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[Catholic Caucus] Liturgical Abuses: Francis Needs to StopFather Gerald Murray has discussed Francis’ liturgical abuses during a March 12 Eucharist in the Church of the Gesù in Rome on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the canonisations of Ignatius Loyola, presided by Father Arturo Sosa, the Jesuits’ Superior General.Number 1: Sosa presided while Francis co-presided the Eucharist although the liturgy does not permit a bishop to co-preside a Eucharist with a presiding priest. Murray explains that this flows from the nature of the episcopal office. The bishop is the high priest in his diocese. His priests are co-workers who...

Due to several requests we have received since the Catholic Liturgical Library went down about the practice of removing holy water from fonts during Lent, I am reposting the official answer here. The Library should be back up tomorrow. Can the holy water be removed from fonts during Lent? No. Here is a letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship responding to this question on 3/14/03: Prot. N. 569/00/L Dear Father: This Congregation for Divine Worship has received your letter sent by fax in which you ask whether it is in accord with liturgical law to remove the Holy Water...

Guido Marini - new Bishop of Tortona As anticipated by Messa in Latino yesterday, Msgr. Guido Marini's appointment as Bishop of Tortona was included today, August 29, in the Vatican Bollettino. The same announcement was made at the Santuario della Madonna della Guardia by the Archbishop of Genoa, Marco Tasca OFMConv. Msgr. Marini was present and Tasca placed the purple zucchetto on the new Bishop-elect right after. It now feels like a distant era, but Marini's appointment as Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies in October 2007 had ushered in a time of renewed beauty in the papal liturgies of...

QUAERITUR: I have observed several Priests of my acquaintance celebrating Mass in various private residences for different occasions, the latest of which was Mother’s Day (the strangest being Christmas Midnight Mass). Most if not all of these private Masses have taken place in non-consecrated space, i.e. in normal living rooms. Are Priests allowed to do this for their families and friends, particularly when there is a church available (though perhaps not with the same measure of “privacy”)? Canon 932 stipulates that Holy Mass should be offered in a sacred place, “unless in a particular case necessity requires otherwise, in such a case the celebration must be done in a decent...

Cardinal Raymond L. Burke leaves the concluding session of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican Oct. 18, 2014. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Matthew James Christoff of the New Emangelization Project has just posted an outstanding interview with Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke that focuses on a number of interrelated issues: the state of men in the Church, the "man crisis", evangelization, marriage, the Mass, and the sacrament of Confession. Here are a few excerpts: On the role played by radical feminism in undermining a needed focus on men: Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke:  I think there has...

This sacrilege is being presided over by the Cathedral Rector, Father Faber, who has presided over other horrors, like the funeral of Communist-Homosexual Sculptor, Alfred Hrdlicka and here. Sitting around on beer tables complete with ashtrays, they cheerfully sang "We Are The Word" by Michael Jackson as a Communion Hymn.

"It's okay to have butterflies," Jay Paluch often tells youngsters in the contemporary music group at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Latham. "You just need to tell them to fly in order."That advice comes in particularly handy during the summer, when Mass-goers at the parish's 9 a.m. celebration are treated to the musical talents of young parishioners.They play short, lyrical pieces on a number of instruments during the meditation after Communion. About a dozen children participate each summer, said Mr. Paluch, the contemporary music group leader.Filling inDuring the school year, the parish's choir sings a communion meditation hymn;...

Published: March 15, 2007 Bongos, Dancers, and Father-Mother GodRichard Rohr’s Mass at the Los Angeles Religious Education CongressAt the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress on Saturday evening, March 3, Franciscan Father Richard Rohr celebrated a “general liturgy” in a ballroom at the Anaheim Convention Center. Father Rohr is a founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico and a Congress presenter. The processional hymn was “Christ Be Our Light,” accompanied by bongo drums. Liturgical dancers carried large, flowing banners down each of the aisles in the ballroom. Reaching the front of the ballroom, the dancers stood...

You can also see the above video here: Included: Teen from the band gives Homily at Catholic Mass This video of several Masses on different occasions includes Bishop Tod Brown altering the words of the Mass, a lay youth minister giving a reflection as part of the homily, a strange reflection on beauty by a visiting priest, parishioners entering the sanctuary around the altar during the Liturgy of the Eucharist (and remaining in a standing position throughout the consecration), the routine alteration of the words of the Agnus Dei through song, Bishop Brown in the sanctuary with a costumed...

Fellow Catholics, I'm looking for your insight. I've been attending a new parish up nearby this woman I just started dating. From my brief experience there, I can already tell this is a rather liberal parish which may or may not be doing some illicit things during its Mass. I'm not an absolute expert, so I'd love to hear some opinions and discussion on some of the questionable things I saw at Mass last week: - In lieu of the homily, the priest performed a brief marriage ceremony. - The marriage ceremony consisted solely of the vows and blessing and...

ROCHESTER, NY - Did Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester, NY prohibit lay preaching at Sunday Masses in his diocese? According to several reports, at two mandatory - and highly secret - meetings for “all homilists” in the Diocese of Rochester, on January 4 and 5, Bishop Matthew H. Clark allegedly informed lay preachers whom he had previously authorized to preach at Sunday Masses, that the illicit practice must stop. But the practice did not stop, and probably will not, since lay preachers preached at least at two Masses on January 8 at St. John of Rochester and St. Patrick’s...

I went to Mass at the parish I occasionally attend yesterday. The Church itself is no great shakes. Not heterodox, but very namby-pamby. So, after the Gospels were read, some women made her way up to the pulpit and to my shock, gave a homily. She was a Maryknoll missionary sister, and in addition to the Homily, was making the case for donations and service to the mission of the Maryknolls. I can only imagine this is a rather serious form of liturgical abuse. Interestingly, the pastor in one past homily spoke briefly about Buddhism to make some point or...

On 21 May 2005, I attended the bacculareate Mass at Villanova University in southeastern Pennsylvania. My sister was graduating from this school, which was founded by Augustinian priests in the mid-19th century. The Mass took place in the early evening at the university's stadium, and other than a brief shower, the liturgy started well. A choir sang Palestrina's Tu es Petrus prior to the beginning of the Mass. I was delighted to hear that particular piece of music. However, I should have a heeded a warning of sorts that was right in front of my eyes. There was a table...

ROME - As throngs of pilgrims converged on St. Peter's Square this Holy Week, a smaller number sought out a chapel in the city's center for a service very different from the pomp and ceremony of the Vatican. Inside the 17th century Oratory of St. Francis Xavier, at Via Caravita 7, American Jesuit priests conduct Masses that seem straight out of the Vatican II era of reforms.

"It's perfectly fitting, then, that those who find God boring replace the Roman Ritual -- as far as possible -- with the kind of floor show you see above (That's the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles under the second E of EEK -- at the youth mass for the recent Religious Ed Congress). Face it, when you need an electric bass and dancing cheerleaders to keep your audience from fidgeting or drifting away, you're admitting the Main Act is a flop from the get-go."

The Evil of Liturgical Abuse by Msgr. Vincent Foy "The liturgy has its laws which must be respected. " Pope John Paul II, March 8, 1997. A liturgical crisis has been brewing for a long time. Back in 1973, Archbishop Robert Dwyer of Portland Oregon, wrote: "Sincere Christian men and women in their thousands and millions are reacting against the impoverishment and degradation of the liturgy, as they are reacting against so many displays of enfeebled or uncertain leadership." (Catholic Priests' Association Bulletin [England]. Vol. I and II, 1973, p.42). Since then, the crisis has deepened. Abuses are pandemic. The...

You thought it was bad when overweight, middle-aged nuns in leotards gyrated through the church doing liturgical dance. But are you ready for the celebrant doing his imitation of the whirling Dervishes carrying the Book of the Gospels to the ambo? Someone put some lead weights in Father's shoes. This was part of a church architecture firm's paean to all that is new and modern. Read the language in the description of the "wreck-ovation": The original design's focus "was on the the Tabernacle and the holy places were protected from the people by the Communion railing." It makes it sound...

This is a research project which began on another thread. Those of us contributing to the thread believed the information being gathered might be useful to other Freepers and Lurkers and thus ought to be a research thread to facilitate the collection of observations and research and to solicit contributions from other posters, whether from the Religion forum or the General forum’s science threads. More specifically, we are gathering information which we Freepers have observed in nature that declares that God is or that shows His handiwork. The scope includes observations in Scripture which point to God as its...

Cardinal Lercaro's letter did nothing to halt the spread of "arbitrary initiatives." Rome adopted the tactic of bringing illicit innovations to an end by making them licit and official. Communion was given in the hand illicitly-----let it be given in the hand officially! Communion was illicitly distributed by laymen-----then appoint laymen as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Those who considered that the essence of the Mass lies in its being a common meal began (not without logic) to receive Communion at more than one Mass on the same day-----then let this be permitted in many circumstances. Priests began illicitly using...

(Reprinted with permission from NEW OXFORD REVIEW, 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706, U.S.A.) Part I herePart II herePart III here Liturgical Abuse Faithful Catholics are rightly put off by the spectacle of priests and bishops breaking even the Church's much-relaxed liturgical norms, turning the Mass into a veritable showcase of liturgical abuse. All faithful Catholics are rightly repulsed by prelates dressed in rainbow-colored vestments, liturgies featuring dancing girls in defiance of a 1976 Vatican ruling, clergy sitting by while lay "ministers" distribute Holy Communion, and various pagan rituals incorporated into the Mass. And yet, sad as it may be,...