Kiernon Wood requested that I withdraw his article from my website. I understand his feeling that he doesn’t want his article to be used on an "anti-Catholic" website. Therefore this is my review of his article, "Why Irish Eyes are NOT Smiling."
It is interesting that Mr. Wood states that, "Liturgy has never been central to the mission of the Catholic Church in Ireland." (Liturgy is the form of public worship, and Mass attendance, until the recent drop, has historically been maintained at a high level. The Mass is the chief liturgical celebration of Roman Catholicism.) "The history of Irish Catholicism - the identification of the Gaels with the Catholic faith while subject to 400 years of English Protestant oppression has produced a Church that is inextricably bound up with the story of the Irish people."
To be Irish is to be Catholic; even the 1937 Constitution was drawn up "in the name of the Most Holy Trinity." It is true, as Mr. Kiernon stated, that "Catholic priests have traditionally been pillars of the community, and most Irish families still have at least one relative who is a priest or a member of a religious order."
Ireland today is very different, even from the Ireland I knew when I first arrived here as a missionary in 1957. Materialism as well as now well-publicized stories of moral lapses among the clergy has greatly reduced the role of the Church in the Irishman’s personal life.
Mr. Wood laments that the Traditionalist movement (back to the Latin Mass, etc.) is not well established here. Few Irish traditionalists can attend the Tridentine Mass every Sunday. For most, it is an occasional treat maybe once a week or once a month.
Having to attend the new Mass, when they attend Mass at all, is seen by Mr. Wood as confirming the fact that the restoration of the old rite is a necessity for the future of the Church in Ireland.
He states, "'The only consistent thing about the new liturgy is its inconsistency. No two parish liturgies are the same. Some more conservative priests may still wear the traditional vestments, preach orthodox sermons, try to adhere to the new liturgical rules. Others have thrown the baby out with the bath water. For them, the Mass is an opportunity to show the dwindling congregation how clever and witty they are, how politically correct, how in tune with modern thinking."
As a Fundamentalist, I see the same tendencies appearing in numerous "evangelical" churches that are to be deplored. While we are on different sides of the coin, I can understand Mr. Wood’s concern.
How often do you hear a sermon on sin; it is more politically correct and numerically expedient to preach a sermon on women's rights (or even the rights of the spotted owl). Hymns have given place to "7-11" choruses (anyone who knows 7 notes and 11 words can write a chorus)
Mr. Wood speaks of priests who take the old Catholic line on social or moral or religious issues being criticized; has not much the same thing happened when Bible believers are referred to as "bigots" for their "old-fashioned" beliefs?
Singling out the Archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell as one who has taken a stand, even he, writes Mr.Wood, has a short sighted view. He has, according to Mr. Wood, "failed to discern the truth of the old maxim Lex orandi, lex credendi - the law of prayer is the law of belief. The way we pray reflects what we believe. If our liturgy is trite, ephemeral and inconsistent, our faith will be too."
Mr. Wood believes that Mass should not be looked upon as merely performing a social function. How this needs to be applied to evangelical thinking! But, contrasted with evangelical services, which should promote the once-for-all finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, Catholics should, according to Mr. Wood, "recognize that the Mass is the re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary. For a short time, we take on the timelessness of God. We do not go back in time to the Crucifixion. We enter into the eternal present and we are there, at the foot of the Cross."
The only way to do this, opines Mr. Wood, to "reflect its reality is to use all of our senses to raise ourselves out of our sad human condition onto another plane. Sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch - all should be raised above the mundane cares of our everyday world.
"The Tridentine Mass does that. The splendor of the altar and the vestments, the smell of the incense, the sound of the bells and the chant, the sacred murmur of an unchanging language, the choreographed precision of the liturgy, the stained glass, the statues - all lift us out of this world for a while and bring us closer to God. Few leave such a liturgy unmoved."
Many traditional Roman scholars have come to the conclusion that the main problem with the new rite is its openness to abuse. Every priest, not being structured in what he must say in Latin, by using the vernacular becomes his own theologian. The distinction between priest and people has been lost, and the placement of the altar breeds a familiarity which is not conducive to real worship.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has said that the new Mass will have to be changed, even though its "dwindling band of supporters" protest loudly. But, observes Mr. Wood, "anyone who believes the new rite can simply be abolished and replaced overnight by the old rite is living in a fool's paradise. We are into the second generation of Catholics who do not remember the old rite, do not understand Latin, and have no real concept of liturgy. Their lot can only be improved by a ruthless revision of the new rite."
Mr. Wood informs us that "since Pope St. Pius V restored the Tridentine Mass in the sixteenth century, there have been few changes to the liturgy. But we live in an era of unprecedented change. Television, the Internet and international travel have broken down national borders in a way that could not even have been imagined 50 years ago."
"Now," he continues, " is a time for consolidation, for the building of foundations for the future. Uncertainty and vagueness must be replaced in the liturgy with certainty and stability. The unity of the Church - and the unity of God - is reflected in the unity of our liturgy. That is the way it should remain - for now."
While we do agree with most of Mr. Wood’s conclusions, we can see in the problem he addresses something that should be informative in our pursuit of Roman Catholic evangelism. We can also learn, from the ashes of once-proud Irish Catholicism, that we should attend to the warning of 1 Corinthians 10:12, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."