Posted on 02/12/2019 4:37:58 PM PST by marshmallow
BAY CITY, Michigan, February 8, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Michigan bishop has removed a priest from his parish after he blamed the priest for causing "division" by extolling and implementing traditional Catholic liturgical practices.
Bishop Walter Hurley, 81, the apostolic administrator of Saginaw, removed Father Edwin C. Dwyer on January 29 from Our Lady of Peace parish in Bay City, MI.
After contemplating the precipitous drop in Mass attendance in his diocese, and the growing popularity of such traditional Catholic sacramentals as incense among the young, Dwyer announced in December that he would re-introduce such distinctively Catholic aspects to one of his Masses.
In a homily later published on social media, Dwyer asked his parishioners to notice that few people in the pews were his age, 36, or younger. Stressing the importance of young people for the future of the Church, Dwyer said that he wanted to do whatever worked to “embolden” younger Catholics and attract young non-Catholics to the faith.
“Believe it or not, tradition works,” he said.
“So-called ’old ways’ are quite popular among younger Catholics. Smells, bells, classic hymns, chant, prolonged silence, and, hold on for this one, Latin are all largely embraced by the younger generations of the Church,” he continued.
“Furthermore, when younger non-Catholics experience these traditions they are struck by how different they are from everything else they experience in a noisy, secular culture. These ‘old ways’ are beautiful to them, and beauty is a great place to introduce young folks to Jesus Christ.”
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I’m not a Catholic, but I would imagine that those things would be precious & important for Catholics. Am I wrong?
They are very precious.
I hate calling a Bishop dumb, but this line of thinking is dumb and self destructive. This time, it’s not the younger generation going ‘radical’ and being untraditional, it is the Elder doing so. The reasoning probably leads back to money in some manner.
I like the bells and the chants. I don’t feel called to an entire Latin Mass, but our parish throws in a little latin on certain responses, and that works for me. (Agnus Dei).
You are not wrong, they are very important. We simply have excessively poor leadership in this era of the Catholic church.
JoMa
I’ve never understood the reason why the Catholic hierarchy is so against the traditional Latin mass. If there’s a priest willing to conduct one, in addition to the modern one, and there are congregants who want it, then why not?
It was only one of several Sunday masses, and nothing done was against the Ordinary Form rubrics. This is an injustice by the bishop.
When I was between 8-10 I had these girls across the street from me who were good friends. Their father was a judge & they were twins with older brothers. Huge Irish family.Their house was rambunctious, big & they had lots of food. My mom was into health food, so it was like heaven to get snacks from the pantry!
Anyway, they would invite me to their Beautiful Catholic church sometimes. This was late 60’s, early 70’s. It was old school & mesmerizing to me. I remember feeling like I had been transported to a different world. I even fainted one time. I never forgot the solemn beauty and rituals. And the incense.......
Bishop Walter Hurley is yet another one of the apostates who hates the Catholic Church and is determined to destroy it from within.
I pray for our Catholic friends that they can retake the Throne of St. Peter from these despicable, detestable, and endlessly evil men.
It starts to wake people up, that they (the bishops) attempted to change Catholicism, water down the faith. It’s very dangerous.
Why oh why in this increasing land of plastic would some Catholics not want the beauty and the rituals??????
Not at all. Traditional liturgies show the richness and beauty of 2000 years of Christian worship.
CC
“I’ve never understood the reason why the Catholic hierarchy is so against the traditional Latin mass.”
Because allowing traditional forms to exist anywhere in the Church would also provide a sanctuary for traditional doctrines and traditional morals. No way the progressives would allow that.
There has been an increase of chants, incense in Lutheran Church’s that follow historic Litugry... I like even if incense is overbearing at times.
“feeling like I had been transported to a different world.”
Exactly! That is the point of all these stylings, customs and adornments. To provide a unique experience, a Divine distraction from the mundane world of routine and basic physical survival. None are necessary, but they certainly do help to set the mood. We are strongly effected by our immediate environment. To pretend otherwise is foolish.
I can live with a lot, but I wish they’d get rid of all the handshaking. If I wanted to shake hands with strangers, I’d become a Mason, or sell insurance.
Those things never went away in the Byzantine Catholic Rite. Come and see...
Some of todays’ Catholics are too worried about offending people who are not and will never be Catholic.
A church near me Saint Isabella in Terra Linda Ca., is said to have moved some of the Holy Statues down into the basement and away from where the Mass is held in church. Why?
Because some newer (Muslim!) students in the CATHOLIC grade school might feel ‘uncomfortable’!
A few statues were brought back upstairs after word got out, but not all of them. This was about a year ago.
That is just one tiny sample of spineless Holy Men.
There must be a reason why our little parish is growing so fast. there are less than 15 gray heads. All the rest are young couples and millennials, and at last count, 30 children under 10. At least 2 pregnant women. And apart from a few pews for old folks and nursing moms, the majority of the congregation sits on the floor for the sermons. (yes. one for the kids and one for the old kidders like me...)
“—— All the rest are young couples and millennials”
Wouldn’t the young couples BE millennials?
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