What were the post-Vatican II changes like to live through?

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Anyone who says there was no participation in the mass by those in the pews is not telling the truth. The priest spoke, we answered. We also sang.
 
I think this was the time that people became poorly educated about our faith. The loss of nuns in Catholic schools has made a difference in the attitudes of the students. MO.
 
Lay teachers were taught how to catechize. There were dissidents inside the Church who watered down Church teaching and distorted it. I was there and I expected the same education from nuns and lay teachers. We had both.
 
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I can hardly believe that churches would remove statues, but then my church was built in 1869, as a replacement for the original church which was built in 1855. We still have kneelers and the original statues still remain as do the three painting on the ceiling where were done by itinerant artists when the church was built.

Fortunately, I think, our three altars are of white Italian marble and when the NO began, the altar table was just pushed forward to accommodate the new Mass. We still sing parts of the Mass in Latin, depending on the priest.

We have Latin Mass in the city every Sunday. I went twice when it first began, and the church that hosted that Mass was of new design with all the pews in rows as in a theater and the altar was down below. I felt like I was going to the movies. Now the Latin Mass is in a more traditional church and has a large regular attendance.
 
I was in elementary school in the '60s (I’m almost 61 now). It was a Catholic school, but in that time, in Quebec, Catholic schools were provincially funded. So Catholic kids did not have to pay.

We went to Mass often, as well as other parish events; all our practice to prepare us for confirmation and first communion were conducted in class. We had first Friday devotions. I don’t recall the Latin, in those days the Church was experimenting with various vernacular formats.

However, as for many boys of my age back then, I could care less about any of this. I thought religion was a big waste of time. By 12 I didn’t really believe anymore (coincidentally…or not… the age at which my father died), and by 17 I simply stopped going to church over my mother’s (very insistent) objections and threats. Anyway, I did not come back until 22 years later when I was 39.
 
Thank you for starting this topic. I’ve only every heard people from that era say they were grateful for the change to the vernacular.
 
Grateful is the wrong word. I was there. Obedience to Holy Mother Church, not my opinion, mattered.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
I do remember when communion in the hand and lay eucharistic ministers were introduced. As I remember it, any “pushback” or disagreement were dismissed as being “dissident”. People were told, in so many words, “this is the new way we’re going to do it, and that is simply that”.
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The Church says both are valid. Be humble and obey the Church. She knows better than we do.
In case you didn’t know both of these are matters of discipline and are not doctrinal. Disciplines can and have been changed.
 
marybobo said:
I can hardly believe that churches would remove statues, but then my church was built in 1869, as a replacement for the original church which was built in 1855. We still have kneelers and the original statues still remain as do the three painting on the ceiling where were done by itinerant artists when the church was built.
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oh yes indeed. I know of plenty of examples of stuff being removed. Just google old photographs of church interiors and then look for photos of the same churces today. It is rare to find a church that hasn’t seen quite a lot of statues, paintings etc taken out.

Now maybe some of that would have happened independently of Vatican II because tastes change and church interiors have developed throughout history. Many churches have layers and layers of paintings on the walls and things like windows have also probably been changed multiple times. Things like wars, hurricanes and earthquakes have often inflicted heavy damage and rather than restoring the previous condition accurately, the opportunity was often taken to do something slightly different, more in line with the tastes and aesthetics of the day. But I think all in all, the perod following V2 has seen a much higher than average rate of change.
 
Guess my experience in my part of the country is different than yours.
 
thistle said:
I do remember when communion in the hand and lay eucharistic ministers were introduced. As I remember it, any “pushback” or disagreement were dismissed as being “dissident”. People were told, in so many words, “this is the new way we’re going to do it, and that is simply that”.
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I am well aware that both of these things are disciplinary matters. I choose to receive only from a priest or deacon, and only on the tongue. I do not condemn those who choose otherwise, though I do warn of the potential desecration to unseen and unnoticed particles of the Host.
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I was giving an opinion, edwest, based on my part of the country, so I am not sure it is false. After all, it is an opinion.
 
Tastes change is not the reason. Over the last decade, a number of Churches have returned statues and communion and altar rails. Taste is not the issue. Sacred and reverent outward signs are meant to lift people’s thoughts in worship.

Those who wanted change in the churches are now being shown they were wrong and did wrong. Churches are Houses of Prayer. Church architecture needs to be about worship, not the profane. Vatican II did not suggest, much less authorize, any of those changes.

https://www.amazon.com/Ugly-as-Sin-Michael-Rose/dp/1933184442
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
I am well aware that both of these things are disciplinary matters. I choose to receive only from a priest or deacon, and only on the tongue. I do not condemn those who choose otherwise, though I do warn of the potential desecration to unseen and unnoticed particles of the Host.
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I have never seen any desecration of the Host but I have seen on more than one occasion a Host fall when the priest was trying to place it on the tongue.
As for EMHC’s we could not do without them. Our parish has around 11,000 parishioners and we have an average 80% Mass attendance rate. To accommodate everyone we have 10 Masses every Sunday. Without EMHC’s that would be impossible.
 
Opinions are not as important as Church history. Observations are OK.
 
edwest211 said:
Those who wanted change in the churches are now being shown they were wrong and did wrong
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I wish you were right, but sadly I think there are still many people out there who don’t understand they were wrong and indeed do get very angry over such actions as restoring altar rails, statues etc. I have met an architect who is not even Catholic but for some reason got to do a lot of work on “renovating” different Catholic churches back in the day. She is absolutely furious over some of the changes she made being undone.
 
Obviously, those changes made by individuals were wrong. A number of Churches are taking corrective action. What they do care about is the sacred and what’s reverent. That person can get mad. It doesn’t matter. In the end, pastors and those in the pews will undo those changes. I have read that the restoration of Churches was and is being done because of “what happened in the '60s.” The Church is the House of God. It is no one’s personal property.
 
thistle said:
I am well aware that both of these things are disciplinary matters. I choose to receive only from a priest or deacon, and only on the tongue. I do not condemn those who choose otherwise, though I do warn of the potential desecration to unseen and unnoticed particles of the Host.
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And that is where patens come in handy. That is what they are there for, as well as to collect minute particles than can fall off the Host. It is much easier to see those particles when they fall onto the paten, rather than drift down onto the floor. I have never seen it explained anywhere just why we do not use patens anymore.
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