I don’t know what the Holy Father will do formally, Palmas, but I do think that the Indult will broaden as younger bishops do, out of simple obedience, what the old Holy Father asked the bishops to do: provide for a broader and more generous application of the Indult.
Well we can always hope Kirk, but since so many Bishops haven’t seen fit to obey so far, what makes you think they will now? You forget Kirk, while still in ultimate control, many of if not most Bishops consider the Holy Father to be first among equals only and what they do in their Diocese is their own business. That is just a sad fact of life of the post conciliar Church.
Almost all the major magazines and papers covered the story and said that the Pope had taken steps or had signed something, it was a just a matter of time before the document was released. I think if it was a just a test, they might have said something like “the pope is considering,” like they did when they wrote about limbo. Plus, Una Voce made such a big deal about it, I think it has to be for real. The bishops might not have liked it, but public opinion didn’t seem to be as harsh as I expected. One of the benefits about a reletavist society is that anything goes, and most people think is someone wants something, they have the right to it.
You may be taking a biased sampling. If on a given Sunday in a given area there are e.g. 100 non LifeTeen Masses, and 5 LifeTeen Masses, those LT Masses may look very crowded even if only 10% of the Mass-going population is attending them.
In all sincerity I ask, what then makes your LifeTeen Mass a “LifeTeen Mass”? It must be different in some way, else why the unique name? What is the difference between it and any other Mass at at your church?
That is pretty much my sentiment, I really wish they just would not toy with the Mass, if we don’t expose our teens to a mainstream liturgy, then they’re going to get used to Lifeteen and when they go off to college and find out that’s not how Mass is, they don’t go anymore. They either become Christmas and Easter only Catholics or they join a local pentecostal or charismatic fundamentalist church. The Lifeteen Mass at my church, which thankfully follows the rubrics (but still plays that dreadful loud sreeching stuff), has more Vatican II generationers (senior citizens) then teenagers. Barbara Streisand singing Eminem and P-didy songs would be better then what we have. My pastor commented about how he feels my RCIA sessions are going well and even the teenage boy who is attending is getting something out of, I think he really is seriously going to restructure youth ministry at our parish now.
Pax tecum!
Not quite. My sources tell me that it is no longer a question of “if” but “when and how”. Pope Benedict is not impressed by the whining of a bunch of bishops who’ve done nothing to keep their churches from taking a nose-dive over the past 40 some years.
Jesusrocks,
Side note, as of last Sunday the gathering around the altar had not stopped at least in southern California. Since it occurs predominately at Lifeteen and nationside too at that, it would seem that it is at a minimum tolerated there.
Palmas85,
The problem is that because people feel that they can do things being an accepted innovative mass, it’s like a box of chocolates, so to say. You can never be sure what you get.
I think that is a wise thing to do. In my experience, adherence to the norms of liturgical celebration varies from parish to parish. A lot depends upon the pastor, obviously, but the pastoral staff also has a lot of influence.