Catholic Liturgical Liberals Are So Predictable

There is a liturgist that blogs and comments at St. Blog's who is fairly well-known for dragging up "the Scandal" whenever something is posted about liturgical reform.

This tired old technique of distracting attention away from the topic of addressing liturgical deficiencies is, apparently, the favored tactic of liberals who are quickly transforming into reactionaries as implementation of Liturgiam Authenticam picks up steam.

Case in point: Last month I blogged about Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair's monthly column in the Catholic Chronicle in which he addressed the changes recently adopted for the English translation of the Roman liturgy. This month's Catholic Chronicle contains 3 letters responding negatively to the Bishop's column. Here is a sampling from all 3 letters (see if you can discern a theme):

Letter #1:
Bishop Leonard P. Blair's thorough explanation of the reasons for the changes in the Roman Missal left this person-in-the-pew still wondering.

Considering the recent difficulties and challenges the church has had to deal with, the ongoing priest shortage and serious world-wide problems facing mankind, why is the hierarchy spending so much precious time and effort fixing something that isn't broken? (emphasis added)

[ED.: Here, the author spills the beans about what's REALLY bothering her.] I sincerely hope these revisions are not attempts to transport the church back to pre-Vatican II days.

Joan Bradner
Toledo Corpus Christi University Parish


Letter #2:
... With all the problems facing the world and the church, which should be helping find solutions to those problems, is this really where our bishops should be putting their energies? Aren't they a little more concerned about the faithful who are no longer filling our pews because of the problems within the Church itself in addition to the war, world hunger and poverty, to name a few of tremendous consequence? (emphasis added)

...I try not to be angry because I am generally not an angry person, but I do feel the hierarchy, to quote a familiar cliche, are arranging the deck chairs while the Titanic sinks. At the very least, this saddens me.

Carol Kraus
Toledo St. Joan of Arc


Letter #3:
... Changing liturgical colors, pronouns, modifiers and endings barely begin to address the overriding moral issues of our times. Indeed, they serve as a grand distraction. (emphasis added)

Sheila Otto
Toledo Corpus Christi University Parish

Notice a trend?

The implication being that the Church can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Or rather, that the Church can't tackle the important issue of providing its members with authentic worship according to the Latin Rite while at the same time addressing these liberal parishioners' pet peace and justice issues.

But we've heard all this before. Even Jesus Himself was faced with a similar challenge from Judas Iscariot, who claimed that the expensive ritual oil used to annoint the feet of Our Lord was wasted because such oil could have been sold and the money used to help the poor. Judas, however, clearly was less concerned about helping the poor than he was about lining his own coffers as the "treasurer" of the disciples.

Similarly, these claims from liberal Catholics that the Church's time is best spent solving the world's problems than with addressing liturgical deficiencies are less about helping those in need than they are about the liturgical liberals' "need" to keep the "Spirit of Vatican II" alive.