"Unless a bishop declared otherwise" and universality

[gelsbern]

I have been reading a lot of the GIRM and other pronouncements from the Vatican and I see a line that in my opinion appears far to often. “…unless a bishop has declared otherwise”

To me this takes away from the universality of the Catholic Church. If you travel across the country how are you to know what the norms are? I mean even within the same parish different churches do different things. To me, when in Mass, I want to concentrate on praying, not paying attention to whether I am supposed to stand sit or kneel like the rest of the crowd. If this “unless a bishop declares otherwise” happens around the world, how can it possibly be universal?

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Bruised_Reed]

gelsbern:

I have been reading a lot of the GIRM and other pronouncements from the Vatican and I see a line that in my opinion appears far to often. “…unless a bishop has declared otherwise”

To me this takes away from the universality of the Catholic Church. If you travel across the country how are you to know what the norms are? I mean even within the same parish different churches do different things. To me, when in Mass, I want to concentrate on praying, not paying attention to whether I am supposed to stand sit or kneel like the rest of the crowd. If this “unless a bishop declares otherwise” happens around the world, how can it possibly be universal?

What are your thoughts on this?

There are always going to be differences: small ones like the music for the processional to bigger ones like the differences between the various Rites of the Catholic church. Our greatest sign of unity is the Eucharist. That is why non-catholics excluded from approaching the altar.

That said, I don’t like illicit changes or changes that are licit but were changed for some unknown reason.