Many Catholics are indulging in “liturgy shaming” as a response to “liturgical abuse.” That is, they are taking to the internet to mock and criticize priests whose liturgical innovations go beyond the pale (e.g., clown masses, Cheesehead liturgies, priests presiding while riding hoverboards or bicycles). Such services are being called “liturgical abuse,” on the grounds that they violate the solemnity of the mass and harm Christians in need of true worship.
Some Catholics are saying that liturgy shaming is a good thing, while others are saying that it is a bad thing. What do you think? Is any of this going on in Protestant circles? In Lutheran circles? Should it?
Read about the phenomenon and the controversy it has stirred up after the jump.
From David Gibson, ‘Liturgy shaming’ is a growing internet phenomenon. But is it a vice or a virtue? | Religion News Service:
(RNS) William Bornhoft is a Catholic who admits that he sometimes cringes at the liturgical novelties he sees at Mass and has himself been tempted to post a complaint or a photo of the offending innovation.
But Bornhoft, a 24-year-old writer from Minnesota, has also seen where that temptation can lead, and he didn’t think he was being especially outrageous when he penned an essay lamenting what he saw as a growing penchant for “liturgy shaming” – that is, furious believers using social media to denounce and target pastors or parishes that in the critics’ eyes have done something beyond the pale.
The impetus for his column at the Catholic website Aleteia seemed to be a cut-and-dried example of a digital mob in action: A Seattle parish had posted a photo album on Facebook showing liturgical dance at Mass, including streamers and the sort of modern flourishes that make traditionalists see red.
Sure enough, another Catholic site shared the album with the intent of making fun of the parish. But the online criticism quickly accelerated “to particularly nasty allegations of heresy and satanic worship,” as Bornhoft put it, plus personal attacks on the looks of the dancers.It got so bad that the parish deleted its Facebook page entirely, and it all prompted Bornhoft to do some soul-searching.
“When we feel the urge to make a nasty comment or post a scandalous photo of liturgical abuse online, we should ask ourselves whether it’s love of the Church that is guiding our hearts, or a sense of entitled judgement,” Bornhoft wrote in his essay last February, appropriately enough during the penitential season of Lent.
