“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
As we slowly to move towards a synodal Church we should expect that there will be many stumbles, confusions, and false starts. The enthusiasm of some for the Synodal Way is one side of the way all human societies make deliberate change. Likewise, the fears of Cardinal Walter Kasper and some other bishops are exactly Read more
Reactions to Pope Francis’s decree Spiritus Domini have not been explosive. Indeed, the reverse is the case: bishops and presbyters around the world have said that it is merely a matter of words. After all, women have been reading for years at the liturgy – so calling them ‘lectors’ is just a needless formality! Women have Read more
The Catholic Church is selling “the Eucharist” and people short and is making a mistake by turning Mass into a YouTube experience. The comments are from Thomas O’Loughlin, emeritus professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham and Director of Studia Traditionis Theologiae. “There are some things Zoom and YouTube just won’t do because Read more
“We need to revisit the issue of ministry in the Church,” said Anne-Marie Pelletier in June 25 article in La Croix International. But what would such a revisiting look like? It raises several fundamental questions and might be far more undermining of the status quo than the few changes in the Code of Canon Law Read more
Catholic liturgy has had its greatest social shock in generations. No one had seen churches locked before, few had ever thought of “streamed” liturgies and, across the world, there have been liturgical experiments that were unthinkable just weeks ago. Now the churches are opening up – slowly – but the legacy of the virus experience Read more
One person recently said, the Virtual Mass was great. “We could lie in bed, go to Mass in London, Florence, Ireland and even Auckland. It would be great if we could keep it”. Another said, “The first week I stood when I should, the second week I felt comfortable knitting and in the third week Read more
It seems that every few months we begin talking again about the chronic shortage of presbyters in the many parts of the Catholic world today. Then someone suggests the ordination of suitable married men, Viri Probati. But after some discussion, a solidly based argument (not based on dubious notions of ritual purity) is presented: how Read more
The coronavirus pandemic has seen a flurry of new activity in Catholic liturgy. Clergy are streaming live coverage of themselves celebrating the Eucharist and inviting others to join in by watching. As lockdown eases in some places, the latest desire is to have a system – similar to that used for social distancing in shops Read more
Religions are inherently optimistic. That is why, despite the mess in the world, they proclaim an order, and celebrate it with repeated rituals. Even in a pandemic, religions see a world where “the facts are friendly”. Christians, along with Jews and Muslims, see the Creator as infinitely – and quite literally so – greater than Read more