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Fr. Z’s annual rant against BLUE vestments - and POLL
Each year in The Wanderer I go on a tear about use of BLUE vestments duing Advent. This year I will rant earlier so that it might do additional good.
In Latin we say repetita iuvant (repeated things help). So, here we go.
I say again: blue vestments, no matter what anyone says, are still not licit for the Latin Rite.
Maybe someday they will be, but they aren’t right now.
Long time readers of WDTPRS know I have a parody song about blue vestments for Advent composed by our Official WDTDPRS Parody Meistersinger, Tim Ferguson who posts here regularly.
Here it is, a service to you, the long-suffering in the pews. We want to help you endure the stupidities through a little levity.
This is sung to the tune of O Come, O Come Emmanuel:
O come, o come liturgical blue;
out with the old, and in with the new.
Let’s banish purple vestments from here,
the color blue is very HOT this year.
Refrain: Gaudy, gaudy, gaudy chasubles,
in baby, navy, powderpuff and teal.
Since Advent is the Blessed Virgin’s time,
we’ll wear blue, though it’s a canonic crime,
and in the third week, we’ll wear white.
Although it’s wrong, we’ll say that it’s alright.
Refrain
Around the wreath we’ll place blue candlelight,
and in one corner, we will place one white.
We’ll drape blue over our communion rail,
and use blue burses with blue chalice veils.
Every year I like to affirm my deep affection for the lovely but liturgically illegal color blue. If and when blue vestments are ever approved for use in the Latin Church I will have made a set of blue vestments complete with maniple, chalice veil and burse.
However, if blue is ever approved I will probably resent the fact that widespread abuse led to that approval! That how the liberals got Communion in the hand and altar girls and the domination of the vernacular over Latin, etc., etc., etc.
I might also resent the fact that apparently only “progressive” violations of law could in the past receive Vatican okeydokeys. Firestorms of wrath were rained down by aging-hippie pastors and chancery barnacles upon those who want “traditional” things like Latin, birettas, or saying Mass ad orientem – all of which are and always have been perfectly licit.
Of course now that we have Pope Benedict XVI and his work to reinvigorate Catholic tradition and identity, we may be seeing the whole dynamic shift. As a matter of fact, I think the whole blue vestment thing is dying out. The poll (below) will show something about that. But I am rather like a guy with a shotgun who keeps blasting at its legs even as it crawls off to die.
Still, there are many in powerful positions who, though on the losing side of things, who continue causing problems. Can you imagine how the abovementioned would totally freak out if some priest who was not in a position where he could easily defend his status decided to do something so outrageous as, perhaps, use a silent Canon in a Novus Ordo celebration? You would not believe how I was once dressed down, literally screamed at by priest because I once dared to wear an entirely legitimate Roman-style vestment instead of the post-modern horse blanket he preferred. This same fellow consistently used vulgarity when the topic of rubrics was mentioned.
Assent will be given to nearly any aberration while properly imposed discipline is rejected.
Moreover, the claim that abuses are not widespread is pure fantasy.
What rankles the most is that those who commit the violations are often rewarded.
In any event, until blue is approved I will use only purple and rosacea during Advent.
And the really irritating thing about this is that the progressivists or know that conservatives tend to obey in matters liturgical. Liberals can get away with nearly anything they want and they will act with defiance if told by authority they can’t. As a result, the higher ups of the Church are rather afraid to censure liberals. On the other hand, since conservatives tend to follow the law and respect authority, sometimes even respecting authority in spheres where authority have no authority, the high ups, when liberals, tend to slam the more conservatives guys with all they have because they know they will obey. They know we won’t put up too much of a fight in the end.
So, ought we to do the same? Violate the law until we get our way?
I think I’d rather enjoy using blue vestments.
Or better yet, how about just geting as many of us more traditional priests together and insisting on celebrating every Mass ad orientem and entire in Latin in the Novus Ordo until we get OUR WAY for a change?
We could simply kneel tell everyone to kneel for the whole Mass and especially Communion, until the law is changed back to what it was.
But alas! The nearly obsessive need for more traditional priests and groups of trads to protect their own little wrinkle on the truth, the own little divot of turf, most traditionalists couldn’t set aside the nuances of their differences long enough to band together and organize a cock-fight much less a concerted effort to create a powerful lobby for authentic liturgical renewal.
With the advent of Summorum Pontificum and the scene truly shifting under the Benedictine "Marshall Plan", maybe people will wake up and realize that we are stronger than we thought, and don’t need to be so defensive of our special insights.
In the meantime, I will continue to wear purple, avoid the blues, dream of happier days, and do my best to uphold the liturgical law.
[/RANT]