Dr. Carol Byrne: A Series on the History of the Dialogue Mass

[Stone]

Dr. Carol Byrne: A Series on the History of the Dialogue Mass

Continuing with the Anti-Liturgical Heresies

[Taken from here - Emphasis The Catacombs]

5. Devaluation of the supernatural nature of the liturgy

Dom Prosper Guéranger outlined the fifth anti-liturgical heresy in terms that seem all too familiar in modern times:

“The Protestants cut away in the Liturgy all the ceremonies, all the formulas which express mysteries. They dubbed as superstition and idolatry everything that did not seem to be merely rational, thus, limiting the expression of faith, obscuring by doubt and even negation all the views, which open on the supernatural world.” 1

In his day, Dom Guéranger noted that, under the influence of Protestantism, the reformed liturgy had lost its properly sacramental character:

“Thus, no more Sacraments, except Baptism… No more sacramentals, blessings, images, relics of Saints, processions, pilgrimages, etc. No more altar, only a table, no more sacrifice… but only a meal.” 2

An entirely desacralized ambience for the Poor Clares to pray the Divine Office

His observations have a strangely prophetic ring about them. Ever since the Novus Ordo Missae was introduced to replace the traditional Roman Mass, the expression of the Catholic Faith was muted and desacralized to conform to a this-worldly model. The members of the Consilium succeeded in giving the new rites a deliberately ambiguous, “ecumenical” flavor, with the result that whatever takes place in them could be interpreted in a Protestant way. (This is hardly surprising since the Novus Ordo was created with the help of six Protestant Observers).

Under the “ecumenical” influence, many Catholics now regard sacramentals as forms of superstition; the blessing of objects by a priest has become conspicuous by its absence; the relics of Saints are regarded with faint amusement as curious mementoes of a bygone age. Even the concept of a Catholic pilgrimage, shorn of its penitential character and expectations of miraculous cures, has been reinvented as a metaphor for “walking together” with people of different religious beliefs on an indeterminate “faith journey.”


6. The extinction of the spirit of prayer

D. Guéranger pointed to the inevitable result of removing the mystical element from worship, which is the sixth anti-liturgical heresy:

“The suppression of the mystical element in the Protestant liturgy would, infallibly, produce the total extinction of that spirit of prayer, which, in Catholicism, we call unction.” 3

Anyone attending the New Mass or any of the new Sacraments, characterized by non-stop talking and constant activity of all present, is bound to notice that the whole atmosphere of the proceedings is not conducive to prayer and contemplation.


7. Devaluation of the intercession of Our Lady & the Saints

D. Guéranger explained the Protestant distaste for the Catholic custom of praying to the Saints:

“Protestant liturgy has no need of intermediaries. To invoke the help of the Blessed Virgin, or the protection of Saints, would be, for them, a lack of respect due to the Supreme Being.” 4

In the churches built according to Vatican II, the side altars dedicated to Our Lady & the Saints disappeared

At Vatican II, the traditional Catholic veneration of Our Lady met with the disapproval of the Protestant Observers and was actively suppressed because it was not in keeping with the New Theology and also considered prejudicial to ecumenism. For the same reasons, the “Glorious and ever-Virgin Mary” herself was downgraded to the status of an ordinary member of the “People of God.” (One parish priest used to refer to her as “that little Jewish girl from a village in Judea.”)

As a result, many Marian devotions such as the Rosary, novenas, litanies etc. fell out of use and became unknown to the rising generation of Catholics. It is an observable fact that the Novus Ordo attendees are no longer familiar with the Hail Holy Queen which used to be recited communally after every Low Mass, while many priests are incapable of reciting the Angelus, even in English.

Similarly with veneration of the Saints, the faithful were not encouraged to pray to them as intercessors, but to see them as role models for various projects in the modern world. In other words, the Saints were deprived of their supernatural virtues and “re-imagined” to make them speak in a “relevant” way to modern man. Hundreds of them were deleted from the Calendar in 1970, and so disappeared as commemorations in the Mass. In the Ordinary of the Mass, their names were no longer mentioned in the Confiteor, the Communicantes or the Libera nos.


8. Hatred of Latin: The liturgy must be in the language of the people

D. Guéranger accurately described the thinking behind the use of the vernacular in the liturgy as an attack on the unity of faith among Catholics:

“Since the liturgical reform had for one of its principal aims the abolition of actions and formulas of mystical signification, it is a logical consequence that its authors had to vindicate the use of the vernacular in Divine Worship.

“This is, in the eyes of sectarians, a most important item. Worship is not a secret matter, they say. The people must understand what they sing. All the enemies of Rome have a visceral hatred for the Latin language [in the liturgy]. They recognize it as the bond among Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit.” 5

D. Guéranger was so opposed to the use of the vernacular that he would not even provide translations of the Mass. He went on to state:

“We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory. Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks in the marketplace.” 6

Yet an updated version of this preference for the vernacular, supported by the Liturgical Movement, is precisely the situation in the modern Church, and is impelled by the same desire to diminish and destroy the sacred character of the liturgy.


9. Disappearance of the penitential spirit

D. Guéranger noted that the Protestants altered their religious services in order to achieve “liberation from the fatigue and the burden of the body imposed by the rules of the papist Liturgy.” The result was predictable: “no more fasting, no more abstinence, no more genuflections in prayer.” 7 And, true to form, the Novus Ordo liturgy followed suit, with the reduction of these to almost zero point.

The emphasis of the Liturgical Movement was in the direction of removing onerous requirements that may cause discomfort – physically or psychologically – such as kneeling, using or hearing the Latin language, being confronted with Gospel passages considered too “negative” for modern sensibilities, or having to endure longer ceremonies. Vatican II facilitated this priority for ease and comfort by insisting on “simplification” as a required feature of the new liturgy.

As D. Guéranger pointed out, the overall result of streamlining the liturgy results in reducing the sum total of prayer, both public and private, throughout the Church. And the inevitable consequence of this reform was that both Faith and Charity, which draw their sustenance from prayer, become atrophied and die. 8


To be continued


1. Prosper Guéranger, Institutions Liturgiques, 4 vols., Paris: Société Générale de Librairie Catholique, vol 1, 1878, p. 401.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., p. 402.
6. Ibid., p.403.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.