Last week I shared a video on social media that went viral (with more than 59,000 views at last count). What was this video? Was it a cat doing a cute trick? Or a Karen going crazy at an unmasked man? No, it was a boomer priest hamming it up for the camera and engaging in centering prayer and other abuses during his parish’s online Mass.
When I shared the video, I knew it would be controversial, although I didn’t think it would go that viral. Normally I don’t find helpful the “look at this terrible Novus Ordo Mass” videos that pop up periodically on social media, but this one is different.
On January 25, Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice (Florida) issued a letter to his priests essentially forbidding them to celebrate the Novus Ordo Mass “ad orientem” (although he misspelled it “ad orientum,” which led to much online mockery). He stated that a priest who celebrates ad orientem (which literally means “toward the East” and liturgically refers to the priest facing the same direction as the people during the Mass) is inserting his “private choice” into the liturgy, which is not appropriate for the celebration of the Eucharist.
This raised my hackles. You see, I lived in the Diocese of Venice for five years. In fact, I worked directly for Bishop Dewane as the diocese’s Director of Evangelization during that time. Part of my job included visiting the parishes, which often meant attending Mass at those parishes. So I am intimately familiar with how Mass is typically celebrated throughout the diocese. And aside from a few solid (mostly young) priests, the celebrating priest’s “private choices” dominated at those Masses. Personal preference ruled the day, and although Bishop Dewane did not seem to like the abuses, I never saw him do anything about it.
When I first arrived at the Diocese of Venice, my family were happy Novus Ordo-attending Catholics. We explored the parishes around us, but what we found were variations on the same theme: the priest was a performer, celebrating the Mass to please the congregation and to boost his ego. This is the reason we first started attending the traditional Latin Mass—we couldn’t find a reverent Novus Ordo within driving distance and didn’t want our kids exposed to such dismally-celebrated liturgies. We needed an escape from the insanity.
So when Bishop Dewane forbade the ancient liturgical form of ad orientem (which has been the norm since the early Church and is still standard in the Eastern churches) as a priest’s “private choice,” I couldn’t help but think, “What about all those Masses in the diocese dominated by priests’ personal preferences? Why weren’t they ever curtailed?”
After his letter came out, it didn’t take long for me to find a current example to confirm abuses were still rampant. Just a few miles south of where I lived (and at a parish I visited more than once when working for the diocese) is Sacred Heart Parish in Punta Gorda, Florida and pastor Fr. Jerry Kaywell. This parish streams magnificently-produced online Masses, and their YouTube channel has quite a following.
Looking just at the most recent Mass, I found a performance dominated by the personal preferences of Fr. Jerry. And this wasn’t a one-time incident—all the Masses the parish put online are similar. Every aspect of the production (it almost can’t be called a “liturgy”) reflects all the abuses of the liturgy that Pope Francis claims to be concerned about but lay Catholics have endured for 50 years now.
When it came to sharing these egregious abuses on social media, I picked one particular part to highlight: Father Jerry replaced the Penitential Rite with centering prayer spiritual breaths. From my experience, I can tell you that centering prayer is very popular in the diocese, so it didn’t surprise me that it was integrated into the Mass. But this was just one of many abuses in 45 minutes filled with them.
Needless to say, faithful Catholics who saw this were outraged. A bishop who forbids an ancient Christian practice—one that Vatican II did not forbid and is in fact assumed in the rubrics of the New Mass—allows these types of practices at his diocese’s liturgies? (And again, this might be one of the more egregious examples, but it’s not far outside the norm for the diocese. I have stories….)
The above comes from a Jan. 31 posting on Crisis magazine.
I hope the Bishop’s office is getting slammed with calls …..
The lesson here is that those bishops fulminating against ad orientem do not take issue with “private choice” as they allow all manner of “private choice” as evidenced by Masses in their diocese. These bishops follow the leftist playbook of supporting free speech as long as it accords with their particular point of view. And the point of view espoused by the bishops is an irrational disdain for anything that smells of TLM. Ad orientem is seen as a foot in the door of creeping traditionalism infecting the pure spirit of Vatican II. Contrary to what I said in the Cupich thread, I now think people who prefer ad orientem should express that to the chancery with vigor. If these prelates really care about the “smell of the sheep,” they will listen. And what is the big deal about ad orientem? It ensures the focus of the Mass is not on the priest but on Christ, where it should be. I fear those prelates who reject ad orientem have their priorities very very wrong, and need the laity to help them get them right.
Ad orientem only works in a church with a high altar. If it’s a table altar, don’t bother.
It does not matter what people prefer. We are not selling cat litter. We are praying the Holy Mass.
I think that the protestors contacting the Bishop are wasting their time.
He knows full well what is going on. All he has to do is turn on his TV.
Maybe so Frank, but at least it tests the sincerity of prelates claiming to put a premium on smelling the sheep…and this includes Pope Francis. If the synodal way has any meaning, it has to have meaning for those priests and laity who prefer ad orientem.
You just don’t get it.
A shepherd who smells like the sheep does not mean a shepherd who follows the sheep.
If you click the link, you get a twitter which says that the Penitential Rite has been replaced by three spiritual breaths. That is a lie, The Kyrie Eleison is led by the choir after the breathing exercise (which admittedly is not part of the Mass and I feel should be done before the Mass begins with the Sign of the Cross, if at all). This is a video Mass for those at home. The priest does not “Say the black, do the red.” which I do not offer an excuse for. He should.
But it is not ok to lie or to be so sloppy that you bear false witness.
When I saw the word ‘essentially” I knew the truth was not being told.
Click on the link (blue word- letter) and you can follow it to what the bishop actually said.
It is just dirty fighting
Wife: I want a 2 carat diamond
Husband: no, I can’t afford that
Wife: And you say you’re a good provider. You vowed to love me and if you say you love me but you don’t buy me a 2 carat diamond then your words and your love are meaningless
Interesting how the comment this was a response to disappeared.
Now it makes no sense.
I viewed the Mass and it’s quite the inadvertent ad libbing ad for ad orientem Masses. I thought this type of Mass ceased after the 1970’s. Is there anything about this Mass that would appeal to anyone not old enough (or nearly old enough) to qualify for Medicare? If I wanted to see a performance, I think I’d prefer Hugh Jackman as The Greatest Showman. Maybe if I can find my Buick keys and hair dye, I can drive to Florida and become the 13th “apostle” of Punta Gorda. If you don’t believe me, watch the whole Mass yourself. And, in order to avoid violating the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution (which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment), you may want to watch it at 1.5 speed and offer up your suffering. There is a certain purgative effect from the experience. Thanks be to God, such abuse of the Mass has grown rarer. And, may such abuses never be resurrected. Continue to pray for priests, bishops and all of the lay faithful.
In case anyone does not know, it is wrong to get mad at someone and dig up dirt on them and post it on social media.
His former employer, the bishop, did nothing wrong.
I reside in the diocese of Venice, and celebrate Mass at 2 different parishes. I have attended 5 different parishes as a faithful from the pew. I concelebrated the Veteran’s day Mass with Bishop Frank Dewane. While my sample may be small, other than the oddities of this online video, the Masses were reverently celebrated by the priests. One younger priest was so very clear and faithful in his homily, that I praised this priest to Bishop Dewane at my in person interview with the bishop. I don’t doubt that some clean up instruction to “do the red say the black”, referring to following the rubrics and praying the Mass as written, by bishops in their role to sanctify would be helpful, particularly when offered by Bishop Dewane who himself celebrates Holy Mass according to the rubrics and the prayers of the Roman Missal.
Thank you, Fr. Perozich.
It truly is a waste of time, this bishop and most bishops know this rubbish pretending to be a Mass is happening and just could not care less, HOWEVER if this was a TLM with many families and a packed church you know very well the local ordinary would scream to high heaven that there are ridged and loyal Catholics and must be closed down for good. Novus Ordonarians please please keep your giant puppets, altar girls, dancing girls in leotards, lay lectors, laymen handing out cookies, drums, guitars, felt banners, hand holding, kiss of peace, communion in the hand while standing, rock, folk, mariachi music, horrid music, women waving their hands at the lectern making people sing silly songs, you keep all of that and leave us alone with our One True Holy Latin Mass.
I agree, Romulus Augustus. And no wacko, silly, feminized priests, with sicky smiles and soothing voices, ad libbing at Mass, inviting the congregation to do unauthorized, silly pre-Mass breathing exercises to silly music, and a goofy, sicky-smily lay woman introducing the Mass before the priest enters, like an entertainment show, as this disgusting video portrays. The whole video is even worse– I laughed and turned it off. Me-me-me, sicky, fake, over-feminized psycho-babble– with silly feelings galore, even silly very casually-dressed pop musicians wiggling their rumps in church to the beat of me-me-me, touchy-feely lounge music.
Another cut and paste comment against the novus ordo from RA. Broken record.
Nothing done over 50 years ago is a novus ordo.
I think this priest is trying to bring contemplative prayer into the mass, but doing it the wrong way by not following the rubrics, and it is not working. Gospel does not work with contemplative. If he wants true contemplative, he needs to learn the Traditional Latin Mass or the Anglican Use Mass of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter that uses Gregorian or English chant. Perhaps he himself cannot sing. Maybe that is the problem. In that case he should just stick to the rubrics in the missal. Adlibbing only makes people laugh.
I did, though, like his reference to Theophilos, but it should be in the sermon, not integrated into the liturgy itself. It reminds me of Michael O’ Brien’s book “Theophilos”.