Culture and Faith

[RHIC12]

How much are culture and faith allowed to mix? E.g. during a Mass, how much culture can be incorporated? Is this a personal thing? Or is there definitive Church teaching on it?

 

[Daniel27]

To quote Father Mike Schmitz, as Catholics “we are in the world, but not of it”. Inevitably, there will be times when the two will conflict with one another, and depending how traditionalist one is with their understanding of the faith, it could be particularly frequent. If it comes down to it, I choose my faith when the two conflict, but that’s a personal choice and it’s very understandable for various reasons as to why many people don’t. Especially in the Western world, the Christian faith has greatly influenced our culture. For example, think of the number of movies and TV shows about Christianity and that involve Christian themes (Lucifer (w/ Tom Ellis), The Passion of Christ, the Flanders in The Simpsons, etc) - there are so many ways which our faith has influenced our culture. Even in the more general and explicit ways, such as how massive Christmas is (although to say that society has distorted Christmas from its original purpose is an understatement). The other side of this is how our culture has infiltrated and affected our faith. This side is a bit harder to see first hand. But considering how Vatican 2 changed up how masses used to be in Latin, and were later changed to the vernacular language, the Church doesn’t oppose change (as some think it does - it opposes what is untrue). The SSPX, for example would argue that this wasn’t a great change, but I think a lot of Catholics prefer being able to understand what is being said without having to learn a whole new language. Also, this is perhaps more so a change based on wealth rather than culture, but for a long time the practice of abstinence from eating meat on Fridays was a widespread penance, but recently, the change was brought in that while this is still a good and valid form of penance on Fridays, other appropriate penances would be fine (Fridays during Lent should still feature a fast from meat, but other Fridays don’t have this necessary requirement). As for culture in Mass explicitly, I think a good rule to follow would be if you’re unsure hedge on the side of caution and reservation. But the entire purpose of the priest’s homily is to make us aware of how our faith can find a role within our culture. Admittedly, I’m not sure if there is a definitive Church teaching on this. But be mindful that the Church operates across the entire world and oversees approximately 1.2 billion Catholics, so it’s not easy to lay down in concrete one answer for all since there are so many cultures in the Church. Hopefully this helps, and apologies for not giving a shorter answer.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

E.g. during a Mass, how much culture can be incorporated?

What do you mean, “how much culture can be incorporated”?

Are you talking about things like music, dance and whether people shake hands or bow at the sign of peace?

Obviously if the priest and everybody at the Mass are from a particular culture, let’s say the predominant culture of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, then the priest’s homily and the way the lector reads and the clothing that people wear to Mass is going to reflect the culture of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA and not the culture of Kerala, India or whatever.

 

[RHIC12]

Kind of, yeah. Is dancing appropriate? I mean, I won’t anyways , but I wonder.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I may have this wrong, but I seem to recall that dancing at Mass is only allowed by the Vatican in certain areas where it was part of the folk culture of worship like Africa. It is not allowed at any Mass in North America, to my knowledge. I remember there was a brief time after Vatican II before the crackdown on “liturgical dance” when my home parish in the Midwest had an opening hymn once with some sisters in leotards doing a modern dance/ mime in the sanctuary to “Let Us Build the City of God”. My mom was appalled and I suspect she wasn’t the only one because I never saw anything like that at our parish again.

Now some groups do have dancing on certain occasions AFTER the Mass or otherwise outside of Mass.