http://credo.stormloader.com/Liturgy/liturgy5.htm

I realize that they are talking about the Roman Rite, but if the shoe fits......

Alexandr


THE DEGRADATION OF CATHOLIC WORSHIP:
BAD LITURGY: AN OBSTACLE TO ECUMENISM
By JAMES LIKOUDIS


- Part V -
In our last issue (Sep./Oct. 1997) note was taken of the Pope's comments on the beauty and splendor of authentic Catholic Liturgy as well as a recent "Instruction on Liturgy" by the Congregation for Eastern Churches applicable to the Eastern rites of the Church. Emphasis in the latter document was placed on retaining cherished liturgical traditions that add to the solemnity and devotional aspects of liturgical celebration. For example, we read:

"The sanctuary is separated from the nave by a veil, gate, or iconostasis, because it is the most sacred place; it contains the altar on which the Divine Liturgy is celebrated and the Oblation is offered. Only those who are entrusted with the sacred ministry can enter the sanctuary to complete the sacred acts" (n. 104)

"The Eastern churches are to jealously maintain practice as much as possible the use of incense in the celebration, even daily, because it belongs in a special way to their own tradition. Every custom to the contrary is to be modified" (n. 101)

"Giving to the people parts which are specifically the competencies of the holy ministries is to be avoided" (n. 33)

"(St. John of Damascus) ... explains the reason (an unwritten tradition, deriving from the Apostles) for which the celebrant who presides in the liturgical celebration prays facing the east, just as the people who participate. It is not a question, as is often claimed of presiding the celebration with the back turned to the people, but rather of guiding the people in pilgrimage toward the Kingdom, invoked in prayer until the return of the Lord. Such practice, threatened in numerous Eastern Catholic Churches by a new and recent Latin influence, is thus of profound value and should be safeguarded" (n. 107)

"Reserving the distribution of the Eucharist normally to the priest has the scope of manifesting its highest sacredness... The faculty of distributing the Eucharist by those other than the Bishop, or the presbyter, or the deacon... is to be exercised only in the case of true emergency" (n. 58)
Latin rite (or is it now American rite?) Catholics have much to learn from their Eastern rite brethren concerning the maintenance of cherished liturgical traditions and customs. There can be no question that poor, irreverent and abusive liturgical celebration degrades the "Mystery of the Mass" and that the existing liturgical malaise in Western Catholicism is one of the most important problems facing bishops and priests.

As an editorial in the New Oxford Review (July-August 1997) observed:

"About 30 years have now passed since the liturgical reforms were implemented, and it's time for a frank evaluation. Just before the liturgical experiments were launched, 70% of Catholics attended Mass, whereas today only 25% do. There are various reasons for this, but a major one is the way the liturgical reforms have been carried out in so many parishes. Millions of Catholics have voted with their feet – either losing interest in Christ altogether or jumping ship for a splinter group, a non-Catholic church, or even some cult. And, increasingly, stalwart Catholics fed up with liturgical desecration are seeking refuge in Eastern rite Catholic parishes. ...Archbishop Weakland is right that the liturgical renewal is 'in disarray'. But instead of blaming the Pope and the still hard-to-find Tridentine masses out there, he ought to adjust his angle of vision and ponder what liturgical 'renewal' has wrought: massive defections from the Church and massive disbelief in the Real Presence".
The impact of liturgical disorientation and desecration on ecumenical relations with the Eastern Orthodox I noted briefly in an article in the Canadian CHALLENGE periodical (February 1995), and perhaps such words are worth repeating here:

"Liturgical abuses and disorders presently marring the life of the Catholic Church in the West must be ended. These seriously offend the liturgical sensibilities of Eastern Orthodox peoples who reverence solemn liturgical celebration. They are repelled at the thought of entering into unity with 'modernized Roman Catholics whose liturgies have become mere popular entertainment, and not very tasteful at that.' To quote the same Eastern Orthodox writer (a former Protestant, incidentally):
"I abhor the guitar-strumming, tambourine-banging, piano-thumping, the passing-out balloons and mediocre popular inspirational music of the kind with which modern Roman Catholics have polluted their sadly reduced liturgies in imitation of the worst of the worst of American pop-culture."
A serious ecumenism cannot ignore the negative assessments of contemporary Catholic Liturgy by Eastern Orthodox observers who find repugnant liturgical abuses that go uncorrected (despite such efforts as the Vatican documents Dominicae Cenae and Inaestimabile Donum issued in 1980). The loss of sacred music, the feminization of the Liturgy, the illicit use of "inclusive language", the spectacle of the priest-entertainer telling jokes and desperately striving for eye-contact with his "audience", and the mayhem resulting from a protracted "kiss of peace" — are but a few of the distractions characterizing desacralized liturgy. A recent editorial in the Providence, Rhode Island, diocesan paper correctly observed:

"How the Eucharist is celebrated has become the personal preserve of the priest and his 'liturgical style'. A priest, however, is ordained to celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments as the Church has handed them down. That means the priest's style must be the Church's style... The days of saying "This is the way we do it in our parish'... should be long gone". (8/14/97)
One can well wonder if our liturgists and those in Offices of Worship understand the trauma and suffering they have caused our Catholic people. Do they understand how many millions they have alienated from the Church? Do they understand the barriers they have placed to impede genuine ecumenism, especially with our separated Eastern brethren?

It would be useful for interested readers to write their Office of Worship and find out.

Alexandr:

How about one of the other articles? This one ought to give pause to those who now face the same things in their own sui juris Church.

BOB

http://credo.stormloader.com/Liturgy/liturgy3.htm

THE DEGRADATION OF CATHOLIC WORSHIP:
EASTERN-RITE CATHOLICS ALSO SPEAK OUT
HOW OUR EASTERN BRETHREN SEE US
By JAMES LIKOUDIS


- Part III -
It is interesting to observe that Eastern rite Catholics have not been hesitant in commenting on the unparalleled liturgical decadence that was to strike North America in the post-conciliar period. They were aghast at the Guitar Masses, Folk Masses, Jazz Masses, Rock Masses, Polka Masses, Clown Masses, Charismatic Masses, strange "Healing Masses" and "Liturgies for gay and lesbian Catholics" that were to proliferate, to the consternation of those laity who in turn were declared guilty of "legalism" and "rubricism" and adhering to "outmoded traditions" by ersatz liturgists. "The liturgical life in our Byzantine rite need not sink to this level," wrote Msgr. Thomas Dolinay (who later became a Byzantine-Ruthenian rite Bishop, now deceased):

"the Divine liturgy is that sacred hour in the weekly lives of our faithful that should not be turned into novelty that may tickle youthful fancy. Adolescence is after all, just a passing phase."
Writing in the '70's, Msgr. Dolinay was perhaps not aware that those pastors and priests and musicians who were determined to defend their radical innovations into Catholic liturgical life would become fixed in their own adolescent phase, from which some have yet to recover. Such would show no pity or mercy or heralded "sensitivity" for such Latin-rite Catholics as the writer who lamented:

"I have a hard time feeling, when I come away from Mass, that I have been with Christ. There is no kneeling at the altar rail, for there is no altar rail. We just march up, two by two, like the animals going into the Ark. ...The statues that once lifted up the thoughts of people like me to the Holy Mother of God, the Apostles, the Saints are gone. The candles, consuming themselves in giving the light and warmth symbolic of love, are going. The incense, to whose fragrance I hoped my love for God compared, is on its way out. Holy water is for the superstitious, and very scarce.
What a pity! And what a gross insult to human nature! Everything is so stark, so bereft of the things of the senses, in a hideous attempt to intellectualize and 'modernize the liturgy.' God created our senses that we might enjoy and take in all beauty, and have our thoughts lifted by it to Him. Priests now slink around apologetically, doubting their masculinity or trying to prove it with an essay on the 'theology of the Orgasm.' Once you could get a firm guideline from a priest; now you get something wishy-washy called 'non-directional counselling.' Non-directional is right.
The Church of love, poor in spirit, rich in the wisdom of human life, overflowing with common sense, is now hell-bent on becoming the Church of the Absurd, the Church of youth from Twelve to Twenty, the Church of the Intellectual, the Church of Gimmicks, the Church of Fools."

("U.S. Catholic", September 1967)
This bitter recrimination by an American Catholic written, it should be noted, in 1967, has proved prophetic. The pews soon became empty of the "Church of youth from Twelve to Twenty" as doctrinal confusion generated by the "Intellectuals" and liturgical novelties were to alienate large numbers of young people from the Church. Let us not forget that Contraception was also to take effect in emptying cradles of future priestly and religious vocations. It was, Msgr. Dolinay noted, the "height of folly" to pander to the guitar generation by incorporating a casual, relaxed, informal, psychedelic and gimmicky style of worship into the sacred space of Catholic Churches. The price paid for rampant liturgical permissiveness is perhaps best seen in the latest statistics on Mass attendance showing that regular Mass attendance among Catholics has slumped to 30%. There are other reasons, of course, for the comtemporary decay of Catholic life about us, but Msgr. Dolinay was right on target when he observed the key role of liturgical permissiveness in alienating people from the Church:

"We have a full-blown liturgical scandal on our hands. The sad truth is that many people are staying away from the Church because they are scandalized by the likes of Polka Masses, nuns dancing free style before the altar and everyone using 'home brew' versions of liturgical rites. The price that will eventually be paid for this venture into the absurd will be high."
He spoke words of wisdom to his own people that have yet to penetrate the iron Curtain of the 'Americanist Liturgical Bureaucracy' looking forward to more "liturgical revolution" in our parishes in a desperate effort to win over "Generation X":

"For Catholics of the Byzantine rite, it might be well to consider that too often changes for the sake of change are not necessarily the high road to success in attracting the average Catholic into his Church... Unfortunately, the Roman hierarchy in this country rushed helter-skelter into a 'reformation' that too often lacks rhyme or reason. Catholics of the Byzantine rite should not fall into the same trap of 'progress.' Thanks be to God we have not done what the Romans did by introducing many Protestant and Negro Spiritual Hymns that express absolutely no theological meaning... Some very unmusical people have had a field day.

... We have gone to any number of Roman rite ceremonies where the inevitable Sister with a guitar strung over her shoulder appears on the scene. If this is the liberated Sister 'making her mark,' the Church is in serious trouble. We've heard some very unsaturated high-nasal dribble on occasions. What happened to the demure, prayerful Sister who did such an excellent job in the class-room? This is just another manifestation of everyone suddenly a liturgical music expert, composing new verses as they go along. What audacity to destroy the beautiful and solemn Roman chant composed by the musical geniuses of the centuries! For those of us in the Byzantine rite it ought to be an object lesson of not allowing a few adolescents to make unwarranted changes on the premise that youth will be attracted into our Churches."

(Dolinay writing in eastern Catholic Life, 1975-1976).
Writing in the 1970s, Msgr. Dolinay could not foresee other disturbing tendencies to follow:

The secularizing architectural "renovation" of churches;
the disruptive attempts by radical feminists to impose mindless "inclusive language" on liturgical and scriptural readings;
and the increasing feminization of the Mass itself with women dominating the sanctuary.
In a book dealing with Roman Catholic Renewal, a Byzantine Catholic layman has joined other critics who blame ICEL for the present banal translation of the Roman Mass into English:

"A characteristic of rudeness found in the ICEL texts is their systematic elimination of all reverential beseeching, imploring, entreating or appealing to God, as well as all indications of divine condescension. Such feudalistic kow-towing before God was obviously offensive to democratic American sentiments! Such expressions are therefore either omitted or replaced by asking, so that an abrupt and business-like request addressed to God sounds more like office memos than prayers to the Almighty... The flat culture in which we live, without savour, plagued by jargon, is reflected in ICEL's translations."

(Dr. Ernest Skublics)

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Reprinted from SERVIAM newsletter, December 1995

Is the Msgr. Dolinay quoted in the article the same who became Metropolitan?

Although not agreeing with all he did as bishop, nor his own clinging to Latinizations, I must say that he made a good observation about how the Roman Liturgical experience in the US was seriously deteriorating. I also agree with his warning: "For Catholics of the Byzantine rite, it might be well to consider that too often changes for the sake of change are not necessarily the high road to success in attracting the average Catholic into his Church...For those of us in the Byzantine rite it ought to be an object lesson of not allowing a few adolescents to make unwarranted changes on the premise that youth will be attracted into our Churches."

This is the same Thomas Dolinay who eventually became Metropolitan of Pittsburgh and whose death caused some interesting comments regarding pious beliefs and the Calendar question.

Fr/Msg/Bishop/Metropolitan Thomas was no supporter of the Ruthenian Recension and would be quite startled to find himself quoted as any sort of critic of latinization. I well remember several of his articles in the Byzantine-Ruthenian press - one was an attack on the Icon-screen and an insistent defence of devotions to the Sacred Heart; another was an attack on the Paschal Vigil.

He was also noted for remarking - in the same breath - that the US Ruthenian Church was not at all ethnic, but would remain steadfast in its adherence to the tradtions of Uzhhorod as interpreted by himself.

Come to think of it, I never mentioned him in my book.

Fr. Serge

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: PRAVOSLAV!!! PRAVOSLAV!!!

All compliments gratefully accepted!

Fr. Serge