Sunday, May 11, 2008

Maniple Mania



Thanks, Fr. Zuhlsdorf

When will the last "moo-moo" alb and burlap chasuble from the 1970's be cast into the nearest incinerator? When Father Brighenti and I were ordained in 1988, using a chalice veil and burse were considered reactionary. If you wore a biretta at Stations of the Cross, wore a cassock & surplice with a black cape at the cemetery, wore purple vestments for funeral Masses, wore black vestments for All Souls' or used a pall over your chalice, you were declared ANATHAMA SIT by the Kumbaya, Ricky-Relevant crowd as well as by the ubiquitous Liturgical Nazis with their Worship Gestapo. Is it not ironic that once the amice (symbol of the helmet of salvation) and the cincture (symbol of chastity & purity) were made redundant thanks to VELCRO ALBS, we saw a sharp increase in priestly vows being broken? Hmmmmmm.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i don't know how you survived! well actually i'm sure the Holy Spirit had something to do with it.
things are a little better i guess, now, if we could get rid of the bongos and tambourines.

Anonymous said...

Your history is very selective to say the least! Priestly and religious vows went down the drain in plenty when amices and 'cingoli' were worn in abundance. Sorry, but the correlation you see is indeed dubious!

Black Biretta said...

I did not infer nor imply that there were NO instances of abuse by clergy prior to the mid-1960's, but the John Jay Foundation proved that most of them (75%) occurred between 1960-1984. Certainly, there were cases of pre-Vatican II abuse by clergy but the numbers were significantly lower and in isolated cases, whereas in the 'conciliar era' we see the greatest number of offenders and sadly the highest number of victims. V2 did NOT create this monster (that would be a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy anyway) but the dissenters from Humanae Vitae and the liturgical innovators who held tradition in disdain did sow the seeds for bad behavior among the clergy. BAD theology + BAD liturgy = BAD morality (clergy and laity), since lex orandi, lex credendi (and also lex agendi). Doctrinal dissent and liturgical abuse breed immorality. Sound doctrine and reverent liturgy encourage people (priests and people) to live morally good and indeed seek to live holy lives. Banal and pedestrian worship does not inspire others to aspire to what is holy, rather, it lures them into what is worldly and temporal.

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