Agony In Albany - Extract 3 - Breakdown of the Liturgy

A layman told of a priest who addressed his congregation before Mass started, saying, “How many people believe that what we’re going to do today will bring God out of Heaven?” There was a show of hands, and the priest replied, “Well, it’s not going to happen.”

“After that incident, people stopped toing to Masses that priest was scheduled to celebrate and when the parish stopped printing the times of the Masses he would celebrate, people called up because they didn’t want to go to his Masses. When the parish wouldn’t give out that information, people just stopped going to Mass,”, siad the layman.

“I told a Cardinal in Rome about this incident,” the layman continued, “and he just sat there with an expression of unbelievable horror on his face. “How can he say Mass?” the Cardinal asked. “I said, ‘It’s simple. His whole reason for being a priest is to destroy faith’.” The layman asked that his name be withheld, saying the “Bishop would destroy me>”

The use of invalid altar breads has been a problem in the Diocese of Albany since the Installation Mass of Bishop Hubbard in 1977; that Mass used invalid altar breads. That fact caused such an uproar in the diocese that the scandal even broke into the secular newspapers and was debated in letter to the editor for some time after.

The bread at the Installation Mass contained, in addition to wheat flour and water, honey and baking soda, as admitted by a now deceased staff member of the Diocese Office of Religious Education. Her defense in a secular newspaper of the recipe utilized left many believing that it was the “unofficial” reply of the diocese.

Two months after the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship published Inaestimabile Donum (April 1980), which described unnecessary outdoor celebrations of the Eucharist as a serious abuse, Bishop Hubbard celebrated a Polka Mass on the Fonda Fair Grounds for Amsterdam’s Annual Polka Fest ‘80.

The noon mass at the fairgrounds was celebrated barely 500 feet from St. Cecilia’s Church, in the open sided shed of a picnic grove, with the congregation sitting at picnic tables.

There have been ecumenical services where Protestants and Catholics receive Communion, services which are advertised as “a valid mass for Catholics while retaining th emeaning of Holy Communion for participating Protestants.” There have been Masses concelebrated with protestant ministers who receive Communion with the priest.

“The radicals think they have a mandate to do whatever they want, “said one priest, “and you can’t tell me this isn’t allowed to destroy the Church.” In his view, Bishop Hubbard’s support for women priests stems from a drive to humiliate his priests.

The priest told of “an event held in the cathedral where the Bishop was in the sanctuary, completely surrounded by women who helped him ‘concelebrate Mass,’ and then distributed Communion. Packing the first four pews were diocesan priests, reduced to spectators.”

In 1976, the Diocese of Albany began an effort to bring altar girls into every parish. Fr. Richard Vosko, then director of the Diocesan Liturgy Center (now a priest that operates his own architecture firm), told the Times Union that, while altar girls were a problem in some areas of the US, “it’s not a real issue with us” in the Albany Diocese. In 1976, he also said that the American Bishops had petitiioned Rome to allow them to use altar girls.

In 1978, women were being trained as acolytes as a preliminary to Confirmation in the Albny Diocese. The liturgical norm that women may not serve at the altar was interpreted by Fr. Cotugno as meaning “women may not wash the hands of the priest.”

In 1980, Inaestimabile Donum stated that girls may not perform the roles of altar boys, and may not be candle bearers, cross bearers, incense bearers and the like.

In 1989, the Albany Diocese stated that the issue of altar girls is still being studied by the Vatican, but that parishes that employ altr girls have the Albany Dioicese’s blessing. Chancellor Fr. F explained: “The question of whether girls officially can be altar servers is still under study by the Vatican. And so the debate goes on. Yes you can, because the Vatican hasn’t said no, or no you can’t, because the Vatican hasn’t said yes. And it depends on which side of the question you want to come down on.”

In 1991, Chancellor Fr. P, attempting to deflect criticism that Bishop Hubbard wasn’t loyal to Rome on the specific issue of altar girls, replied that the local Bishop has the right to decide whether girls may be altar servers. “In his push for the ordination of women, the feminization of the liturgy was a primary goal,” a layman said, “and that’s why altar girls are so important.”

In May 1987 Capital Region magazine published an article “The Boy Bishop Comes of Age” by Jeremy Bloom, marking the 10th anniversary of the Bishop’s installation. One of the bishop’s favored priests was introduced and quoted by Bloom:

“Hogan, who has known Bishop Hubbard since their days together at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie on LI, articulates a theme with which Hubbard and most of the American Bishops would probably agree. ‘I’m very loyal and affectionate toward the Pope,’ he says. ‘I’m not terribly loyal to the Vatican State and its bureaucracy. That has very little to do with the dying and rising of Jesus, the Eucharist, and love; it has to do with power, and like all bureaucracies, it tends toward evil’.” That view, say catholics in Albany, epitomizes the chancery view of Roman liturgical directives.

"I work at my kids' Catholic school, and there's another gal there who told me that at her parish in the Diocese of Rockville Centre (Long Island) the priests never wear their clerical garb outside of Mass (and only wear stoles during Mass, which normally takes place in the school gymnasium)and that the parishoners must give themselves ashes on Ash Wednesday.

I found this hard to believe, so I went to that church's website and sure enough...the website confirmed an unmistakable New Ageism that is so prevalent in many parishes. The priests do not wear proper clerical garb, and they seem quite proud of the "self-service" type of Catholicism they so zealously promote.

And they wonder why folks like me struggle to stay in communion with the offical Church... "

Here "deacon" is my answer. If this is "nasty" it is not my work, it is YOUR liberal version of the Church.

I hear ya. I am fortunate to be in a Novus Ordo parish with a good, young orthodox priest, and have access to an indult Mass with a good, older cassock-wearing priest.

If I were in a place like Albany, I don't know what I'd do.

I can only pray for those in situations like that.

You are still one of my heroes, narses, because you fulfilled your obligation to protect your family. God sees, knows, understands, and blesses. I have this on good authority of the holiest Carmelite priest I have ever known.

And you, dearest NYer, you are a sainted soul among us, dear to me in my prayers. Since news of Fr. Minkler's death I have asked the intercession of many saints on your behalf, and I have also asked my Da to pray for you and for an unmasking of the evil in Albany with Bishop Hubbard (and also with Bishop Clark).

Girls should be encouraged to join CHOIRS

It so happens that the legislation which allowed women to join choirs is the SAME legislation which allowed women to become altar servers.

"Other ministries" is the phrase.

I agree, by the way, that this has had a negative effect on the number of altar boys.

On the other hand, how many parents REALLY push their boys to become altar boys?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.