The Illusion of Uniformity

 Recently in the State of North Carolina where I live and conduct my own ministry, the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Charlotte Diocese has issued new "liturgical norms", pertaining to the administration and reception of Holy Communion.  In his letter, he orders that altar rails and prayer kneelers no longer be used by people who wish to receive communion, that altar rails should be removed, and that the faithful are to be encouraged (if not commanded) to receive communion standing instead of kneeling.   While it is entirely within the Roman Church's capacity to force upon its followers whatever it may deem appropriate; one must keep in mind that forcing the faithful to practices which go against their own tradition and the faith they practice, is a mark of arrogance and irreverent pride.  

The Bishop writes that he has chosen to enforce these actions to produce "Uniformity" within the church's liturgies.  Ah yes, the age-old myth of liturgical "Uniformity" rears it's head in a new district it seems.  

When discussing the Tridentine Liturgy in the past, post-counciliar enthusiasts always use to disparagingly refer to liturgical traditionalists as being nostalgic for a faux era of Uniformity, which they state the church never had before so why should it now.   In part, I do actually agree with that sentiment.  The church universal, has never had only ONE form of worship which it adhered to; even within the future separated denominational sects.   Oh yes we had the Mass; but the mass had different forms and different aspects about it depending on where you were at a given time.  There was the rite of Lyon in France, the Ambrosian Rite in Milan, the Mozarabic Rite in Portugal and Spain, the Sarum Rite in England, the Celtic Rite of Ireland, The Byzantine Rite of the East, the Carmelite Rite, The Dominican Rite: all of these were accepted rites of the Mass prior to 1962.  Each was a form of the one essential sacrifice of the Mass; but all had their own charism, their own structure, and their own historical link to the ancient church and faith.  It is indeed humorous and point of absurd hypocrisy, that the same people who argue that "the church never had one, sole form of the Mass"; should be so hell-bent on formulating and enforcing one on the Christian faithful, after some 1500 years of sacred variances. 

What the Second Vatican Council's consilium on the liturgy did, by ordering ONE singular expression of the Western Rite, was to force a modernist notion of uniformity onto a church which was a glorious tapestry of many colors and practices.  Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Vatican 2 is not that it allowed the vernacular language into the mass, or that It caused people to leave the church rather than join; but rather that it deprived the children of God of the richness of their inheritance through him, seeking to replace it with cold, calculated collectivism.  For in the new, modern church, there is no room for individualism or personal experience; only collectivism and communilism, which deprives the Christian person of their unique identity as a child of God, and reduces them to a mere number on an attendance board at parish council meetings. 

The Children of God are entitled to the wealth of the inheritance of their faith in its ancient traditions; not the mere crumbs that their Bishops leave behind them from a progressive pauper's pantomime. 

Embrace the traditions of Holy Tradition in Holy Church, and realize the wonder of God's gift for ALL.