Don't send in the clowns

I don't know whether to call this liturgical Jekyll and Hyde syndrome, a liturgically accommodating bishop,  or something else entirely.  Do a compare and contrast for these two stories.

Last Sunday, Diocese of Venice Bishop Frank Dewane celebrated Mass at a Sarasota church accompanied by priests wearing colorful Ferris wheels, clowns, giraffes, unicycles, lions and merry-go-rounds on their vestments.

This was the annual circus Mass, Dewane said, honoring the nearly 100-year history of the Ringling family on Florida’s west coast and the importance of itinerant people like circus performers to the Catholic universal church.

and

Bishop Dewayne of Venice, Florida, requires daily mass in the Extraordinary Form at Ave Maria University:

“Due to the demand for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, both from Catholics residents in Ave Maria Town as well as from students, faculty, and staff at Ave Maria University, and in accordance with ‘Summorum Pontificum’, it is fitting that a Sunday Mass be celebrated on campus in the Extraordinary Form. In keeping with the same manifest desire, it would seem opportune that the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite be celebrated on a daily basis at the University, and at a convenient time. Further, it is noted that, in accordance with ‘Summorum Pontificum’, unscheduled Masses can also be celebrated by priests on campus, in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.”

Well I guess priests wearing vestments like that would be an extraordinary form of the Mass.  I have never really understood these circus or clown themed Masses anyway.  For example for the annual Red Mass they don't wear vestments with law books, blind lady justices, bar exams,  or courtrooms.   I am pretty sure Masses celebrated on Navy bases or at sea don't have priest's wearing vestments with various classes of ships, missiles, carrier aircraft, and various insignia of rank.  So exactly why is it that a parish closely associated with care of Catholic working with Ringling Brothers Circus get this kind of treatment?

I believe the Church involved is St. Martha Catholic Church staffed by the Pallottine Fathers (shouldn't that be Pantomine Fathers) which calls itself the  U.S.A. Circus Church. They have a "full-sized, restored and gaily painted wagon wheels mounted on the wall behind the altar."  I do wonder if Catholics involved with the circus like having a liturgy like this?  It would seem to me that if you worked at the circus all day the last thing you would want to see is vestments with clowns and unicycles.  This seems to me something that would be seen as more fun by the priests involved than the community they are pastoring.  It does make me wonder if in May they have a Clowning of Mary.

The picture above is from another Florida parish Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Indialantic in the Diocese of Orlando.