We humans (do we even need to say it?) are passionate animals! We have our loves and our hates, our up days and down days, and the times when we just want to sit quietly and be left alone. Moreover, these emotional swings are not simply mood swings or based on how we feel when Read more
The Catholic Church in New Zealand is setting its sights on introducing an inclusive lectionary for Mass. Improved translations for the opening and post-Communion prayers are also under consideration. The initiative was confirmed by Bishop Stephen Lowe, president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference and the bishops’ representative on the International Commission on English Read more
On 11 October 1962, the Second Vatican Council opened, and a year later, Sacrosanctum concilium changed the Church’s liturgy. It was expected by most of the bishops that it would ratify a series of documents prepared by the curia covering a raft of issues – but in essence, this was seen as an exercise in Read more
“We shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us,” echoes Thomas O’Loughlin in the forward of a new book: Shaping the Assembly – How Our Buildings Form Us in Worship. O’Loughlin suggests that the arrangement of space is often overlooked, but we constantly refer to it. It plays a pivotal role in our lives, he Read more
When I ask ordinary Catholics what they think of all the discussions about synodality and Pope Francis’ call for us to become a synodal Church, I usually get blank stares. Some assume that I am one of those academic types that enjoy asking irrelevant questions; others simply say that they haven’t got a clue about Read more
The voice of my childhood pastor, Father Kerwin, was just short of Edward R. Murrow in wartime England. Except instead of saying “This…is London,” he would declare five minutes before Mass began: These…are the announcements. Grave proclamations in his deep, chastening, black-coffee voice that could refreeze a melted glacier: Ladies’ Circles, Holy Week schedule, parking Read more
Shutting small parish communities and merging them with a larger one is leaving people stranded. Covid’s remnants also leaves some people feeling vulnerable. For others, and for a possible range of reasons, the local parish is no longer spiritually nourishing. One woman, Betty Ann Asaro, and has become a remote parishioner at Saint Cecilia Church Read more
Synodal feedback identified the need for liturgical experiences that are life-giving and accessible to Catholics. Because many New Zealand Catholics no longer identify with symbols and signs used in the Sacred Liturgy, the liturgy has become a foreign land. People who feel this way might describe the Liturgy as boring, clericalist and formal and themself Read more
The most substantive change in the last sixty years has been the renewal of the Sacred Liturgy and its sacramental rites adapted to our languages and cultures. We have two great gifts from the Council: first, the treasury of the Sunday and weekday lectionaries so that God’s Word will fill our days and minds; and Read more
In part II, Bishop Peter Cullinane clarifies some of the areas in Pope Francis’ Decree Traditionis Custodes, where there is potential for misunderstandings and superficiality. Liturgical misunderstandings and superficiality develops Part I: Like charity, Christian unity begins at home. Wasn’t the Traditional Latin Mass the “Mass of the ages”? Yes, which is why it adapts Read more