Letter to the Editor from Dacula, GA

Published: April 29, 2004

To the Editor:

Since Vatican II it seems that all the changes in the centuries old rubrics are allowed to “attract” the young people to church and that the majority of these changes irritate and even alienate many of my generation of “69 year plussers.”

Let me give you just one example. Today, Good Friday. It used to be that from Mass on Holy Thursday until Easter Saturday no type of instrumentally produced music was allowed. Today when I went to a Holy Friday service, which did not even include the age-old Good Friday custom of the Stations, not just the organ was played as loud as it could, a piano had to accompany a small choir. During my youth only a tuning fork kept the singers in tune.

The holding hands at the “Our Father”, the greeting of people before Mass was all foreign to us. Now people are on their own it seems adding new gestures such as the outstretched hands towards the priest when the congregation responds “and also with you,” followed by the raised hands to signify “lift up your heart.” That plus priests running from one side of the church to the other as if on stage while delivering their sermon, openly joking with each other. The youth choir members clamoring for applause and admiration with their musical performance on stage. Priests who feel that they ought to sing even the words of the consecration.

Where is it all going to end? I am unhappy going to church. I go because with my generation it still is a mortal sin if you don’t.  

Please, please bring back a mandatory silent Mass as we used to call it. A Mass said by the priest and followed by the congregation in their missals. Please don’t tell me if you are unhappy start attending the traditional (Latin) Mass in Mableton. You made changes for the younger generations, now make some for us.

Peter W. Bardoul, Dacula