I think there is a need now, unfortunately, to return to this question and to make the issue more transparent in order to add clarity.
As I wrote before:
The short answer to your question is that, yes, it is admissible under the criteria that were present for this event.
The long answer is that the event about which you are inquiring occurred under the auspices of His Excellency, Archbishop Jose Gomez, Vice President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and in the presence of His Excellency, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Nuncio to the United States…among many other prelates worthy of mention.
These are liturgies meticulously planned, not least because of the ecclesiastical dignitaries who are present and participating. Elements do not happen by chance at events of this level, which includes officials from the Holy See. Thus, there should be no question as to the propriety of the inclusion of these elements. The various bishops who were present included, for example, one of the archbishops of Vietnam.
This is key because the criteria to be applied is the significant presence and involvement in the liturgy of the indigenous people, including Asia, for whom dance is part of their culture such that it can rightly and properly be incorporated into the liturgical action itself. The peoples of Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific are indeed profoundly a part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and their inclusion for an international assembly hosted by the Archdiocese is of significant import for the Particular Church.
This presence of these peoples is then the determining factor as to whether or not the elements from their respective cultures, involving dance and other sacred gesture, are to be included.
The same criteria applies no less in my diocese. The judgment may be arrived at, for example, on the liturgical celebration being one that is focused on that community – such as a chaplaincy for an expatriated African community. Or conversely, for a diocesan event in which there is a significant presence of such a community in the midst of the larger liturgical assembly and their participation is included in, for example, a Gospel or offertory procession, thus making manifest the presence of elements of the Church Universal beyond what is indigenous to the area of the diocese’s geography, with the bishop presiding over this gathering of the Particular Church for which he is the shepherd…as well as moderator of the liturgy.
I include one of the more beautiful examples of this that comes from the visit of the Holy Father to Australia in 2008, where a community from Melanesia were involved with the Gospel procession in a way that was singularly inspiring to all who experienced it.
youtube.com/watch?v=YMgUaeejl2Q
The integration of the two distinctive elements, Melanesian and Roman, was quite splendidly effected by Monsignor Marini and is a textbook example for the application of the below referenced passages.
As the Holy See said in its instruction on Inculturation and the Roman Liturgy:
42. Among some peoples, singing is instinctively accompanied by hand-clapping, rhythmic swaying and dance movements on the part of the participants. Such forms of external expression can have a place in the liturgical actions of these peoples on condition that they are always the expression of true communal prayer of adoration, praise, offering and supplication, and not simply a performance.
That is, again, the criteria that would be properly applied by the diocesan office of liturgy/office of worship and by the bishop where these peoples constitute a part of the Particular Church.
It fulfills what the Council Fathers foresaw when they wrote in
Sacrosanctum Concilium:
40. In some places and circumstances, however, an even more radical adaptation of the liturgy is needed…
I had the distinct privilege of being in Los Angeles in past years and far from in any way questioning the propriety of the action of the Archbishop or the diocesan offices – which frankly I would find highly presumptuous for any priest who is of the United States to do – I offer them compliments, as a retired professor who taught liturgy and sacraments and one who remains an active liturgical Master of Ceremonies.
Finally, I remember quite vividly and quite fondly the intervention of Bishop Di Lorenzo; it was after the opening of the Synod on the Church in Africa, which was profoundly marked by inculturated liturgies, I hasten to add, and as I remember it was just ahead of the Synod on the Church in Oceania, in which liturgical dance was also markedly present. The result has been quite splendid for the Church in Hawaii.
