• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Saint Antoine Daniel KYRIALE
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Three Categories of Liturgical Problem

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · May 22, 2014

0319_firefighter-mass-LG N DISCUSSIONS OF LITURGY, one often notices people lumping together problems that are really quite distinct and, therefore, demand different treatments. As a Thomist, I find it helpful to make distinctions and place phenomena in categories.

It seems to me that we are dealing with three categories:

1. The Discontinuous.
2. The Dubious.
3. The Abusive.

As an example of the first, one may cite the new calendar of the modern Roman rite, with its substitution of Ordinary Time for the Season after Pentecost, its abolition of the ancient octave of Pentecost, the removal of pre-Lent, Rogation days, and Ember days, and so forth. Speaking generally, many features of the Ordinary Form are discontinuous with the liturgical tradition that preceded it. This is a problem so serious that it can be repaired only by a pope or an ecumenical council, although naturally bishops and priests can do much to circumvent it simply by returning to the last integral expression of the Roman Rite, the 1962 Missale Romanum, and celebrating it more and more widely. This, in itself, will bring long-term healing by setting up the highest standard and introducing many faithful to the timeless riches of the ancient form of the liturgy.

The second category contains things that are anti-traditional but currently permitted―for example, communion in the hand, females in the sanctuary, the celebration of Mass against the people rather than towards the East, the use of organ during Lent, and other departures from centuries-old practice. Unlike the first, however, this category can be addressed directly by bishops and priests. In particular, bishops are empowered to keep the liturgical life of their dioceses safe from corruption or, if it is already damaged, to bring it back into harmony with Catholic tradition.

The third category refers to things that are not permitted by the Apostolic See but are nonetheless widespread, of which by far the most common example is the “habitual use of extraordinary ministers of holy communion,” which has been repeatedly excluded by church legislation. Of course, the combination of worldwide rebellion against the rules and an utter lack of will-power on the part of ecclesiastical authorities to implement them means, in practice, that nearly everything is tolerated and the rules are made a mockery of. Still, problems in this category are precisely the kind that any priest is allowed to repair on his own authority, since they are abuses of the discipline that he is required to uphold.

THE MORE OUR YOUNG PEOPLE become educated about their Catholic Faith, its traditions and history, the less they will be able to tolerate the postconciliar aberrations in any of these categories. The hermeneutic of rupture and discontinuity can survive only to the extent that people are poorly catechized and educated. Give them the truth, and they will say: “Why are we doing all this other stuff?” A sound theological education is pretty much the direct opposite of the spirit of Vatican II.

The Church is changing: the youth are more demanding and discerning, and they are not satisfied with glib, sentimental, condescending, or duplicitous answers. They are attracted to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite for its awesome stillness, its eloquent gestures, the richness of its prayers. It breathes the spirit of prayer, and if prayer is what you’re looking for, you want the real thing―glowing hot coals in the woodstove, not the electric heater. Yes, the rupturists and discontinuists will be around a lot longer, but the logic of their own position is such as to push them increasingly to the margins of the Church, from which they will eventually bail out when they see that their progressivist-modernist agenda is never going to win the day. Meanwhile, the tightly-knit, highly motivated, and extremely pro-clergy, pro-religious, and pro-family traditionalist movement, though relatively small in numbers, has the bloom and boldness of youth on it, and, simply from a demographic point of view, looks poised to be the major force shaping Catholicism in the coming decades.

As Fr. John Hunwicke so rightly said: “Benedict’s Age is a good age in which to be alive, an age of the very truest instauratio catholica.”

Please visit THIS PAGE to learn more about Dr. Kwasniewski’s exciting new publication,
Sacred Choral Works, a 273-page collection of a cappella choir music for the Liturgy.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

A graduate of Thomas Aquinas College (B.A. in Liberal Arts) and The Catholic University of America (M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy), Dr. Peter Kwasniewski is currently Professor at Wyoming Catholic College. He is also a published and performed composer, especially of sacred music.

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

I am convinced that if the Church is to prosper in the present age, it cannot hesitate to embrace and support traditional Catholics, traditional liturgies and traditional moral values. “Do not conform yourself to this age,” St. Paul warned followers of Christ. (Rom 12:2)

— Most Rev. Thomas Tobin, Bishop of Providence (12 August 2022)

Recent Posts

  • Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
  • Apply Right Now! • Sacred Music Symposium
  • Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
  • PDF Download • Belgian Book of Gregorian Accompaniments (Official Edition)
  • Don’t You Agree About These?

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2023 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.