You may have already seen recent reports of this parish on several popular blogs: The Crescat, New Liturgical Movement, Fr. Z’s Blog, and Public Catholic.
Well, here is our contribution: a link to Saint Patrick’s Facebook page.
Tags: Liturgical Prancing
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Pretty ghastly. DoR deja vu all over again. I have written to Abp. J. Peter Sartain twice and found him to be very responsive. Perhaps he should get a dossier on Bp. Clark’s misguided practices in Rochester, to see how far the liturgies at St. Patrick’s can sink? His address is: Archdiocese of Seattle, Office of the Archbishop, 710 9th Ave. Seattle WA 98104-2017.
The Diocesan website is http://www.seattlearchdiocese.org
Did you see the photo posted on Public Catholic of the sanctuary of a Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Seattle for Superbowl Sunday? Two large green X’s the height of the sanctuary, on either side of the sanctuary, with the logo of the Seattle Seahawks and Superbowl XLIX. Green streamers strewn from the ceiling of the sanctuary. A blue banner with white lettering of the number 12 and Seahawks directly underneath, placed under the large wall crucifix in the sanctuary. And there is Jesus on the crucifix in the background. It looks more like a shrine to the Seattle Seahawks. I am not against football, but I consider this theme for sanctuary decoration for Holy Mass completely inappropriate and sacrilegious. At least I never saw anything like this in the Diocese of Rochester.
Regarding the 2010 Easter Vigil Liturgy at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church – The sung reading of the Israelites Crossing The Red Sea was tampered with. From New Liturgical Movement:
“The refrain of the canticle of Moses in Exodus 15 is changed from the official English version of its opening words, “Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory!” to a distant paraphrase, “Sing the song of freedom; God has won the vict’ry. Horse and chariot are cast into the sea.” If you listen all the way through to the end, (which you can’t, of course), you will hear of several other things which have been cast into the sea, each illustrated by a new dance move: “fear and loneliness, death and emptiness … hate and prejudice, chains and slavery.” There is no point in putting the liturgy in the vernacular, if we do so only to rob the people of God of the truth and majesty of His Word in this fashion.”
That Easter Vigil had to be really long when you notice how long that altered sung reading with response accompanied by liturgical dance is going on.
Fr. Z had a legitimate concern about the lack of men who attend Mass regularly and are involved with church activity outside of Mass. A Superbowl Theme to the sanctuary/altar is not the way to go to attract more male participation at Mass.
St. Patrick’s seems to illustrate a common theme with liturgy in some churches over the last 25 years. An overt attempt to feminize the Mass by making changes to existing texts to make them more inclusive and contemporary, and inserting gratuitous liturgical dance into parts of the mass.
There is a happy medium when Men and Women can worship in Spirit and Truth at the Altar of the Lord with their God-given gifts.
As a Seattle native, and Seahawks fan, I am appalled that the Church would ever consider that kind of ‘decoration’ appropriate.
We do not go to Mass to be entertained by pep rally décor, music, dance, or any other activity that detracts from the sanctity of the celebration inherent in the Mass itself.
I can only ask “What were they thinking?”
Or perhaps, more to the point, “Were they thinking?”
I’m with you emmagrays.
I realized after my previous posted comments, I should have separated Fr. Z’s concern about the lack of men who attend Mass regularly and who are in involved in church activities outside of Mass
with the Superbowl Theme of Seattle Seahawks on the Altar
because Fr. Z did not propose such a thing and I imagine he would be horrified if he saw a photo of the Altar and viewed that “Superbowl Sunday Mass.”