Dear Rev. Know-It-All,

You cave dwelling, reactionary Neanderthal slob!

I was offended by your comment about “roll your own, smoke your own liturgies”. 

I am sick of all your oppressive prattle about the good old days of Latin Masses and Gregorian chant and choir robes.  You want to bring us back to the dark ages of male dominated monarchical Masses. 

Get with it.  It’s the twenty first century.  Liturgy means work of the people.  People should be able to express themselves at Mass and not have to follow a rigid format dominated by the likes of you.

Ms. Anna Thingoze

Who are you calling a slob?!? 

Liturgy, a Greek word, strangely enough, does mean work of the people.

You presume to think that you are the people.  You, Ms. Thingoze, are not the people.  You are a person.  When a Catholic says “the People,” he/she (note the inclusive language) means a holy assembly of God's family that includes all time and space.  All one billion Catholics alive today and all those multitudes who have gone before are the people.

Mass does not just belong to our little infallible congregation.  It belongs to the People of God and we don't change without the whole people being in on it. 

For many years I was at a parish that had been dominated by an “inclusivist” community.  I was not allowed to say the main Mass because I dared to call God Father instead of Mother and I read the prayers in the book as they were written.  They had their own priest and didn't need me.  The leadership of this inclusivist community included one person of color and no one who was foreign born, as far as I could tell. 

At the risk of being indelicate, I will simply say that the inclusivist community with the exception of one person, was made up of about 50 white, upper middle class college graduates who presumed to explain what was best for everyone else in a very ethnically diverse parish. 

Most of those immigrant and refugee people just wanted to be Catholic, to have a service that they knew and at which they felt at home.  In short, they wanted Mass without the theatrical and ideological embellishments of a culture raised on half hour sitcoms.

So, Ms. Thingoze, out of respect for the People and their Lord, we at St. Lambert's will do our best to be Catholic.  You are free to worship God in your way, and I will worship Him in His.

Ever the Neanderthal,

Rev. Know-It-All
 

Editorial Note:
this question regards Q&A
Did Vatican Council prohibited the Latin Mass & priests facing wall?
published on February 4, 2007