Annoying Masses

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This past mass during the readings they had a Vietnamese woman read it in Vietnamese. Then had an African lady come up and read it in Swahili then a Latina come up and do it in Spanish. At this point I just got up and left.

The mass before this one we had African tribal dancers dancing in the aisle. With very loud rap music.

This is starting to be a recurring theme.

Does your parish do stuff like this? What are my options here because this is making me dread going to mass.
 
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I am guessing you have this because your parish contains Vietnamese and African Catholics. Your best bet is to find a parish with a different ethnic makeup.

I do not encounter this at most of my parishes because we do not have large immigrant populations except for Latinos, and there are so many of them they have their own whole Mass in Spanish.
 
No, nothing at all like this in my church! Separate masses are offered in Polish once a week at another local church.

I think I get what your priest is trying to do (you must have an ethnically-diverse congregation and he wants to reflect that), but I can’t see that reading the same passage over and over again in different languages is really the right way to do it.
 
Cory said:
This past mass during the readings they had a Vietnamese woman read it in Vietnamese. Then had an African lady come up and read it in Swahili then a Latina come up and do it in Spanish. At this point I just got up and left.

The mass before this one we had African tribal dancers dancing in the aisle. With very loud rap music.

This is starting to be a recurring theme.

Does your parish do stuff like this? What are my options here because this is making me dread going to mass.
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Yes we went through a great deal of that beginning about 20 years ago and lasting about 5 years at my parish. We had liturgical dancers, Native American smudgers and pretty much everything you described. Much of it took hold during about an 18 month period when we were without a pastor. The lay “liturgists” really had a field day. It caused a huge amount of in-fighting within the parish.

I can still visualize the visiting priest incensing (yes, we actually had incense that day!) using a silver “lover’s cup” that are often used for trophies. He was doing an odd, Whirling Dervish dance around the altar when he bumped into a candle and went down. It was just ugly.

Most of that of that garbage is long gone now, thanks be to God. What’s been left in the wake however are often perfunctorily-celebrated, utilitarian Masses that are just…sad. Not offensive like in the past, but sad.
 
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The dancing can’t be right. No dancing in church!

As for the languages, I would like that. I’ve never been present at a mass where they did it, but on television, of course, you can watch the papal masses at St. Peter’s where it is quite common on certain occasions.
 
Here, the Polish and Vietnamese have their own masses.

Once a year, on Corpus Christi, we have a joint mass outside where the Mass readings are done in several languages. I think it is a good thing, it shows the Catholic diversity. However, if this was done more frequently, I would have been annoyed as well.
 
That is pretty annoying. You’d be in mass all day accomodating all the languages spoken in the US now. That’s why the mass should have stayed in Latin. One language we can all learn. Learning is good and Latin is a wonderful language.
 
Nap66 said:
That is pretty annoying. You’d be in mass all day accomodating all the languages spoken in the US now. That’s why the mass should have stayed in Latin. One language we can all learn. Learning is good and Latin is a wonderful language.
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The priest didn’t read the readings in Latin. :roll_eyes: Those were still in English.
 
Nap66 said:
That is pretty annoying. You’d be in mass all day accomodating all the languages spoken in the US now. That’s why the mass should have stayed in Latin. One language we can all learn. Learning is good and Latin is a wonderful language.
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But it doesn’t sound as if they’re trying to accommodate all the languages spoken in the US. They’re only trying to accommodate the languages spoken by their parishioners. I once attended a Chaldean Catholic Church and the readings, gospel, and homily or repeated in Arabic, Assyrian, and English. I also attended Easter Mass in Puerto Rico. The homily was given by the priest in Spanish and then the deacon gave a shorter homily in English. Since I don’t speak Arabic and Assyrian at all, and my Spanish isn’t strong, I was grateful. I do really like the way this is handled at our Cathedral. For major Masses, the first reading is done in Spanish, with the corresponding English in a booklet. The next reading will be done in English, with the printed version in Spanish. The bishop is masterful with his ability to give a homily in both English and Spanish at the same time. He switches seamlessly and I don’t find it annoying at all, which is surprising.
 
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There is some publication, a bulletin, a sign on the door, the parish website, that lists the Masses.

Some of these may say “Bilingual” or “Multilingual”. For parishes with a mixed ethnicity in the pews, there may be Mass in said in 2 or more languages each week. For special celebrations, holidays, Holy Days, the Bishops encourage the Mass to be celebrated using a mixture of the languages. This helps the parish remember that we are ONE parish, ONE in Christ regardless of our mother tongue.

To get up and leave because there was a reading in another language strikes me as prideful. Pray that God help you realize that the Mass is bigger than the language in which the readings are done (you can read the readings in your native language from a missalette, online before you come to Mass, from an app on your tablet or smart phone).
 
Just returned from Mass here in rural podunk Kansas. We weren’t all dressed properly, horror of horrors, some of us had jeans on. We didn’t all behave exactly as prescribed. Our lector has a thick accent. Our Filipino priest wasn’t the easiest to understand. And it was STILL glorious. Jesus was there anyway!
 
I can’t imagine walking out on Mass just because of the languages used. I would have to be absolutely positive it was invalid.
 
At an ordination I attended recently, one reading was done in Spanish but was printed in English in the program, and the other reading was done in English but was printed in Spanish in the program. Though it was an English Mass, I thought it was a nice touch to make sure that the readings could be understood in both languages.
 
Glad to know Jesus was still welcome! Some of these places, He better show up in a suit and polished shoes, speaking perfect unaccented English, not bring any little children with him, and make sure not to chat with anybody in church or he’d get told off for being irreverent.
 
BartholomewB said:
What is a smudger? In this context I don’t think you can mean Native American photographers.
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“Smudging” is a process akin to our use of incense. Some Native Americans burn different things and use the smoke to “purify” the surroundings. They like to burn sage around here. The smoke is horrible – it can really clear out a room fast.
 
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Cory said:
This past mass during the readings they had a Vietnamese woman read it in Vietnamese. Then had an African lady come up and read it in Swahili then a Latina come up and do it in Spanish. At this point I just got up and left.

The mass before this one we had African tribal dancers dancing in the aisle. With very loud rap music.

This is starting to be a recurring theme.

Does your parish do stuff like this? What are my options here because this is making me dread going to mass.
Click to expand...
We have separate Masses for other languages. If a reading is said in a different language then the overhead projectors will have it’s English translation.

Having Tribal dancers in Masses is polycentric. I would be concerned with what is being spiritually expressed in that dance, as often (not always) indicates tribal religious rituals.
 
No the epistle and Gospel must be sung in Latin in the Extraordinary form… and that was definitely the requirement before VII. That being said, it has long been customary for the priest to read the epistle and Gospel in English at the start of his homily.
 
Don’t miss the Eucharist! That is the point of the Mass! It is probably like the sin of skipping mass if you miss being present for the Eucharist!

You aren’t sure it’s invalid, perhaps go on your parish website and look at the mass times to see if that is singled out for various reasons, or if a different priest serves near.
 
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That’s why using the mass part in Latin so useful as it a internashinal language of the Catholic Church
 
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