic parishes all around the nation. Perhaps it's time to look to the pope for new guidance and reconsider the direction of the American Church.

Some Examples of Liturgical Abuse

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Liturgical abuse is when the rubrics of the liturgy are ignored for the purpose of innovation. Such innovations usually serve to suit the fancy of whomever is coordinating the liturgy of the mass. Sometimes it's the priest's doing. Sometimes it's the result of lay involvement in liturgical planning. Whatever the case, liturgical abuse hurts the entire congregation, and the whole Body of Christ, by reducing the solemn occasion of the mass into a "show" (if you will) designed to please the fancy of those in attendance. The following are some pictorial examples of liturgical abuses that have occurred very recently in diocese all around the United States...

A group of three scantily clad women performed a provocative style "liturgical dance" in a recent Franciscan Jubilee Mass for a group of women religious at the cathedral in Joliet, Illinois...

I'm sure they are nice young ladies who didn't mean any harm, but somebody should have had the good sense to put a stop to this before it happened.

So-called "liturgical dance" is nothing new. It's one of those innovations that's seen the rounds in this post-conciliar period. Nothing in Vatican II called for such a thing, and nothing in the rubrics of the ordinary mass (Novus Ordo) allows for it. It's just something people made up - out of thin air - appealing to the vague and undefined "spirit of Vatican II."

Below we see a mass presided over by Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles in 2005. That's him seated in the background. Yes, this is a mass. At least the young ladies are more appropriately dressed for the occasion, but the every fact that they're dancing around the sanctuary is in itself enough liturgical abuse to make most Catholics cringe...


Here we have an example of liturgical dance gone wild in the diocese of Stockton California in May of this year. A full article was written on this event in the New Oxford Review...


In what seems to be a whiff of Paganism, we now see dancing women incense the altar of Holy Name Church in the Los Angeles Archdiocese...


Again, we see a similar act performed by sisters at the Los Angeles cathedral...

Granted, there is nothing wrong with incense, and in fact it's just as Biblical as it is Catholic. However, it should be pointed out that this is accompanied by liturgical dance, which is an innovation that turns the mass into a kind of "show" more for the viewing pleasure of the congregation, rather than the worship of God. None of this is sanctioned by the rubrics of the mass mandated by the Holy See, nor the Code of Canon Law.

Ah, as bad as that is, it doesn't hold a candle to a mass celebrated on Sept. 1 2002 at Christ the King Catholic Church, Pleasant Hill, California....

It's called a "clown mass," and yes this is a real Catholic Church depicted here. Feel free to investigate for yourself. I've never understood the reasoning or rational behind such gross liturgical abuse. It doesn't make any sense to me, and I suppose I would be worried about my sanity if it did. If you think these are rare occurrences, think again. It's going on all over the United States at various times. It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time to see one. (Or maybe I should have said "wrong place at the wrong time.")

'The Catholic Knight' points this out for a reason. I certainly don't want to shock my readers or enrage them. (Though shock and rage might be the expected normal reaction.) Rather, I point this out to bring attention to a serious problem we're facing in the liturgy of the post-conciliar Church. The ordinary mass (Novus Ordo) we currently celebrate, promulgated under the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, has been easily twisted and abused by those who would like to insert their own personal fancies into the worship of the universal Church. Pope Benedict XVI is about to initiate some reforms designed to reign in the "anything goes" mentality of these modern liturgists. The much anticipated Motu Proprio, liberalizing the celebration of the Tridentine (pre-1970) Latin mass, is expected to be the first step in that reform. Let us pray it comes soon, and produces the pope's desired effect.