HAVE THE HOLY TRINITY PRIESTS
COMPLIED WITH THE CARDINAL'S LETTER?

 

[N.B. I only attend weekday Masses at Holy Trinity;
I cannot attest to what occurs on Sundays.]

 

I. Laity Preaching and Presiding:

The Cardinal wrote to Fr. Madden:

"Lay Preaching and Presiding

"1) Bishop Lori discussed with you the various instances of lay preaching and presiding at Holy Trinity Parish. Instances of this include the 1997 Ash Wednesday Service at which Dr. Linda Arnold presided and preached, as well as a 1993 "Reconciliation Series" at which a number of lay men and women presided and preached. It is my understanding that similar services took place in subsequent years as well.

...

"3) The Bishop also expressed concern over lay preaching in the context of Mass, sacramental celebrations and Vespers. He cited both Canon 767 and the authentic interpretation of that Canon by the Holy See.

"4) In view of those concerns, which I fully share, I appreciate and accept your pledge that "...there will be no preaching at any liturgical service (e.g., Vespers) by anyone other than a priest or deacon."

The Holy Trinity Parish Bulletin for March 15, 1998, had the following announcement: "Dr. Linda Arnold will lead a Prayer Service honoring women and in celebration of Women's History Month on Thursday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Church."

II. Inclusive Language:

The Cardinal wrote to Fr. Madden:

"Inclusive Language

"1) In your meetings with Bishop Lori, it was determined that both the Scriptural readings and the Mass texts are regularly modified at Holy Trinity to make them more "gender inclusive." This also extends to the hymns sung during liturgical services." (emphasis added)

"2) You indicated that Margaret Costello, the parish liturgy director, is responsible for most of these modifications. You said that these changes are mainly confined to "horizontal" language and do not extend to "vertical language" - that is, the names for God. You indicated that the proper names of God, "Father, Son and Holy Spirit," are retained far sacramental formulae and blessings. Nonetheless, you indicated that, at times, the personal pronoun "He," and the possessive adjective "His" - when these refer to God or to Jesus - are replaced. In addition, your music director, Mr. William Usher, indicated that "Father" could be replaced with other images of God since fatherhood is "a painful image" for many people today. You expressed disagreement with Mr. Usher on that point and subsequently clarified that his role is confined to the texts of hymns." (emphasis added)

"I have given no permission for experimentation with inclusive language at Holy Trinity Parish. Neither the clergy nor any member o£ your staff is authorized to change Scriptural translations or Mass texts." (emphasis added)

"Only those translations of the Sacramentary approved by the NCCB and the Holy See are to be used at Holy Trinity, effective immediately." (emphasis added)

The Sacramentary is the book containing all the Mass texts other than the Scripture readings for the day. In that part of the Scramentary containing the Ordinary (or unchanging part) of the Mass, there are four times in which a masculine pronoun is used in reference to God. The priests at Holy Trinity still substitute gender-neutral variants in all four of these places:

 

GLORIA

 

 

CREDO

 

All but one of the Holy Trinity priests (and all of the parish's printed programmes) say "Who" instead of "He": viz., "who, with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified" and "who has spoken through the prophets." (emphases added)

 

ORATE FRATRES

 

PREFACE

 

 

III. ORDINARY PRAYERS OF THE MASS:

The Cardinal wrote to Fr. Madden:

"[I]t is important for parish clergy and staff to be well-versed in Church teaching and discipline. In addition to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, this also includes The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Code of Canon Law, the Ecumenical Directory, various liturgical directives from the Holy See and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Sacramental Norms and Policies of the Archdiocese of Washington. Parish priests and parish staff must know and accept the Church's discipline and understand the reasons that underlie it. No one in a position of parish leadership, especially a priest, should plead 'ignorance of the law.'"

"Neither the clergy nor any member o£ your staff is authorized to change Scriptural translations or Mass texts." (emphasis added)

"Only those translations of the Sacramentary approved by the NCCB and the Holy See are to be used at Holy Trinity, effective immediately." (emphasis added)

The Sacramentary, which is the book containing the Mass texts other than the Scripture readings for the day, includes a General Instruction of the Roman Missal (The one now in force is the 4th Ed., 1975). There have been a series of periodic official interpretations issued by the Holy See The Sacramentary states precisely what are the prayers that must be said at any Mass. The Holy Trinity priests, however, regularly omit, or alter, the following: the Credo (on holy days of obligation), the Lavabo (at weekday Masses) the separate and distinct Offertory prayers over the bread and wine (at weekday Masses), and the Mass's prescribed final blessing of the congregation (at all Masses).

 

WHEN THE CREDO MUST BE SAID

 

 

TWO DISTINCT PRAYERS OVER THE GIFTS ARE REQUIRED

 

 

LAVABO MUST BE SAID

 

 

DISMISSAL

 

 

III. Vestments, Altar Furnishings, Rubrics:

The Cardinal wrote to Fr. Madden:

"[I]t is important for parish clergy and staff to be well-versed in Church teaching and discipline. In addition to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, this also includes The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Code of Canon Law, the Ecumenical Directory, various liturgical directives from the Holy See and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Sacramental Norms and Policies of the Archdiocese of Washington. Parish priests and parish staff must know and accept the Church's discipline and understand the reasons that underlie it. No one in a position of parish leadership, especially a priest, should plead 'ignorance of the law.'"

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (4th Ed., 1975), and the subsequent periodic official interpretations issued by the Holy See, state exactly what vestments the priest is to wear at Mass and how they are to be worn, state that the chalice is to be covered prior to the Offertory, state which specific gestures of respect the priest is to show the Body and Blood of Christ during Mass, state which bodily positions the congregation is supposed to assume during the various parts of the Mass, and state precisely when Holy Communion is to be distributed to the laity, including altar servers and extraordinary Eucharistic ministers.

 

CHASUBLE IS TO BE WORN OVER STOLE

 

 

CHALICE VEIL, CORPORAL, AND COMMUNION PLATE ARE REQUIRED

 

 

CONGREGATION IS TO KNEEL DURING THE CONSECRATION

 

THE PRIEST IS REQUIRED TO GENUFLECT

 

THE PRIEST IS REQUIRED TO BOW

 

Only two of the Holy Trinity priests make the required profound bow at the reference in the Creed to the Incarnation or at the other times in the Mass when profound bows are required.

 

THE REQUIRED MANNER FOR DISTRIBUTION OF HOLY COMMUNION:

COMMUNION UNDER BOTH KINDS

 

At all Masses at Holy Trinity the laity are allowed to receive under both kinds by themselves dipping the Host into the Chalice and then consuming the Eucharist.

 

You may be wondering, what does it matter that Holy Trinity priests depart from the Church's liturgical rules. Isn't this much ado about nothing?

Of course, the question could be put the other way. Why do the Holy Trinity priests find it so important to insist on continuing in their disobeying the Archdiocese's, and the Church's, rules for saying Mass?

Their insistence is truly quite perplexing.

With the possible exception of the "inclusive language" issue, I would bet that hardly more than an infinitissimally small percentage of Holy Trinity Mass-goers are able to identify a single one of their priests' deviations from the Church's liturgical rules. What then is the point of them?

Is it just these priests' contrariness? Dissent for dissent's sake?

I contend that all their deviations derive from a novel understanding of God and of the Eucharist that is held by the Holy Trinity priests.

Not necessarily wrong or forbidden understandings, but certainly new ones.

And, because these are new understandings, they are understandings that only the Church Herself, and not any individual priests or individual parishes, should have the prerogative of adopting at public Masses - and, even then, only adopted after the Church has followed all her duly constituted procedures,.

The inclusive language Holy Trinity uses for God in its prayers at Mass comes, of course, from the parish's deference to feminist concerns. But such language also shows how modern man even dares presume to re-formulate Revelation to suit his preferences.

Much more serious, in my opinion, are the deviations touching on the Eucharist. The purpose, or, at least, the effect, of these deviations, individually and collectively, is simply to detract from the historic Catholic understanding of what occurs at Mass. And this is important because what occurs at Mass is precisely our Redemption.

Especially with their not genuflecting, with their re-writing the response to the Orate Fratres prayer to refer to "our sacrifice," with their having the congregation stand throughout the Eucharistic Prayers, and with their disregarding the specific requirements on how Holy Communion is to be distributed, the Holy Trinity priests are leading the congregation into a novel belief that the Eucharistic sacrifice is not being offered by Jesus Christ alone (using the priest as but a "body double"), but is being offered by the assembled congregation.

Of course, the Church wants the priest and the laity present at Mass all to be offering up to God their own sacrifices.

But the personal sacrifices of the priest and of thoae laity physically present at any Mass are not the same as the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass, which is offered only by Jesus Christ (and, by logical extension, by the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ).

Moreover, the manner by which the Holy Trinity priests say Mass tends to blur the distinction between the priests' two different rôles at Mass, namely 1) the priests' principal rôle of acting as alter Christus during the offering, in an unbloody manner, of Jesus's sacrifice of immolation for us on Calvary, and then, but only secondarily, 2) the priests' subsidiary rôle of being presiders of assemblies of the faithful at worship services.

From the Holy Trinity priests' manner of saying Mass, one would hardly know that there is, at each and every Mass, physically (not just really) present the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, both true God and true Man.

The fact, in other words, that, ever since the day of Jesus's Ascension into Heaven almost two thousand years ago, He has (to our certain knowledge) only been physically present on this Earth in this unique, Eucharistic manner. I doubt any stranger attending a Holy Trinity Parish celebration of Mass would ever so much as suspect he or she is witnessing that.

 

An essay I wrote on translating scriptural and liturgical texts

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