Is it appropriate to use the church sanctuary for performances?
If yes, where do we draw the line?
Note: The above image is not recent (early 2000s).
Note: The above image is not recent (early 2000s). Tags: Progressive Drivel
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| Defending Truth and Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church |
It's never appropriate.
first priority: is the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the church proper? If so, then performance should probably not happen. If it were temporarily moved (like, say, at St Salome for the Dr Ray Guarendi talk) then certain things are certainly permissible–I'd say that there needs to be a bona fide reason to have that performance THERE as well–if it is Catholic in nature, then I see little issue. But what about, say, a concert to benefit a worthy cause, if that music is in line with church teaching, but not explicitly christian in nature? In that case, I strongly prefer to have it outside the church, but that may be preference
as for utterly pointless drivel? Get it outta here!
No. Never appropriate. Our Lord is present, and it is not suitable to have nuts dancing around the altar, or women singing "praise songs", or Priests inviting children up to sit around the altar to have a "we're all a family lets show it" consecration while singing some hippy rock version of "Yes, Jesus loves me!"
Quite often Catholic church are used for choral or organ concerts, in which case the Blessed Sacrament must be removed from the tabernacle (if you can find it) and kept in the sacristy with the sanctuary lamp burning next to it.
Every performance in God's sanctuary is an act of rape against Domus Dei.
Balloons = face paint = pizza party.
Lo, the mathematics of dissent.