Arrrgh…
First off, yes there have been Advent wreaths in Catholic churches for quite a long time. You saw them a lot more in German ethnic areas, no big surprise there.
When I was growing up, it was a nice stable tradition, and everybody had one. (In our area, uniformly with three violet candles and one rose one.) But during the late eighties and early nineties, at the same time that people started messing with “Advent blue vestments” and “all the Advent candles should be white or blue,” you got all sorts of weird Advent wreath abuse. (And fire hazards. And then overreactions to the point of having no fire.) There were also a host of extremely stupid prayers that were invented and then presented at Mass, all for no good reason and with no good prayer to them.
So yeah, I imagine that some younger priests are not comfortable with Advent wreaths, especially since somebody is always trying to drag out “Advent wreaths are pagan!”, every five minutes.
Bleah. I feel sorry for such joylessness. It is unnecessary roughness toward an innocent and abused tradition.
Advent wreaths aren’t essential, but they are nice. They help kids and adults remember Advent. They are joyfully penitential, and they are also pretty.
