Bad faith

The boyz and girls over at PrayTell continue to slog it out. Nastiness abounds. I am quite used to this kind of stuff on political blogs, but for a site aimed mostly at liturgically progressive types, well, the name-calling and foot-stomping and, Heaven forefend, the stereotyping that goes on. Shocking.

 A boy saint and two girl saints

The Vatican has clarified that for celebrations of the Old Mass, the 1962 rules must be observed. And this means, they say, no female altar boys. Well, you'd think they'd just rolled back no-fault divorce. The two irritable Irish priests (one brilliant and irritable, the other just irritable) had an antiphonal support group going: "It's gynophobia, Joe." "No, Jerry, it's rank misogyny." Pretty cool, eh?

Here's some of the purple prose:

A Ms. Coogan writes:

 How depressing to read this article! Are the temple police striking again, this time with a gratuitous smack-down of young women who might be presumptuous enough to think of serving at mass? Yes, yes, I know–no one has a “right” to special participation in the liturgy. But we all have a right to equal respect from the institutions we associate with. As she intones, “Domine, non sum dignus,” will she glance at the side of the altar and notice that there is a young man serving who is less unworthy than she is?

The May 13 “Instruction” contained the statement “On account of its venerable and ancient use, the forma extraordinaria is to be maintained with appropriate honour.” How would having female servers near the altar dishonor the Extraordinary Form? This seems a punitive development at a time when the rate of depression among teens and incidence of youth suicides are rising, at a time when young people struggle to build some confidence in the future while economies across the globe have yet to recover. The Vatican that is so expert at keeping secrets might have kept this rule from becoming public. What IS the point of announcing it, except to align the Vatican further to the right in the perception of the public? Indeed, if Ecclesia Dei moves just a wee bit further to the right, maybe it’ll fall off its big flat earth.

I call upon priests who celebrate the EF to resolve to do so without altar servers*! You have an obligation not to give a symbolic slap in the face to women.

Sandi (with an "i") is even more apoplectic.

This is truly stomach-turning. Any church that spits on women like this is *not* a Church of God. Once again, the hierarchs have provided proof for the world to see of exactly why this unholy Latin Mess has to be completely eradicated from the face of the earth before we can enter the New Springtime. It does nothing to instill the Spirit of Christ and of Sophia in the people.

Where is the progressive revolt on this?!! NCR isn’t even covering this issue; are PrayTell the only ones who are going to stand up about this? When are we going to throw these misogynistic hierarchs out on their duffs and smash their precious idols (gold crockery, pointy hats, backward-facing altars) once and for all?

She sounds like the love child of Oliver Cromwell and Matthew Fox.

And the irritable but not brilliant Irish priest just shared this:

I’m in Germany at the moment and I picked up a German book today which speculated that a certain kind of person likes the Tridentine rite because it allows them to look at the priest from the back. They wouldn’t at all be interested in looking at female altar servers from the same perspective.

By all accounts, many of the more influential ones among them are in the office which drafted this gynophobic, misogynistic rule.

Priest's behind during Old Mass

And yeah, replied irritable but brilliant Irish priest, a lot of clerics would really prefer boys only at Mass..wink wink...but the new rite forces them to confront or at least hide their gynophobia...

What puzzles me is that these folks hate the Old Mass with a passion that even Archbishop Cranmer could love, but are outraged that young women will not be able to participate in this oppressive medieval ceremony and its "detestable enormities".

Gosh, I miss the Church sometimes.


*Reminds me of an angry progressive nun from the 80's who told a group of monks that their all-male Masses in the monastery were invalid because they lacked representation from one half of the human race...

**A wry remark in French, from the old progressives, who talked about choosing between "la Messe face au peuple ou fesses au peuple"...face to the people or butt to the people. See? Sex and liturgy. No escaping it.