They Caricature Themselves

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Revolutionaries get to a point after a time where they start to caricature themselves. The person, for example, who does the broadest caricature of Fidel Castro is none other than Fidel Castro, shouting revolutionary inanities even as he breaks his leg while falling off of a stage. Old revolutionaries never die. They just keep mimicking themselves.

Such is the case with the liturgical revolutionaries in the Church. My recently published GIRM Warfare book discusses how the General Instruction to the Roman Missal (GIRM) makes of the synthetic concoction known as the Novus Ordo Missae little more than a plaything upon which a "presider" or "liturgy committee" may stamp a particular idiosyncratic style, using the endless variety of options available to turn the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into a gigantic exercise in community self-congratulations. Although the GIRM states positivistically that the Novus Ordo continues an "unbroken tradition" and actually fulfills the mission of the Council of Trent (!), there is little in its 399 paragraphs that speak of immutable parts that cannot be "mixed and matched" by those who have the duty to engage in the absolute novelty, without any precedent in the nearly 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church, of "planning a liturgy."

To wit, the following dispatch from Zenit on December 6, 2004, reads as follows:

WASHINGTON, D.C., DEC. 6, 2004 ( Zenit.org ).- The U.S. celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life will be held Sunday, Feb. 6, across the nation.

The Vatican-sponsored event is marked on Feb. 2 in Rome. John Paul II instituted this annual event in 1997.

Kits to assist parishes and dioceses in commemorating this event are available for purchase from the National Coalition for Church Vocations in Chicago.

The kit includes a liturgy planning guide, music suggestions, general intercessions, prayer-card master, bulletin announcements and clip art.

Kits are available in English and Spanish for $14 each, plus shipping and handling. Quantities of kits are available for purchase at discounted prices.

Kits may not be duplicated for quantity distribution by a diocese, religious congregation, or other organization without the purchase of a bulk distribution permit from the National Coalition for Church Vocations.

Information is available at www.nccv-vocations.org or via nccv400@aol.com.

Here's a suggestion to those of you who might be tempted to purchase these kits so that you can get play while planning your own liturgy replete with your "music suggestions": purchase GIRM Warfare instead. You will be equipped to do battle with revolutionaries who caricature themselves ad infitinum and ad nauseam. Get copies for your relatives, friends, parish priests, bishops, and liturgy planners.

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

G.I.R.M. Warfare

P.S. My wife Sharon has a cogent question: "Does the kit come complete with a decoder ring to see if there was really a valid Mass being offered? On second thought, thought, you might not get your decoder ring unless you send in enough of your Bugnini box tops."