Just got this email via the inTARnet:
At our annual "Haitian" mass in support of our sister parishes in Haiti we have dancers from a local parish with a Haitian priest and many
Haitian members (really, all they do is sway on their way up to the altar to present the gifts), and everyone I've talked to swears that dancing
is part and parcel of all kinds of communal celebrations in Haiti. Not only do I not identify dancing with the sacred, I most definitely
consider it to be part of the decidedly secular, if not outright profane. In fact, I consider dancing to be integrally related to courtship and
coupling, which is not the direction I want my mind to be wandering in during the Eucharistic celebration. So the dancing drives me crazy. I
won't look at it. But I do acknowledge that in other cultures (perhaps African based) dancing might serve a more ritual and communal purpose.By the way, the Haitian priest delivers homilies that are orthodox, profound and inspiring, in the midst of the kind of music that would drive
the average blogger up the tree (never mind the dance). And I am assured that confession is very organized in our sister parishes, where the
priests every so often (like monthly) set up a chair at the end of mass and everyone stops by on the way out the door. So they may not be up to
our standards liturgically, but they run a tight ship. Our quest for perfection is depressing and regrettable.
Again I ask our readers for some help - is liturgical dancing a post-Vatican II activity in the liturgy? I know there are a ton of people out there reading this blog who are more learned than I am. Well, I've got email from two of you today so that leaves three other readers who might know.
