The often amusing Eye of the Tiber reports on a serious news story that should concern us all. My emphases.
Sierra Nevada–More than five dozen searchers scoured the Sierra Nevada foothills for the missing reverence at a Mass at the Church of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque yesterday.
Reverence was due to appear promptly for the 9am Mass, but two hours after the Mass had concluded, a search began with helicopters, including a National Guard Blackhawk, looking for any signs of reverence.
Using thermal infrared technology, searchers have still not been able to locate any clues to the whereabouts of the reverence expected at Mass, but a spokeswoman for the Church of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Dana Whitmore, told EOTT today that several parishioners were being investigated after being seen walking out of Mass wearing shorts and flip flops.
“We cannot release the names of those being questioned at this moment,” Whitmore told the press. “But we can say that officials from the diocese have spoken to St. Margaret Mary’s pastor Fr. Neville Mayfield about why his altar boys and altar girls were allowed to chew gum while staring out into space during the Consecration.”
Nine ground search teams made up of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter were later dispatched to find reverence. They focused on the areas in and around the pews as well as on the Sanctuary.
Reverence was not the only thing being sought. In another part of the Sierra Nevada, a search was underway near St. Matthew Catholic Church to find solemnity and piety.
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Heh! Did they take statements from the Music Ministry?
Sounds like the place we used to go for Mass…the place looks like a Protestant church. Step inside and you might see a Baptist healing service or an ex-Jesuit having a holy water fight on the altar with a deacon. The altar boys and girls are just a mirror of the 12 EMs that circle the altar prior to communion. At least half of the people look like they just got out of bed and threw something on – what some of the T-shirts say and what some of the women wear are scandalous by themselves. The sign of peace takes about 10 minutes and the homily can either be about what the priest did this week or a feeble attempt to somehow be in sync with the younger crowd.
What a relief it is now to hear the Mass in the Latin of my youth!!
In my parish at least they stopped the tambourine. Even so, wife and I avoid holding hands. Father stopped kneeling for consecration shortly after Pope Francis was elected.
Just in: Also among the missing was the tabernacle. People scoured the sanctuary but could find no sanctuary lamp.
Oh, I found the reverence. It was behind the flat screen TV in the sanctuary the whole time!
Bob B.
How strange that you were attending all three of the progressive churches that are in our area. We finally located the reverence. Turns out it had been moved to the FSSP parish 35 minutes away. Solemnity and piety were hiding out there as well.
Can’t quite see the milk carton. What reward is offered if reverence is returned?
Can anyone say what percentage of those lost are found?
Definitely went to Mass in shorts and flip-flops today…are there rules against this?
A lot of times I will read complaints about “why aren’t the priests or bishops doing “x” to solve this problem” and will think, “They have some of the responsibility, but you’re overlooking the fact that the lay faithful are called to help on this one.” This is an instance where I do think the responsibility falls mainly on the priests to address this topic.
I live in a diocese (St. Louis) that thankfully has many faithful priests, many of whom give good or even great homilies, and many of whom are not afraid to address hot-button issues if necessary. That being said, save one seminarian’s homily which included modesty as a topic, I do not recall ever hearing a priest address the issue publicly. You can’t necessarily blame kids for dressing inappropriately for Mass if they don’t know any better and their parents don’t dress appropriately. We’re into the second generation of this stuff, and I would love for priests to speak up or even post signs indicating why reverence is required and what appropriate attire looks like.
I also would like to see youth ministers model respectful dress for the young people. The kids wouldn’t need much encouragement to dress well. I strongly suspect that if they’re told about modest/appropriate attire many would start wearing it to church. Further, if that information were followed up on by the youth group having a group dress well, many others would probably follow suit (do girls really need an excuse to want to wear nice clothing?).