Have you ever been to a clown mass? A chicken little update

Ever since I've jumped into facebook and blogger, primarily to share my faith and rejoice in my new life as a Permanent Deacon, I've been amazed at all the Catholic clucking about how Catholic this one is or that one is.  In fact, there seems to be a great deal of snarking going on as if we Catholics must take sides in some type of liturgical warfare.  A couple of weeks ago I spoke out, in this venue, on chicken little Catholicism.  I truly hope to play some small role, probably a very small role, in balancing things and putting the focus back where it belongs: on Christ and the only Church He founded: the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

It's easy enough to figure out the attacks and falsehoods from outside the Church.  The many thousands of churches that have sprung up since the 1st schism in around the year 1054A.D., now total over 30,000 churches.  To exist, to have a place at the table, their theology, liturgy(more commonly worship) must include a big dose of anti-Catholicism.  With 2,000 years of Church teaching, Scripture, Tradition, Magisterium, Church Fathers, Saints, Apologetics, etc. we are well girded for the fight.  In fact, while the attacks have made their marks and even score a direct hit every now and again, they cannot weaken or defeat the Church built firmly on rock.  And honestly, much work done in the name of ecumenism has gone a long way to many healthy relationships between the Catholic Church and others.

But now, in 2011, comes the ongoing relentless attacks from within, the my camp is holier than your camp, my Catholicism more Catholic than your  Catholicism, my Bishop more orthodox than your Bishop, Latin only vs no latin, my priest faces east, yours west.  You've seen this if you have been on facebook, blogs or anything Catholic on the internet.

One of the leading voices of opposition has been this Vortex thing.  And there are others.  While I have agreed with much of the content of the video messages of one Mr. Michael Voris, he and others, including a very popular Catholic priest, clearly have an agenda.  They want every Mass celebrated in TLM style and look forward to an end to the Novus Ordo, the way most of us celebrate Mass today.  Recognizing that there are abuses in Mass, I have been blessed or lucky or whatever, to witness few abuses in the Mass that I have been privileged to attend or assist at as a Permanent Deacon.  To make their case and prove their point they produce evidence upon evidence of clown masses, dancing masses, puppet masses, etc.  Most of the time these are good old fashioned recyled videos.  Today, a popular blog, has video of many Priests dancing on the altar at an outdoor Mass in France.  Old news.  And by the way, I think it's pretty goofy and so not necessary.  But the headline suggests this is why we all must go to the EF Mass allowed by the Pope's moto proprio of a few years back.  For those of us that enjoy a reverent and properly celebrated Novus Ordo, we whole-heartedly support Summorum Pontificum.  But we also take Pope Benedict's message in totality: The Latin Mass is extra-ordinary, meaning not the ordinary form of the Mass.  That, he says, is the Novus Ordo.

The problem with the EF crowd, Catholics blogging away, is that they express their love for the EF by slamming and outright commiting scandal in their hate for Novus Ordo.  To hear them, every Novus Ordo is celebrated with clowns, puppets and whatever else they can describe to feel better about their own personal preference for worship.  Abuses in the Novus Ordo?  You bet.  Those must be addressed and the new translation we begin in Advent should help.  But for those who dont think there were abuses in the pre-Vatican II Mass, or in Masses celebrated today as Tridentine or TLM or EF are wrong.  My biggest memory of going to Church as a boy before Vatican II was all the ladies praying rosaries during Mass, children reading books and men gazing at their watches.  They listened to the homily, knew to be reverent when the bells rung and knew to get in line for communion.  Of course this is an over exaggeration as well, although my reality.

May I suggest that these disaffected Catholics led by Michael Voris and many others really are working for a Church that will roll back Vatican II and return everything to the way it was.  While many of thier concerns are spot on, they refuse to present the balance; the balance of a Church that still grows, is more robust in many parts of the world, that still stands despite new churches and denominations popping up everywhere.  We always need to remember that Christ established the Church with that sure and firm promise; the gates of hell will not prevail against Her.  And neither will those clown masses and puppet masses, etc.  Don't know how I've missed these in my 50+ years of attending Mass.