This individual is not
happy with lay response to Redemptionis
Sacramentum.
Just as I feared, some parishioners have downloaded the document from the internet
and are using it as the basis for a campaign of �priest policing�. No matter how
devout and well intentioned the priest, the slightest perceived violation of any
precept in Redemptionis Sacramentum results in a stern �please-rectify-immediately-or-else�
letter. These condemnations are totally devoid of the spirit of charity called for
by the document.
Of course, these same people do not affirm priests for their diligent observance
of those practices that are encouraged in the document. I cannot begin to understand
what motivates those who go to Mass with the sole intent, not of praying, but of
finding fault. Surely, that is a much more grave abuse of the eucharist than the
relatively minor matters about which they complain. Is it any wonder that there
is a vocations crisis?
I can’t speak for others, but I don’t go to Mass for the sole purpose of finding
a bone or two to pick with the presiding priest or the parish. Usually I go to masses
offered by the Fathers
of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. However, when I’ve visited my parents in
Levittown, my future in-laws in Erie, and my fiance in Tulsa, I’ve run into some
rather obvious abuses.
I wanted to be charitable and assume the document hadn’t “sunk in” yet.
As time passed, it seemed far more likely it was just ignored. I’ve seen glass vessels,
an army of eucharistic ministers (9!), and clutter (i.e. decorations and offering
baskets) in front of the alter, among other abuses. These are simple matters to
attend to and not doing so shows blatant disregard and disrespect for Church authority.
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