Over the last century many support groups have arisen for substance abuse, alcohol abuse, and other addictions. But until now one much needed organization was missing. What about liturgiholics who abuse the liturgy? People drunk on power to change the liturgy in their parishes to their own visions divorced from liturgical history have had nowhere to turn to. That is until now.
Introducing Liturgical Anonymous (LA) an international, spiritually oriented community of liturgical abusers who meet in local groups to help each other end this destructive addiction to changing the liturgy as one wants. Liturgical Anonymous follows a 12 step program and not one of the steps are a dance step.
The first step on the way to authentic liturgical recovery is of course to admit you have a problem. Many liturgical addicts deny they have a problem and will often brow beat those who complain about their "little changes" to make the liturgy more relevant and more oriented to the people. Denial is very common and when challenged to explain why all the attempts at opening the Mass to the people results mainly in declining Mass attendance will just complain that the pew sitters just don’t get it.
Once a liturgical change addict admits they have a problem they are ready for Liturgical Anonymous. My name is [Insert Name Here] and I am a liturgical abuser. Welcome you are on the road to recovery.
As is often the case liturgical abusers just don’t hurt themselves, but those around them. Those sitting in the pews often have misgivings about what they see happening, but also deny that there is even a problem. Parishes often even encourage this liturgically destructive behavior which makes it much harder for the liturgical change addict to admit they have a problem in the first place. We realize that liturgical education is the first requirement to stop this problem, thus we have also started umbrella groups to help out such as MALADY (Mothers Against Liturgical Abusing Destructive Yahoos). We must remember and to educate others that good intentions are not sufficient and that there are very good reasons for liturgical norms in the first place. The Mass being the highest prayer there is needs to prayed, not played with.
Here is an example of some of the steps in the process.
- Admit that we have no right to change the liturgy of the Church.
- Come to believe that there are liturgical documents greater than "Environment and Art in Catholic Worship."
- Make a decision to follow the rubrics in the GIRM.
- Make an examination of conscience and determine where you have deviated from liturgical norms.
- Actually read the documents regulating the liturgy.
Our meetings include scripture study along with a study of the rich liturgical history of the Church within both the Eastern and Latin rites. With a greater appreciation of the organic development of the Mass former liturgical abusers find the richness that already exists and learn to appreciate it. The meetings used are based on official liturgical documents, texts from The Spirit of the Liturgy from both Romano Guardina and later from then-Cardinal Ratzinger, Jimmy Akin’s Mass Confusion and other classic texts. Many of our members also require help to throw off the vapidness of most modern liturgical music. Most find that a too rapid introduction to Gregorian Chant for instance is too much beauty to handle so quickly. Thus are program slowly weans them off of the music of Haugen-Daas with a drug equivalent of music Methadone. This drug with a high sugar content is slowly reduced over time to allow a tonal rearrangement in the subject. For priests we have a special program called "Seeing Red: Rubrics are your friends." With liturgical dancers we helped to teach them that the only acceptable dance at Mass is attendance.
The meetings are open to church designers, wreckovators, liturgical dancers, choir directors, liturgists, makers of rainbow stoles, priests and bishops, and anybody else that freely admits to having a liturgical abuse problem. Though it sounds far-fetched this group centered treatment has even been effective on a couple of liturgists with college degrees! Though we have to admit much prayer and fasting was involved. At the end of LA meetings everyone says in unison the words of the Prefect of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments – Francis Cardinal Arinze ‘The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace.’"
Our headquarters for Liturgical Anonymous has a 24 hour hotline staffed by liturgical counselors. If you ever feel tempted to deviate from the norms give us a call and we will help you to overcome this temptation. Alcoholics can go cold turkey and avoid bars, but the liturgical abusers must learn to be attend the Mass with full, conscious and active prayerful participation without thinking how they would have done it different or how they would have redesigned the sanctuary. Also difficult for our members is attending Masses with liturgical abuses without becoming overly angry. God has given us the Mass not to be a point of anger, but of grace. Concentrating on the invisible reality and praying the Mass takes precedence over tallying the abuses. We hope to one day open our hotline to everybody with liturgical concerns, but we can’t yet hire the thousands of liturgical counselors that would be required.
Here are just some of the testimonial of successful members of Liturgical Anonymous:
I’m John [Last name withheld] the former clown altar server. I served at many Masses especially in the seventies. I saw no problem with it at the time and even served with priests also dresses as a clown. In Persona Bozo presented no theological difficulties for me. I thought I was just bringing joy to the people, I mean what could be wrong with that? Then one day while traveling and looking for something to listen to on the radio I ran across a Catholic radio stations during a program on the Mass. The show talked about how the Mass was a representation of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The the Council of Trent said the Mass maintains essential identity of both sacrifices, holding that the main difference between them is in the different manner of sacrifice — the one bloody the other unbloody. This shocked me to realize that this was the one and same sacrifice at calvary only represented. I realized that I would never have donned a clown costume at the foot of the cross. Any clown makeup would have been rent with tears. How could I bear to wear floppy feet as his feet were pierced with nails? Needless to say that ended my stint as a clown altar server forever. When I found Liturgical Anonymous they helped me to get passed my previous mistakes and to start a ministry to help other liturgical abusing clowns.
I am a priest and former "Designer and Consultant for Worship Environments." I worked on the renovation of traditional Catholic churches as well as for the design of new Catholic churches. To me beauty was stark emptiness. I just loved removing and destroying things. As a child I would build traditional churches out of Lego’s than either destroy them with firecracker for my pleasure or to rip out the Lego high altars and altar rails. Later I found out that I could actually use my love of destroying traditional things and actually do it professionally. After seeing the work of fellow priest Richard Vosko I though if he can destroy all those churches with the actual cooperation of bishops, priests and congregations; then why couldn’t I do that to. Being a priest it helped to give me a certain credential and it was easy to make up a architectural philosophy to justify my love of destroying traditional church architecture. When hired as a consultant they would actually listen to me when I talked about worship spaces for their "church" to become a parish centrum with an assembly hall. I told them that to live the spirit of Vatican II that they had to have a church to match and they bought it all. I always admired the architecture of gymnasiums and city halls so of course the central tabernacle, statuary, shrines, elevated sanctuary, Communion rails, baldacchino, high altars, etc all had to go. I would setup "revision committees" in these parishes and stack them with people sympathetic to my goals. There were often parishioners less than pleases with what I was doing. Using the various committees and saying things such as "the church will be restored in a way that reflects its original beauty" it was easy enough to stall the opposition. Over the years though I started to notice conversion stories about people entering what they considered to be "beautiful" churches and how the architecture had a profound effect on them that was used by God to later bring them into the Church. They would talk about such things as stained glass windows and how the sound of the pipe organ attracted them. Some of the very things I was ripping out they were talking about with joy. I told myself well beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but just why was it these conversion stories based on architectural beauty never happened in my redesigned churches or the churches of my fellow architects who had the same architectural philosophy? It hurt when my work was called "wreckovations", but I started to wonder if perhaps it was way too accurate a description. One day I ran across a local chapter of Liturgical Anonymous and decide to attend a meeting to see if maybe their were answer for my questions. I sat in the back row in the corner listening to the testimonies of others as they talked about the beauty of the liturgy and how it’s prime purpose was to be oriented at the worship of God. That as the angels continuously sing Holy, Holy, Holy in praise and worship of God that that is what the whole liturgy is also directed towards. I realized that my structure did not exactly sing this out and that they were really made for praise of my architectural skills and their daring and not praise for our creator. Thanks to Liturgical Anonymous I am now relearning my craft and sitting at the feet of the masters who have gone before me. Not that everything has to be Baroque or Romanesque, but that it must be oriented towards the divine architect.
Here are some real world stories of former liturgical music abusers.
A Liturgical Guitarist Reformed
Confessions of a folk Mass guitarist
Is Liturgical Anonymous for you? If you want to control the liturgy then you may be a candidate for LA. If you belong to the Diocese of L.A. then you are probably an ideal candidate for LA. If you are in the below photo please call our offices now at 1-800-BAD-LTRG.
There is no disgrace in facing up to the fact that you have a liturgical abuse problem. So why not join now before some parishioners stage an intervention.
Remember "Friends don’t let friends abuse liturgy."
*Other resources:
St. James in Ogden, Utah has an ideal program for those detoxifying themselves from liturgical dancing.
29 comments
One of the best posts ever – — I’m considering sending to a few parishes I know.
First clients: Cdl. Mahony, Bp. Trout-person, and Bp. Brown. (we can dream, right?)
BMP
“…a 12 step program and not one of the steps is a dance step.” — I love it! Wonderful!
But “a pope organ”? Is that a typo or a pun? (hee hee)
“Friends don’t let friends abuse liturgy”
I want that bumper sticker!
BTW, anyone else besides me happen to notice the rainbow on the banner in the background of that St. Louis Jesuits pic?
BMP
Do you have bulk rate pricing of flyers and membership cards for parishioners and music ministers who are afflicted with the pandemic that prevents them from saying the pronouns “him” or “his” and automatically changes them to “God” or “God’s”?
Now I can tell my former Pastoral Associate, “get to a meeting”, and mean it!
All of the following occur at my parish. Liturgical abuses or not?:
1. Extraordinary ministers of Communion at all Masses (even when there are as few as 50 people in attendance for the early daily Mass).
2. Female altar servers
3. De-genderizing the liturgical readings (“humankind” or “people” instead of “mankind” or “men”) {do they really believe women are that thin-skinned?}
4. Completely changing the words of the Agnus Dei when “sung” — and I use the term loosely.
5. Changing the words of the responsorial psalm so that some smarmy Haugen-Haas-ed version of the psalm can be sung instead; or singing an entirely different psalm altogether (to suit the ‘mood’ of the Mass.)
6. Female participants included in the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday.
7. “Musical interludes” interspersed in the Gospel reading on Good Friday.
8. Lectors reading the Easter Vigil readings from the pews instead of the ambo, accompanied by background music.
9. A musical version of the Gloria that contains the following chorus (repeated four times): “Glory to God in the highest. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth.”
If any of these are wrong (and I know some of them are way off base) I can almost guarantee that the people who instigated them have no awareness of it and likely believe they are doing a liturgical Martha Stewart “good thing.”
Being in the Lincoln Diocese, the concepts of clowns serving at a Mass has seemed so incredibly bizarre and “out there” that I have to admit I really thought you and others were exaggerating when you talked about them. But now, seeing an actual picture, I have to ask myself “What in the name of all that is holy are they thinking?” What could possibly be the rationale behind such an abuse? If I sat down in any Catholic Church anywhere and saw a clown standing anywhere near the altar I’m not sure what I’d do, but I fear it might not be very charitable. Why on EARTH do they do that?
Three points:
Female altar servers are NOT a liturgical abuse.
Liturgical dance could definitely be considered abuse though…there is, after all, no such thing…
I often see Jesuits being bashed, ridiculed or otherwise treated in a un-Christian way on this blog? Aren’t they approved by the Vatican?
liturgical Abuses above:
1. EMHC are an abuse if you have so few people and the priest is able to distribute HC. Also, the Vatican has made it clear that if the only way you can distribute both species is with EMHC, you are only to distribute the Host.
2. Female altar servers are not an abuse, but they are up to the individual priest to decide whether or not to use them. No bishop can MAKE a priest use altar servers. He can tell all his priests NOT to use them, but he can only allow priests to use them. The priest, if allowed, has the option. Unfortunately, female Altar Servers came about by a very sad process.
3. Degenderizing liturgical texts??? If you’re talking about approved prayers of the Mass being changed, yes it’s an abuse. If you’re talking about hymns, psalms, or Prayers of the Faithful, then i’d say no. However, I’d still smell something fishy, even if it was “legal”.
4. Sounds like an abuse there……what was said? That’s a formal prayer.
5. Not an abuse.
6. Last I heard, there’s a provision by the American Bishops allowing this. The GIRM clearly says “vir”, meaning male. I’d have to double check.
7. Abuse. And silly.
8. Weird. An abuse, unless the ambo is broken or the lectors were all parapalegics.
9. Probably not an abuse, although it would put me to sleep. It also goes against the Vatican II spirit of noble SIMPLICITY. One problem of older music was that it didn’t move. Thinkgs were overly-repeated. Seems like we’re making the same mistakes, here.
I am a recent convert, and I was trying to explain why liturgical dancing is bad to my mother (a former Catholic), but I really didn’t know what to say. Could you please do a “serious” entry about this, or point me to a resource?
Rich, do you have a link for point 1 (one species if you need em’s to do two)? def a problem almost everywhere I’ve been.
I’m looking for an organisation for survivors of liturgical abuse. Those who have had their spirituality assaulted by the liturgical abusers, and yet are still part of the Catholic Church and searching for something better.
Joye, I can begin to answer the question of what is wrong with liturgical dancing.
The first reason comes from the strong Catholic value of unity: I should be able to go to Mass here or in France or anywhere and not be jolted by the experience of having to notice something being done altogether differently. Unity is one reason why each Rite should be celebrated according to the written instructions–and the written instructions don’t make allowances for liturgical dance.
Actually, the second reason probably comes from unity as well. Because we don’t live in a dancing culture, “liturgical dance” in the U.S. means the self-expression of one or a few, while others watch. There really isn’t a way for other people to enter into the dancers’ dance. It will be a very personal interpretation and will exclude most if not all of the others. By the way, this is a good argument against most “solo” pieces that singers sometimes perform at Mass.
Lastly, I would say that motions at Mass are particularly closely guarded by the rules for the Mass, even more than the words of the Mass are. I think that there is a good reason for this. All of the motions of liturgy are prayers in themselves. Either we are moving as one Body (to Communion for example) or some of us are moving on behalf of all of us (the other processions). We stand together and sit together. We make the sign of the Cross together. Interestingly, the posture after Communion has the most freedom, because we can stand, sit or kneel, whatever we like–probably because that’s when we’re most one-on-one with the Lord. Usually, though, we are making a point of all being together with the Lord.
Sorry if that’s pedantic, but I’ve been wanting to put that into words for a while!
Flabellum,
The organization your looking for is called SLAP, Survivors of Liturgical Abuse and Progressivism. The organization is still in a nascent stage but keep your eyes open!
What’s the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist?
Sometimes you can negotiate with a terrorist.
With liturgical dancers we helped to teach them that the only acceptable dance at Mass is attendance.
I would teach them that the only acceptable dance at Mass is the sign of the Cross, and a profound bow during the Creed.
Rich – as to my item 4 (the Agnus Dei) it is sung with these lyrics: “Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us” (So far, so good, sorta). Then it goes on (as long as it takes for the priest to prepare the Eucharist for distribution): “Jesus, Prince of Peace, you take away, etc.” “Jesus, Lord of all, you take away, etc . . .” “Jesus, Bread of Life, you take away, etc.” “Jesus, Hope for All, . . .” Finally, they go back to “Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us Your peace.”
Perhaps what chaps me the most about this is that it is keyed in a virtually unsingable key. Plus, the “s” in “us” invariably gets drawn out so that the sanctuary sounds like it’s crawling with hissing snakes.
By the way, thanks for your helpful responses.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the liturgical norms I cannot change, the courage to correct the abuses I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
now, we hug.
there. much better – anyone for coffee?
I’ve heard this Agnus Dei before (incidently, I learned in our Gregorian chant choir group that it’s not pronounced “Aug-noos Dayee”, but rather “Aun-yoos Deh-ee”). no “G” sound. just a little trivia there.
I don’t think there is a problem with this extended version simply because it gets the required verses out there. I think the goal was to allow for the meting out of hosts and chalices. That being said, is it really necessary? I mean, is the priest NEEDING that much time? How long does it take to divide the hosts? And you shouldn’t be pouring Precious Blood from a flagon. Pre-consecrated wine is fine to pour at the Preparation of the gifts, but not after the consecration. That’s JC there, and we don’t wanna spill occurring.
As to liturgical dancing, people in africa do it all the time. However, in Africa, dancing is ALWAYS connected with religious ceremonies. There is no such thing as “secular dance”. In the Western culture, dance is, primarily, an erotic activity between genders. Because of the cultural associations that cannot be ignored, liturgical dancing has been banned in the USA.
As to EMHC’s and both species, I think I was going off of previous information. Further research on ZENIT says the following:
“If no priest or deacon is available to distribute the Precious Blood in the circumstances where Communion under both kinds is permitted and customary, then it cannot be considered an abuse to avail of the services of an extraordinary minister of Communion.”
A few added notes: the term “Eucharistic Minister” applies to those ministers that can confect the Eucharist. That’d be a bishop or a priest. There is no such thing as a lay Eucharistic Minister. Even a Deacon is not a Eucharistic Minister. Those that help pass out the Host/Chalice in the Rite of Communion are Ministers of Holy Communion. You have Ordinary ministers and Extraordinary Ministers. Ordinary ministers are: Bishop, Priest, Deacon. Extraordinary Ministers are (in order of preference): Instituted acolyte*, instituted Lector*, seminarian, religious brother, nun, catechist, lay male, lay female.
*Note: Instituted Acolytes and Lectors are not the same thing as Altar Servers and Readers. Acolyte and Lector used to be minor orders (along with Porter and Exorcist) that a male received on his road to diaconal ordination. These minor orders are no longer “Minor Orders”, but they still are reserved only for males. When you see a lay person going up to read the Readings, they are a Reader, not a lector. The little kids serving at the altar are Altar Servers, not Acolytes. The only diocese that formally institutes adult lay men as Acolytes in the USA is Lincoln, NB. The institution is a formal ceremony, but not a sacrament.
Okay…..
oops, sorry about the “okay” at the end. I missed that. Didn’t mean to make it sound like “OKAY?!?!?!”
😉
MomLady — thanks for the chuckle! 😉
Tim Ferguson — nothin’ like offering a little parody in a CurtJester combox! Nice one!
Gretchen, that sounds like Marty Haugen’s Mass of Creation to me.
think the comment about dancing being erotic in the west is so true. Our Easter ceremonies included a liturgical dancer and I really must say its embarassing to watch a teenage girl gyrating in a semi see through “dress” though I use the word loosely, she would have been uncomfortable about what she was doing if she was honest with herself and as a female I felt sorry for her – I can’t imagine what the guys in the congregation felt… or were thinking…
(not to mention that her dancing around the newly lit and blessed pascal candlewith outstretched arms seemed to say to us “please… P…l…ee… a.. s… ee…….. look at it… it is a … c…a…n….d…ll…e….” I mean really, are we that silly that we can’t realise what it is?
Amen!!! *jumps for joy* Love it! I agree with Cathy–one of the best posts ever.
Anyone out there wanna create a site/blog badge for this movement?
I have left a parish over liturgical abuse (just *one* thing was a parishioner telling the priest what and what not to do… all because that parishioner held the checkbook), though not some of the horrors I’ve read and heard about.
I do thank God that I have never been privy to liturgical dance.
–L
I swam the Tiber to get away from these people, and they’re here too, although in far fewer numbers.
I CAN READ. I KNOW WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS. I KNOW WHAT THE DOCTRINE IS. THAT’S WHY I SWAM THE TIBER.
Notice … if a pagan is impersonating a priest, he’d better stay out of my way. I will not hesitate to say it the way it is, and very publicly. If they defile the Mass, I ‘ll condemn them in front of the Congregation … as is my Christian duty. I serve Christ Jesus .. not a pagan infiltrator.
I’m Augustinian, I’m Medieval, I am not afraid of heretics be they priests, bishops, or cardinals.
D�sol� de ne pas pouvoir m’exprimer en anglais.
En pr�sence de la m�me maladie au sein de notre Eglise (Eglise catholique orthodoxe de France*), j’avais baptis� cela le syndrome des Galeries Lafayette. En effet durant plusieurs ann�es il y avait pour ces grands magasins une publicit� dont la phrase cl� �tait : “A tout instant il se passe quelque chose aux Galeries Lafayette”, sous-entendu quelque chose de nouveau, donc � acheter puisque c’est nouveau.
Cette d�mangeaison cl�ricale s’est calm�e le jour o� j’ai r�clam� que pour chaque “nouveaut�” l’on prenne au moins 6 mois pour r�fl�chir et �tudier la proposition.
La maladie a instantan�ment diminu� d’intensit�.
Diacre Vincent Tanazacq
* Je rappelle solennellement aux ignorants que le terme catholique n’est pas la propri�t� de l’Eglise de Rome et que toutes les Eglises orthodoxes sont catholiques; mais apparemment elles en ont honte !
I find this post most interesting. Mass in my church is a little too sing-song, too. What Gretchen mentions, for instance, about the alteration of Gloria and Sanctus to fit musical anthems.
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