Dress for the Occasion

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I was visiting with my in-laws in North East, PA and went to their parish for the Epiphany (Anybody know why it was moved back from the 6th?). I noticed something there that I’ve noticed at other parishes, and it drives me nuts. Those familiar with the Diocese of Erie (home of Bishop TrautFishmanperson) are probably thinking of the usual laundry list of liturgical abuses, such as improper vessels. That abuse, among many mentioned in Redemptionis Sacramentum, is a concern with the "trappings" of the mass if you will. What irks me is the slovenly attire worn by those attending mass, in particular those serving at the altar.

How can people serve at the altar in the Divine Presence wearing blue jeans and sneakers? How can parents allow their children to dress so poorly for such a high office? More importantly, I wonder how priests can allow children to serve like that? I’ve even seen it at weddings!

I’ve heard arguments about God wanting us to "come as we are" and that it’s good that parents bring their children to church at all. Granted, it is better to be there than to not be there, and some people cannot afford fancy "Sunday go to meetin’" clothes, but I’m certain these suburban folks, working class though they are, would dress themselves and their children better if the Mayor, the President, Dad’s or Mom’s boss, or the Pope came to dinner. Why can’t they dress appropriately for the King of Kings as we celebrate the Paschal Meal?

I’ve also heard that priests couldn’t just turn kids away for dressing thusly. Why not? Servers are not mandatory. Serving is a privilege, not a right. Poorly dressed, poorly trained, and sometimes poorly behaved children should not be permitted to serve at mass. They set a bad example for the rest of the congregation and are poisonous to the catechizing aspects of the liturgy. I am reminded of Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said, "If you don’t behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave." The Church was more explicit about this 500 years ago.

"It is fitting that He Whose abode has been established in peace should be worshipped in peace and with due reverence. Churches, then, should be entered humbly and devoutly; behaviour inside should be calm, pleasing to God, bringing peace to the beholders, a source not only of instruction but of mental refreshment. Those who assemble in church should extol with an act of special reverence that Name which is above every Name, than which no other under Heaven has been given to people, in which believers must be saved, the Name, that is, of Jesus Christ, Who will save His people from their sins. Each should fulfil in himself that which is written for all, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow; whenever that glorious Name is recalled, especially during the sacred Mysteries of the Mass, everyone should bow the knees of his heart, which he can do even by a bow of his head. In churches the sacred solemnities should possess the whole heart and mind; the whole attention should be given to prayer." – Second Council of Lyons, A.D. 1274

As a kid growing up in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, I saw a decline in the decorum and dignity of the office of acolyte. Venturing beyond the orthodox confines of the Pittsburgh Oratory and Saint Paul Cathedral, I am seeing the same sad trend in the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholics: Is this, or has it been, a problem in your parish? Was it or will it be rectified? What did/will you do? Protestants: Is this a problem at your church or friends’ churches? Is this a widespread problem or seem to be limited to certain denominations or sects?

Here’s an interesting site about liturgical ettiquette.

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About Funky Dung

Who is Funky Dung? 29-year-old grad student in Intelligent Systems (A.I.) at the University of Pittsburgh. I consider myself to be politically moderate and independent and somewhere between a traditional and neo-traditional Catholic. I was raised Lutheran, spent a number of years as an agnostic, and joined the Catholic Church at the 2000 Easter Vigil. Why Funky Dung? I haven't been asked this question nearly as many times as you or I might expect. Funky Dung is a reference to an obscure Pink Floyd song. On the album Atom Heart Mother, there is a track called Atom Heart Mother Suite. It's broken up into movements, like a symphony, and one of the movements is called Funky Dung. I picked that nickname a long time ago (while I was still in high school I think), shortly after getting an internet connection for the first time. To me it means "cool/neat/groovy/spiffy stuff/crap/shiznit", as in "That's some cool stuff, dude!" Whence Ales Rarus? I used to enjoy making people guess what this means, but I've decided to relent and make it known to all. Ales Rarus is a Latin play on words. "Avis rarus" means "a rare bird" and carries similar meaning to "an odd fellow". "Ales" is another Latin word for bird that carries connotations of omens, signs of the times, and/or augery. If you want to get technical, both "avis" and "ales" are feminine (requiring "rara", but they can be made masculine in poetry (which tends to breaks lots of rules). I decided I'd rather have a masculine name in Latin. ;) Yeah, I'm a nerd. So what? :-P Wherefore blog? It is my intention to "teach in order to lead others to faith" by being always "on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word, either to unbelievers . . . or to the faithful" through the "use of the communications media". I also act knowing that I "have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the sacred pastors [my] opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and [I] have a right to make [my] opinion known to the other Christian faithful, with due regard to the integrity of faith and morals and reverence toward [my and their] pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons." (adapted from CCC 904-907) Statement of Faith I have been baptized and confirmed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I, therefore, renounce Satan; I renounce all his works; I renounce all his allurements. I hold and profess all that is contained in the Apostles' Creed, the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Having been buried with Christ unto death and raised up with him unto a new life, I promise to live no longer for myself or for that world which is the enemy of God but for him who died for me and rose again, serving God, my heavenly Father, faithfully and unto death in the holy Catholic Church. I am obedient to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. That is, I promote and defend authentic Catholic Teaching and Faith in union with Christ and His Church and in union with the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of St. Peter. Thanks be unto Thee, O my God, for all Thy infinite goodness, and, especially, for the love Thou hast shown unto me at my Confirmation. I Give Thee thanks that Thou didst then send down Thy Holy Spirit unto my soul with all His gifts and graces. May He take full possession of me for ever. May His divine unction cause my face to shine. May His heavenly wisdom reign in my heart. May His understanding enlighten my darkness. May His counsel guide me. May His knowledge instruct me. May His piety make me fervent. May His divine fear keep me from all evil. Drive from my soul, O Lord, all that may defile it. Give me grace to be Thy faithful soldier, that having fought the good fight of faith, I may be brought to the crown of everlasting life, through the merits of Thy dearly beloved Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Behind the Curtain: an Interview With Funky Dung (Thursday, March 03, 2005) I try to avoid most memes that make their way 'round the blogosphere (We really do need a better name, don't we?), but some are worth participating in. Take for instance the "interview game" that's the talk o' the 'sphere. I think it's a great way to get to know the people in neighborhood. Who are the people in your neighborhood? In your neighborhod? In your neigh-bor-hoo-ood...*smack* Sorry, Sesame Street flashback. Anyhow, I saw Jeff "Curt Jester" Miller's answers and figured since he's a regular reader of mine he'd be a good interviewer. Without further ado, here are my answers to his questions. 1. Being that your pseudonym Funky Dung was chosen from a Pink Floyd track on Atom Heart Mother, what is you favorite Pink Floyd song and why? Wow. That's a tuffy. It's hard to pick out a single favorite. Pink Floyd isn't really a band known for singles. They mostly did album rock and my appreciation of them is mostly of a gestalt nature. If I had to pick one, though, it'd be "Comfortably Numb". I get chills up my spine every time I hear it and if it's been long enough since the last time, I get midty-eyed. I really don't know why. That's a rather unsatisfying answer for an interview, so here are the lyrics to a Rush song. It's not their best piece of music, but the lyrics describe me pretty well.

New World Man He's a rebel and a runner He's a signal turning green He's a restless young romantic Wants to run the big machine He's got a problem with his poisons But you know he'll find a cure He's cleaning up his systems To keep his nature pure Learning to match the beat of the old world man Learning to catch the heat of the third world man He's got to make his own mistakes And learn to mend the mess he makes He's old enough to know what's right But young enough not to choose it He's noble enough to win the world But weak enough to lose it --- He's a new world man... He's a radio receiver Tuned to factories and farms He's a writer and arranger And a young boy bearing arms He's got a problem with his power With weapons on patrol He's got to walk a fine line And keep his self-control Trying to save the day for the old world man Trying to pave the way for the third world man He's not concerned with yesterday He knows constant change is here today He's noble enough to know what's right But weak enough not to choose it He's wise enough to win the world But fool enough to lose it --- He's a new world man...
2. What do you consider your most important turning point from agnosticism to the Catholic Church. At some point in '99, I started attending RCIA at the Pittsburgh Oratory. I mostly went to ask a lot of obnoxious Protestant questions. Or at least that's what I told myself. I think deep down I wanted desperately to have faith again. At that point I think I'd decided that if any variety of Christianity had the Truth, the Catholic Church did. Protestantism's wholesale rejection of 1500 years of tradition didn't sit well with me, even as a former Lutheran. During class one week, Sister Bernadette Young (who runs the program) passed out thin booklet called "Handbook for Today's Catholic". One paragraph in that book spoke to me and I nearly cried as I read it.
"A person who is seeking deeper insight into reality may sometimes have doubts, even about God himself. Such doubts do not necessarily indicate lack of faith. They may be just the opposite - a sign of growing faith. Faith is alive and dynamic. It seeks, through grace, to penetrate into the very mystery of God. If a particular doctrine of faith no longer 'makes sense' to a person, the person should go right on seeking. To know what a doctrine says is one thing. To gain insight into its meaning through the gift of understanding is something else. When in doubt, 'Seek and you will find.' The person who seeks y reading, discussing, thinking, or praying eventually sees the light. The person who talks to God even when God is 'not there' is alive with faith."
At the end of class I told Sr. Bernadette that I wanted to enter the Church at the next Easter vigil. 3. If you were a tree what kind of, oh sorry about that .. what is the PODest thing you have ever done? I set up WikiIndex, a clearinghouse for reviews of theological books, good, bad, and ugly. It has a long way to go, but it'll be cool when it's finished. :) 4. What is your favorite quote from Venerable John Henry Newman? "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." 5. If you could ban one hymn from existence, what would it be? That's a tough one. As a member of the Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas, there are obviously a lot of songs that grate on my nerves. If I had to pick one, though, I'd probably pick "Sing of the Lord's Goodness" by Ernie Sands.

16 thoughts on “Dress for the Occasion”

  3. Funky Dung

    Everything we know about NFP we’ve learned from friends or read in “taking Charge of Your Fertility” by Toni Wechsler. It’s written from a secular point of view that allows for artificial birth control during fertile times, but the medical information and methods are solid. There’s a cool program based on Wechsler’s FAM (fertility awareness method) called Ovusoft. It makes charting a breeze.

  4. Todd

    FD, probably a bit of both. The German (lowercase) man is a pronoun for “one.” (Der) Mann would be the male designation, so even the good bishop’s forebears had the foresight to land on the right side of the issue there.

    I think ideologues on the other side could have just as much fun lampooning the current curia’s rage for Capitalization and Excessive Adjectivization in English liturgical translations.

    Finding an effective path through it all: that’s the trick, eh?

    Nice blog, btw.

  5. Amy

    I saw some similar-sounding software at a Catholic online bookstore site once… tried to convince dh that we ought to buy it but he’s afraid he’d forget to use it. This from the man who spends most of his waking hours at his computer! lol.

  6. Emily T

    I was in the land of good ol’ Bishop Fishperson over Christmas. Thankfully, I had the luxury of staying here in Pittsburgh for Midnight Mass. However, the Feast of the Holy Family was spent in Erie.

    I cannot say that I noticed how the servers were dressed, but I expect it was probably in tennis shoes. I was more turned off by the fact that there was no singing at this particular Mass – not an opening, not a closing hymn to be found. Mass lasted all of 35 minutes. What surprised me more was that the priest was a young guy, he was actually in the seminary with my best friend’s husband and word had it that most of the young guys were more solid. His vestment was awful and his preaching wasn’t much better. Even without singing, his prayers (such as Blessed are You, Lord, God of all creation…) weren’t audible, which is something I’ve come to expect by being around the Oratory so much.

    There were, of course, multitudes of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist, which, unforunately, made me shy away from receiving our Lord on the tongue because of previous unpleasant experiences. But my favorite part of Mass in Erie, besides the lack of reverence, is everyone standing until the entire congregation has received the Eucharist. Who came up with this?!?! I refuse to participate in this little change to the liturgy, because as far as I’m concerned, with the Lord present in the Eucharist on my tongue – I want to be on my knees, not standing there waiting for everyone else to receive and then just sitting down. And of course, after the petitions, we couldn’t just respond “Lord, hear or prayer” or “Hear us, O Lord,” it had to be some mushy thing – I wish I could remember, like “Lord of Love, fill our hearts.” How is that appropriate for a petition??

    One other little pet peeve is the talking that occurs as soon as Mass is over. In Heinz Chapel it doesn’t bother me so much, one because Matt continues to play the organ, but also because there is no tabernacle. When did the sanctuary of the Church turn into the time to catch up with our neighbors and shoot the breeze??

    Phew – I’m done now. 🙂 I did read over the liturgical etiquette site and I have to take issue with the idea that women should only wear skirts to Mass. Properly attired, I don’t see why pants should be frowned upon. But then, I’m just a tomboy. 🙂

  7. Amy

    Let me know if you ever find a class advertised in a bulletin. That would be a step up.
    I couldn’t even figure out where/how to take a class in the diocese, short of calling whatever hospital was listed on the sheet in the box at Engaged Encounter… and we just didn’t have a means of getting in to the city for any sort of class at that point.
    Email me if you’re curious to know more about the saga… I’d be more than happy to share, but it’s a long story.

  10. Amy

    One thing I’ll say for dear ol’ Erie is that I’m not as confused when I’m at Mass here because it’s still Bishop Donald during the Eucharistic Prayer.

    The parish we attend here does pretty well with respectful kids on the altar – in all aspects. Last weekend (day after Christmas) we had a lector who couldn’t have been more than 13 and he was awesome. Father Z. has the servers in cassocks & I can’t say that I’ve noticed anything inappropriate sticking out from underneath.

    I could go on about other things that irk me about Erie… but I won’t. I’ll just tell you what I love. I think the parish here in Grove City does a bang-up job with RCIA, and the support for couples who follow Church teaching and use NFP is excellent.

    Funky, has Pittsburgh gotten any better with NFP since I “left”?

  13. Todd

    The “fishperson” stuff is cute until one realizes it is based on an Anglo-narcissistic approach to language. The German adjective “Traut” means beloved.

    Getting back to thread topic, generally you see people treat Sunday for how they perceive it. Is it part of the leisure weekend? Is it a religious/social/cultural focus for the week? One tends to see wealthier churches dress more casually, but the shift to casual is pretty widespread in the West.

  14. Funky Dung

    Todd, I’m not sure if you were adding to the joke about PC language or actually chastizing us. 😉 Anyhow, we used “traut” as “trout” based on sound, not spelling or translation. The point was to lampoon Trautman’s obsession with inclusive language.

  16. Amy

    Will do, Emily. I actually had a post all ready to go but messed up by accidentally clicking a link that opened in the window my entry was in. I’ll try again tomorrow.
    I’m afraid it’s going to be a bit lacking. I realized as I wrote the first edition that I didn’t remember much of the explanation at all… which could say something about my opinion of it. I’m bad like that.

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