Friday, June 17, 2011
MY WORK HERE IS DONE
I used to think that the Episcopalians had retired the trophy as far as bad vestments, church decorations and serious worship are concerned. But via the Bovina Bloviator comes word of a Austrian Roman Catholic "mass" so unbelievably awful that...well let's just say that the Confederate flag looked embarrassed to be there.
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23 comments:
Heavens! They get their knickers in a knot because people were eating and lying down on blankets during the Mass, not sitting down in pews like they obviously were at the Last Supper? AND they complain about smoke? The more smoke the better, I say.
so casual, so laid back, so disrespectful. A 'Western Mass'? Is that supposed to mean American? Even with all the liturgical abuses here in the US, eating, drinking, sun bathing, smoking, the confederate flag, would not be tolerated...I hope
That's not just bad vestments, that's evil-parallel-universe-pot-smoking-weird-vestments...and a Confederate flag (?!). I've heard jokes about living in a Salvador Dali painting but WORSHIPING in one????
Isn't this the same 'priest' who celebrated a "Soccer Mass" not so long ago?
Does this mean you're not updating here anymore.
Please don't quit posting... I love this blog! We need more laughter!
Yes, absolutely....please keep this blog going. It's important...and funny...and important!
No, I'll keep going. But after this Austrian garbage, I'm beginning to see an end point.
Endpoint? Nah. So long as my Episcopalian coreligionists continue to defy the conventions of good taste, there'll be need for "Bad Vestments".
Defy God's revelation to man, moreover.
I think this is an annual mass at an outdoor "country western" event, with Austrian bands playing American country-western music, and whatever decor they think is appropriate. I've seen video clips in previous years so I am not going to look at this one, but the ones I remember show what appear to be passersby eating festival food and stopping by to look at the mass. Not such a great thing, granted, but not as if the idea is to grab a funnel cake or whatever and head to mass.
Enough with the snide remarks about the Confederate flag. I can think of no good reason for it to be present in a Mass, but I'd say the same thing about "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (also divisive, as well as being a Unitarian hymn) and "America the Beautiful", which, in the context of the Mass, is thinly-veiled self-worship. If "Christian worship is not supposed to be about you," some serious questions need to be asked about the celebrations of the United States in the context of worship. (Prayer for the United States is a different matter altogether.)
-- Howard
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33908256@N00/2981881784/
Here's another to ad to the list.
The priest that had the World Cup Mass soccer Mass was from The Netherlands.
The aptly named Bishop Joseph Punt (get it?) of Haarlem suspended the priest in question and revoked all of his faculties.
Gee, and I thought the 0reos and Coca Cola "elements" I once encountered were bad...
Please keep the blog going! I have even been following it over the last few weeks when my computer refused to show pictures on several blogs including yours. It became a guessing game to imagine the vestments by reading the comments. Today the pictures have returned so please keep going!
Where is a whip of cords when you need it?
Where is a whip of cords when you need it?
If the Austrians had invited the lost people out for a Beergarten festival and used it as a teaching opportunity, with testimonies, a film about Jesus, etc., that would be permissible, but to incorporate a holy Eucharist service with cigarettes, beer, etc., that is another. Some of the examples from other comments above show that the parishoners bringing a picnic lunch and nun selling postcards in other dioceses also lack reverence. This plain and simple is the fault of the Bishops and priests who allow this sort of thing and do not instruct the people.
One of my pet peeves (in FL) is the lack of modesty: strapless tops (so it looks like she's naked if you are sitting behind her), four inch cleavage, waist/hip baring tops, extremely short mini-skirts worn by females - especially those who are severely overweight. There really should be modesty dress codes for church. Or hand out blinders for the men.
Not only is it disturbing, it's offensive...
I just can't bring myself to believe it... They say "seeing is believing" but I just can't... Poor Pope Benedict, trying so desperately to renew the Church in Europe, and then there's this horror... I thought there was a real lack of decency, respect, even boundaries here in the US but this is way beyond the pale.
No wonder nobody feels the need or desire to come... where is the sense of divine transcendency? What was the processional hymn? Yellow Rose of Texas???
...and, please don't quit posting! Even though some of your examples would leave me shaking my head in disbelief...your spot-on commentary always leave me laughing and balances the horror!
I came across this some time ago, and did a little research. This Mass was offered at a weekend C/W music festival, which explains the setting and costumes. I don't have a problem with holding a special mass at an event like this one so that participants/staffers can worship and fulfill their Mass obligation--if some folks have no alternative but to come in their work clothes, so be it. That said, choosing to locate it in the biergarten at midmorning, when it was sure to be already filled with folks more interested in eating and drinking than joining the worship, was exceedingly poor judgement at best. Of grave concern was the opening up of the Eucharist to essentially all comers--evident only if you freeze-frame the video when the Mass handout comes into view and translate the German.
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