Posted on 03/06/2006 9:22:29 AM PST by NYer
Wow ... this even tops Mahony's show stoppers.
Oh for goodness sake, that looks a flat loaf of Italian bread! I'm shaking my head because you are right, I thought I had seen it all......unbelievable!
Who is going to tell them "no"? The Archbishop approves.
Sliced open, slathered with garlic butter, pop under the broiler for a minute or two and .... yum!
Introducing Sacrament-Vision! See the Holy Spirit descend and through the miracle of Transubstantiation© watch the constituent elements transform into the very Body and Blood of Christ! Watch adults being baptized and see all their sins washed away right before your eyes. Watch people coming out of the confessional with their professed and repented of sins vanished through one of the greatest sacramental special effects of forgiveness of sin.
How about the Bible?
Brutal. Just brutal.
This is just another fever-ridden hallucination from gravely ill Catholic-Europe.
What a stark contrast to the article you posted on Italian youth causing a surge in religious candidates.
Ah, one of those boom-shakalaka-boom-shakalaka messes....er....."masses"......er.......I mean...........well......oh, heck with it, GAG me with a spoon! Bartender, a bottle of Pepto over here with a Tanqueray chaser! You wouldn't believe what the latest fad is......a disco-shake-your-booty-"mass" complete with 3-D glasses!
yikes!
reminds me of the clown service put on by the episcopalian church in NY.
I'm frightened.
It is truly a shame when Christianity has been allowed to slip so far out of the mainstream that the bishops feel it necessary to go to this extreme measure in order to evangelize the youth of their society. However, when as high a percentage of the population has become completely secularized as has happened in much of Europe, extreme measures may be necessary.
I don't approve of a lot of the compromises made by the Austrian bishops, but anybody who's lived in Europe in the past 10-20 years can attest to how irrelevant the Church has become (and this applies not only to the Church, but also the Evangelical groups, as well) -- and some serious evangelical work is needed if the Church is to survive. In fact, other than the now blue-haired old ladies who remember the good old days prior to the war, the churches are virtually empty...except in the smallest little towns (at least that is the way it was 7 years ago -- the last time I set foot on Austrian soil. Austria's almost to the point of being a missionary country again.
I don't blame the current crop of bishops as much as those who preceded them. Those who allowed the Church to become irrelevant in the lives of the Austrian people.
Again, this is not an excusal of the heterodoxy being taught, but if they can use novel techniques in a missionary effort to reach the youth with a strictly orthodox message, I'd have to say more power to them. I know centuries ago when I was in college, that "youth-kirche" concept would have been VERY appealing to me. And they could just as easily present an orthodox message in a method understandable by the natives of this mission country as they could a heterodox message.
Sorry, I know that this is not FR PC, but for Europe's sake, the kids need to get back into church -- if this helps make that happen then that's a good thing.
Somehow I don't think they've consulted the Bible, though they will have to account for their actions eventually.
If you put a couple of scantily clad dancers in aerial cages suspended behind the altar and let off pyrotechnics at the consecration, you'd probably have people queueing around the block........but so what??
The fundamental question to be asked of any gimmick which is added to the Mass is; does it draw us closer into the fundamental mystery of the Holy Sacrifice??
Or does it distract us and detract from it so that when the original novelty has worn off, we lose interest and go looking for the next "buzz" or "high"?
Forty years of this silliness tells us that the answer is resoundingly the latter.
(a) Serious question: Don't Eastern Rite churches allow zyme, rather than azyme, bread? Or is that just the Orthodox who do that?
and
(b) How much ya wanna bet, the original loaf at the Last Supper (which was azyme, of course), looked a lot more like that, than the flat white quarter-sized wafers of today?
that ain't right.
I'll bet they don't allow this sort of nonsense in the mosques.
The Muslims are deadly serious about their worship, and about a lot of other things.
I frankly don't think they would either. Having said that, I also don't think the Muslims are having much luck recruiting the heathens in Europe either, except through marriage. I think they are trying to conquer via birth rates and immigration.
First off, the above service was offered in a Latin Rite Church (if you can call that a church) and must follow the regulations set forth in the GIRM (General Instructions of the Roman Missal), which read as follows:
Note that this article deals with only the Western Latin Rite Church. There are different rules for Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, such as Byzantine Catholic. For the Western Latin Rite Catholic Church, valid matter consists of wheat unleavened bread and grape wine.
Canon 924 ß1 The most holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist must be celebrated in bread, and in wine to which a small quantity of water is to be added. ß2 The bread must be wheaten only, and recently made, so that there is no danger of corruption. ß3 The wine must be natural, made from grapes of the vine, and not corrupt.
Canon 926 In the Eucharistic celebration, in accordance with the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, the priest is to use unleavened bread wherever he celebrates Mass.
GIRM 282. According to the tradition of the entire Church, the bread must be made from wheat; according to the tradition of the Latin Church, it must be unleavened.
GIRM 283. The nature of the sign demands that the material for the eucharistic celebration truly have the appearance of food. Accordingly, even though unleavened and baked in the traditional shape, the eucharistic bread should be made in such a way that in a Mass with a congregation the priest is able actually to break the host into parts and distribute them to at least some of the faithful. (When, however, the number of communicants is large or other pastoral needs require it, small hosts are in no way ruled out.) The action of the breaking of the bread, the simple term for the Eucharist in apostolic times, will more clearly bring out the force and meaning of the sign of the unity of all in the one bread and of their charity, since the one bread is being distributed among the members of one family.
GIRM 284. The wine for the Eucharist must be from the fruit of the vine (see Lk 22:18), natural, and pure, that is not mixed with any foreign substance.
GIRM 285. Care must be taken to ensure that the elements are kept in good condition: that the wine does not turn to vinegar or the bread spoil or become too hard to be broken easily.
Any other matter of Altar breads, especially forms becoming more popular with dissenters such as cakes or cookies, invalidates transubstantiation. St. Thomas Aquinas also covers this requirement in Summa Theologica (Third Part, Question 74, Articles 1 through 8). There are rare exceptions where Bishops may grant individual priests with allergies or alcohol problems the right to use low-gluten altar breads or mustem (a specific form of grape juice with fermentation suspended). It is gravely sinful for a priest to celebrate Mass knowing the matter is invalid.
As for the Eastern Catholic Churches, I can only speak on behalf of the Maronite Church which follows the same norms of the Latin Rite.
I have pinged a Latin Rite catholic practicing his faith in a Byzantine (Eastern) Church and a Greek Orthodox forum member. Hopefully, they can provide answers to your question.
Agreed that it is important to bring youth back to Christ. However, the above scenario is an outrageous approach based on devices that attract youth. This year strobe lights and smog machines; next year? The youth will expect the organizer to be "up" on current trends.
Contrast this with the youth that showed up for World Youth Day, where they were fed authentic liturgy.
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