From Sandro Magister:
For and Against Mass on TV. A Letter from the United Kingdom/Regno Unito
The cry of alarm raised by Pope Francis against the danger that “virtual” Masses, televised in this time of pandemic, will replace the real and open the way to a “gnostic” Church no longer made up of people and sacraments, true body of Christ, has reanimated a discussion already underway:
Evidence of this is in the letter reproduced below, from the United Kingdom.
The five cases that the author of the letter examines, in reality - contrary to what he writes - confirm not the equivalence but the absolute primacy that living and real participation in the Mass, even in the most difficult contexts, has with respect to any other mediated visibility.
And even David Critchley's considerations on the “missionary opportunity” that streamed Masses could offer make sense precisely in that they are directed toward the actual celebration of the Eucharist.
Inadvertently, perhaps, confirmation of the irreplaceability of the living and real Eucharist as “culmen et fons” of the Church’s life has also come from those who fought, at the last synod, for the ordination of married men, to ensure through them the celebration of Mass in the most far-flung areas of the Amazon. None of those synod fathers ever jumped up to say that Mass should be brought electronically to those remote places.
The reason was that all they cared about was the ordination of married men, not only in the Amazon but everywhere.
But Providence often makes use of crooked ways to pull straight.
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Dear Dr Magister
Thank you for “The Pope against Masses on TV”: thoughtful and provocative as always, and particularly so given the contribution of the Holy Father.
I fear that we will neglect the missionary opportunity that online masses provide us. In the past I think that some churches live-streamed masses largely because the technology was there, and “Why not? Let us give it a try! Maybe the bedbound will appreciate it.” But there was no deeper thought about the project. Now we are being encouraged to think more deeply.
First of all I think that live-streamed masses are no great step away from tradition. Consider these situations:
1. A priest is allowed to celebrate Mass at a prison for violent criminals. The prison governor tells him that the prisoners are so violent and unpredictable that they may not assemble in a chapel: the Mass is to take place in the prison yard and the prisoners will watch through their cell windows.
2. A king or great magnate attends Mass any time before the 1790s. He sits in a private pew, screened off from the rest of the church, and watches the Mass through the screen.
3. An inmate at the Hôtel Dieu, Beaune, Burgundy [see photo] watches Mass. The altar is at the far end of the ward, and the inmates – many of them – watch from their beds or cubicles.
I do not think that any of these three is significantly different from attending an online Mass.
Now for a more difficult one.
4. A faithful Catholic, who attends daily mass at home, is travelling abroad. On a Sunday, he has a choice between watching Mass from his home church online, or identifying a local church in the vicinity, finding his way there, and hearing a Mass in a language different from his own, or maybe getting the time of Mass wrong because the notice in the hotel was out of date. It is not obvious to me that he should choose the local church.
Or this one.
5. A rural Catholic church offers a Sunday Mass and one weekday Mass. There are no other Catholic churches nearby. On the other days of the week, a Catholic in the area has in practical terms a choice between attending an online daily mass or no mass, given that he cannot spend all his time travelling. Should we say, No Mass?
And we have not yet started to think about the role of online Masses in evangelisation. Should we encourage those thinking of becoming Catholic to attend an online Mass regularly? Are there people who would never be seen to go to a Catholic church who might be provoked into watching an online Mass? Are there people who might watch an online Mass, and then say, “My goodness, I never thought the Mass might be like that. I must go to some place like that.” What about people in communities where conversion to Christianity is punished: might online Masses play a role in their lives? What about people who are happy to listen to religious concerts, but do not go to Mass? Might they end up attending an online Mass for the sake of the music?
The sum of it is, anyone, living anywhere, now has the option of a liturgical life previously only available to Catholics who lived in religious communities or very close to a large and well staffed church.
Surely, we have much thinking to do.
With my kind regards
David Critchley
Winslow, Buckinghamshire, UK
Winslow, Buckinghamshire, UK
3 comments:
I might possibly have run into David Critchley as I live only three miles from Winslow! There are certainly advantages and even spiritual benefits from being able to access a Mass on YouTube (and whether it's broadcast live or recorded is immaterial), but it is not the same as 'attending' Mass and certainly does not fulfil the obligation to do so. At the moment the obligation is suspended altogether; no-one has said 'Watching a live-streamed Mass fulfils the obligation'.
In 1994 I was in Hungary. Not knowing the language, I relied on a phrasebook or finding someone who spoke German (English-speakers were virtually non-existent then). On the two Sundays I was in Budapest and in Esztergom I had no difficulty in finding a Mass which was predominantly in Latin. On the weekday morning I left Esztergom for the airport I heard the bell of a little baroque church, and mindful of the custom of hearing Mass before a journey I joined the congregation.
It was a spoken vernacular Novus Ordo Mass, said by the book, so it was easy to follow. I joined in the congregational parts, reciting them in Latin. Afterwards an elderly gentleman, realizing that I was a) a foreigner and b) a Catholic, approached me and shook my hand.
Those were the days before live-streaming and the internet, but I hardly think that sitting in a hotel room with a laptop would have provided anything like the same experience.
My experience has been similar to John’s. It isn’t too difficult to find a Mass in most countries and the few where I have been that actively suppress it I usually recited prayers at the appointed time.
What I sense from some Church leaders is that they fear if the habit of attending Mass is broken after an extended absence many, even most, may never come back. I think this is because many Church leaders have convinced themselves that The Catholic Church is merely an alternative to other religions.
This discussion has brought to my mind our present situation in which we have Catholic Churches live-streaming the Mass. There are two aspects in the Mass attendant to the celebration of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist which is the summit of the liturgical worship. One of the aspects is that it contains within it the sacrificial offering to God the Father by a validly ordained priest of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. In this respect, only the ministerial priest, and no other person or congregation need be present, but the graces from that offering flow out to members of the Church and even out to the benefit of the world. One can understand why a Protestant minister, in not being able to make a sacrificial offering, would see any reason to hold a worship service alone by himself without a congregation present.
Now, of course, the greatest grace we can receive as an individual comes from the worthy reception of Holy Communion, the source and summit of our life in the Church and as individuals were are obliged to attend every Sunday barring excusing circumstances. And I do understand, given the current situation we are in, the need to live-stream Mass to the faithful. But to me what the Coronavirus lockdown has brought front and center is the Mass as a sacrificial offering to God the Father and the importance of that to the Church and to the world. Not that I didn't realize that aspect of it already, but for me it has brought it more into focus.
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