Guess who’s 75? Bishop Sullivan of Richmond. That means in a few months he’ll be retired to the Monastery of Mount Showtunes.
The few times I’ve been to Mass is that diocese can only be described as liturgical mayhem. It’s a place where I’ve been to Mass, and then wondered if I actually went to Mass. Everything else I’ve heard about Richmond is pretty frustrating. It’s a place where Gather Comprehensive is used more widely than the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The language is so inclusive it excludes anyone who thinks that God became a man.
One can only hope some discipline and obedience can get applied there over time, but who knows who’ll get appointed…
In the mean time…
Top Ten Slogans of the Liturgy Office of the Diocese of Richmond.
10. Smile and Build Community Or We’ll Club This Baby Seal.
9. Home of the Raisin-Nut Altar Bread
8. Putting the “YA” in “Kum-ba-ya” for Over 29 Years
7. Instead of Vatican III, Let’s Have Richmond I!
6. We Have Altar Girls and Our Backward Neighbor To The North Does Not. Na-na-na-na-na-na!
5. Welcome to Richmond, Here’s Your Leotard
add more in the comments boxes.
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“We might be in the more conservative part of Virginia, but you’d never know it from our churches.” [Needs tightening.]
“Ask us about our vocations: No background check required!”
“Pax Christi Good! Military Installations Bad!”
The “C” in RCIA stands for “Christian”.
John and Eric, you are right — Richmond, VA, has been an atrocity. (John, I’m sorry I can’t improve on your excellent slogans!) This diocese, as well as Raleigh, NC, which is about as bad, desperately need our prayers.
Gordon – I’m surprised at you! Eric was employing a well-known literary device called irony. Of course he knows what the “C” stands for.
My niece received her First Communion this past May in the Richmond diocese. I was the only family member from “up north” able to attend. While we do have some clunkers in our diocese, I had to take deep breaths and focus on saying the Rosary while waiting for Mass to begin. The Church was like a gymnasium…everyone hooting and hollering. The fact that the Tabernacle was in a room on the other side of the building may have had something to do with this. THere were no kneelers. The priest skipped the opening sign of the cross, the Creed and the penitential rite. A friend said this may have been because it was a First Communion Mass, but it was also the Sunday vigil. The concelebrant paraded (there’s no other way to put it) with the Book of Gospels to a podium toward the back of the Church, so that everyone in the front had to turn around while the Gospel was “proclaimed from within the Community.” My brother-in-law, who is an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, tells me that all of the Precious Blood remaining after Communion is poured down the Sacrarium after Mass. Unfortunately, he tends to be of the more liberal persuasion himself and this does not seem to bother him too much. There was more, but my blood pressure is rising just remembering this bit.
Marilyn,
The parish you speak of: it wouldn’t happen to be across town from a certain very well known public university founded by one of the first U.S. presidents, would it? If not, it certainly sounds like the one I have in mind.
Reading the Gospels facing the Altar, huh? Someone should accuse of being a Traditionalist, maybe then he’d stop the practice …
When I visited Richmond I went to an excellent indult Traditional Mass at St. Joseph Villa – since moved, I believe to its own parish …
But in the cathedral, there was a grand piano (and little else) in the sanctuary, and no sign of holy water stoups, or of the Blessed Sacrament … which makes me immediately flee, saying “pretty building, but ….”
Mount Showtunes….?
Actually, I thought the “C” was for “Cookie.” And that’s good enough for me.
There’s such a thing as taking symbolism too far, and proclaiming the gospel from the middle of the congregation just seems kooky! It sounds like changing just for the sake of change. Did starting this practice really make a difference in the spiritual life of anyone?
The more I read about the liberal lunacy in other dioceses, the more grateful I am for being in the diocese I am.
Yeah, I think it made a difference — for the worse! Seriously, things like that tend to confirm modern man’s sense that he’s the center of the universe, and that’s deadly from a spiritual perspective.
No more slogans from the peanut gallery?
My wife joins me in celebrating (and I mean with a bottle of La Grande Dame, for starters) His Excellency’s retirement. You can read about my wife’s rocky relationship with the bishop and his priests in the archives of this weblog. Some of it, once upsetting, now seems remarkably funny. Ah, the stories we will tell of the dark days of Richmond!
In retrospect, maybe we should save the champaigne and drink Thunderbird in memory of the shenanigans of the bishop and his lackeys.
Organs? [or Vestments?, Taste?, Devotions?, Orthodoxy?, Obedience?, IGMR?]
We don’t need no stinkin’ organs! [or Vestments!, Taste!, Devotions!, Orthodoxy!, Obedience!, IGMR!]
In the Byzantine (Melkite) Rite the priest comes out to the congregation to proclaim the Gospel (at which time the faithful venerate the book of the Gospel by kissing it).
I don’t think they can be accused of being kooky.
Robert – good point, but I would submit this counterpoint to you.
Where there’s a consistent practice in the Melkite Rite to proclaim the Gospel from the congregation and venerate the Book of the Gospels, there’s similarly consistent practice in the Roman Rite to proclaim the Gospel from the Ambo. The big problem I have with liturgical innovations, regardless of their historical precedence or practice in other Rites, is that they break the consistency and unity of the Roman Rite and simply confuse the vast majority of the Catholic in attendance. People are dying for consistency, and people who are generally informed are dying to not have discuss any “new” action or directive with Canonists, Historians and other experts to determine if the action is contrary to the GIRM, acceptable practices or even our Faith.
The liturgists who insist on breaking the mold need to get over themselves.
I once had a conversation with a liturgist about the dedication of a new parish in the DC area. He had asked for permission to have the entire congregation process to the altar at one point in the liturgy and kiss the altar (in the way that the priest does at each Mass.) I asked him why he wanted to do that. He told me that he thought it was a meaningful expression for everyone in the congregation (fair enough.) He also said he hoped the practice would be widely adopted and that liturgy books would include information about it, including it place of origin and who originally conceived of the idea (the person I was speaking with.)
So like I said: get over yourself.
One little update: last sentence is directed generally at “innovative” liturgists, not Robert G.
“Sr. Connie, would Mary of Magdala have worn blue or red tap shoes for her liturgical dances?”
What you say about the Melkite rite with the Gospel reminds me of the Torah procession at the Reform Temple where I sometimes sing.
The people approach the Torah and touch it with a book, tallis, or something (since they don’t touch it with their hands) and then touch the object to their lips. It seems very reverent and joyful to me to venerate the Word that way.
What a great post.
It’s worth noting that Anglo-Catholics, as at Boston’s Church of the Advent, do the Gospel, with censers smoking, from the aisle. Here’s a pic from S. Clement’s in Philadelphia.
Somehow I suspect the Richmond liturgists don’t incorporate the accompanying smells and bells, or Mass said ad orientem.
Reading the horror stories reminds me of a question my wife and I ask each other when faced with this kind of thing — why do these people want to remain in the Church? If they don’t believe what the Church teaches why would you continue to hang around? They could go to the Presbyterian church down the street and do whatever they wanted and no one would think anything of it.
I think this is one of the great mysteries of the Church. At least these folks are getting older and ready to retire — or pass to the other side.
Paz y bien
It depends. The Presbyterians might not want their worship service junked up with self-indulgent amateur performances, either. After all, for some types of Protestants, singing is the principal act of worship in a church service.
While we’re making up new things to do with the Gospels, I wish we as lecters could also kiss the text we are reading.
I would like to make that reverent action. I suppose we don’t, just because we don’t, and because our readings are not Jesus’ words.
That Anglo-Catholic practice is really very attractive, and I wouldn’t mind if it became an option in the Roman rite, with suitable catechesis — for the clergy, that is. We wouldn’t want anyone to think it means that the Gospel comes *from* The Peepul — but that in the Incarnation God has come *to* man.
Besides, any opportunity to restore the practice of processions in the Roman rite should not be overlooked.
Maybe this is obvious and has been said before, but it seems like many liberals are morphing the Mass from a celebration of the Eucharist and God’s Word into some sort of stage performance.
True, Chris, but drama and the Mass have always been intimately connected. The rebirth of Western theatre came directly from liturgical plays before and after Mass.
I just want to say that 27 Comments is a record for Catholic Light. Bishop Sullivan should retire more often.
One question: Why try and jazz up the Mass?
It is already beautiful as it is! Why not explain it as it is without adding stuff?
About the veneration of a newly-consecrated altar by all:
The press may have had its facts wrong, but when the Milwaukee Cathedral was dedicated and new altar consecrated in February 2002, it was reported that it was the first time in modern times such had taken place.
karen marie