This one one irks me. An
archbishop in Brisbane, Australian has spoken out against what he calls “spying
in church”. He wants people to stop taking notes of liturgical abuses.
To a certain extent, I understand where he’s coming from. Sacrifice and worship
should be the focus of the mass, not keeping track of every little thing done not
quite right. However, I can’t agree with his insistence that all note-taking stop.
If their weren’t abuses to report, people wouldn’t need to take notes. If nobody
takes notes, abuses go unreported. If abuses go unreported, the Eucharist may continue
to be desecrated and the Church disobeyed.
It’s ironic that this archbishop would squelch note-taking in order to restore focus
to the Eucharist, but that very squelching could lead to the improper handling of
that same Eucharistic worship. Redemptionis Sacramentum was written for a
reason – there were abuses to be corrected. I’ve witnessed first-hand the apparent
ignorance of, or perhaps apathy towards, that document in parishes. In those places,
it’s up to the faithful remnant of the laity to report abuses to the Church. How
else will they be corrected?