Posted on 10/05/2005 7:42:02 AM PDT by NYer
You make a very interesting point, and it's something I have noticed, too: the people who really go for the hand-holding and worst liturgical abuses of VatII are mostly elderly or pretty close to it. All of the ladies who want to get on the altar in my parish are so elderly they practically have to be helped up the stairs. But they are quite a solid bloc, and they bitterly oppose any changes.
And they are not notable for their piety. Our priest in High Springs recently started having someone lead the Rosary before the Sunday Masses because he was tired of the roar of conversation in the church before the Mass began (and sometimes during - I have seen people chatting on their cell phones during Mass). Guess what - the old ladies complained about "having" to say the Rosary, and he received all sorts of bitter, spiteful letters and complaints from them.
I think a lot of the more devout people got driven out of the Church in the 1970s by some of the excesses, and many of the people who remained were the ones who were fine with whatever went down, not very bright or religiously well-educated, for the most part, and finally ended up driving everyone else away. Those are the ones who, when Father is revealed to be gay because he has been caught soliciting in a public men's room, say, "oh, but he's such a nice young man, and we support him 100%, and the Vatican is just being mean about this whole thing."
Sadly, they have a lot of power in parishes, partly because of the proliferation of "lay ministries" and committees, and they will fight any reforms tooth and nail.
Papist schadenfreude! LOL
I can just about guarantee that your specimen was a 20 or 30 something "young radical" back then ... these are the authors of the revolution, now in their dotage. OF COURSE they're vehemently opposed to change. The change in question is invariably a reversal of the radicalism to which they dedicated their lives. You're aksing them to publicly admit that their lifes' work, far from being a good legacy, was an unmitigated disaster.
It may well be the truth, but it's a tough pill to swallow.
BTW, check the bumpers of their cars for "Kerry" stickers ...
You quite correctly tie the liturgical progressives to the Demoncrats. Oh there's a few yello-dog Demoncrats from Dioceses in Northern Virginia and Nebraska who attest to their conservatism, like Zell Miller, they are fun to listen to but the Novus Ordo is right up Democrat alley.
I no longer buy the argument that the constant evolution, arm-waving, clapping, 1970s mood music is some sort of liturgical anomaly. It is coded right into Sancrosanctam Conciliam which constantly defers to local Bishops as part of "inculturation." Thomas Woods has a geat article in the current issue of Latin Mass Magazine that dispels the idea that the Novus Ordo has mistakenly wandered off course.. it is, in fact, exactly on course.
The Neo-Catholic argument that the Novus Ordo Mass can be "reformed" as it has strayed off course is just like the communists I met in my youth who, when confronted with facts from Russia and East Europe, always appealed that Bolsheviks merely strayed from Marx, Lenin, and/or Trotsky.
I say No. Bishops are not stupid. What you see is what you get. It all backed up magnificently by Sacrosanctum Conciliam. This explains the vacillation of the Pope and equivocations uttered by Cardinal Arinze. Their hands are utterly tied.
The Latin Mass is a great magazine. I'm a subscriber.
Thomas Woods is welcome to his opinions. Opinions are like ....
His opinions are at odds with my observations. Who am I supposed to believe? Thos. Woods, or my lyin' eyes?
There aren't bumper stickers on their cars. It would too seriously effect the resale value. I don't know if even liberals would buy a used Mercedes with a Kerry sticker on it.
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