Recently I viewed a YouTube video by Australian performance poetry artist, Joel McKerrow. “God Rid Me of God’ it was called. The poem explores the constraints we put on the nature of God; the shackles we use to confine God. Joel entreats that we stop shaping God in our own image: “God, rid me of Read more
A book, “Eucharist in the Local Church“, about inclusive liturgical change, was recently launched in Auckland. The book is about how to achieve real participation and engagement in liturgy. People who want to find creative solutions to the tension between the needs of the their local church and the official liturgical books will find this book Read more
The booklet being prepared by the Vatican to tell priests how to celebrate Mass well will discourage “showmanship” by the celebrant and novelties introduced to make the liturgy “entertaining” to the people. The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Antonio Canizares, said the guidelines will help priests to “celebrate well and to participate Read more
An elderly Jesuit priest in the United States has been suspended from his priestly faculties after he joined in a liturgical celebration with a woman who claims to be a Catholic priest. The Jesuit suspended, Father Bill Brennan, 92, said the superior of his religious community in Milwaukee told him the restrictions were at the Read more
The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments has been restructured. The main change is an office to promote the development and use of appropriate liturgical art, architecture and music. The office will provide advice, encouragement and guidance, but it will not attempt to impose specific styles, according to Marist Father Anthony Ward, undersecretary Read more
The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference has announced they’ve appointed Louise Campbell as the incoming Director of the National Liturgy Office, commencing on 2 October 2012. Louise has been working as a Liturgy Advisor for the Auckland Diocese for the past thirteen years. While in this role she was an Auckland member of the National Liturgy Read more
The Pope wants to change the translation of the phrase pronounced during the consecration of the bread and wine at the liturgy back to the original expression “for many”. Two experts have proposed another solution. The words of consecration pronounced by Jesus at the Last Supper to turn the bread and wine into the body Read more
The suspension of an American priest because he improvised the prayers of the Mass has prompted protests from as far away as Australia and the United Kingdom. Father Bill Rowe, 73, has been removed from St Mary Catholic parish in Mount Carmel, Illinois, where he had been pastor for 18 years. Bishop Edward Braxton of Read more
A caution against “excessive” use of concelebration — the practice of several priests participating together in the celebration of Mass — has been sounded by the head of the highest judicial body in the Catholic Church. Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, said the practice could result in the Read more
The New Zealand Bishops’ Conference has made it clear that only the officially approved new missal may be used for the celebration of the liturgy in churches in New Zealand. Having been made aware of the fact that a spiral bound version of the new missal has been published by the Catholic Publications Centre (CPC), Read more