A group of three scantily clad women performed a provocative style "liturgical dance" in a recent Franciscan Jubilee Mass for a group of women religious at the cathedral in Joliet, Illinois...
I'm sure they are nice young ladies who didn't mean any harm, but somebody should have had the good sense to put a stop to this before it happened.So-called "liturgical dance" is nothing new. It's one of those innovations that's seen the rounds in this post-conciliar period. Nothing in Vatican II called for such a thing, and nothing in the rubrics of the ordinary mass (Novus Ordo) allows for it. It's just something people made up - out of thin air - appealing to the vague and undefined "spirit of Vatican II."
Below we see a mass presided over by Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles in 2005. That's him seated in the background. Yes, this is a mass. At least the young ladies are more appropriately dressed for the occasion, but the every fact that they're dancing around the sanctuary is in itself enough liturgical abuse to make most Catholics cringe...
Here we have an example of liturgical dance gone wild in the diocese of Stockton California in May of this year. A full article was written on this event in the New Oxford Review...
In what seems to be a whiff of Paganism, we now see dancing women incense the altar of Holy Name Church in the Los Angeles Archdiocese...
Again, we see a similar act performed by sisters at the Los Angeles cathedral...
Granted, there is nothing wrong with incense, and in fact it's just as Biblical as it is Catholic. However, it should be pointed out that this is accompanied by liturgical dance, which is an innovation that turns the mass into a kind of "show" more for the viewing pleasure of the congregation, rather than the worship of God. None of this is sanctioned by the rubrics of the mass mandated by the Holy See, nor the Code of Canon Law.Ah, as bad as that is, it doesn't hold a candle to a mass celebrated on Sept. 1 2002 at Christ the King Catholic Church, Pleasant Hill, California....
It's called a "clown mass," and yes this is a real Catholic Church depicted here. Feel free to investigate for yourself. I've never understood the reasoning or rational behind such gross liturgical abuse. It doesn't make any sense to me, and I suppose I would be worried about my sanity if it did. If you think these are rare occurrences, think again. It's going on all over the United States at various times. It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time to see one. (Or maybe I should have said "wrong place at the wrong time.")'The Catholic Knight' points this out for a reason. I certainly don't want to shock my readers or enrage them. (Though shock and rage might be the expected normal reaction.) Rather, I point this out to bring attention to a serious problem we're facing in the liturgy of the post-conciliar Church. The ordinary mass (Novus Ordo) we currently celebrate, promulgated under the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, has been easily twisted and abused by those who would like to insert their own personal fancies into the worship of the universal Church. Pope Benedict XVI is about to initiate some reforms designed to reign in the "anything goes" mentality of these modern liturgists. The much anticipated Motu Proprio, liberalizing the celebration of the Tridentine (pre-1970) Latin mass, is expected to be the first step in that reform. Let us pray it comes soon, and produces the pope's desired effect.
