Video homilies

Tacky? You have the nerve to call something tacky? Have you SEEN your website?

Remote homilies? That's starting to sound pretty Reformed. The whole purpose with the Book of Homilies in the English Reformation was that poor clerics wouldn't bungle up the new theology. So, they had their homilies handed to them in a book to be read from the pulpit.

Video homilies made by bishops is just the MTV-generation version of the English Reformation, isn't it? I think that Mary Baker Eddy did something similar with the Christian Scientists.

"This homily was recorded before a live studio congregation. Closed captioning courtesy of Dunkin' Donuts."

My parish, Sacred Heart Parish at the military community formerly known as Fort Ord in Monterey, CA, shares its chapel with a non-denominational Protestant parish (as a lot of military chapels do). The protestants installed a giant video screen for their media-heavy services (along with drums, lots of amps, etc).

So our Cathlic pastor has been using it, and it's nice. generally he just puts up a picture of an icon, painting of the Sacred Heart, or other appropriate religious imagery for whatever particular feast day it is. For example, on the feast of the Holy Trinity, there was a lovely Orthodox icon of the trinity, and part of the the homily was an explanation of the meaning of the imagery.
Also, our cantor puts up the words to the liturgical music during most of the songs.

I'd say it's got positives and negatives, the main negative being the reliance on the screen for words to the songs, since when it inevitably gets messed up, it leads to some confusion.

But our pastor, who is a convert from Lutheranism, has a real appreciation of religious imagery and has really opened my eyes to the wealth of a lot of religious imagery and iconography.

Tacky? You have the nerve to call something tacky? Have you SEEN your website?

Take the Big Mac example. I don't believe Our Lord would ever eat a Big Mac. It doesn't follow that there is anything wrong with eating a Big Mac. What's the point? It is that whatever opinion one has of this website, its author is not advocating making it a part of mass, just as I won't bring Big Macs into the Church. So he is perfectly reasonable in discussing what and what does not belong in the church.

We have an annual appeal video in our archdiocese as well but it's up to the pastor as to whether they want to show it at the end of Mass or not. The parish in my hometown simply never shows it. Interestingly, we tend to reach %100 of our fundraising target with very little difficulty.

A giant TV in church? Shades of setting up the Abomination of Desolation in the sanctuary! Where are the Maccabees when we need them?

I've heard of protestant churches having superbowl parties using the big monitor/projection systems in the church. But, having been a guy who used to read the words off the monitor, I can see usefulness to it. In the case where the cantor wants to sing a hymn that's not in the missalette music issue; or in the case mentioned above where the pastor uses it to display appropriate pictures of saints or icons related to feast days, whatever, and, even in the case of putting the main points of the homily up there for us to read.

Look, I am an education guy. I have an M.Ed. from Berry College (I got the degree because it was very cheap due to my employment; I am not trying to put myself on a high horse). Study after study shows that the more ways that you can present information to someone, the better they will learn it. I left the squeaky-clean protestant churches in part because I like all the visuals that exist in the Catholic Church. The homily is primarily auditory, and most people are just not oriented toward being able to hear and retain something they hear once...putting it up there in writing for all to see helps those people who are more oriented toward the visual to retain what's presented in the homily.

With what we know about how people learn new information and assimilate it into their existing store of information, I am indeed for limited and tasteful use of some sort of visualization device in the church. I am definitely not advocating using it to run animated montages of video clips or bizarre things like that (or the superbowl for that matter.)

I've only seen one videotaped appeal in church. It was shown before the Mass started, on a TV wheeled in from the school. The only real problem is that it was sitting in front of the altar, so as we came in we genuflected before it....

My parish now uses a screen and projetor before mass to show announcements. I haven't been a big fan of it, but I think it does reach more of the congregation (my generation actually) and helps people remember activities and may be more receptive to volunteer.

It has been a good tool to introduce other parishoners and staff who do work hard behind the scenes and highlight those activities that most others would not see or bother to read about in the bulletin.

Our pastor (who does the announcements) also will read letters or appeals from the bishop. Since he can't be at all the masses, this is also a benefit.

With that said, I would most certainly complain if it was used for or in place of the homily or other part of the liturgy.

If you wouldn't put up a billboard with giant announcements on it in church, you shouldn't put up a monitor or giant filmstrip screen in church, either.

The house of the Lord was one of the few places in our society where you could get away from the media. It disturbs me to see people diminishing worship of God and raising up media crud.

That said, the sharing of space with the Protestant church means you have to do something with the thing. But it's an act of desperation, to cover up an eyesore.

Last summer's beach vacation had us attending Mass in Virginia Beach at "Our Lady of the Power Point". Behind the altar was a huge screen which changed pictures every so often all through mass...some pictures were good icons...some were waves, clouds, etc...very distracting.