Priest writing his own Mass prayers!

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edward_george

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I attended Mass at my home parish tonight for Christmas Eve (I currently attend Belmont Abbey College and normally go to Mass celebrated by the Benedictine monks there) and picked up on something curious that I have come to notice in the last few times I have been to Mass there (which is whenever I come home on the weekends, about once a month as I’m not too far from home). A quick look at the Missal as provided by www.catholicliturgy.com confirmed my suspicions–Father is apparently writing his own prayers for use in the Mass. The words of institution are thankfully the same, but most of the other prayers (introductory, penitential rites, preface, etc.) are anything but what is in the Missal. Furthermore, the Gloria/Sanctus/Agnus Dei and other sung prayers come from a hymnal that has anything but the desired translations of the same.

This seems to me to be a gross violation of liturgical law. Would it be unreasonable to write a letter to this priest detailing the abuses that I have noticed? I do not attend Mass at this Church regularly as I am away at school, but this is my home parish–I attended it from the time I was born until I graduated. I am going into my second semester of college, and as I have said only go to my home parish around once a month. I would think that the appropriate course of action would be to either write a letter or meet with the priest face-to-face, and if either course of action yielded nothing, then report him to the Diocese.

-ACEGC
 
If he is actually writing his own Mass prayers, he’s not going to listen to you tell him he shouldn’t be doing that. If it were me, I’d document what he is doing and write the bishop. It is the bishop’s duty to correct his priests, after all.
 
This priest has already indicated that he likely wouldn’t listen to me on such matters; in a discussion we had several months ago about the Tridentine Mass and the liturgical movement of the 70s and 80s, he said that I was too young and didn’t have enough education to know what I was talking about. But I do think it would be prudent to at least let him know that I was going to talk to the Bishop about things before I did.

-ACEGC
 
edward_george said:
This priest has already indicated that he likely wouldn’t listen to me on such matters; in a discussion we had several months ago about the Tridentine Mass and the liturgical movement of the 70s and 80s, he said that I was too young and didn’t have enough education to know what I was talking about.
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Hmm, I wonder if he’d say the same thing about the Pope. He must be too young too if he thinks the NO has problems with it. He must not remember how horrible the TLM was!

The truth is, it doesn’t take a PhD in Liturgical Studies to know disobedience when you see it, and most traditionalists I know know a lot more about liturgical history than your average parish priest.
 
I am unclear as to whether it is Mass at the Abbey or Mass in your home parish that is offending you.
 
edward_george said:
This priest has already indicated that he likely wouldn’t listen to me on such matters; in a discussion we had several months ago about the Tridentine Mass and the liturgical movement of the 70s and 80s, he said that I was too young and didn’t have enough education to know what I was talking about. But I do think it would be prudent to at least let him know that I was going to talk to the Bishop about things before I did.

-ACEGC
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Your priest has a bit of a superiority complex, eh?
 
edward_george said:
This priest has already indicated that he likely wouldn’t listen to me on such matters; in a discussion we had several months ago about the Tridentine Mass and the liturgical movement of the 70s and 80s, he said that I was too young and didn’t have enough education to know what I was talking about. But I do think it would be prudent to at least let him know that I was going to talk to the Bishop about things before I did.

-ACEGC
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No doubt he was terribly afflicted by the rampant clericalism of the pre-VII era and, besides, he certainly knows better than you and everyone else.:rolleyes:
 
edward_george said:
This priest has already indicated that he likely wouldn’t listen to me on such matters; in a discussion we had several months ago about the Tridentine Mass and the liturgical movement of the 70s and 80s, he said that I was too young and didn’t have enough education to know what I was talking about. But I do think it would be prudent to at least let him know that I was going to talk to the Bishop about things before I did.

-ACEGC
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It seems to me this priest wouldn’t respond positively to your telling him you plan on contacting the bishop. The priest must know that what he is doing isn’t allowed, otherwise why would he be so condescending to you? Priests are human, too and can be just as unwilling to admit their mistakes as anyone else.

In contacting the bishop with your documentation of the facts you don’t have to accuse the priest of anything but rather phrase your concerns in the form of a question(s)–asking for his help and guidance. In this way you will have done what you could to correct the situation without having to put any blame on anyone.
 
Be sure before you tell the bishop. There are other liturgical prayers other than the 4 plugged into the missalette. Not that I doubt a certain type of priest would consider this a DIY project!
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
Be sure before you tell the bishop. There are other liturgical prayers other than the 4 plugged into the missalette. Not that I doubt a certain type of priest would consider this a DIY project!
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Good point and great suggestion! 👍
 
Sorry for sort of disappearing from this thread for a few days. I was in West Virginia for a few days and didn’t have access to (nor a desire to use) a computer.

Thank you all for your (name removed by moderator)ut on this. I have compared the prayers that my priest uses to the text of the Missal, and what he is saying just plain isn’t in there. Furthermore, some of it borders on being of questionable theology.

Just to be clear, this isn’t at the Abbey. The priests at the Abbey, save for a few very small additions here and there, adhere to the liturgical texts and norms. This is a problem in the parish that I attended from birth until my graduation and still attend when I come home from school.

The reason I posted this was to see what course of action was wisest, and I thank you all for your (name removed by moderator)ut. To make my question a bit more clear, I was wondering if I needed to talk to/write/etc. the priest before I report him to the diocese, if nothing else to tell him that I’m going to the Bishop about it. The other course of action is to enlist the help of a few other people in the parish (and there would be very few, as a lot of people in the parish seem sort of accepting of innovation, and at least one blames my complaints on these matters as the fact that I go to school in a very conservative diocese). If I could get a few others concerned about this, I wouldn’t be going it alone and Father would likely be more receptive to fixing things.

Again, thank you all, and I wish you all a happy Solemnity and a blessed new year.

-ACEGC
 
Della’s points were quite good.

I had the same experience at another parish. While there are other prayers that are valid but not printed in the missalettes, my parish priest was clearly making it up as he went along because he was looking up at the ceiling rather than down at the book (and unlikely he memorized the whole thing). On one occasion, I was in the third pew and at the point it became clear he was ad-libbing, I looked up right at him with a confused/quizzical look…he saw me…and then I glared. Not to presume that I can take full credit…but he did much less ad-libbing after that.

Good luck.
 
While I realize that there are other prayers that are licit that are not necessarily in the Missal, the content of the prayers at Mass in this parish and their overall structure is nothing like what is in any liturgical text I’ve ever seen. Politically charged prayers are present–including one that I can remember off the top of my head that speaks of “those who die alone and unmourned, the voiceless victims of tragedy and injustice, the countless casualties of oppression and war…gather them into this promised kingdom where hungry folk are fed…”

It’s rather interesting that the entire Mass is made up, save for the words of institution and the fundamental prayers (Sanctus, Agnus Dei–both of which are from a horribly translated rendering in our hymnals–Creed, etc) but that his homilies are rather orthodox most of the time. He oftentimes speaks of Church traditions and other such things, like why we observe certain Holy Days. In fact, the only slightly unorthodox thing I can ever remembering him say is something about the “feminine side of God.”

But anyway, I think I’m going to contact the diocese about how to report abuses. He is depriving the people of their liturgy, and that is against the law of the Church.

-ACEGC
 
edward_george said:
While I realize that there are other prayers that are licit that are not necessarily in the Missal, the content of the prayers at Mass in this parish and their overall structure is nothing like what is in any liturgical text I’ve ever seen. **Politically charged prayers are present–including one that I can remember off the top of my head that speaks of “those who die alone and unmourned, the voiceless victims of tragedy and injustice, the countless casualties of oppression and war…gather them into this promised kingdom where hungry folk are fed…” **
…
-ACEGC
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Not disagreeing with the ad libbing as it is a horrible abuse, but I have to ask what is so politically charged about that prayer?
 
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