A Lay Manifesto

This a Manifesto demanding obedient priests.

A friend of mine's daughter is having to choose going to another parish as the priest in Illinois, near Chicago, does not follow the Missal for Mass. I have heard this changing of words at more than one Mass in the Midwest in the past four months.

We laity deserve legal (licit) Masses and valid Eucharists. Someone was bemoaning that he says the Thirty Day Mass Novena, and had to start over several times as a priest mucked up the Mass within the novena time. Part of the problem has been that not the same priest says Mass daily in some parishes, which have visiting priests come in, even as often as twice a week.

We laity should not have to play watchdog for priests who insist on making up words which are not in the Missal. Why should I have to search for a parish where the Mass is legal, the Eucharist valid?

And, biggest question of all--why do the bishops let such disobedient priests go on year after year making up words and movements of the hands or body? One priest I heard mess something up this week did so in 2010, as I remember being at his Mass with my son, who moved to England that year. Five years of disobedience....five!

I am weary, as I have been a liturgical abuse spotter for forty years. Abuses began when I was in college, with an infamous "muffin Mass" in 1970, when the priest tried to consecrate baskets full of muffins. Thankfully, as the matter was illegal, Christ was not present in the muffin crumbs all over the floor of the college chapel. Yes, we students, on our hands and knees, picked up every crumb and felt scandalized.

Or the balloon Mass, or having all the children stand around the altar, and so on.

But not saying the words correctly must be the worst abuse, as people are deceived.

Someone told me that she wondered why she could not get over some venial sins in her life even though she went to Mass daily for years--then she found out the priest was not saying the words of Consecration correctly. 

No Jesus, no grace.

Why do not bishops step in when people complain? 

A miasma of disobedience among priests in any particular geographical area results in a weakened laity. Do some priests not understand the meaning of  "ritual"?

We demand better, We demand ordained men to DO THEIR JOB. We cannot say Mass.

If a priest is too old to remember, or to read the Eucharistic Prayer, or the words of Consecration correctly, he should be asked not to say Mass publicly. No priest should be allowed to be saying the NO in the version previous to this one

If that fact means there are less Masses, so be it. The laity deserve the Truth and the True Mass.

Is it so hard to follow directions? Is it so difficult to read what is on the page? 

Humility dictates obedience.

I must say, truly, that I never heard a messed up illicit Mass or invalid Eucharist in Malta or Dublin--never.

I never heard such in England in the south-east.

Why here? Why are some American priests so lax as not to do their job correctly? Or, is there a hidden reason for not saying the Mass correctly?

Remember what Christ told St. Catherine of Siena about mumbling priests.

We laity deserve the Mass as it should be said, not as an individual priest wants to say it.

I beg bishops to stop protecting priests who abuse the Mass, and to stop the effort to cover up liturgical abuses.

Our souls need to be fed with the Bread of Life. We need and deserve obedient priests, who are ordained to be other Christs, and help us get to heaven.