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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

WHEN THIS HAPPENS IN A PARISH, IT IS SO PAINFUL

Is it a good idea to go from this:
To this?
The following was sent to me as a comment on another post, but I thought it was heartrending enough to make it a post here for your comment. What to do, what to do, oh what are parishioners to do in this kind of going backwards to the 1970's liturgically?

"Referring to the change in liturgical climate, I would very earnestly ask you, Fr. McDonald, to pray for my parish and new pastor. We made some headway over the past year with a traditionally-minded younger priest, but he's been transferred elsewhere now, and our new pastor is clearly of the 1970's ilk when it comes to liturgy. We're a cluster of four churches (mine is the oldest and arguably most traditional of the lot), and at mine, they have (or rather, had) the altar servers in cassocks and surplices (rather than albs) and they use bells through the Eucharistic Prayer. Well as soon as the new pastor came in he put a stop to the cassocks and surplices since "they're an older thing and no one really uses them anymore," and since he wants there to be uniformity across the four churches (the other three of which use albs). He also, so I've been informed, may be putting a stop to the bell usage.

Please pray that he can experience a liturgical conversion of the kind you had! I've been praying for a couple years now for my parish to become more traditional, and it seemed for a while like things were headed that direction, and it would be hugely troubling if this new pastor tears everything down. He's not very ceremonial, either, probably because he doesn't see the value in it. So please do add him to your prayers."


My final comment: Please pray for his parish! 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet another reason to scrap the NO....its up to the personal opinions of the priest

Servimus Unum Deum said...

I've sadly seen my family's parish in their whole Catholic history do this. Worse the current pastor hired a heretical young adult minister, makes children come up during the out father in the sanctuary for first communion, feels the EF is not relevant to contemporary Catholic worship, and originally had a peace garden as part of a multi million $ renovation that got quashed thanks to very select surveys. My family left that parish and de-registered. Thanks clericalist priest! Other priests reading this, don't you dare do this. We young adults with any cents to our name, who give two dams about the Faith and cents into your parish pocketbook will leave your parish and scorn you for this.

Anonymous said...

Oooohhhh! The threat of "I ain't gonna give you my money!" How venal, how consumerist.